robert wrote: Interesting, the names are wrong on Mark and Matthew.

I can't remember the details off hand, but if I remember correctly there are a couple of variations in the attribution of the apostles to the holy animals among the Church fathers.

Ah, thank you. One other thing, as I read it, he appears to place 'prudence' where one would expect the traitor/hanged man to be? Ah, no: I see he is saying both the prudent and the malicious are felled by death: all are as equal on its balance/scales: and as you note in your introduction, the trai...

Hello Steve, I agree with your most of your observations. Thank you for making clear the problem with “sacro” and “santo”. Does the second line say something about a song or singing (canto) i.e., …. Et ciascun d’essi hà la sua donn’ à canto, In modern Italian, it would be “accanto”: “canto” meant “...

I guess the Emperor was Sacred because his Empire was the Sacred Roman Empire. The Pope, here in Italy, still is "il Santo Padre". I think I missed that connection on first reading of the translation because in English we do not say Sacred Roman Empire or Saint Father. Sacro romano impera...

BTW, I just found a passage by St.Augustine in which the correspondence of the four evangelists with the cardinal points is made clear. I think it makes sense to include them in an image of the Christian cosmos: the number of the Evangelists has been set to four "for the simple reason that the...

I wonder with each of their women being 'at his side this means the order is pope, popesse, emperor, empress. Who is called Sacred and the other Saint? The two women? It is interesting how so many of these old poems treat the order in reverse, from top to bottom (which is how Gebelin/Mellet claimed...

That said, I do think that the Tarot de Marseille World portrays Christ resurrected, and I think that combined with the Judgement card they tell the Christian story as seen in hundreds of pieces of art from the period. I think the only deck which clearly shows a christ figure on the world card is t...

An English translation of a few passages is available on Tarotpedia . Marco Thank you Marco: I like the bit about the bit about the pope and emperor needing their women! Then the Pope and the Emperor come, [V,III] each with his woman at his side because [IV,II] their hearts forbid to them to be wit...

The association I think is with the traitor at 12 (associated with betrayal through Judas, the 12th disciple), with which death is always paired? Also, is he always the "12th" disciple, in every list? St. Ireanius Against Heresies II.20: For that Judas the traitor is the twelfth in order,...

Looks like an ear to me:P

Or a crescent moon? 28 as in 28 mansions of the moon?

Or a not very good bow and arrow?
(the arc 11 - 28 a bow, the line 1-5 an arrow, 6-10 ??? )