...
We'll, we were basically talking about Moakley...
Anyway, I agree we disagree about Pythagorean Number theory influence on Tarocchi's 78 final settle ...
...
Other considerations about the 56 :
A. "The 56-card deck ... was the basis for Tarot"
"Trick-taking games of some sort, traditionally the most popular form of card game, probably arrived with the cards. However, while we know almost nothing about the games played, the design of the Mamluk decks changed very little as adopted by the Italians, and so-called Moorish cards may have also been used in Europe. The four suits were Swords, Staves (the Mamluk decks used Polo Sticks), Coins, and Cups. Each suit had ten pip cards and three "court cards", a King, Knight, and Page, creating a 52-card deck. While that basic Italian suit system continued to be used, variations developed almost immediately. Spanish decks changed the Staves into Clubs, and altered the designs, and German cardmakers developed a number of alternative suit-systems.
In the earliest known description of playing cards, Brother John described decks in which the number of court cards and even the number of suits were increased from the norm, and some in which female figures were used on the court cards. In addition to regular decks, novelty decks were also produced in the 14th century, including one with images of gods and emblematic animals.
In "ordinary" cards, there are usually 13 : from 1 to 10 and 3 court cards
In "Tarots", there are usually 14 - from 1 to 10 and 4 court cards.
The suit-cards used in Tarot were the same as standard Italian playing cards. In some regular Italian-suited decks of the period, Queens had been added to the suit cards, creating a 56-card deck, and such a deck was the basis for Tarot'
(Cf : Taropedia
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Tarot_History)
Added later : My take about the Tetractys Game of 56
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6j ... FmdTg/view
B. The most ancient card game of 56 with 16 Courts et 40 numérals would be a hand painted game dedicated to hunting .
"Ambras" (Germany)
Deck "Hofjagd", 1440/1445
handmade deck found in castle Ambras (Tirol) together with Hofämterspiel
reprinted by "Edition Leipzig" in 1971 for Heimeran (Munich)"
http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/ambras/
Huck MEYER
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1102&start=350#p17736
C . Notes about the 56 throws of 3 dices with 6 faces :
"The 56 distinguishable occurences were associated with practise of Virtues for monacal reasons by Wibold of Cambrai circa 1000 AD.
He enumerated 56 virtues - one corresponding to each of the ways 3 dices could be thrown irrespective of order
The use of dices for the purpose of choosing among a number of possibilities is much older than Wibold.
The earliest approch to the counting of the numebrs of ways in which 3 dices can fall appears to occur in a latin poem "De vetula"; this remarquable work was regarded as Ovide's for some time, and is included in some of the medieval editions of his poems. It is however suppositious and several candadates have been proposed for authorship. The relevant passage may be briefly and freely construed as follows :
If all three numbers are alike, there are 6 possibilities.
If two are alike and the other different, there are 30 cases because the pair can be choosen in 6 ways
and if all three are different, there are 20 ways because 30 x 4 = 120, but each possibilities arises in 6 ways" [120 : 6 = 20]
Cf :
https://books.google.fr/books?id=LLEZQC ... es&f=false
D. The number 56 divided in 4 in classical antiquity related to "divination" :
1.
"Two kinds of dice were used in classical antiquity: dice proper (kuboi, tessarae), which are virtually identical to six-sided modern dice, and knucklebones (astragali, tali), which have four sides (Halliday 205-15, esp. 213-15; David 1-7; Ore 193). For divination, five astragali were rolled, and the resulting combination was looked up on a four-sided pillar, many examples of which survive in more or less fragmentary form (e.g., Sterrett "Epig.", "Wolfe"; Kaibel). It so happens that the number of possible five-astragali throws is 56, exactly the number of Minor Arcana, and that the throws were listed on the tablets in four "suits" (two of 15 throws, two of 13; see Halliday 213n3)."
(
http://wisdomofhypatia.com/OM/BA/PT/Mintro.html)
Halliday's reference given by Steve
quote p213
"From Asia
Minor we have inscriptions which contain a list of the possible throws and their interpretation. The system in the different inscriptions is identical, all are written in bad metre and indifferent Greek, the names of the throws are
constant in the various fragments, and the variants in the text itself are surprisingly few.
There is a fragment of a system of astragalomancy with seven astragali from Termessos,^ but the normal code is constructed for five astragali. Of this code we have fragments from Kosagatch, Tefeny, Yarishli, Sagalassos,
Termessos, Ordekji, Indjik, and Adalia.^ The astragalos has only four numbered sides with the values i, 3, 4, and 6. The totals, therefore, range from 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 5 ^o 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 30. Some of the intervening numbers,
e.g. 6 or 29, cannot be made out of combinations of I, 3, 4, and 6, but on the other hand many of the possible totals can be made by various combinations..., In all 56 throws are possible, and of these all except the 12th,
though some of them only in fragments, can be obtained from the various stones.^ The inscriptions seem to have been cut in columns, on the sides of a four-sided pillar. They give in the case of each throw the combination of figures and the total, followed by the name of the power to whom the throw belongs. The second line in some of the inscriptions consists of an attempt to force the numbers of the throw intometre. The meaning of the whole is given in three hexameters of very inferior quality. The second throw, for example, is : —
See book for the Greek text:
https://archive.org/details/cu31924058563259
2.
You also noted :
"the old Greeks had another way to reach the number 56 in their lot book systems?
Five 4-sided dice were used, carrying the number 1-3-4-6.
forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1171&p=19177#p19172"
"the 56 combinations in the old Greek lot oracle are from the times of Pythagoras."
I commented :
14 combinations of one of the 4 numbers (1 3 4 6) dominating 14x4=56
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1168&start=100#p19183