. Michael Hurst wrote: Phaeded wrote: He is in fact the God-denying Fool, a manuscript tradition of illustrating Psalm 52 (see V. A. Kolve Telling Images: Chaucer and the Imagery of Narrative II, 2009, chapter 8). It is why Giotto's Foolishness, the closest external cognate for the PMB Fool, looks ...

Michael, How exactly is the oldest known Fool, the PMB, a "street performer?" Later iterations/(mis)interpretations are hardly the key when there is no internal evidence in the PMB to suggest he is in anyway performing. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7ip3a2N0eiQ/UiYY42nx5dI/AAAAAAAAGXs/eLO3_rHiO...

Ross wrote: … but at least we know it isn't Bergamo. Not only are the sides wrong, but the colors are wrong too. I’m not sure why you are so anxious to dismiss the PMB-Bergamo possibility based on Bergamo sources not contemporary with the PMB – especially with the most important piece of evidence y...

If Phaeded will not post the image for us, I will go and take a picture.... Hey guys, its not like I own a copy (220 euros!) and all I have is my memory at the moment as I can't even find my notes, but I recall reading Bergamo red/left, "white"/right. I hope I'm remembering right for my sake for ev...

MikeH wrote: In any case, we have a characterization of the object the man is holding. It is a jug, he says. Perhapts it is related to the sign Aquarius, although that figure has his own. Visually it resembles a lantern or small stove and is not far removed from the globe held by the early Florenti...

Ross, All of my claims certainly warrant additional evidence, but at all events the coat of arms in the court figures are not Sforzan, which contradicts your own claim that the PMB did not circulate outside of the Sforzan court. I will offer this for now: 1. The Stemmario Trivulzio (16th C) shows th...

Ross wrote I don't think there is any evidence that this particular deck circulated outside the family sphere, or was a gift with any political overtones. The Papess was not political per se, but the deck is a whole was. Huck, these comments apply equally to your casual dimissal of Bergamo being Ve...

Why does she have to be a real nun?...Is the Pope a real Pope? He doesn't look much like Nicholas V. Is the Emperor a real Emperor? He doesn't look like Frederick III (nor does he look like Sigismund, whose beard was much shorter). Is the Empress Eleanor of Portugal? …The cards are not tools of dip...

Wouldn't the French influence, bringing along the Marseilles deck adaptation of the local Milanese product, account for a Popess Joan in Milan, rather than it being a local appellation? And of course Ross is right in that we have to account for the lens through which a Frenchman saw things (I wonder...

Those on this thread will probably find this study of a related Rossi artwork of interest in which a lot of the same iconography/ impresse is discussed- available in a convenient pdf here, ‘The astrological vault of the Camera di Griselda from Roccabianca’, The Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld I...