Dummett's The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards , which Mike just referred to, is the only work I'm aware of where there has been any discussion of these shields. Dummett thought they were most likely just plain red and silver, divided vertically, with no further design elements at all (p. 28, p. 74). He ...

Thanks for that, Phaeded. I must have missed that thread. I figured someone else must have already noticed this French triumph image before! The Sforza-Riario medal is interesting too. It's not a lot to go on, and I'm not prepared to use such a small amount of evidence as the basis for extrapolating...

I just came across this illustration of Petrarch's Triumph of Fame, showing a figure holding a baton, seated on a chariot drawn by a winged horse. The image is apparently from a French manuscript from the 16th century, which is neither the right country nor the right era to provide strong iconograph...

A couple of slight corrections to my last post: I said that the orb was the only thing the Rosenwald charioteer was holding: I have no idea why I overlooked the sword in the figure's other hand when I wrote that, as I certainly noticed it many times before (and even mentioned it in one of my earlier...

Mike, when I read your posts, I sometimes get the sinking feeling that you and I are speaking totally different languages, rendering effective communication impossible... The big problem, as I see it, is that you willfully ignore the whole basic mechanism by which the designs of playing cards evolve...

mikeh wrote: Two problems: first, to explain "mundus parvus" you need to find a little world on the Chariot cards, not an angel or putto or Mercury. "Mundus" is the operative word. It's there on some Chariot cards: the globe in the guy's hand, divided into three parts, for Asia, Africa, and Europe ....

Finally replying to what Mike wrote almost two weeks ago—it took a while because I ended up covering a lot more ground than I expected... I have not proved anything. All I am concerned with is plausibility. Fame is plausibly the World card, in all the various designs except perhaps the PMB, and the ...

Sorry Huck! I will try to be more polite in the future. It might sometimes be difficult, because I disagree with nearly all of your ideas, but I do have an enormous amount of respect for the work you have done in collecting information and sources on the history of tarot. And my offer of sending you...

The Chariot in the PMB doesn't mean FAME. Fame was presented by the card, which was taken as Justice, as already demonstrated. The Chariot in the Cary-Yale doesn't mean FAME. Fame was presented by the card, which was interpreted as Mondo-World. Oh Huck... All you've done in that post is just repeat...

I find it quite hard to believe that it could have been a gift for Marie, myself. All of the imprese are Visconti, except on that one card. Given that her marriage with Filippo Maria wasn't exactly a joyous one, it's a little hard to imagine someone giving her a gift of a pack of cards in which the ...