Phaeded wrote:
Huck
As for the globe - not sure how Ptolemy can figure too much into those gray representations where only towns/castles are shown (there is no "concentricness"). I believe the pairings with virtues merely means thay have universal applicability (e.g., Justice should mean the same thing the whole world over; same with Time of course...and Prudence or any other virtue; but each context begs the question as to why a given virtue is being elevated to a privledged/universal height over the others, if other virtues are present in the sequence).
Phaeded
Well,
we observe the Trionfi card sequences, and they produce the phenomenon, that the card identified as "world" (by persons of our 20th and 21st century) differs in 15th century Trionfi versions which are still known to us ... Prudentia, Fame, World, perhaps also aspects of Time seem to be indicated, contradicting the view, that there was one and the same order of trumps given as the "basic model" (by some called "Ur-Tarot" ... but this is, my humble opinion, not a good and a misleading expression, as the word Tarot didn't exist in this time).
The time, in which these pictures were made showed a special interest in cosmological questions, cartography collided with the older knowledge, that earth is not flat, but a globe. As this usually had not much practical value in the everyday-life in the European pre-15th-century life, this view had not much interest. But sea travels outside the European sphere came near to the point, when this aspect gained importance. Columbus detected America a few decades later, based on the globe idea. In the earlier observed time we have an increased interest in the Ptelomy (all this debate about the translation of Ptelomy's Almagest by George of Trebizond, made for Pope Nicholas, which was attacked for its many errors). This was rather precisely just the time, when some of the relevant world pictures were made.
Virtues (or better "highest cards")
We've an increased virtue of Justice in Ferrarese decks, though it is not the highest trump. I think, that this happened according a preference of duke Borso, who identified himself with Justice. Others might have had other preferences. In those Tarot sequences, which are close to each other, we've mostly differences in the 2 top positions (20 + 21). And it seems, that different cities (or states) had different solutions.
Florence (Minchiate) : Angel=Fama above World
Bologna: Angel=Judgment above World
Ferrara: World at top, second Justice, 3rd Angel=Judgment
Milan: World at top, Angel=Judgment
Sicily: Jupiter with Ganymed or eagle at top, second Atlas with World
Mitelli: Angel at top, Atlas as World
Boiardo: Fortezza-Lucrezia (possibly Fame related) at top, second Tower, third something with Time
Sola Busca: ...
on top, round as a globe, but actually it shows a heaven at night with a flying dragon in the middle, so it's actually an astronomical symbol.
... :-) ... round as a globe, but flying like an Angel or Fama. Compare Jupiter with an eagle in the Sicily Tarocchi, which he needed to associate Angel or Fame ... in the Sola-Busca the eagle or Angel had mutated to a flying dragon
Well, and second the Tower (similar to Boiardo, who had a ruin there)
In my opinion, the Towers at second place (Boiardo, Sola Busca) have descended from the earlier Chess Trionfi decks. In Chess the Tower = Rook was the most capable figure on the board, so it was natual to give him the highest position in the Chess Trionfi deck, which usually had only 16 cards. The second rook was presented by Judgment or Fame.
Well, and the Tar-eau-t de Cologne tells, what this is all about:
... :-) Tarot de Cologne (c. 1846; Agrippina at top, Kölner Bauer as second, a sort of prince carnival as Magician; according the Dreigestirn-Tradition
Prinz, Bauer and Jungfrau during carnival)
Well, you see, that was local patriotism in the Köln Tarot and it is fun. And likely it's similar with the Italian decks.
In later time there was a lot with tax stamps to secure, that the state got income from the playing card use. Unluckily we can't describe in all details, how they handled this during 15th century. But the local variants likely served to secure, that in specific regions the people played with cards made in the own region (and for which the tax was paid, which went then into the "right pockets").