In general, when quoting translations of documents, it is safest to include the original language as well, if it is available, especially in my case, as I am a total amateur, and no expert on 15th century Venetian dialect! ...Of late, I fear, I have not even been looking at THF, because then I woul...

Huck wrote, Giusto's version about these days… There's a festivity, cause the news comes, that Sforza had a big victory at Soncino. The festivities about the Anghiari victory take not much more words. To a degree I suppose we all see what we want to see, but come on – Giusti uses the exact same frea...

Huck, I’m not sure why you interjected the problem of paper supply, but the Venetian edict was very clear on what the perceived problem was and it wasn’t paper: the local decline of the “art and mystery [I believe this word should read trade ] of making cards and printed figures.” The relevant quest...

In one of the numerous pieces of scholarship recently produced/e-published by LeTarot (and tr. By Michael H) and posted here under Huck’s “News” thread, this one reproducing a Venetian law seems relevant to the problem of the diffusion of the earliest tarot: MCCCCXLI, on the XI. October. Whereas the...

Some photos of Anghiari: Italy 2013 617.JPG Italy 2013 625.JPG Italy 2013 659.JPG Not sure how accurate this is that Florentine families had their arms displayed at the battle, but another photo of the diorama in the civic museum showing the the Albizzi coat of arms on a flag (the concentric circles...

Of course the most important witness to the events surrounding Angier is the notary Giusti Giusto whom commissioned the triumph deck for Malatesta. His journal reference does not shine a definitive light on the origins of tarot, but we can certainly move past the notion that he was just a notary who...

More info on Dati's work, Trophaeum Anglaricum (c. 1443): The author, Leonardo Dati (1401-77), was a young Florentine humanist badly in need of a job; he dedicated the poem to the cardinal, who is of course given all the credit for the victory over Niccolo Piccinnino. Lodovico’s initial caution is p...

Primary sources for Anghiari: …dispatches written from Anghiari to the Signoria on the day of the battle and several days following it. Having probably remained in the possession of the Signoria, they would have been available to and were certainly the major sources for fifteenth-century savants su...

Huck wrote: There was a new peace between Lucca and Florence, finishing a war between Lucca and Florence, which was initiated by the Albizzi. Florence had losses and didn't make a good figure in the military actions. Cosimo was chosen in the Dieci during the war. After the war he went to the Mugell...

Huck, It seems your purpose here is to flush out a trend or event in 1436-1438 that lead to trionfi, but the collection of factoids is all over the map: the Albizzi-Medici rivalry, the church Councils, the Hawkwood/Tolentino commissions, the Stroizzi altarpiece from 1423, the dedication of the Duomo...