Here is a translation of the above, for those who might want to critique Alain's summary. I have corrected some of the spellings of non-French names, and I assume that Alain's "Etables" was a typographical error for "Etaples". The word "Septempedano" is a Latinized nickname meaning "of San Severino".
My main difficulty was with the word "jeu". Perhaps this has been discussed before, but if so I have forgotten. In French "jeu" has two quite different English equivalents, "deck" (or "pack")--a set of physical objects, ordinarily 52 cards - and "game", the type of amusement for which the deck is used. So I am not sure whether, in its first three occurrences below, the word "jeu" should be translated as "deck" or as "game". I would assume that when Alain says "La plus ancienne référence française connue d' une lecture pythagoricienne du Jeu de cartes ordinaires?" he means "The oldest known French reference to a Pythagorean reading of the
deck of cards"; but in "
Le très excellent et ancien jeu pythagorique dict Rythmomachie it seems to mean "game". Please advise, Alain.
[Added July 25: Alain says "game" is what is appropriate. See posts below this one.]
And one other question: in what sense was Lazzarelli converted to Christianity by reading the works of Hermes, i.e. the Corpus Hermeticum? Surely he was already a Christian.
[Added July 25: Alain says to change "Christian religion" to the English for "hermétisme chrétien".]
Here is my translation [added July 25: with the corrections suggested by Alain, including besides the two above, changing "pamphlet" to something else; I picked "little book"] Comments in brackets are my English translations of words that seemed more appropriately left in French, since they had to do with French titles or phrases
Gosselin 1582 La Signification de l'ancien jeu des chartes pythagorique(s) (The meaning of the ancient Pythagorean game of cards
1582 Gosselin Jean:
"The meaning of the ancient Pythagorean game of cards ..."
A reference to the Antique ...
The oldest known French reference to a Pythagorean reading of the ordinary game of cards?
Content: Updated July 8, 2018
Web Link: [url]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aK0 ... sp=sharing [/ url]
CONCLUSION
In my opinion, this little book of Jean Gosselin was not appreciated at its fair value.
The work, which follows the revival of Pythagorean and Platonic ideas in France, does indeed have a Pythagorean framework and its symbolism of the four suits is to be found in the Platonic hierarchy of the four elements.
In addition, the specific expression "“jeu pythagorique” ["Pythagorean game"] seems to be straight from
Le très excellent et ancien jeu pythagorique dict Rythmomachie [
The very excellent and old Pythagorean game called Rhythmomachy] by Claude de Boissière, published in 1556:
https://books.google.fr/books?id=F15s3q ... &q&f=false
It will be remembered moreover that:
- The use of Pythagorean proportions of numbers for a winning strategy was part of the tradition of "games of the philosophers": Anne E. MOYER,
The Philosophers' Game, Rithmomachia in Renaissance and Medieval Europe, University of Michigan Press, 2001
- the scholar Lefevre D'Etaples wrote (1496. 1514) the
Rithmimachiae ludus qui et pugna numerorum appellatur
The question, when all is said and done, would be the following: whether or not this lettered [i.e. literate in classical languages] Librarian of the King had access to Platonic, Aristotelian and Pythagorean texts ... and if so, which ones?
Did not Gosselin claim as sources of his inspiration: Plato, Aristotle and "some Pythagorean philosophers"?
One thing is certain .
Somehow, his Pythagorean card game is a result of the revival of Pythagoreanism in France.
We may cite Trithemius, Reuchlin, Lefèvre d'Etaples, Champier, Bouelles, Bude, Amy, Lefebvre de la Beauderie ...
Lefèvre d'Etaples alone published, with comments:
-
l'Arithmétique de Boèce [The Arithmetic of Boethius] (1503, 1510, 1522), - that of Nemorarius (1514) -
De cubitione spherae, De quadratura circuli (1503)
About those who propagated in France the Platonic ideas of Marsilio Ficino, I would highlight the figures of D'Etaples and his disciple Champier:
In 1483 D'Etaples is in Florence, meets Ficino and Pico della Mirandola and decides to translate the
Pimander: Mercurii Trismegisti liber de potestate et sapientia Dei
Lazarelli Septempedano, converted to Christian hermetism by reading the writings of Hermes, composes the
Crater Hermetis, which will be integrated with the
Corpus Hermeticum published by D'Etaples on April 1, 1505 at the [publishing] house of H Etienne.
D'Etaples therefore joins Lazzarelli's dialogue to the translation of the
Pimander by Ficino and that of the
Asclepius by pseudo-Apuleius.
The two great works of Hermes Trismegistus are reunited in one book, with commentary by chapter.
Michael Howard notes, to good effect, among other indications on this subject, the connections between Lazzarelli and Champier, that the intermediary was, according to Pr Hanegraaff, a certain "Mercurio" who Lazzarelli met in Rome in 1481.
Champier published in 1507 the
Definitiones Asclepiii translated by Lazzarelli. unknown to D'Etaples.
In 1508, a
Theologia Trismegista
How did he discover these texts when Lazzarelli died in 1500?
According to K Ohly, Lazzarelli's master Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio went to France to do this. (See Michael Howard:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1102&start=610#p20122)
To be continued ...
Sources:
Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Ruud M. Bouthoorn,
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500): The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents, Volume 281 of Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, [Temple, Arizona,] 2005. Original from the University of Michigan 2005 Digitalized Oct. 2, 2008, ISBN 0866983244, 9780866983242
P. O. Kristeller,
Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters, Rome, 1956.
Added July 26: the above has been corrected based on Alain's suggestions in posts immediately following this one. Originally i had "(or deck)" after all or most occurrence of "game" for the French "jeu" and "pamphlet" for the French "opuscule", instead of "little book". Also, followiing Alain's suggestion, "converted to the Chrisian religion" has been changed to "converted to Christian hermetism".