Thanks Ross, you took the words right out of my keyboard :-) Actually, though, I think the question of what is a 'disk' is a pretty good one. Why exactly did the suit of coins become disks anyway? 'Disk' just seems so much less evocative of... anything. Spheres, I could understand, but I've never re...

Cool. Thanks for that link Debra, I'd like to have that charger on the wall

this is just a bit of fun with classification. i have been reading some feng shui books and noticed that in certain diagrams the twelve earthly branches are arranged in a circle, and the four points which are at 90 degrees to one another are grouped for various purposes. that led me to thinking abou...

Nice catch, Debra. Indeed there is a lion above and behind her, (at the feet of the Duke), but alas, it's not eating her head. Now that would be something! At the feet of his wife, Marguerite of Foix, is a dog, who is also not eating the head of Temperance, holding her timepiece. http://images.googl...

A colleague of mine found an interesting essay on the cardinal virtues here: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv4-49 Which led me to discovering the following iconography of Fortitude, grasping the neck of a dragon as it comes out of a tower, (seen on the far right): Virtues 15...

Hi Ross, Thanks for this post, lots to think about here. One rudimentary question -- if the cards were originally unnumbered, when is the first evidence that this was the order used in the Bolognese version of the game? Are you using a later set of game rules, or are you using the cards once they ar...

For me this was the benefit of Marco's first post on this thread with the images from a c. 1450 copy of Telesforo of Cosenza's prophecies. It showed that an image of a burning tower could be used both to illustrate Satan's 1000 year prison (folio 43r), as well as, in combination with Satan, a synec...

To me it seems to me for the final seven (15_21) to fall more naturally into a 2_3_2 pattern with the fall/first judgment in symmetry to the final judgment/restoration and the triune of time cards inbetween. I simply don't see that Michael't triune pattern of 2+1 holds throughout the whole series w...

It seems to me for the final seven (15_21) to fall more naturally into a 2_3_2 pattern with the fall/first judgment (triumph of death) in symmetry to the final judgment (triumph over death)/restoration and the triune of time cards inbetween. Fall........................................................

Hi Steve, So let me see if I understand you correctly, is this your basic schema? -- XV - Devil, the Fall XVI - Tower, first judgment = death in the world XVII - Star, advent, ministry, divinity of Jesus XVIII - Moon, death of Jesus, descent into hell XIX - Sun, resurrection of Jesus XX - Angel, las...