At 2nd of 2012 February Ross Caldwell at AT published:
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t= ... t=anghiari
and with that the recent finding of Thierry Depaulis (16 of September, 1440, note of Giusto Giusto) was inside the world of the Tarot forums.
I replied to it rather immediately, and I spoke of the close nearness to the Anghiari battle. With that a context was drawn between battle and the new finding.Ross G Caldwell wrote:Thierry Depaulis has found a new reference to Tarot from Florence in 1440, two years earlier than the previously known earliest reference, from Ferrara in 1442.
The source is the diary of the Anghiara notary and public official Giusto Giusti
http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giu ... ografico)/
which covers the years 1437 to 1482, recently edited for the first time by Nerida Newbigin http://sydney.edu.au/arts/italian/staff ... igin.shtml
, professor emerita of Italian Language and Literature at the University of Sydney.
See Nerida Newbigin, ed., "I "Giornali" di ser Giusto Giusti d'Anghiari (1437-1482)" in Letteratura Italiana Antica, III, 2002, pp. 41-246.
http://www.torrossa.it/resources/an/2193293
An entry for 16 September, 1440, reads (p. 66):
Venerdì a dì 16 settembre donai al magnifico signore messer Gismondo un paio di naibi a trionfi, che io avevo fatto fare a posta a Fiorenza con l’armi sua, belli, che mi costaro ducati quattro e mezzo.
Friday 16 September, I gave to the magnificent lord sir Gismondo, a pack of triumph cards, that I had made expressly in Florence, with his arms, and beautifully done, which cost me four and a half ducats.
"Gismondo" is Sigismondo Malatesta.
Other notable details are the location where the cards were made, Florence; the unique term "naibi a trionfi"; and the price of four and half ducats.
It has been 138 years since Giuseppe Campori published the earliest known reference to Tarot cards - "carte da trionfi" - in the account books of the ruling Este family in Ferrara - and since 1874, research, both accidental and determined, has found many more references to the cards and the game of Triumphs, all of them after this previously earliest documented reference on 10 February, 1442. The picture of the game of Tarot's spread in the 15th and subsequent centuries has been amply filled out - more, perhaps, than for any other 15th century card game - but with this new discovery a little light is beginning to be shed on an earlier time.
It was also announced here, a day later:Looks like a great finding ....
The reporting man was born in Anghiari and at Anghiari took place a battle at June 29, 1440, which is 2 1/2 months before the date of 16th September with the Trionfi cards.
http://www.anghiari.it/new/italiano/bat ... ghiari.asp
The battle became VERY famous and actually one doesn't know, why.
http://www.condottieridiventura.it/tabe ... a/1440.htmFiorentinipontifici: 8000 uomini. Durata: 4 ore. Scontro tra le opposte cavallerie pesanti; quella fiorentina, divisa in tre schiere, affronta a turno gli avversari. Dei viscontei sono fatti prigionieri 22 capisquadra, 400 connestabili, 1440 uomini di taglia e 3000 cavalli; i morti sono 70 (60 milanesi) ed i feriti 880 (400 fra i ducali). Sono pure catturati 1200 contadini (aspiranti saccheggiatori) che seguono le truppe di Niccolò Piccinino. I prigionieri sono rilasciati quasi subito, secondo i costumi del tempo.
Not many were killed. Condottieridiventura knows of "70", other voices (ironically) of "3" (who dropped from their horse and had a fatal accident)
A great number of prisoners, who were robbed and set free.
In 1439 had been the council of Ferrara ... it's said, that there were at least 3 great festivities. The Florentines learned to "celebrate".
The victory of Anghiari a year later might have given another reason for a "great party". Perhaps the Florentines had learned, that one could win with propaganda about a victory more than with the battle itself. This party was so big, that it was still remembered in the time of Leonardo da Vinci (about 70 years later). The battle of Anghiari became a symbol.
When Alfonso of Aragon made his Trionfo in 1443, and a Florentine delegation participated, then the report of this festivity mentioned, that the Florentines had already much experience with triumphal celebrations.
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Sigismondo Malatesta didn't take part at the party ... but he changed from Milan side to Florentine side.
http://www.condottieridiventura.it/cond ... rescia.htm
In March 1440 he fought for Milan against Florence. In August 1440 he was engaged for Florence against Milan ... although he isn't in the region of Florence, but in the Romagna ... In September/October (at 16th of September is the Trionfi card action) condottieridiventura reports:The situation develops into a pause of war. Filippo Maria Visconti sends his daughter to the court of Ferrara in September/October 1440, where Bianca Maria stays till end of March 1441. Bianca Maria gets 14 painted objects at 1.1.1441, likely Trionfi cards, as a present for the guest from the side of Leonello. The painter is the later Trionfi card painter Sagramoro.Occupa Bagnacavallo, Massa Lombarda ed altre terre dell’imolese; non può, o non vuole, impedire a Francesco Piccinino l’ingresso in Forlì. Danneggia molti villaggi e tenta di espugnare il capoluogo. Vista l'inanità dell'impresa, si sposta prima a Forlimpopoli con gli altri condottieri. A metà ottobre, i fiorentini prendono la strada di Capodicolle e della val di Savio: il Malatesta si ferma a San Vittore perché trattenuto dai fiumi in piena. Le milizie fiorentine proseguono per la Toscana; egli deve, invece, fermarsi per qualche giorno, in quanto non può trovare riparo a Cesena, dal momento che il fratello milita al soldo del duca di Milano. Rientra a Rimini.
Further we have around this time, that a commission is given for illustrations to a Petrarca-Trionfi-edition from the side of Piero di Medici. This is oldest known note of this picture genre, which then was very often used first in Florence (especially for Cassoni) and later also elsewhere.
The commission went to the artist Matteo de Pasti, who in 1441 had been in Venice. The letter exchange 1441 is given as the first sign of Matteo de Pasti ... who had to leave Florence for unknown reason (he begs for an excuse in the letters). In later times Matteo had some relation to Sigismondo Malatesta. He got the commission to paint the Osmanic sultan in the mid 1440s, but was taken prisoner as a spy. Later he worked mainly as an medalist.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/27653140
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=773&p=11090&hilit=giusto#p11090
Later Franco Pratesi made a closer research on the new finding.
http://trionfi.com/giusto-giusti (July 2012)
A month later followed Michael Hurst:
http://pre-gebelin.blogspot.de/2012/08/ ... onado.html
Meanwhile ... "Giusto Giusti" and "Tarot" has its results at Google.com
https://www.google.de/search?q=giusto+g ... 80&bih=860
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End of August 2012 "Phaeded" entered our talking. He often presents the hypothesis, that the Anghiari battle might have caused the "first Trionfi deck" ...which, according my opinion, is a possibility, but not especially likely. It came - as a possibility - immediately to my mind, when I read of the Giusto document, but I rejected it in favor of a more plausible "1439, during the council".
Well, that' only betting on horses. Experience knows, that even outsider can win. The situation is simply not clear. So I guess, it's good, when Phaeded presents his ideas.
... :-) ... unluckily Phaeded has the habit, to distribute his contributions to the theme at various places ... this is not really practical, neither for him nor for his readers. It's better in the jungle of a Forum some sorting system, so that an opinion and its accompanying material is gathered at one place. So, here is a place. ... :-)
Phaeded said, that his theory involves 14 cards, which naturally also involves earlier studies to the 5x14-theme. So I give a short overview:
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In the older 5x14-theory and the later "Chess Tarot" hypothesis following views were presented:
14 Trumps
There are 3 documents, from which one can suspect the existence of "only 14 trumps":
1. The document of 1.1.1441, in which Bianca Maria Visconti got in Ferrara 14 paintings made by Jacopo Sagramoro, who one year later appears as a Trionfi painter.
2. The PMB and its state as "painted by 2 different painters and this not at the same time". One painter painted 14 trumps (and all the cards) and the other 6. Both can be interpreted as 2 different groups. The group of six trumps seems to be formed by Sun-Moon-Star and by 3 "missing" cardinal virtues (missing in the other 14 ards, which knows only a figure of "Justice". The other group seems to present a 5x14-deck (70 cards).
3. Borso's 2-decks-production in July 1457. The document speaks of 70 cards for each deck.
For points 1. and 3. it's completely open, what sort of trumps it might have been, for point 2. all 14 trumps are given. Naturally one can suspect, that 1. and 3. had similarities to 2., but this naturally has only the character of a suspicion.
16 Trumps
In 3 other cases we can speak of 16 trumps:
1. Michelino deck - it clearly has 16 trumps, likely as part of a 60 cards deck. It exists the possibility to see this deck as having a 4x15-structure. A 4x15-structure was already known to John of Rheinfelden.
2. Cary-Yale Tarocchi. The trumps are incomplete, the surviving suits suggest, that it had a 16 cards for each suit (6 courts per suit instead of usual 4 courts). This seems to suggest a 5x16-structure. A reconstruction f the fragments seems to be possible, also it seems to be possible tosee as a "Chess-Tarot" version, in which each figure could be given to the 16 figures of one player.
3. Charles VI deck. It has 16 trumps and one court card. The unusual distribution of surviving cards (16 of possibly 22 trumps, 1 of possibly 56 suit cards are present). Considering this very special condition, then it might be, that somebody bought the trumps (16), but wished to add own 56 other suit cards. He/she added a suit card, perhaps to have a model, how another artist might develop suits, which would fit with the style of the deck.
The 16 trumps have some similarity to the reconstructed Cary-Yale and there are also ideas, how this would fit with the Chess-Tarot hypothesis
(4) Recently we had worked about "Panegyric of Bruzio Visconti by Bartolomeo da Bologna" (c. 1350) ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=862
... this work presented also 16 figures and it included:
7 virtues + 1 (Theology)
7 artes liberalis + 1 (Philosophy) ...
Philosophy, Grammar, dialectic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy or Astrology.
The style of the representation gives reason to assume, that again Chess had been in the background.
In the "Echecs amoureux" version of Evrart de Cont it's clear, that the background of the work is chess. Conty presents 16 gods (as Filippo Maria Visconti in he Michelino deck, but partly it are other gods). Illuminated versions of the later time had individual pictures of the gods (a the Michelino deck). The first seven gods are the planetary gods, which are by an 8th god (Athena) increased to the number 8 (as in the Bartolomeo da Bologna work). Athena was occasionally used to present philosophy (Mantegna Tarocchi)