******************The medieval eschatological tradition of the ‘15 Signs of the Last Judgment’ was enormously popular; more than 180 Latin examples survive, as do versions in English, French, German, Armenian, Spanish, Hebrew and Old Frisian, among other vernaculars (Nölle, 1879; Heist, 1952; Giliberto, 2007). William Heist's landmark study sorted the examples of the tradition into groups – the Damian, pseudo-Bede, Comestor, Anglo-Norman and Voragine – according to the sequence of the events they narrate, among other criteria, and traced them to several wellsprings: Ezekiel 38:20, 2 Esdras and the Irish Saltair na Rann, which expands on the eschatological list of the Apocalypse of Thomas. Whatever the differences between the groups, all describe the woes occurring on each of the last 15 days prior to God's destruction of the world and his final sorting of humans into the saved and the damned. In these days, all of creation dreads the end: ‘Tote rien serra en tristesce’ (‘everything will be in sadness’; l. 1102), as the French Le Mystère d’Adam has it (Aebischer, 1964). Stars fall from the sky and ‘run about the earth like lightning,’ stones do battle, humans panic, everyone dies, and then, on the last day, the humans resurrect.
The following work seems to be one of the versions, in which the "15 signs of Last Judgment play a role.
http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/lu ... i=0&trs=78
In the text the antichrist appears and gets 4 pictures. Then the 15 signs are presented also with pictures, one for each. Then follows the Judgment scene ... with interest I note, that this is the picture No. 20, as the card Judgment in the Tarot has also Nr. 20. The following picture (21) shows a series of "Blessed and Damned" ... well, they look like Fools between 20 and 21, as the Tarot had it occasionally. At picture 22 (or 21, as Tarot has it) Jesus appears.
I've noted the descriptions of the informative texts of the modern presentation :
Alright, maybe this captured your interest. Here the data of the text:1. 001 the two-fold nature of Anti-Christ
2. 002 Antichrist arrives at Jerusalem, dressed as a pope
3. 003 Christians are persecuted by Antichrist. Scenes of torture.
4. 004 The death of Antichrist on Mount Olivet
5. sign 1: the sea rises to the mountain tops
6. sign 2: the sea descends out of sight
7. sign 3: the gathering together of the fish and the sea monsters
8. sign 4: the waters burn
9. sign 5: the trees and plants sweat blood
10. sign 6: buildings and towns fall to the ground
11. sign 7: the stones fight with each other
12. sign 8: the whole earth quakes
13. sign 9: the earth is made flat
14. sign 10: the people emerge from their hiding places
15. sign 11: the dead rise from their tombs
16. sign 12: the stars fall
17. sign 13: the living die, so that they can rise again with the dead
18. sign 14: earth and sky consumed by fire
19. sign 15: sun and moon await the coming of Christ
20. 005 The Last Judgment
21. 006 The Blessed and the Damned
22. 007 Christ's appearance at the Judgment, attended by Saints and Angels
... after this follow a lot of other pictures, sometimes with Christ and his court, but also with a very great number of hell scenes and somewhere an explicit super-devil.
I add a few Tarot remarks:Collection: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
Shelfmark: MS. Douce 134
Type of object: Manuscript
Material: parchment
Title text: Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur.
Country or nationality of origin: French
Date: c. 1450-1470
So it's clear, that the common Tarot sequence isn't mirrored 1:1 (well, I don't know other versions, perhaps there were differences in others). But some Tarot symbols show up before 20-22, though mostly not at their common Tarot places.1. 001 the two-fold nature of Anti-Christ
2. 002 Antichrist arrives at Jerusalem, dressed as a pope
3. 003 Christians are persecuted by Antichrist. Scenes of torture.
4. 004 The death of Antichrist on Mount Olivet
5. sign 1: the sea rises to the mountain tops
6. sign 2: the sea descends out of sight
7. sign 3: the gathering together of the fish and the sea monsters
8. sign 4: the waters burn
9. sign 5: the trees and plants sweat blood
10. sign 6: buildings and towns fall to the ground
11. sign 7: the stones fight with each other
12. sign 8: the whole earth quakes
13. sign 9: the earth is made flat
... here the world looks light seen with the eyes of the Hanging Man
14. sign 10: the people emerge from their hiding places
15. sign 11: the dead rise from their tombs
one sees a the typical dead corpses in action
16. sign 12: the stars fall
Star symbol
17. sign 13: the living die, so that they can rise again with the dead
18. sign 14: earth and sky consumed by fire
Fire symbol
19. sign 15: sun and moon await the coming of Christ
Sun and Moon at one picture
20. 005 The Last Judgment
= 20 LAST JUGDMENT
21. 006 The Blessed and the Damned
= 20/21 FOOLS
22. 007 Christ's appearance at the Judgment, attended by Saints and Angels
= 21 WORLD or ETERNITY
But we have here a sort of sequence of 22 elements (though the text presents much more pictures), which existed clearly before the known start of the Trionfi decks.
The choice of "22" is not very special for an apocalyptic text, as the revelation had 22 chapters and this likely, cause the Hebrew alphabet had 22 letters.
Well, some attention should be given to the condition, that this is a French text. The Fool between 20 Judgment and 21 World appeared also in France (or is there anything from somewhere else ?).
In my article to "Temperance" and especially the "winged Temperance" from today ...
viewtopic.php?f=23&p=12578#p12578
... to some relations between Revelation text and Maerseille Tarot, and this again points to France.
Alright, here are the pictures, so everybody can come up with his own mind ...
1. 001 the two-fold nature of Anti-Christ
2. 002 Antichrist arrives at Jerusalem, dressed as a pope
3. 003 Christians are persecuted by Antichrist. Scenes of torture.
4. 004 The death of Antichrist on Mount Olivet
5. sign 1: the sea rises to the mountain tops
6. sign 2: the sea descends out of sight
7. sign 3: the gathering together of the fish and the sea monsters
8. sign 4: the waters burn
9. sign 5: the trees and plants sweat blood
10. sign 6: buildings and towns fall to the ground
11. sign 7: the stones fight with each other
... here the world looks light seen with the eyes of the Hanging Man
12. sign 8: the whole earth quakes
... here the world looks like seen with the eyes of the Hanging Man
13. sign 9: the earth is made flat
... ... likely by the earth quake in No. 12. So things, which were high before, lie now buried in the ground.
14. sign 10: the people emerge from their hiding places
... I would assume, they recover from the ground, where they were buried by the earth quake.
15. sign 11: the dead rise from their tombs
Things, which were low or buried before the earth quake, might have come to the surface
... well, one sees the typical dead corpses in action ... Death symbol
16. sign 12: the stars fall
Star symbol
17. sign 13: the living die, so that they can rise again with the dead
18. sign 14: earth and sky consumed by fire
Fire symbol
19. sign 15: sun and moon await the coming of Christ
Sun and Moon at one picture
20. 005 The Last Judgment
= 20 LAST JUGDMENT
21. 006 The Blessed and the Damned
= 20/21 FOOLS ...
I had to smile, when I saw the most black person in the middle - likely considered the most sinful. There's one nude woman at the picture, and he can't take his eyes from here, although he pretends to protect his eyes against her nudity with his hand.
22. 007 Christ's appearance at the Judgment, attended by Saints and Angels
= 21 WORLD or ETERNITY
... again this game with the most black man, now with a nude woman at the right
******************
In the follow-up appear various devils, which start to torture the sinners. This is the most remarkable between them:
*****************
I didn't know about the "15 signs of Last Judgment" before I saw this text. So this is a relative new theme for me.
bvb:12-bsb00039804-5