Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

131
As far I got it, in the document Galeazzo Maria and Bianca Maria Visconti are noted, which would be only possible 1466-68.
The location is very periphery to Milan and somehow had more independence. I wonder, why we ave no other Trionfi game allowances from Milanese territory. Perhaps this was ruled by the Milanese states usually, not by the cities?
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

132
Andrea Vitali recently published ...

Ludere ad Triumphos
Cum Deo et in Ecclesia


http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=281&lng=ITA

It contains two new notes about the Trionfi game ...

******************************
1.

One of the notes relates to Gabriel Barletta, about whom Ross already has worked, though in other contexts, as far I perceive it.
( viewtopic.php?f=11&t=321&p=4011&hilit=barletta#p4011 )

The important passage in Andrea's text is ...
Si vult venire in domum meam in istis festis paravi plura. Si voluerit ludere ad triumphos sunt in domo; ad tesseras, habeo plura tabularia. Ad Occam, habeo taxillos grossos, & minutos: grossos ut si fortè male videret,
... which seems to be from Barletta. Barletta's last known note of his life is from 1481, the original text has no date.

The referencing text is Récréations Historiques, Critiques, Morales et d’Èrudition avec l’Histoire des Fous en Titre d’Office, published at Paris in 1767.

I found the French text here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=DINgZL ... 22&f=false

... but Andrea noted, that the first publication of the special sentence appeared 1497 (Sermones quadragesimales et de sanctis). Andrea noted privately "... probably from 1480".

***********************
2.

The second note is ...
Interea verò Comes Hieronymus, Virginius Ursinus et reliqui Domini, Ecclesiam Lateranensem incolentes, non cessabant quotidie ludere ad triumphos, ad cartas, & ad aleas, et hoc quidem in Sacrestia dictae venerabilis Ecclesiae, etiam super capsa plena Reliquiis, & rebus aptis ad divinum cultum ibi existentibus; adeo quod dicto tempore à nemine vel paucissimis dicta Ecclesia extitit visitata
My Italian, as already noted, isn't so good, but the source seems to be "Stefano Infessura (ca.1435-ca.1500), umanista, storico e giurista è ricordato per il suo In Diario Romanae Urbis scriptum a Stephano Infessura, scriba senatus popolique romani (Diario della Città di Roma scritto da Stefano Infessura, scriba del senato e del popolo Romano)”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefano_Infessura
... "Anecdotes that Infessura relates may be colored by his own partisan nature, but his diary faithfully records news that was making the rounds in the city, whether true or not; "he inserted every fragment of the most preposterous and malevolent gossip current in Roman society, and is therefore not considered a reliable chronicler" (New Catholic Dictionary)."

The situation seems to refer to activities of Girolamo Riario and Gentile Virgineo Orsini (ca. 1434-1497), Duca di Bracciano, in June 1482. They are gambling in a church.
The gambling scene is well known in history books (I saw this variously), but I never saw, that Trionfi cards were directly involved. In this case they seem to be mentioned.

Following "ludere ad triumphos" I found this from a text of 1734 ...

http://books.google.com/books?id=jyQI05 ... 22&f=false

Image


******************

... :-) ... A fine new result, we have for the moment a revolutionary progress in the collection of 15th century Trionfi notes.

********

Added later:

http://www.rabelais.nl/html/in_geschrifte.html
‘Bridoye et le jeu de l’oie’

‘On joue beaucoup aux dés chez Rabelais. Gargantua s’y exerce dès l’enfance, Panurge ne saurait vivre sans. Mais à quoi? Au jeu de l’oie? L’épisode de Bridoye y invite mais les historiens sérieux de ce jeu, ceux qui ne le croient ni renouvelé des Grecs, ni égyptien semblent formels. Aucun jeu de l’oie antérieur aux dernières années du seizième siècle n’est conservé. Pourtant, le dominicain italien Barletta (= 1480), dans un sermon pour le quatrième dimanche de l’Avent, parle du jeu de l’oie à cette période de Noël, plus même, il y faut des gros et des petits dés afi n de remédier aux imperfections de la vue dues à la sénescence. Ce texte est, on le sait, paraphrasé par Rabelais: “Sed dicunt quidam. Si vult venire in domum meam in istis festis, paravi plura. Si voluerit ludere at triomphos (tarot) sunt in domo, ad thesseras habeo plura tabulatia, ad aucam habeo taxillos grossos et minutos. Grossos ut si forte male videret, qui a deus senuit”.

Le texte est édité à Brescia en 1497-1498, à Lyon dès 1502, 1507, 1524…
At this partly Dutch page, it seems, that the sentence was used in a modified manner by Rabelais ... one of the modifications is the change of "Occam" to "aucam".

Changes to Andrea's version:
Si vult venire in domum meam in istis festis paravi plura. Si voluerit ludere ad triumphos sunt in domo; ad tesseras, habeo plura tabularia. Ad Occam, habeo taxillos grossos, & minutos: grossos ut si fortè male videret [missing: qui a deus senuit, but for Andrea follows "Quia Deus senuit:"]

But the half-Dutch text itself seems to go back to this pdf ...
http://193.52.215.193/cinquantenaire/Ma ... mes1_1.pdf

Author is Claude Gaignebet, if I see this correctly ...

Image

http://www.francoisrabelaislefilm.com/e ... nebet.html

... with some involvement in a Rabelais movie project. And also Tarot ...

Movie : http://www.wat.tv/video/claude-gaignebe ... gnjr_.html

**************

Some internal communication cleared the question, that the Occam word of Andrea's source and the "aucum" word of Rabelais both likely refer to the "Gioco dell'oca" ...

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gioco_dell%27oca


... the Goose game, well known already in 15th century Italy and very earlier.

First it was suspected, that there might have been possibly a game related to William Ockham ... :-) ... also spelled Occam occasionally.

Compare:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50404340/Jose ... n-francais
at page 25

aucam > oie (et ove ... ?)

French oie, German Gans, English Goose, Italian Oca
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

134
3 new articles of Franco Pratesi

************************
1.
http://trionfi.com/triunfi-playing-cards-rome
1453 Arrival of Triumphs in Rome
-------------------------------
.... about a new document in the year 1453, referring to an import of 8 Triunfi decks to Rome (likely from Florence)

2.
http://trionfi.com/playing-cards-florence-1840
1840 Playing Card Production in Florence
---------------------------------------
... Playing card documents of Florence 1840.
Only 1% of all sold decks are Minchiate decks

3.
http://trionfi.com/rosenwald-tarocchi-sheet
Rosenwald's Fourth Sheet
------------------------
.. a new interpretation of the Rosenwald Tarocchi (Kaplan I, p. 130/131)
Image

It's suggested, that this had been an early Minchiate sheet

************************

Image


... :-) ... according Andrea Vitali an imitation of XIXth century

Nonetheless ...

Happy Christmas
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

135
An article of Franco Pratesi about a recent finding in an Sicilian journal:

http://trionfi.com/kalos-tarocco-siciliano

Between a few other notes there is also the information, that in the year 1630 existed Tarocchi decks in Sicily.

Michael Dummett had always much attention on the Tarocco Siciliano, it was his favored object. From the earlier information it seemed to be given, that Tarocchi was invented to Sicily in the years 1662-63 by the current viceroy.

****************

Inside the Sicilian article a woodcut block with 3x7 cards was shown at a rather small picture, which showed parts of a Tarocco Siciliano, given to 19th century.
Strange enough, the picture got some attention at 27th of December.

The deck proved to be rather similar to a deck in the WWPCM, there given as from 18th century.

Both decks have the signifying "Jupiter with Ganymed" motif as highest trump, which is altered in younger Tarocco Siciliano versions to a "Jupiter with lightning".

Image


Image


More interesting are some details of the Fool card:

The Fool card of the woodblock version with some photoshop improvement ...

Image


.. shows a figure with a wind instrument and a drum. Additionally it has at its back something, which can't be identified with security from this picture alone.
The mentioned XVIII century WWPCM deck repeats the wind instrument, but the drum and the details at the back of the figure are nearly lost.

Image


Later Tarocco Siciliano versions have decided, that the earlier drum should be a ball and the details at the backside are more or less gone:

Image


However, a sheet found by the playing card researcher Peter Blaas in the Biblioteca Civica in Rovereto far away from Sicily in the North of Italy (considered to be older than 18th century) and reported by John Berry in the IPCS-journal XXI, p. 95 ff. (1993) has a Fool with wind instrument and drum and the insecure backside details are now clearly recognizable as wings.

Image


From Sicily it is known, that there was a stronger Minchiate influence, which was known there - as also in Genova - with the name "Gallerini". This went so far, that usual Tarocco Sicilano decks were occasionally addressed as "piccolo Gallerini" (little Gallerini; Dummett&McLeod: A History of Games played with the Tarot Pack, volume I, p.327).
In Florentine Minchiate the card "Fama volat" was used as highest trump and as a plausible replacement of the usual "Angelo" found in Tarocchi versions. It had as attributes the usual Fama wind instruments and it had wings (interpreted as a sign, that fame travels far and quick) ...

Image


... as the Fool in the Rovereto cards and the card is similar to the Fool in the XIX. century woodcut block version of the Tarocco Siciliano.

It seems plausible to assume, that the "winged Fool", which as iconographic type is otherwise not known between the older Tarocchi Fools, together with it's companion, the "Miseria" or "Poverta" or "Beggar" in Tarocco Siciliano, developed from the contrast Matto and Fame in Minchiate (also called "Germini" or "Gallerini").
The Rovereto sheet include some pip cards, between them are 8s and 9s of swords and batons. The Sicilian XIX century woodcut block also contains these cards. The iconography of both decks is again rather similar regarding these cards.

Image


Image



http://a-tarot.eu/p/jan-11/fol/rov-big.jpg

Some other cards of the Rovereto don't have these stronger similarities.

******

The Rovereto Fool had wings and this is a rather rare iconographic detail between the older Fool cards. In the ideas about the Rovereto deck it was not believed, that it was a production near to Rovereto of Northern Italy, but it was considered somehow "from Rome" cause some details resemble the Colonna cards.


http://a-tarot.eu/p/jan-11/fol/col-1.jpg


http://a-tarot.eu/p/jan-11/fol/col-2.jpg

For further comparison: Tarocco Siciliano and Minchate decks inside the WWPCM collected by Alexander Sukhorowsky

Tarocco Siciliano:
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05238/d05238.htm - XVIII century, "Tuzzolino"
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05235/d05235.htm - XIX century, Lorenzo di Lorenzo
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05237/d05237.htm - XIX century, "La Fortuna"
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05239/d05239.htm - 1930 - 1975, Concetta Campione
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05236/d05236.htm - since c. 1966, Modiano
Compare also: http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05236/d05236text.htm - Article of Domenico Starna

Minchiate:
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05115/d05115.htm - reprint of "Carte de Etruria" c. 1725, by "Lo Scarabeo"
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05114/d05114.htm - reprint of "Minchiate Fiorentino" c. 1790, actually La Leone from Bologna
* http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05113/d05113.htm - reprint of a Minchiate deck designed 1820 and printed 1865 by "Il Meneghello"

*********

So, in memory of Michael Dummett, who reached a lot of merits in the small world of Tarot history, a Happy New Year (which just has reached Cologne with its fire crackers).
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

136
Franco Pratesi has recently published various articles at Trionfi.com. Some of them are really VERY IMPORTANT for persons interested in 15th century Tarot research. The related objects are nearly all of recent research, written in the last 2-3 months.

New Articles:

http://trionfi.com/es01
1453 AN EARLY ARRIVAL OF TRIUMPHS INTO ROME
very important

http://trionfi.com/es02
FLORENTINE CARD PRODUCTION IN ABOUT 1840 ?
... a 19th century playing card observation; one learns, that Minchiate were bought only very seldom

http://trionfi.com/es03
ROSENWALD’S FOURTH SHEET
... very important: a new view on the Rowenwald sheet, which possibly had been a Minchiate deck (possibly th oldest)

http://trionfi.com/es04
NEW INFORMATION FROM A SICILIAN JOURNAL
... about an article in a Sicilian magazine, which contained some early playing card notes. The articles relates to an older report (see below)

http://trionfi.com/es05
1433: DIRITTA AND PILUCCHINO BEFORE THE COURT
... about a process in Florence

http://trionfi.com/es06
1453/1486: GIOVANNI DA PISTOIA DI BARI
... very important: about a Florentine merchant, who brought Trionfi cards to Rome in 1453

http://trionfi.com/es07
1521 NOTTURNO REVISITED
... relates to the older Notturno text (see below), which used the Tarocchi in a theater play

http://trionfi.com/es08
EARLY PLAYING CARD EXPORT FROM FLORENCE ?
... about research

http://trionfi.com/es09
1453-1458 FLORENTINE TRIUMPHS BY FILIPPO DI MARCO
... very important: a series of new Trionfi notes in Florence with a new "very early" Trionfi card producer


http://trionfi.com/es10
PALAZZO DEI DIAVOLI AND THE TOWER
... about an older Palazzo fragment in Florence


Older Articles

http://trionfi.com/es21
SEARCHING FOR TAROT SOURCES
1998 (from: The Playing-Card, XXXVII, No. 2, 64-68 and No. 3, 111-116)

http://trionfi.com/es22
Notturno’s Gioco di Triomphi,
1988 (from: The Playing-Card, XVII, No. 1, 23-33)

http://trionfi.com/es23
New Documents from Palermo
1992 (from: The Playing-Card, Vol. XXI, No. 1, 9-15.)
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

137
A further new article by Franco Pratesi with rather important new results about very early documents of playing cards documents ...

http://trionfi.com/naibi-on-sale

The documents are here: ... Library impressions

Image


Image


Image


... and they include a dense analysis of playing card notes between September 1447 - 1449 in Florence, all from the merchant family "Puri", which then traded with playing cards (more or less low priced).
One major name of the connected card producer is the Florentin artist Giovanni da San Giovanni nicknamed "Lo Scheggia", a brother of the better known artist Masaccio.

One of Masaccio's famous paintings is this ... Adam and Eve are driven from paradise

Image


Left the forged version, at the right the reconstructed version.

The picture ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expuls ... asaccio%29
is located as a fresco in the Brancacci chapel ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brancacci_Chapel
... and the Brancacci chapel is part of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mari ... di_Firenze
... so there's some guarantee, that many persons of Florence have seen it often

Image


The Minchiate cards of 18th and 19th century showed then these motifs:

Image


Image


Image


Naturally we can't be sure, that "Lo Scheggia" as brother of Masaccio was active in the motif transfer from church fresco to Minchiate, but it's at least a possibility. "La Scheggia" is a new name in the league of early Italian playing card producers and it's the time near to "Michelino da Besozzo" and "Sagramoro".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_d ... anni_Guidi

One of the better known works of Lo Scheggia is this ...

Image


... Trionfi della Fama, made for the birth of Lorenzo di Medici 1449
Last edited by Huck on 21 Feb 2012, 08:48, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

138
CHAOS THEORIES

This is about various Chaos-topics, which in the recent past dominated the discussions and which somehow relate to the Tarot topic. Mainly there are three developments, but I just take them as TRIPERUNO, which just means "Three-for-one" and for this I have my personal smiling reasons.

****************************************************************************************************************

Chaos of Minchiate Francesi

A focus had been recently at the at the deck of Francois Poilly: "Minchiate Francesi". This deck is dated usually c. 1730, but I contradict and assume for some good reasons a dating of c. 1660. This is - in my opinion - a very interesting topic, specifically cause of the "Chaos at begin".

Image


Involved in this theme are Stefano della Bella, who made a Greek mythology deck in usual 52-cards structure 1644 for the young French king Louis XIV. and engravings collector Marolles, who once wrote the first French Tarot rules (1637/1655) and a playing card ballett with participation of Tarot cards (1657).
Further the cartomancy developer Etteilla, who also had as first card the Chaos.

From the Poilly Minchiate exist 3 versions, though the pictures seem to have been always the same. One version had 42 special cards, another 41 and a third had 22, all added with usual 56 cards, which had as suits 4 continents.

Discussion at ...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=170889

Chaos in Poilly decks:

Image


******************

Indirectly related to the Poilly discussion is the Petit Oracle des Dames (c. 1800), which is a mix of Etteilla Tarot cards motifs and influences from common Cartomancy decks (under suspicion is a 66 cards deck of c. 1790, which we only know by short description).

Etteilla's Chaos looked this way:

Image


... and it also (as in the Poilly version II and in Ovid presentation by Marolles) was connected to card 1 or "begin". Etteilla connected it to the "Questionnaire".

In a similar form it reappeared in the Petit Oracle des Dames, then parted in Consultant and Consultante as card Nr. 22:

Image


Well, it lost the Nr. 1, but the Etteilla Tarot had turned to a good part the numbers of the Tarot, so that begin (more or less) had become the end, and the end had become the begin. So actually this No. 22 actually means No. 1 before.

"Chaos" appeared first time in a few lines of Hesiod's god genealogies:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/theogony.htm
(ll. 116-138) Verily at the first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundations of all (4) the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether (5) and Day, whom she conceived and bare from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bare starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long Hills, graceful haunts of the goddess-Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bare deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
...
(later ... ll. 211-225) And Night bare hateful Doom and black Fate and Death, and she bare Sleep and the tribe of Dreams. And again the goddess murky Night, though she lay with none, bare Blame [= Momus] and painful Woe, and the Hesperides who guard the rich, golden apples and the trees bearing fruit beyond glorious Ocean. Also she bare the Destinies and ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos (10), who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty. Also deadly Night bare Nemesis (Indignation) to afflict mortal men, and after her, Deceit and Friendship and hateful Age and hard-hearted Strife.
This picture (I don't know, how old it is) shows Chaos, Nyx = Night and Erebos, brother and husband of Night.


http://aworldofmyths.com/Greek_Gods/Nyx.html

*********
LATER ADDED

I followed with the last assumption the given web page, but Ross corrected me in this statement:
Ross G Caldwell;3048231 wrote:Point of correction:
There is no "Chaos" nor "Erebos" in this Christian icon. It shows "Esaias" (ΗϹΑΙΑϹ, the biblical prophet Isaiah) between Nyx, night (correct) and Orthros, dawn (liturgical).

"This magnificent miniature showing the prophet Isaiah at prayer, between Nyx, the night and Orthros, the young day, belongs to the world-famous book of psalms known as the Paris Psalter. It is a tenth century manuscript from Byzantium, from the metropolis Constantinople and was brought to Paris only in 1557/9 by the ambassador Jean Hurault de Boistaillé."

http://www.regalmanuscripts.com/product.php?id=40
I agree with Ross in this point. The presentation shows originally Nyx, but NOT Chaos and Erebos.
Finish of "LATER ADDED"
**********

Here we have Temperance (Petit Oracle des Dames) mixed with Nuit (= Night = Nyx)

Image


Here we have night and day in Etteilla versions:

Image


Image


Image


Erebos is given at the picture with a torch.

Image


Erebos is in myths NOT identical with Hymenaios, but Hymenaios also was signified with a torch

Image

Festival book 1475 for the marriage between Camilla Aragon and Costanzo Sforza.

And Hymenaios, who was a rather important mythological figures for weddings, often accompanied triumphal processions at the opportunities of weddings. For such opportunities occasionally were "trionfi decks" were produced, the forerunners of the Tarot cards.

And a Hymenaios appears in the Petit Oracle des Dames:

Image


Another figure of Chaos-group in Hesiod's text, is the son of Nyx, Momus. He appears in the Poilly Minchiate in all 3 versions. Twice he has an "unnumbered state" and once he has the number "29".

Image

http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre ... hemindefer

and in the 42 card version he gets the 29:
Image


Momus had been already part of the early discussions in 15th century, when Trionfi cards were invented. Leon Battista Alberti wrote a Momus version in 1443-150, possibly reacting on the happy life in Ferrara, where h had oce before, where he became acquainted with the text of the satiric writer Lucian, and Lucian also wrote about Momus. Momus became part of a sort of triumhal celebration by Renee d'Anjou 1462 in Provence and then influenced forms of early French carnival. Momus is likely also the background for this early beggar ...

Image



.. and this late beggar called Miseria:

Image


.. both Tarocchi cards (Mantegna Tarocchi and Taracco Sicilano.

More to this at ...
Discussion: http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=171379

**************************

Well, the third CHAOS

A third Chaos took place between me and mainly MikeH, when we started to discuss the CAOS DEL TRIPERUNO (1527) of Teofilo Folengo in the days of the foolish boy bishop before Christmas and after Christmas.
This is a brainstorm and by far not ready. We smashed 3 threads full of ideas and not much will understand the procedere. And, as said, we're not finished ...

Basically there are 5 Tarocchi Sonnets in the heart of that, what we (or at least me) call "chapter 12" of the Triperuno. Actually this chapter 12 is a dialog between Limerno (pseudonym of Teofilo Folengo; this pseudonym wrote the Orlandino, which is a work about the youth of the hero Orlando), and Triperuno (the major figure; another pseudonym of Folengo, and in the course of the Triperuno the figure of Tiperuno has a lot of poems), and into this discussion comes Fulica, well, a third component and again a pseudonym of Theofilo Folengo. Fulica gets not so much text, but stands for the religious perspective (Folengo was a Benedectine monk). Fulica appears, when the Tarocchi sonnets are just finished.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/50190814/Total-Chaos-Oct-2010
[Last sonnet by Limerno just finished]
Limerno: But what miracle is this that I now see, my [dear] Triperuno?
Triperuno: Where?
Limerno: That solemn fool of a Fulica I see coming toward us.
So it's clear, Fulica is the personified Fool (at least in Limerno's opinion), and he naturally appears, when Limerno is ready with his Tarocchi.

Well, another pseudonym of Folengo had been before active, Merlinus Coccai, and Merlinus had his show before Fuilica, and Fulica replaces Merlinus. Merlnus Coccai had written the Baldo, which was a very successful adventure story around a hero called Baldo, and this text was already famous for his satiric attitude. Something like Don Quichotte, or Pulci's Morgante, or Boiardo's Orlando or Ariost's Orlando, but just a little more satiric and a little more complicated as likely all of them. Baldo is called the forerunner of Rabelais "Gargantua", if you understand, what I mean. Folengo is a sort of James Joyce of early 16th century, and - as James Joyce isn't understood, similar Folengo isn't understood and especially the Triperuno has the glamour to be not understood.

All this you might explore, if you follow one these links and all lead into the Caos del Triperuno,

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=759
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=763
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=768

The Baldo has also pictures, here's one ...

Image


... anyway, I think, the mystery of the Triperuno-Tarocchi-sonnets is, that they are of greater importance, as the innocent reader might discover at first moment. And if you don't discover the riddle of the Tarocchi sonnets, you've no real chance to understand the Triperuno work.

************************

And the greater context between Chaos I and Chaos II and Chaos III ...

Folengo wrote the Triperuno 1527, when the Tarocchi game hadn't a big presence in France. Then Rabelais detected the text and published his first Gargantua text 1534. Naturally it took some time till the Gargantua text had arrived a successful state.
Around 1580 the Tarocchi game reached a successful state in France with a height likely c. 1620-1625, in a time, when the Italian king's mother Maria de Medici had still a greater part of her influence. Then the French king and his mother got trouble between each other and the Italian influence went down in France. However, some Tarot interest we can still perceive till around 1660. Then it seems, as if the game became less interesting for some time.

With Copernicus and Galileo we see raising doubts about the geocentric model of the world . Galileo died 1442 as a prisoner. One year later the French king died and the 5 years old Louis became king of France and already in young years he was styled as "Sun-king" or "le Roi-Soleil", which somehow indicates, that at least some persons adapted the heliocentric model. The medieval times were gone and a new time appeared and the phase of the Age of Enlightenment started. Tarot was medieval and beside of this it was in French eyes a game of the Germans and had Empress and Emperor, and this didn't really fit with a world, in which the most mighty person in Europe had been the French king. It's not really a wonder, that Tarot interests in France went down - just then.
The Poilly deck - likely arranged c. 1660 - drops at the begin of this development, when Louis XIV. just started to reign actively. It also appears, when just the current most influential man in France died, cardinal Mazarin.

Mazarin loved playing cards since his youth (he had a relative humble origin). As a part of his well running career he had organized gambling activities, and by this he gained some of his political influence. In 1443, when the French king and cardinal Richelieu died, Mazarin became very mighty. Mazarin arranged, that the young 5-year-old king got educative playing cards .. and so the 17th century became full of educative playing cards. The commissioned artist Stefano della Bella made also one mythology deck and this project definitely influenced later Poilly.

Image

Mazarin by Nicolas Poilly, brother of Francois Poilly, the Minchiate engraver

Image

Young Louis XIV with Mazarin picture by Francois Poilly himself
both pictures at ...
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre ... hemindefer

Mazarin had a further favor and this was his love to Merlinus Coccai alias Teofilo Folengo. He, well known for his excellent memory, is said to have quoted longer passages of Folengo by heart. If the Caos of Triperuno belonged to his repertoire and favor, I don't know, but we have the feature, that the Chaos idea entered the Poilly deck and that this idea wasn't dead, when Etteilla took up his new development with new Tarot cards.
There are doubts, if the Poilly decks immediately became very important for the French playing card development c. 1660, but this form survived at least about 100 years. And Francois Poilly the elder got a high-ranked engraver position at the French court in the time of Louis XIV, and his family (between them a series of other engravers) profited from this a very long time.

The usual Tarot wasn't seen as a Tarot deck for cartomancy likely till c. 1850. Etteilla's version was, but if one should decide, if Etteilla's version between 1800-1850 had been more successful than the Petit Oracle des Dames (which also included Tarot cards in Etteilla style), I wouldn't be sure. And the Petit Oracle des Dames had 42 cards, similar to one of the Michiate versions of Poilly.

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

139
I've already variously pointed to the work of Andrea Vitali, who in the last 2-3 years had build up a remarkable website in Italian and to a great part also in English language.

http://www.letarot.it/index.aspx?lng=ENG
English version

Of special interest is the Essay or Saggi page (see in the upper menu at the page).

This contains meanwhile 30 articles in English and 55 Italian articles, alone in the category "Essays of Andrea Vitali" ... often these articles are rather long and contain a lot of material.

22 articles (English/Italian) are in the Iconography section, also by Andrea Vitali. This is an already earlier, however, it is occasionally updated. Each article (one for each trump card) is usually accompanied by 10-15 pictures, which show the major old variants.

Further there are 19 articles in the category "Host Essays", though only 5 of them are presented in English language.

So together 96 article, often very complex, and from these 57 translated. This is likely more as a rather big book.

The translations have occasionally weaknesses (still - we're working on this problem, but, as this is a lot of text, this takes time; the major helper in the moment is MikeH alias Michael Howard).

Another weakness is the menu, the articles (in the Andre Vitali essays) are sorted mainly according the time, when they were written, so starting at top and finishing at the bottom. The titles are shortened and it is not easy to decipher, what's the topic. Some articles have a large distance to the major topic Tarot and so might be disappointing.

Observing this problem I made a second order of the texts by capturing the essentials (only for the Andrea Vitali Essays). And I created a second sorting in different groups according the theme and inside the groups sorted in time, if it was possible. Further I connected it with links to web material, for instance web discussions.
For the moment that's still far from perfect, but I consider it a worthwhilel help [at least for myself], if somebody is interested to know, what could be found on this page ... and to have an orientation, what's interesting for himself and what's not.

Well, it's here:
http://trionfi.com/n/120301
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Trionfi.com: News and Updates

140
Silk dealers traded Trionfi Cards

Franco Pratesi has added a further article to his collection at Trionfi.com.

http://trionfi.com/naibi-silk-dealers

Image


It's a detailed research about some account books of Florentine dealers of silk, who in a smaller part of their business also traded with playing cards, mainly delivering them to other silk dealers, mainly in other regions of Italy as export article from Florence.
In 16 years (1439 - 1454) 23 sending activities are recorded, in which it is apparent, that playing cards had been part of the deal, which would make c. 1.5 records in a year ... not really much. However, other sales records in the business books only contain total prizes and don't list the delivered items, so there might have been actually some more deals with playing cards and POSSIBLY MUCH MORE.
Between the playing cards are some Trionfi decks (totally 11) and one of them is from the year 1445, which means, that this is now the 4th oldest Trionfi record, that we have

Image


Here's the list, but it's only enjoyable with the abbreviations, which you find in the article. I made a little calculation, and if I didn't make an error, a plausible reduction gives this values ... first the number of sendings, second the number of the related decks.

1439: 1/35
1440: 8/113
--
1442: 2/25
--
1444: 1/10
1445: 3/19 / inclusive 1 Trionfi deck
1446: 1/7
1447: 1/18
--
--
1450: 1/2 / 2 Trionfi decks
1451: 3/28 / inclusive 2 Trionfi decks
--
--
1454: 1/30 / inclusive 6 Tionfi decks

If I didn't miscount, 287 decks totally, from these 11 Trionfi decks.

***********************************

Well, some records about the last months of Tarot History research (from the page)
Research Revolutions

Some time ago (2003) Ross Caldwell and myself started to collect early Trionfi documents.
http://trionfi.com/0/e/
A major research progress had been done then by the publications of Franceschini/Ortalli in 1993/96 ...
http://trionfi.com/the-prince-and-the-playing-cards
.. and Franco Pratesi a short time before, ..
http://trionfi.com/earliest-tarot-pack
.. articles, which more or less stayed unknown in other publications. In the following years very seldom entries were added for the early time of Trionfi card development till 1463/64 .... till October 2011. Ross Caldwell noted then a new work of Arnold Esch (2007), who had researched custom registers in Rome and detected there lots of playing card notes of 15th century, between them also some Trionfi cards and at least two of them relating to the years 1463 and 1464. Esch wasn't really interested in playing cards, and the real source (the archive in Rom should contain much more material. In the internal discussions ..
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=743
.. it became quickly clear, that a more precise research of this material would mean a revolution for Italian playing card research. So we asked Franco Pratesi for some help.

The old list (October 2011) contained 34 entries, from which 2 were insecure. As some of them related to more than one context, the following rough overview has some more entries than 34:

1 Malatesta (1452)
1 Siena (1452)
1 Ancona (?1460)
1-2 Bologna (?1442 + 1459)
1-3 Padova (1455 + ?1449 + ?1461)
2 Florence (1450 + 1463)
2-4 Milan/Cremona (?1441 + 1450 + 1452 + 1457)
3 Iacopo Antonio Marcello (1449 + 1461)
23 Ferrara (1442-1463)

******************************************

Now it's 8 March 2012

Counting through all these new reports for the list, I find, that there are (at least) 22 new entries between 1440-1464, roughly 60 % more as there had been in October 2011. That's indeed a remarkable progress for a few months, considering that the earlier 34 had 200 years and more to find to our attention.

First there was Ross, who with the base of Arnold Esch's book found a few notes, from which at least two reach the range of 1463 and 1464. One of these notes speaks of "316 Triunfi" decks, a number, which isn't reached by other earlier documents, and this surely indicates, that at least in this time we have a mass production factor. Both "counted notes" likely refer to an import to Rome from Florence, but this isn't sure.

Franco went then through the complete Esch book and found another note from 1453.
http://trionfi.com/triunfi-playing-cards-rome
8 Triunfi decks were imported to Rome by Giovanni da Pistoia, who possibly worked in Florence. This was in begin of November 2011, Franco added a further research later.
http://trionfi.com/giovanni-da-pistoia
However, Franco, himself living in Florence, considered the work with the Roman archive as problematic, and found more interest to research Florentine material. His first report about this study didn't give reason to much optimism. It seemed to be a case of finding the "needle in a hay-stack".
http://trionfi.com/card-export-florence

Anyway, nonetheless Franco detected a series of Trionfi production notes around a not well known card producer Filippo di Marco (Florence naturally) between 1453-58, ...
http://trionfi.com/filippo-di-marco
... in context of the business of an art dealer Bartolomeo Serragli. The success was based on a study done in the 1950s and 1960s by Gino Corti and Frederick Hartt, who failed then to realize, that the mentioned objects were playing cards. 11 Trionfi notes, this was a big fish and the hidden Filippo di Marco proved as man of great Trionfi card dimensions similar to Sagramoro in Ferrara.

A single further note arrived around Christmas from Ferrara from the work of Veber Gulinelli, "Delle carte da Gioco Italiane Storia e diletto". It seems, that it was earlier overlooked by Franceschini (from "14 Lug. 1460").
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=290

Thierry Depaulis surprised at begin of February 2012 with a new "oldest Trionfi note" from September 1440, ..
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=773
.. reported by Nerida Newbigin about the work of an Anghiara notary and public official Giusto Giusti in "Il Giornali di ser Giusto Giusti d'Anghiari (1437-1482)" in Letteratura Italiana Antica, III, 2002. The deck was produced in Florence and was brought to Sigismondo Malatesta by Giusto Giusti himself. The price was in the dimension of the highest paid prices in Ferrara.

Franco adds with this article 4 further Trionfi notes (early March 2012) from 1445 (Ancona), 1450 (unknown), 1451 (Venice) and 1454 (unknown) from the byway business of two silk traders, both (again) naturally from Florence. They are part of 23 recorded deals with playing cards within 15 years. The note of 1445 is - for the moment - the 4th-oldest of all Trionfi notes.

Franco has two other new entries, which are more or less "unpublished" in the moment (1450/51), both Trionfi allowances in smaller towns in the Florentine region.

From the 22 new documents possibly 21 (or a little less) refer to Florence, so the earlier dominance of the Tarot city Ferrara is broken. Totally there are now 56 documents, from which 24 belong to Ferrara, and possibly 23 (or less) to Florence.

3-4 documents between 1440-1442
Only 1 to 1443-1448
12 documents between 1449-1452

Still the statistic gives the impression, as if there had been a blocking condition (prohibition ?), which hindered the quick distribution of the game in the years 1443-1448.
We have to admit, that Franco's strategy to hunt for the dealers of playing cards have led to a big success. Actually the document of the silk dealers and also the article to the Puri family ..
http://trionfi.com/naibi-on-sale
... which didn't include material about Trionfi cards are both very rich sources with the chance to detect by them more dealers of playing cards and so possibly more documents.

And for material of Esch ... there is still a lot of material, which is - for the moment - still untouched.
Huck
http://trionfi.com
cron