The Tarot and its Place of Origin
Posted: 22 Nov 2018, 06:04
I would like to thank Ross Caldwell for the recommendation to join this forum. I've been studying the Tarot and its contextual history for around three years now. I have a great deal of that history sorted out; however, one area in which I could really use some additional insight and opinions regards the Tarot's place of origin.
Ferrara seems to have been more or less ruled out by consensus, leaving Milan, Florence, and Bologna as potential options. At the present moment, I find myself leaning heavily towards Florence as the birthplace of the Tarot for several reasons. The Humanist movement, which created the intellectual and cultural space for the esoteric efflorescence of the Renaissance, was strongest in Florence. Petrarch and Giovanni Bocaccio largely initiated that movement and Coluccio Salutati helped make it a part of the cultural fabric of Florence. Of course, we also have the patronage of the Medici and Marsilio Ficino translating the Corpus Hermeticum in Florence.
Florence was also one of the dominantly Guelf areas in contrast to Milan. I sometimes surmise that if the Tarot had originated in Milan, then order C2 would likely have placed the Emperor after the Pope in keeping with its stance as a Ghibelline duchy; however, if it had inherited a game in which the Pope was already positioned above the Emperor, it would not reflect negatively on Milan either politically or socially.
There is also the sequence associated with reach region to consider. Placing the World card, which I believe to be an allegory for the attainment of gnosis, prior to the Judgment card is indicative of a mystical approach grounded in the apostolic tradition of a transformative vision of God that we find with Ezekiel and the apostle Paul. Such a mystical reading would not have been out of place in Florence.
It seems more likely that the Bolognese and Florentine orders were the earlier orders. As the game of Tarocchi spread to outlying regions, the mystical interpretation of that allegory was either lost or ignored in favor of a more orthodox reading that placed the World card after Judgment. It seems less likely to me that the game traveled from Milan to Florence and Bologna where it was reinterpreted from a mystical standpoint and then rearranged in concert with that idea.
I would be curious to know what region others think gave birth to the Tarot and why.
Ferrara seems to have been more or less ruled out by consensus, leaving Milan, Florence, and Bologna as potential options. At the present moment, I find myself leaning heavily towards Florence as the birthplace of the Tarot for several reasons. The Humanist movement, which created the intellectual and cultural space for the esoteric efflorescence of the Renaissance, was strongest in Florence. Petrarch and Giovanni Bocaccio largely initiated that movement and Coluccio Salutati helped make it a part of the cultural fabric of Florence. Of course, we also have the patronage of the Medici and Marsilio Ficino translating the Corpus Hermeticum in Florence.
Florence was also one of the dominantly Guelf areas in contrast to Milan. I sometimes surmise that if the Tarot had originated in Milan, then order C2 would likely have placed the Emperor after the Pope in keeping with its stance as a Ghibelline duchy; however, if it had inherited a game in which the Pope was already positioned above the Emperor, it would not reflect negatively on Milan either politically or socially.
There is also the sequence associated with reach region to consider. Placing the World card, which I believe to be an allegory for the attainment of gnosis, prior to the Judgment card is indicative of a mystical approach grounded in the apostolic tradition of a transformative vision of God that we find with Ezekiel and the apostle Paul. Such a mystical reading would not have been out of place in Florence.
It seems more likely that the Bolognese and Florentine orders were the earlier orders. As the game of Tarocchi spread to outlying regions, the mystical interpretation of that allegory was either lost or ignored in favor of a more orthodox reading that placed the World card after Judgment. It seems less likely to me that the game traveled from Milan to Florence and Bologna where it was reinterpreted from a mystical standpoint and then rearranged in concert with that idea.
I would be curious to know what region others think gave birth to the Tarot and why.