Huck wrote

I see various possible explanations for Grifalcon, and Grifalcon as active ad living Maecenas is in my opinion a weaker solution, especially since it somehow contradict with the condition, that Grifalcon is described as rather young. A son of a Maecenas and pupil of Folengo as explanation makes more logic. Maybe also a darker mystery in Folengo's private life is possible, either in sexual activities or even as a hidden son of Folengo. It is possible, that Grifalcon also died. Or that Grifalcon and Galanthis are meant as one person.

On p. 152 of the translation (http://www.scribd.com/doc/50190814/Total-Chaos-Oct-2010) Folengo has Filuca say

You must know that every creator, who operates according to his own judgment and wishes, can make and likewise not make an identical effect how and when it suits him best.

And this principle is most rightly by the impious Averroes called the principle of contradiction.

By "this principle" I think he means the principle that every creator can ignore. And by "every creator" he means not only God but also poets.

So it is not clear to me that we have to choose between alternatives. Poets put in different voices in order to express different points of view. Sometimes they put contradictory attitudes in the mouth of a single character. It is by embracing contradictions that we ascend higher: Folengo extols Plato, and that is the Socratic method. We might even get to the inexpressible.

One way of resolving the contradiction would be to suppose that there are two Grifalcons, Francesco the patron and another who is younger, a pupil, and dies. I notice that at the end there are two "Alberto da Capo"'s.

Another way would be for Francesco to be old enough to be a patron, but young enough that Triperuno/Folengo can call him "young pupil." Since Folengo in 1526 and is in his mid 30s (born 1491), Francesco would be perhaps in his early to mid 20s, at that age not too young to be a patron. I know that men in Florence were considered "young" until they reached about 30, when they married. I don't know the custom in Venice. It might help to know if there was an age limit for being in the Major Council. The period called "juventas" was after "adolescencia" and before "vir." And men in their 20s took lessons: there had been Leonello d'Este for instance, taught in his 20s by Guarino of Verona. Perhaps Francesco took lessons in Macaronic Latin. The 20s is also a time for soldiering, to which the metaphor of "falcon" is appropriate.

A difficulty for this interpretation is the passage (p. 171 of translation):

You give in to tears bewailing some foolish thing and lamenting a tender young pupil, Grifalco, and you can provide nothing more beneficial than this,[nothing] more important. Living acknowledged, she [Galantha] was scarcely hidden from you. May she now live with notable praise engaged in the service of eternal life: provided that she met death for you, she is released from death.

The speaker is still Isidore C., apparently (the "IDEM" that prefaces this speech), apparently addressing Triperuno, who is the one for whom Galanta lived and met death.

Why this "tender young pupil, Grifalco" is to be lamented is in this alternative a mystery, since he's not dead. Perhaps it is not his death but his grief at the death of Galanta--the death of Folengo's sexuality, on Mullaney's interpretation, note on p. 167), that is to be lamented. But the situation is unclear; to us 500 years later, it remains a mystery.

If there is a "devil" in this section, it is not the "noble and courteous" Grifalco (p. 169), but Folengo's sexuality. (Also, the section is 15th in a sequence that exists only in Renda of 1911, not in either of the originals. I have not seen the 1527, but Mullaney confirms in recent email communication with me--for which I thank her--that there is no division into 22 sections in either the 1527 or the 1546 edition. But--me speaking now--that is not to say that Renda wasn't onto something, that the poem as a whole reflects the tarot sequence. However it is nothing so rigid as an invariable one-to-one correspondence between section and card.)

Given that there was an actual Francesco Grifalcon in Venice at that time, it is almost unavoidable that the Grifalcon who is "Maecenas" (patron) would be understood as that one. The rest is in the fog of unmentionability, either due to the limits of language or of what can be spoken about safely.

Mullaney's essay "Proposal for an allegorical reading of Folengo's Baldus and Chaos del Triperuno" is at

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=ca ... kuce3mc0dI

Click on "plain HTML". At least that works where I am.

mikeh wrote: Why this "tender young pupil, Grifalco" is to be lamented is in this alternative a mystery, since he's not dead. Perhaps it is not his death but his grief at the death of Galanta--the death of Folengo's sexuality, on Mullaney's interpretation, note on p. 167), that is to be lamented. But the situation is unclear; to us 500 years later, it remains a mystery.

Given that there was an actual Francesco Grifalcon in Venice at that time, it is almost unavoidable that the Grifalcon who is "Maecenas" (patron) would be understood as that one. The rest is in the fog of unmentionability, either due to the limits of language or of what can be spoken about safely.

If, as it is indicated by chapter 15 (my counting), Grifalco went to the Elysian fields, then it might mean, that he died, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elysium
I think, if a real Francesco Grifalco existed, somebody would have searched him and somebody would have found him. And we would have met this in the Merlin-Folengo literature, that we requested. But we didn't ...
If Grifalco had been a sodomy-partner of Folengo, wouldn't the author have some motifs to keep the real identity as a secret ... ?

What about Ross's post viewtopic.php?f=11&t=763&start=20#p10937?

Is there really an issue that Francesco Grifalcone was a real person?

The miniatore Benedetto Bordoni (14?-1539) mentions him in his first will, 1529 -

"Item, declaro quod habui a domino Francisco de Grifalconis ad bonum computum cujusdam quadri magni pro me fiendi ducatos quatuor."
http://www.archive.org/stream/bibliothq ... ch/bordono
(p. 299)

French translation -
http://books.google.fr/books?id=0CUUAAA ... ne&f=false

"And: I declare that I received from Mr. Francesco Grifalcone, in payment for a large painting that I have to do for him, the sum of four ducats."

It's just a matter of doing a Google search with the word "Grifalcone." I duplicated Ross's search myself, after he posted the link, to see if anything else turned up (well, all my Google gave me was the French).

I see that "Al [i.e. "to the"] Grifalcone" is indicated in the alphabetical index at the front of Aretino's letters, book 1, edition of 1609. Since "Al" is used rather than "A", it is possible that "Grifalcone" is a nickname.

But there are numerous reference to other people named "Grifalcone" where it is clearly a last name. Maybe it was like "Sforza," a nickname and then a real name.

There is a "palazzo Grifalconi"--also called "Grifalcone"--in today's Venice, mentioned at http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tp ... 9656031355.

There appear to have been Grifalcones in 14th century Verona, but I'm not sure. That's when Verona was absorbed by Venice.

There is a "famiglia Grifalcone" mentioned in a book about the "Chaos" at ttp://hal9000.cisi.unito.it/wf/RICERCA/Gruppi_e_P/Area-umani/Teofilo-Fo/Bibliograf/Palermitana.doc_cvt.htm.

I see that http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/3305076 lists Grifalcone as an "amici" of the author, no reference reference citation.

One discussion of "Chaos" mentions a humanist "Giovanni Grifalcone": tp://www.ladomenicadivicenza.it/a_ITA_3072_1.html. (In Italian, so I don't know the details.)

There are also other books or introductions to books about "Chaos" that discuss Grifalcone in that context. They may have information. Renda is at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uYSgAA ... ne&f=false

And Portioli at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=l0RKAA ... ne&f=false

Since they, too, are in Italian, I don't know what they say.

If these links don't give you the expected result, a Google search under "Grifalcone" should bring them up.

mikeh wrote: I see that "Al [i.e. "to the"] Grifalcone" is indicated in the alphabetical index at the front of Aretino's letters, book 1, edition of 1609. Since "Al" is used rather than "A", it is possible that "Grifalcone" is a nickname.

I see, that "Al Grifalcone", pointing to page 51, leads to a letter, where Aretino addresses "A Cesare". The word "imperadore" is metioned in the first line. This might be well Charles V ... Aretino is well known for his letters to highstanding persons, and these letters were not only friendly.
http://books.google.de/books?id=71hCAAA ... ne&f=false

But there are numerous reference to other people named "Grifalcone" where it is clearly a last name. Maybe it was like "Sforza," a nickname and then a real name.

Yes, I don't doubt this ...

Ah, I find something, which sounds realistic ...

Venezia. Le difficoltà non sono piccole, per uno nella sua posizione, ma fortunatamente trova subito chi lo sostiene: da Venezia interviene Luigi Grifalcone, vecchio allievo del filosofo mantovano Pietro Pomponazzi, ben noto al Folengo. Grifalcone aveva insegnato a Parigi, chiamatovi da Francesco I; si era quindi sistemato a Venezia, a insegnare presso il cenobio dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Quando pubblica l’Orlandino Teofilo gli esprime gratitudine, affermando di aver avuto la fortuna, nella disgraziata uscita dal monastero, di essere incappato in Grifalcone. E’ questi, a quanto pare, a presentare Teofilo a Camillo Orsini, governatore veneto della città di Bergamo, il quale assume il Folengo come precettore del figlio Paolo. Anche il doge Andrea Gritti, già eroico condottiero nella difesa della Repubblica Veneta contro Massimiliano I, conosce e apprezza l’opera letteraria del Folengo, gli rende onore, ricevendolo a Palazzo Ducale e concedendogli stima e protezione. Teofilo ne celebra le virtù nella “Selva Seconda” del Chaos e così ricorda il loro incontro: “Al Ciel or triunfando spiego l’ale; / Non ho di sorte ch’io più tema l’onte, / Dapoi ch’anti sì altera e degna fronte / Ragiono, ed ella udirmi assai la cale”.
Dom Teofilo arriva perciò a Venezia come una personalità amata, rispettata e onorata.
Egli conserva il nome e lo stato di monaco, come risulta dagli incartamenti intercorsi tra i librai veneziani e il Senato veneto per le autorizzazioni alla stampa e la tutela dei diritti editoriali della sua nuova opera, Orlandino, che esce nel 1526 in due edizioni presso l’editore Garanta.
Camillo Orsini è in quel momento subalterno di Francesco Maria della Rovere, duca d’Urbino, il quale riveste il grado di comandante generale delle truppe venete di terraferma.

http://teofilofolengo.forumfree.it/?t=52018961
... as it seems a Teofilo Folengo forum, and the contribution has excellent information, as it seems. The information seems to go back to "Testo di Otello Fabris da: Il mondo di T.F.alias Merlin Cocai, 2004"
Well, the forum has 6-7 members and one major writer.

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

added later: I entered the Forum and got a friendly welcome letter from the Forum owner, which looks promising.

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

Rethinking the condition, that Boccalo, the mixed man with Bateleur and Cook-Innkeeper qualities, took his transformation into an ass just in chapter XXIII (1 after XXII), might indicate, that Folengo used or played with the idea to use Tarocchi-code already in the Baldo (?). Further I remember, that the German lot book with its 22 elements had in chapter 22 just a pope with an ass.

Huck wrote,

Rethinking the condition, that Boccalo, the mixed man with Bateleur and Cook-Innkeeper qualities, took his transformation into an ass just in chapter XXIII (1 after XXII), might indicate, that Folengo used or played with the idea to use Tarocchi-code already in the Baldo (?). Further I remember, that the German lot book with its 22 elements had in chapter 22 just a pope with an ass.

I resist this idea. For one thing, the Baldo had 17 chapters in 1517, although it did expand to 25 in 1521 and stay there. The chapter with the ass-transformation is not in the 22nd, nor the last, nor the beginning of a new series.

Some of the characters do resemble those of the tarot; but they are better explained as typical characters of the time. Besides Boccalo as the Innkeeper/Bateleur (Book XIII and XV),there might be the tyrant of Mantua as a caricature of the Emperor (Book IV), Seraphus as a kind of Zoroastrian Pope-figure (XVIII), Baldo's mother, daughter of the King of France, as a kind of Empress (the first four books), the Queen of the Witches as perhaps a negative Popess (in Book XXIV) and Manto as a positive one (Book XIII), assorted Devils (XXI and after), and Leonardo as a representative of Temperance (in Book XVII, where he dies rather than submit to the charms of a pretty girl whom he suspects is a witch).

Moreover, I can find very little correspondence between the plot-development of Baldo and the tarot sequence. In this way it is very unlike the Chaos. Love occurs in Book I, Guido and Baldovina (Baldo's parents), and briefly (1 line) in Book IV, Baldo and Berta. Justice is appealed to only in a self-serving, hypocritical way, mostly in Books IV and V and never as such. Fortune is mentioned in Book II, to describe the wanderings of Guido and Baldovina, as synonymous with "chance" and not in the way it is depicted in the tarot, with people going up or down. Fortitude as a virtue of the strong is a theme throughout.There are countless deaths throughout the poem, but none in Book XIII, which is about gods, alchemy and camaraderie. The chapter's role as a turning point is an expression of its position in the center, 12 chapters on either side. The only occurrence of Temperance is in XVI. The stars, moon, and sun are only in Book XIV and XV, as part of an astronomy lesson given by Cingar. That is where Saturn as the Old Man also appears. LIghtning and celestial trumpeters appear briefly in Book XIII, merely to express Jupiter's displeasure at Aeolus. So you see, not very tarot-like. None of the "Chaos"'s development from innocence (even the child Baldo is a terror) through experience through an ascent to paradise.

My Italian being insufficient to read the Italian of the Folengo forum post that Huck quoted, I had to machine-translate it. Here it is, turned into readable English:

Venice. Difficulties are not small for one in his position, but he immediately fortunately finds one who sustains him: from Venice Luigi Grifalcone intervenes, an old student of the Mantuan philosopher Pietro Pomponazzi, well known to Folengo. Grifalcone had taught in Paris, called there by Francis I; he was dispatched thereafter to Venice, to teach near the cenobio of Saints John and Paul. When he publishes the Orlandino, Teofilo expresses gratitude to him, affirming to have had the fortune, in the disgrace of leaving the monastery, to run into Grifalcone. And he, it appears, introduced Teofilo to Camillo Orsini, Venetian governor of the city of Bergamo, who hires Folengo as preceptor of his child Paul. Also the Doge Andrea Gritti, already the heroic commander in defense of the Venetian Republic against Maximilian I, knows and appreciates the literary work of Folengo; he makes him the honor of receiving him at the Palace and granting him respect and protection. Teofilo celebrates his virtues in his "Second Forest" of the Chaos, and so he remembers their meeting:

”Triumphantly now I spread my wings to the heavens,
I no longer have cause to fear offense,
Since I converse before such a proud and worthy brow,
And it is quite happy to hear me...” [translation from Mullaney p. 101]

("Al Ciel or triunfando spiego l’ale;
Non ho di sorte ch’io più tema l’onte,
Dapoi ch’anti sì altera e degna fronte
Ragiono, ed ella udirmi assai la cale...”)

[The first letters of the sonnet’s 14 lines spell out “ANDREAS D GRITVS, doge of Venice, as Mullaney notes; to make sure we noticed, Limerno calls our attention to these first letters in his next speech]

Dom Teofilo arrives therefore in Venice as a beloved personality, respected and honorable.

He preserves the name and the state of a monk, as a result of papers exchanged between the Venetian booksellers and the Venetian Senate for the authorizations to the press and the guardianship of the publishing rights of his new work, Orlandino, that goes out in 1526 in two editions by the publisher Garanta.

Camillo Orsini is at that time a subordinate of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, who is again vested with the degree of general commander of the Venetian land troops.

Well, yes, that is interesting. So there is a Luigi as well as a Francesco. I wonder whether there was also a humanist named "Giovanni Falcone," as one website said.

Also, Aretino might well have corresponded with one of the Grifalconi, as the selection goes on to say that Folengo was a friend of Aretino:

..Carpaccio muore giusto nel ’26, mentre Tiziano è attivissimo nel giro delle personalità che Teofilo frequenta: il duca d’Urbino, l’Ariosto, Federico Gonzaga; ma è anche amicissimo di Pietro Aretino, che va sparlando della religiosità dell’Orsini e della sua cerchia di amici.

(...Carpaccio dies in '26, while Titian is active in the circle of personalities that Teofilo frequents: the duke of Urbino, Ariosto, Federico Gonzaga; but he is also friends with Pietro Aretino, who was bad-mouthing the religiosity of Orsini and his entourage of friends.)

I assume that the book which the post excerpted has footnotes documenting the part about Grifalcone. Searching for Il mondo di T.F. alias Merlin Cocai, I don't find anything. Searching for Otello Fabris, I see that he is the president of the Bassano branch of the Amici de Merlin Cocai (http://www.teofilofolengo.org/index2.php). He's on You Tube, too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=fYY ... =endscreen