mikeh wrote:Thanks for the caution about Vogt-Leurssen. Well, I am intrigued enough to buy her book. It should get here in a couple of weeks. And thanks for the elaboration about the early 1450's. I of course think the cards as a public display are more connected to winning over the nobles to accepting Francesco than to any particular topical theme. Could you say more about why you think the 6 additional cards are connected to Ippolitta's wedding?

...it opens with a "canzon morale fatta per la divisa del conte di virtue (moral canzone written for the heraldic device of the count of Virtue). This introductory canzone describes the emblem and motto created by Petrarch for Giangaleazzo on the occasion of his marriage to Isabelle of France: a white turtledove within a sun emanating golden rays, and the French motto "A bon droyt" (with good reason: by right)...

"These same three elements are even more tightly and functionally grouped in a contemporary musical composition with the following descriptive French text:

Le ray au solely qui dret son karmene
En soy bracant la douce tortorelle
...
A bon droyt semble que en toy perfect regne.

The sun ray which leads a correct melody,
The sweet turtle dove rocking herself,
...
It seems that a bon droyt, perfection reigns in you.

mikeh wrote:I did see one thing that I'm going to have to check further: Ross's statement, if I got it right, that the idea of having "triumph" parades modeled on Petrarch started in Florence, and that there is no evidence that they even knew about "I Trionfi" in Milan. It had never occurred to me that the Milanese humanists didn't know "I Trionfi," a major work by a poet that had spent every summer at Pavia. I will have to do more checking on this point. That's been dogma since Moakley. Perhaps you can guide me.

mikeh wrote:Huck: OK, I've read the links you suggested, plus the links on those links! I was looking for material about Milan. I did see one thing that I'm going to have to check further: Ross's statement, if I got it right, that the idea of having "triumph" parades modeled on Petrarch started in Florence, and that there is no evidence that they even knew about "I Trionfi" in Milan. It had never occurred to me that the Milanese humanists didn't know "I Trionfi," a major work by a poet that had spent every summer at Pavia. I will have to do more checking on this point. That's been dogma since Moakley. Perhaps you can guide me.

About Florence, I had already uncritically accepted that the Charles VI originated in Florence. But it was good to see the iconographic details. For the actual painted cards, 1463 is as good a date as any.

But the images are another thing. What is there about the images that excludes an earlier date?

And what what does Florence have to do with Milan and the 6 additional cards? Please spoon-feed me again.

For the six added cards: These were produced in our opinion in May 1465, in the preparations of the bride's journey to Naples (the considered bride is Ippolitta). The actual reasons:

In 1466 the term "Minchiate" appears for the time in Florence, reflecting a sort of "new kind of Trionfi deck" made probably short before.
The Medici changed their heraldic in May 1465 - "seven palle" were altered to "6 palle" and one of the palle was allowed to carry the French Lille. The dramatic background: the new king French Louis XII had gotten trouble with Burgundy and some of the French nobility and was near on the edge to loose its kingdom. So he needed urgently help of his Italian friends (Sforza and the Medici) to survive. As part of the deal, which included militaric help of the Sforza and money from the Medici, the heraldic change of the Medici was realised in haste.

Already the older heraldic was connected to virtues (probably 7 virtues), now the question arose, what one wished to express with 6 palle. The family had recently finished the paintings in the Medici chapel, which had its topic in the triumphal march of the 3 holy kings ... indeed we have for the year 1465 a triumphal festivity in Florence recorded with "3 holy kings" topic (no date known). The kings are relatable to Star-Moon-Sun, especially as one of the kings was a black king. 3 virtues remained connected to 3 additional heraldic feathers, just Justice was missing (as in the cards).
The motifs were chosen in a haste, the three-fold girl at Temperance - Star - Moon is rather boring. The Florence delegation to the wedding of Ippolita was lead by the very young Lorenzo, who was on a sort of initiatory personal triumphal march through Italian cities, presenting himself as a young men and heir of the Medici influence. In this slower approach to the festivities in Milan he also crosssed Ferrara.
Meanwhile in France the actual political decisions had fallen. The news of France might have reached Lorenzo during his stay in Ferrara.
It is reported, that Lorenzo left Ferrara "too late" for unknown reasons, at least his father was not satisfied with him. Naturally Ferrara could fulfill the wish for a few playing cards (they were known to solve such problems), but anyway, even that needs some time.
Art history later developed the opinion, that the additional 6 cards were made in Ferrara cause "Ferrarese style" was recognized.

So it seems, that 6 Medici cards, made in Ferrara, arrived more or less punctually the wedding preparations in Milan. Lorenzo left a good impression and accompanied the bride towards Florence, where the now greater delegation of the bride's entourage spend some time during the Giovanni festivities (24th of June). Things became complicated later, when Jacop Piccinino was killed by Ferrante in Naples and Sforza stoppped the entourage for some time. The bride arrived Naples very late in the year. Lorenzo had accompanied it only till the Florentine border.

Mike wrote: They don't look much like their Florentine equivalents. Are you saying that the whole concept of Star, Moon, and Sun cards was invented then, and also that particular expression of Temperance, the woman with the jugs? Otherwise I don't see what else might have been borrowed.

Much of what I read in the links you gave me had to do with the Charles VI "World" card, and whether it was really Prudentia or Fame. After reading both sides, I could not choose one or the other. I haven't studied Florence very much. To me the PMB World card evolves from the Cary-Yale. I will try to put together some thoughts and documentation on that issue; it will take a couple of days. ...

I'm interested to hear your reflection.

One small detail in one of your posts that I'd like explained. It doesn't have to do with tarot, but with Florentine-French relations. You said that the Florentines got permission from the French to use the fleur-de-lys. I thought that was a symbol that the Florentines had been using for centuries. In the 1200's, for example, the Guelphs used a red fleur-de-lys (or whatever they called it) on a white background, and the Ghibelenes had a white one on a red background. The Guelphs won, and Dante after his exile became a Ghibeline. You can see the red fleur-de-lys on the gates of Florence in a Sienese illuminated Paradiso, 1440's, with a devil above pouring florins into the open hands of a pope (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: ... _paolo.jpg). The Sienese were not fond of Florence!

Yes, Pulci could be rather funny ...

... but not everybody loved him, especially those poet's with less humorous ideals had their problems with him.

Pulci to the other poets of Florence:

"I know I ought to make no dereliction
From the straight path to this side or to that;
I know the story I relate's no fiction,
And that the moment that I quit some flat,
Folks are all puff, and blame, and contradiction,
And swear I never know what I'd be at;
In short, such crowds, I find, can mend one's poem,
I live retired, on purpose not to know 'em.

Yes, gentlemen, my only ' Academe,'
My sole ' Gymnasium,' are my woods and bowers;
Of Afric and of Asia there I dream ;
And the Nymphs bring me baskets full of flowers,
Arums, and sweet narcissus from the stream ;
And thus my Muse escapeth your town-hours
And town-disdains ; and I eschew your bites,
Judges of books, grim Areopagites."

And occasionally he got his James-Joyce-mood:

"La casa cosa parea bretta e brutta,
Vinta dal vento; e la natta e la notte
Stilla le stelle, ch' a tetto era tutto:
Del pane appena ne dette ta' dotte :
Pere avea pure, e qualche fratta frutta;
E svina e svena di botto una botte :
Poscia per pesci lasche prese a l' esca ;
Ma il letto allotta a la frasca fu fresca."

The translator hadn't it easy, but he tried:

"This holy hole was a vile thin-built thing,
Blown by the blast; the night nought else o'erhead
But staring stars the rude roof entering;
Their sup of supper was no splendid spread;
Poor pears their fare, and such-like libelling
Of quantum suff.;—their butt all but; — bad bread;—
A flash of fish instead of flush of flesh;
Their bed a frisk al-fresco, freezing fresh."

MYSTERIES ...

of the historical context are often discovered, when looking on a detailed map.

In this case it's often reported, that Pulci was often in the "Mugello" or in "Mugello" outside of Florence. Actually the Mugello is a great region and not a village or city. The precise location, where the Pulci family had a farm, was Cavallina, a small spot at the map. Near to Cavallina, maybe 4-5 km, is Cafaggiolo, and in Cafaggiolo the Medici got a castle in 1443, which was build by Michelozzo to become a nice residence on the country. "Lorenzo de Medici spend here a part of his childhood."

It's still in existence and nowadays a hotel.

http://www.castellodicafaggiolo.it/english_storia.htm

The Medici family had its source in the Mugello (which also explains something). The distance from the given locations to Florence is ca. 30-35 km, trouble for travelling is given by mountains (at least 450 m has to be crossed, the Arno in Florence has a heigth of 128 m.

In Cavellina (Pulci's location) there is somehow "la Villa Il Palagio - La Torre che tra il 1457 e il 1466 ospitò anche Lorenzo il Magnifico, che si presenta
con un elegante prospetto classico con disegni sagomati, frutto della ristrutturazione ottocentesca."
The location was rebuild later, but it's stated, that Lorenzo between 1457 - 1464 was here as a guest ... which includes the deciding period for the Morgante (1461-62 ... it's said, that 14 of the final 28 canti were made then).

Well, one cannot be sure if one occasionally meets inventions of Italian tourism interests.

... but somehow it has logic.

Pietro de Medici was only second son and Cosimo, Lorenzo's grandfather, was ruling the family and the state. The elder brother Giovanni, Pietro and Cosimo, all had trouble with the gout. Giovanni had a son himself, but this died 1463 and short after it, same year, Giovanni died himself. In this year of death Cosimo made the deciding steps to build the platonic academy - likely in the context of the death of his oldest son, a turn away from money towards philosophy, as an an inner change.

The ship of the family had turned radically.

All the elder Medici had gout, and Pietro's state was the most bad (but he survived longest). Butween these "helpless" persons the position of Lucrezia Turnabuoni, wife of Piero and mother of Lorenzo ...

.. (here in 1475, 50 years old) was strong. She was it generally by context ...

Alberti mentions in On Painting the early fifteenth-century custom of introducing portraits of well-known and worthy citizens in religious narratives. This tradition continues in the family patronage of public religious commissions of the late fifteenth century. It also gives scope for female portraits to be included in a very important genre, that of collective civic portraiture. Perhaps the best example of a religious commission which stresses the significance of public display in such a context, while at the same time illustrating the difference of men's and women's ideal roles and behaviour in late fifteenth-century Florentine society, is provided by [a] series for frescoes by Ghirlandaio and his workshop. The decoration of the apse (cappella maggiore) of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni in 1485, was carried out between 1486 and 1490. This was the largest fresco commission in Florence in the last decades of the fifteenth century, for one of the most important churches of the city. Giovanni Tornabuoni was one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Florence, tied to the Medici by links forged by marriage, business and political interests. His sister Lucrezia was the wife of Piero de Medici and the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the same year as his sister's marriage, 1444, Giovanni had first entered the Medici bank. In 1465 he became the director and partner of the Medici bank in Rome, and eventually treasurer and financial adviser to Pope Sixtus IV....

.. from
http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/a ... hapel.html

It's interesting to see, how small the 4 humanists, between them Marsilio Ficino are painted (bottom left) ...

... in a minor role, as it seems.

Pulci is not included.

But Pulci appears at another picture, at least Vasari had this opinion:

Pulci in discussion at the left:

"Vasari had already identified a number of contemporary figures in those painted by Filippino: the resurrected youth was supposedly a portrait of the painter Francesco Granacci, at that time hardly more than a boy; "and also the knight Messer Tommaso Soderini, Piero Guicciardini, the father of Messer Francesco who wrote the Histories, Piero del Pugliese and the poet Luigi Pulci.""
http://www.wga.hu/tours/brancacc/theo_pet.html

"Filippino Lippi: Florentine painter, the son and pupil of Fra Filippo Lippi. who died when the boy was about 12. The boy completed his father's work (or at least cleared up his estate) in Spoleto (the final receipts for Filippo's frescoes in the Spoleto Cathedral was signed by Filippino) and he set off alone for Florence on 1 January 1470. He also studied with Botticelli and learned much from his expressive use of line, but Filippino's style, although sensitive and poetic, is more robust than his master's. The first certainly datable work by Filippino is the Annunciation on two tondi (1483-84, San Gimignano).
His first major commission was the completion of Masaccio's and Masolino's fresco cycle in the Brancacci Chapel of Sta Maria del Carmine, which had either been left unfinished by Masaccio or had been partially destroyed. This task he carried out with such skill and tact that it is sometimes difficult to tell where his work begins and that of more than half a century earlier ends."

http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/l/ ... graph.html

"Originally the chapel was cross-vaulted and lit by a very tall and narrow two-light window; the last of the stories from the life of St Peter, his Crucifixion, was probably painted on the wall below the window, but this fresco was destroyed soon after Brancacci was declared a rebel so as to cancel all traces of a patron who had become politically embarassing. The chapel, formerly the chapel of St Peter, was reconsacrated to the Madonna del Popolo. It appears that Felice Brancacci was subjected to an operation of "damnatio memoriae", for all the portrayals of people connected to the Brancacci family were eliminated from Masaccio's fresco of the Raising of the Son of Theophilus. The scene was then restored in 1481-82 by Filippino Lippi, who also completed the cycle."

http://www.yourwaytoflorence.com/brancacci.htm

Picture in context (Brancacci Chapel):

It's an interesting detail ... After his trouble in Florence ending in a clash with the Accademia, Franco and Ficino in 1476 Pulci took steps to reconcile (likely. ca. 1479) and was between 1481 - 1483 really in Florence and finished the Morgante (it's said with the help of Lucrezia Turnabuoni ?). Lucrezia died 1482, Pulci was ready at begin of 1483
The Fresco - given to the year 1481-1482 (see above), so precisely in the time of Pulci's return - shows the return of a lost (dead) son.

"This scene illustrates the miracle that Peter performed after he was released from prison, thanks to Paul's intercession. According to the account in the Golden Legend, once out of prison, Peter was taken to the tomb of the son of Theophilus, Prefect of Antioch. Here St Peter immediately resurrected the young man who had been dead for fourteen years. As a result, Theophilus, the entire population of Antioch and many others were converted to the faith; they built a magnificent church and in the centre of the church a chair for Peter, so that he could sit during his sermons and be heard and seen by all. Peter sat in the chair for seven years; then he went to Rome and for twenty-five years sat on the papal throne, the cathedra, in Rome."

Pulci was a "lost son". Well, an interesting detail ... but back to 1461-62 and to medici castle on the country.

*********

Luigi Pulci is about 29 years and a poet in a family of poets. Of these some will later write pieces for representations of holy actions, a sort of "holy theatre", taking place in churches or on the street. Also Lucretia Tornabuoni will do that and generally she's very interested in poetry, she writes herself and some writing have survived.

Lorenzo de Medici 11-12 years old, and, thanks to the gout in the family, the elder Medici are not in the condition to reply of the vital activities for children.

Lucretia Turnobuoni is a mother of 5-6 children ... she hires Pulci as a sort of educator. Things are practical, cause Pulci is near to one of the Medici castles. The locality is very nice there, lonesome and surely adventurous for children. Lorenzo will have later much interest in hunting. Pulci - all what we know - should have had a sense for beauty of nature himself (he loved his life in the Mugello and even climbed a romantic mountain).

So we see - in the inner eye of the researcher - Pulci wandering through the forests and mountains around Castello Cafaggio, around him a band of children and telling them fantastic stories about this and that. Well, Pulci is perfect, cause he knows there every stone and farmer, cause he himself is grown up in the same region, and more of that, he loved the region.

This natural situation (enriched with a lucky accident called "Pulci") is now filled with a little program from the sight of the mother, who wishes that the young band learns a little bit about history and poetry. So Pulci gets the job to work about Orlando, a theme, which fits with the actual crusader-theme (Osmanic problems) and with an interest of the Medici for the French market.

So, whatever had happened there ... it's very obvious, that the "Morgante" was initially a book (or better "life poem") for children, or young boys, cause this was the concrete and direct use for it in the moment of 1461-62. And one should be sure that the whole didn't come alone from Pulci's mind, but that it was made in dialog with a participating audience, which added hopes and fears, ideas, interests and concrete details of the region, which in the children-fantasies transformed to bewitched castles, dangerous enemies and even giants. And Morgante was actually the "giantious" Pulci himself and Morgante's good friend Orlando the smaller Lorenzo and Rinaldo likely the a few years younger brother Giulio.

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

Of the author's, that I studied to the Pulci stuff, nobody talks of a "children story". Also nobody talked about 3-4 kilometers between Cavallina and Castle Cafagglio.

The common great thinking error.
People research a successful piece of world lliterature. As they know, that this became a "successful piece of the world literature", they imply, that the author already knew, that this work would become successful. So - according this imagination - the author already intended that he would work 10 years or longer on his work and that he took his work very serious from beginning on. And they think, that the author was already famous just in the moment, that he started to write. Somehow it's constantly overrlooked, that the literary success is a process in stages, in which the author has his life, from little or no fame to finally fame and success (and this often enough long after his death)

So in Pulci's case, they overlook, that the whole plot "knight with giant have adventures" is a children story. Although they're told in each book about Pulci, that Pulci is the educator of Lorenzo, who is 11 years old. No .. the story is transformed to a story, in which Lucrezia Tornuaboni gave Pulci the commission to write a piece of world literature.

Similar these theories about Tarot origin. Constantly people treat to object, as if Tarot or Trionfi cards were already famous in 15th century. As if anybody would have known, that this would become an project, which would run over the whole world with its follow-ups. Just the same thinking error.

Another time more.

Merry Christmas altogether.

As he rode onward, suddenly he came upon a very beautiful meadow, and at the end of this meadow there was a beautiful river with very rich mills. And he rode in that direction and saw m the middle of the river three men in a boat. Then Perceval approached them and saw within the boat a very old man lying upon coverings of the highest quality. And this worthy man was the Fisher King his grandfather, and he called to Perceval and prayed him to stay with him that night, and Perceval thanked him heartily. And the Fisher King said to him: "Good sir knight, go onward up the river and you will see my castle appear above you, and now I shall depart also and go there, since I wish to be there to meet you."

Another card from this deck depicts a hexagonal baptismal font flanked by two winged boys, a type of angel called a putto. Suspended above the font is an arrow with two streams of blood arching away from it and pouring in the basin. This is an illustration of the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend, which is often depicted in Renaissance art as a hexagonal baptismal font. The arrow spouting blood represents the spear that that pierced the side of Christ and was said to continually drip his blood into the Grail. This card is often assumed to be the ace of cups but in other Visconti-Sforza decks we only find putti on the World card, where they are flanking an image of a celestial city framed in a circle. The celestial city represents the New Jerusalem, God's kingdom descending to earth, which is the mystical reward described in the climax of Revelation. Likewise, the Grail is the mystical reward in Arthurian legend. The organizing principle in the trumps is the trionfi, a parade in which each figure is known to be more powerful than the one that comes before and leading to a final victory. Both of these images are suitable alternatives for the final and most powerful trump.

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards]/i], and http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards34.htm). The words on the front of the Grail are “nec spe nec metu” meaning “neither hope nor fear” (Kaplan), a description of Heaven according to the via negativa. The words at the top have not been deciphered.

Place does not relate these cards to the Cary-Yale. The Rosenthal’s Grail on top replaces the CY’s river scene on the bottom, and the putti on the bottom replace the lady on the top.

In game playing, the problem with such a card is that it is too similar to the Ace of Cups. (It might even be the Ace of Cups, if there is no World card in the deck.) So change is in order, to make two distinctive cards: the Grail is replaced by a walled city, the New Jerusalem. And with that image the grail-city could also be this-world Milan, made wondrous by its guardian spirits, the Sforzas.

Place goes on to mention other late 15th century decks, perhaps not proto-tarot or Visconti-Sforza, that also have such Grails: besides the Victoria and Albert, there are the Goldschmidt and the Guildhall, from the same period but not known to be painted for the Sforzas. He says (p. 20):

These cards do not include putti but they both depict the Grail on a checkered floor that only appears on other trumps in these decks. The Goldschmidt deck also includes a serpent circling around the Grail to bite his tail. This mystical symbol, called an ouroboros, appears in alchemical texts and represents the limits of time and mortality that the Grail conquers with its timeless mystical truth."

Here is the Goldschmidt card (from Kaplan vol. 1):

This design, however, is even more like the Ace of Cups and is harder to convert to the New Jerusalem: there is nothing for the snakes to go around. So it does not go anywhere.

Kaplan mentions that an American collector did not buy the Rosenthal Visconti-Sforza cards because he believed they were only copies of the 15th century originals. For our purposes that does not matter, as long as they are faithful copies. It seems to me that these designs are genuine, and of the period before Galeazzo's death, for two reasons. First, the Victoria and Albert cards are presumably genuine, and the design of the two cards is almost the same, and similarly for the Star cards. Second, there is an important difference between the two decks which is not likely to have been faked. The Rosenthal court figures are similar to the youthful court figures of the PMB, which are reminiscent of the young Galeazzo Sforza (Kaplan Vol. 1 p. 99).

But the one Victoria and Albert court figure, the Page of Cups, has the older features of Ludovico Sforza (second below right, with the PMB in the middle and the Rosenthal on the left (which in this case looks halfway between the two others). As I argued in an earlier post, this difference reflects who was in power at the time, before 1477 and after 1478.

The Rosenthal cards are obviously not merely copies of the original PMB, because of the differences in the special cards and minor differences in the courts. The Victoria and Albert is an example of a later Sforza deck that went with the Rosenthal's designs and not the PMB's.

But inserting a grail cup and putti is only one way the Cary-Yale card might have evolved. The Charles VI represents another way. Ross argued that the lady was Fame, and Huck that she was Prudentia. I think that she is not Prudentia, because she does not have any of Prudentia's typical attributes. But the hexagonal halo does tend to associate her with the virtues. She is Sapientia again. One reason she might be on the Triumphs of Fame is that in order to get fame you need to have wisdom. There are two senses of fame as well of wisdom: worldly and heavenly. In a Christian world, they go together: fame is won through wisdom. Despite the more worldly orientation of the Florentine bankers, the most lasting fame is still that of the saints.

So on the Charles VI the lady represents either of two things: worldly wisdom, the key to mastering the world, or spiritual wisdom, the key to transcending the world. In this capacity she is Sophia of the Hebrew Wisdom literature and also the world-soul of Plato and the Neoplatonists: the transition between this world and the utterly transcendent. Transcendence is also suggested in the d'Este card, not only the putto above the world, but also the ever-rising towers within the world in the bubble.

A Bologna version divides the world into four quarters, suggesting another name, the Quintessence, transcending the four elements. Below left is Tarotpedia’s version of the card, with correspondences (tarotpedia's addition of the colors) to the 17th century Vieville (http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/World)

We also have to look at these cards in the context of the previous cards in the sequence. Here it is again evident that transcendence is meant. They are at or near the end of the special cards. Let's look at some Sun cards.

In the d'Este (above left), we have Alexander inviting Diogenes to be court philosopher, and Diogenes telling Alexander that he is blocking his sun, i.e. tempting him away from enlightenment. Diogenes is the person who has transcended the world. In the Charles VI (above center), the corresponding card is the spinner, recognizable as Clotho, one of the three Fates, the one who spun the thread of one's life; identified by the Romans as Nona, she was also associated with childbirth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moira; above right, I have included the Ecole Nationale Supereiure card, where the woman looks more like a spinner, from http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/bologna/). Although Clotho herself represented life, she was often pictured with her two sisters, who measured the thread and cut it. An example is in this Flemish "Triumph of Death" tapestry, early 16th century (from Wikipedia article):

Thus the Milanese PMB World and the Florentine Charles VI World take quite different approaches to the idea of transcendence. The PMB has the bubble with a walled city on top, suggesting the New Jerusalem, the result of transcendence, while the Charles VI has the bubble at the bottom, suggesting this world as what is to be transcended. The Milanese approach is most plausibly explained via the grail card, whereas the Florentine is the result of reducing the CY-style castles to mundane proportions and enlarging the role of the woman.

These interpretations, however, are for the thoughtful and the devout. If others want to think the World card means worldly success, that is okay by the card-makers. If people want to think that it is just Alexander talking with his humanist, like any civilized Renaissance ruler, and that the spinner signifies the city's riches, the modern equivalent of the third King’s gold, that's okay too; whatever sells cards and keeps the preachers at bay. For such people it makes little difference whether the bubble on the World card is on top or bottom. However they, it seems to me, are missing the main point of the cards.