Yygdrasilian from AT makes an interesting connection between the Thoth and this card here:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=2250615

Hi Reece,

I think there is another connection too, as I first saw the alchemical engraving here.

Reading through the thread over at AT, I think it's possible that Y may = Y to the power of 2...

Pen

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote:
The four Moors didn't come into the Bolognese decks until 1725.

The replacement of the 'Papi' by 'Mori' came about in 1725 by the intervention of the Papal Legate, Cardinal Ruffo. At that time, Bologna, although very proud of its ancient liberties, fell within the Papal States, but, by an agreement of 1447, enjoyed considerable autonomy. In 1725 Canon Luigi Montieri of Bologna produced a geographical Tarocchino pack: the body of each trump card gave geographical information ... What annoyed the Legate, Cardinal Ruffo, was that on the Matto Bologna was described as having a "mixed government" (governo misto). Ruffo ordered Montieri's pack publicly burned; Montieri and everyone concerned with its production were arrested. However the Legate quickly came to realise that to proceed against them on this ground would arous deep resentment in the city. He therefore had the prisoners rapidly released, and, to save face, demanded instead that the four 'Papi' be replaced by four Moorish satraps, and the Angel by a Lady (Dama). The first change was accepted, though the second was ignored, and Montieri's pack was reissued with the Moors instead of 'Papi'; moreover, Moors were henceforth used in all Bolognese Tarot packs.

(Dummett and McLeod, "History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack" (Mellen Press, 2004) pp. 263-264)

Hi friends,

Giordano Berti have another version about this:

Nel 1725 il sacerdote Luigio Montieri produsse, a scopo didattico, un mazzo di Tarocchi che portava su ogni Trionfo alcune brevi informazioni geografiche e politiche relative agli Stati europei. Il mazzo era accompagnato da un libretto intitolato L'utile col diletto, ossia geografia intrecciata nel Gioco dei Tarocchi, con le insegne degli Illustrissimi ed Eccelsi Signori Gonfalonieri ed Anziani di Bologna dal 1670 al 1725.

Nel Trionfo 21, il Matto, sono descritti sei tipi di governo a cui erano sottoposti i vari Stati europei. Il sesto tipo definito "misto", aveva come unico rappresentante la città di Bologna. Difatti a quell'epoca Bologna era parte integrante dello Stato della Chiesa, ma godeva di larga autonomia: in base ad un accordo del 1447, il legato pontificio svolgeva le funzioni di governatore, ma il suo potere era limitato dal Senato cittadino, liberamente eletto. Ciò nonostante, l'affermazione di Montieri suscittò le ire del legato pontificio, il cardinale Ruffo, che fece arrestare il sacerdote e tutti i collaboratori coinvolti nella pubblicazione, compreso lo stampatore Lelio Dalla Volpe e i suoi operai. In seguito a un editto del 12 diciembre, tutte le copie sequestrate vennero date alle fiamme e gli eventuali possessori furono inviati a consegnare i mazzi alla cancelleria criminale; sette anni di galera era la pena prevista in caso di inadempienza. A quel punto i senatori di Bologna decisero di agire con diplomazia e fermezza per riaffermare i propi diritti. Il conte Filippo Aldrovandi fu inviato in missione diplomatica a Roma, presso il segretario di Stato vaticano: sinillinamente, prospettò di credere che si fosse alla vigilia di "cualche straordinario avvenimento capace di coinvolgere l'intera popolazione". Tre giorni più tardi tutti gli arrestati furono rilasciati, ma la condanna del mazzo rimase e non fu più possibile darlo alle stampe.

Agli inizi del Novecento, uno storico bolognese ricstruì l'intera vicenda e ipotizzò che in quell'ocasione, nel 1725, fu deciso di imporre la presenza di quattro Moretti al posto della "tettrachia" classica [22]. Tuttavia si tratta di una congettura errata, perché gia nel mazzo di Montieri ci sono i quattor Moretti. Fu propio il sacerdote ad adottare per primo questi personaggi; come spiegava egli stesso nel libretto allegato al mazzo, "vi sono cambiati i quattro Papi in quattro Strapi, e questi fanno lo stesso gioco dei Papi, cioè uno prende l'altro". Da allora, i frabricanti bolognesi hano mantenuto le figure dei Mori sia nel mazzo "castrato" sia in quello completo di 78 carte, la fisionomia dei quali ricalca sostanzialmente quella del Tarocco Dalla Torre.

Foot note: 22 > G. B., Il governo misto in Bologna dal 1507 al 17897 e le carte da gioco del can. Montieri, in Atti e memorie di Storia Patria per la Romagna, serie 3, XXVII, 1909. La Biblioteca Comunale dell Archiginnasio conserva due esemplari dei Tarocchini di Montieri, completi di mazzo, libretto, custodia originale e bando del cardinale Ruffo.

Giordano Berti. Storia dei Tarocchi. Mondadori, 2007. 66-67.

Long before 1725 and the priest Montieri the Master PW had 4 Moors in his deck and also French cards showed Moors and the Moro's Milan had a moorish faible, and the most exalted dance of the time was the Moreske.
And Alfonso d'Este's is said to have shown the dark face of his great-grandma and one of the Medici is said to have been dark, too, and Shakespeare found Othello "based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" ("A Moorish Captain") by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565" (wiki) an interesting topic. Griraldo Cinthio lived 1504-1573, a little late for a "disciple of Boccacchio".



viewtopic.php?f=11&t=422

http://www.clicknotes.com/othello/Osource.html .... Othello by Cinthio

Very interesting... I answer there to not duplicate threads.

DELETE

delete

After a long pause in this thread, I made the decision to change the first post of this of the first for an overview to the Minchiate / Germini game. For the moment it looks like this:

IN WORK

Well, it's November 27, 2016 ... the old post at this place is moved to "Post 2". The thread was active from 08 Dec 2009, 12:01 till 19 Aug 2010, 15:30.
Only the first and 2nd post were changed. The idea is to improve the first post as a sort of introduction.

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

Meanwhile a lot of things have happened around the game Germini / Minchiate. Franco Pratesi has restarted his researches on playing cards (November 2011) and Minchiate became a longer time his major topic. Trionfi.com once organized his various contributions to this point (till end of 2013):

http://trionfi.com/n/130903/

Franco changed then from English to Italian language in 2014 and produced these articles at ...
http://naibi.net
The years 2014/16 saw these articles specific to "early Minchiate":

1634: Livorno – Minchiate e ganellini
http://www.naibi.net/A/320-GANELLIVO-Z.pdf

Secolo XVI: Firenze – Il nome dei germini
http://www.naibi.net/A/332-GERMINI-Z.pdf

1499-1506: Firenze – Nuove informazioni sulle carte fiorentine.
http://www.naibi.net/A/IPCS44N1.pdf
This article was very important, cause it contained a report about the earliest appearance of Germini in 1506.
It was translated by Michael S. Howard at ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1074#p16459

1450, 1473, 1477: Firenze – Leggi sui giochi.
http://www.naibi.net/A/426-FI1473-Z.pdf
It was translated by Michael Howard at ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1082#p16591

Trionfi milanesi e fiorentini – ipotesi e commenti.
http://www.naibi.net/A/506-MIFIOR-Z.pdf
This was translated in 2 different parts mixed with discussions
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1086&start=20#p16716
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1086&start=20#p16721

http://www.naibi.net/A/509-VELLETRI-Z.pdf
Sminchiate del Cinquecento.

Il terzo foglio Rosenwald.
http://www.naibi.net/A/516-ROSEN3-Z.pdf
It was translated at ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1105&p=17038&hilit ... ald#p17007

Genesi favolosa di trionfi e minchiate
http://www.naibi.net/A/523-FAVOLA-Z.pdf
It was translated at ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1120&start=50#p18092

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

In Andrea Vitali's essay collection ...

http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=5 (Ialian language)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=5&lng=ENG (English language, mostly translated by Michael S. Howard)

... I find the following contributions to "early Minchiate" ... with the help of a google command

https://www.google.de/webhp?sourceid=ch ... 0minchiate

... 293 entries, which is naturally "too much". At ...
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=5&lng=ENG
... I find a sorted list of articles:

Minchiate between Game and Literature

Minchiate in Literature
From the XVth to the XIXth century
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=338

Farsa Satyra Morale
"Sminchiata" means stuff for fools
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=255
Very important, cause it contains an early "sminchiate" in c. 1510.

Treatise on the Game of Minchiate
A document on the Game of Minchiate dated to 1716
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=257

Del Minchione
Where we talk about stupid, mad and waster men (In Italian)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=257

Ganellini seu Gallerini
The game of Minchiate in Genoa, Rome and Palermo (XVII - XVIII)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=310&lng=ENG

Del 'Minchionare' e della 'Minchionaggine''
Stories of cunning and stupidity (In Italian)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=383

May cancer come to Goffo and to Tarocco
New documents between history and literature from the XVIth to the XIXth century
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=453&lng=ENG

Una guerresca partita a Trionfi (A warlike game of Triumphs)
Two compositions by Giovanni Petrei - XVIth century (In Italian)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=515

Il cane di Diogene (Diogenes' Dog)
A satirical-literary text by Francesco Fulvio Frugoni (1687) (In Italian)

http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=540

(I would be nice, if the entries of the list would contain a link to the relevant article, but this isn't. So the reader at this site has to search it in the longer content. I have added them here.)

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

Girolamo Zorli at http://www.tretre.it

Varianti italiane del gioco dei Tarocchi. Germini, Minchiate, Ganellini e Gallerini. (2011)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... gallerini/

I giochi di Francesco Berni (c 1528)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... i-1528-ca/

Lode della Rovescina (c. 1540-46), by Anton Francesco Grazzini (Firenze 1503- Firenze 1584), detto il Lasca
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... rovescina/

Le Carte Parlanti, o dei giochi di Pietro Aretino (1543)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... o-aretino/

I Germini sopra quarante meretrice della città di Firenze (1553)
http://www.tretre.it/uploads/media/Germ ... etrici.pdf

Le Minchiate di Paolo Minucci (1688)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... ucci-1688/

Le regole delle Minchiate di Niccolò Onesti (1716)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... esti-1716/

Spiegazione del Giuoco del Tarocchino (1746?) by anomino and transribed by Lorenzo Cuppi (with notes on the parola Sminchiate)
http://www.tretre.it/menu/accademia-del ... hino/#c513

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

Nazario Renzoni - Andrea Ricci
http://germini.altervista.org/
Explanation of the Minchiate Rules

... likely it will be changed a little bit in near future.

In the context of the discussion in the Rosenwald Tarocchi thread ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1105&start=40#p18785
... I made some research on the Minchiate poem of 1552. The poem structures Minchiate in the domains of 4 procuresses (as already demonstrated in this thread long ago):

40-32 belongs to the 1st procuress = 19 Caritas (theological virtue)
31-23 belongs to the 2nd procuress = 18 Fides
22-10 belongs to the 3rd procuress = 17 Prudentia (cardinal virtue), which leaves out 19-18-16 (the other procuresses)
9-1 belongs to the 4th procuress = 16 Spes

The poem ... at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Germini_Poem:_Part_3 ... once translated by Marco Ponzi.

Text for 17 Prudentia:

The third procuress = 17 Prudentia

I am said to be a procuress of little things,
so I will have to speak, from the twenty-three down,
the unlucky life of every whore.
This looks like a great fatigue to me,
because my own daughter Sandra is named
and she is dirty, lousy and loathsome.
I must take care of nine
and I turn the one that is named the twenty-two.

Prudentia reigns from 22-10, leaving 16-18-19 (the other 3 procuresses) aside:

22 Earth (element)
21 Water (element)
20 Fire (element)
--
15 Tower (bad card)
14 Devil (bad card)
13 Death (bad card)
12 Hanging Man (bad card)
11 Age (Time; bad card)
--
10 triumphal chariot

... "twenty-three down"
23 is "Air" (the 4th element)
Prudentia reigns from 22 till 10, it doesn't include 23

... "daughter Sandra" is card 26, and that's Scorpio.
Scorpio is connected to Death, Death has the 13
2*13 = 26

... "I must take care of nine"
9-1 belongs to the 4th procuress

... "and I turn the one that is named the twenty-two."
Prudentia reigns from 22 till 10

... "I will have to speak, from the twenty-three down, the unlucky life of every whore."
Prudentia has chosen for herself the unlucky things of life (the 5 bad cards).

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

Observation of the 4 elements in context of the 4 procuresses (theological virtues + Prudentia)

Fire = 19 (Caritas) + 20 (Fire)
Water = 18 (Fides) + 21 (Water)
Earth = 17 (Prudentia) + 22 (Earth)
Air = 16 Hope) + 23 (Air)

The number sequence 19-18-17-16 mirrors the number sequence 20-21-22-23

Major symbols for the 4 procuresses:

Caritas has a flame
Fides has a cup (associates water) ... but that's not clear in Minchiate
Prudentia has a viper (symbol of earth)
Hope is accompanied by an anchor (the anchor associates a ship and a sail and this associates air; occasionally Hope is presented with wings) ... but that's clear in Minchiate

In the typical Minchiate the flame of Caritas and the viper of Prudentia are present ....







... but Fides and Spes go their own way

(in work)
I've the plan to make a list of the earliest Minchiate/Germini documents
-------

c. 1440: Burchiello's poem

Appearance of "minchiatar" and "Triomphi" in Poem 31 from "Rime" of Burchiello:
(found once by Raimondo Luberti)

Around 1440 [appearance of "minchiatar" and "Triomphi" in Poem 31 from "Rime" of Burchiello:

Se tu volessi fare un buon minuto
togli Aretini et Orvietani e Bessi
e sarti mulattieri bugiardi e messi,
e fa' che ciaschedun sie ben battuto;
poi gli condisci con uno scrignuto
e per sale vi trita entro votacessi,
e per agresto minchiatar fra essi
accioché sia di tutto ben compiuto.
Spècchiati ne' Triomphi, el gran mescuglio
d'arme, damor, di Bruti e di Catoni
con femine e poeti in guazabuglio: questo fanno patire i maccheroni
veghiando il verno, e meriggiando il luglio
dormir pegli scriptoi i mocciconi.
Dè parliàn de moscioni,
quanta gratia ha il ciel donato loro,
che trassinando merda si fan d'oro.

Suggestions to a translation were discussed at: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=953&hilit=minchiatar#p15173
Andrea Vitali discussed the poem:
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=199
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=199&lng=ENG


August 1466: Pulci's letter

https://archive.org/stream/bub_gb_WGKyz ... 1/mode/2up




reported 1988 by Franco Pratesi:
TAROT IN FLORENCE IN THE 16TH CENTURY: ITS DIFFUSION FROM LITERARY
SOURCES
Franco Pratesi − August-October 1986
(New Discoveries – No. 5)
http://www.naibi.net/A/08-FLOLITE-Z.pdf

Franco's gives the commentary:

Pulci is passing the summer in the country and writes to Lorenzo that he is craving to see him again to the point that, had he only a horse, he would come there to play together at different games and win by large. The
exact text of the relevant sentence is, Pure, se havessi cavallo, ho sì gran voglia di rivedertich’io verrei costì per isvisarti alle Minchiate, a passadieci, asbaraglino, come tu sai ch’io ti concio. The only difficult term, from a language point of view, is the verb isvisare for svisare, meaning not only to win a match but to disfigure the face with punches. The sense is obviously metaphoric, stressing the higher level of Pulci as a player. The three mentioned games are Minchiate, which needs no comment for the moment; Passadieci, a common name for different games played with dice only (with the aim to or not to surpass ten), with dice and board (with the peculiarity of counting doubles twice), and perhaps even with cards; Sbaraglino, a favourite boardgame of the backgammon family whose popularity lasted for several centuries. In the same letter some common programmes to compose verses are also recalled.