I assume, that it refers to this passage in Marco's translation.Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: I agree - it is not less likely that Piscina was looking at a vanished kind of Tarot. When he said Mondo, he might have meant there was really a "world" (cosmos) in the middle of those four creatures. And the four creatures mean that the World cannot be without religion.
In this case, Piscina is our only witness to such a Tarot. He seems to be our only witness to a Fool looking backwards into a mirror as well - but there are so many kinds of Fools, maybe I'm just forgetting one.
Ross
It seems, as if the text refers to a real comedy with adversary innkeepers in Piscina's time "by the Intronati of the famous academy of Siena", possibly using the content "one innkeeper with a Fool sign and the other with a Mirror sign". ...In order to make it clear, you must know that it can be read, in a very pleasant and acute Comedy written by the very learned Intronati, of the famous Academy in Siena, not devoid of seriousness, of the amusing controversy among two very tight-fisted innkeepers: all people of any kind, when they had to travel, used to go to the Inn of the Mirror, but for a long time they had prefered to go to that of the Fool, more appropriate to their will and their actions. This is why, with great mystery, we see the Fool in the game of Tarot being represented in such a way that he looks behind towards a mirror, making fun of the fame of [9] the Mirror, that is lost among all people, who once used to go to that inn. This is why his face is so joyful, he rejoices and glories in the credit he receives, so that all men run behind him.
????? Have you identified meanwhile this comedy ??????
Generally we've have in Germany a deeprooted literary height of connections between Fools and Mirrors in the period 1505 - 1520, during which the figure "Ulenspiegel" (Owl's mirror) found greater distribution ... especially active in this genre had been the controversy writer Thomas Murner, also active in playing card productions.
This publication appears inside the following:
The very important Reuchlin / Pfefferkorn conflict, a most important preparation of the Reformatory movement, was involved in it. This started with the "Der Judenspiegel" (Cologne, 1507) ("Jew's mirror") of Pfefferkorn, to which he added a "Warnungsspiegel" (warning mirror), in which he pretended to be a friend of the Jews. But the scholar Reuchlin, deep involved in Hebraic studies, criticised him.
The Epistolæ obscurorum virorum, also called Dunkelmännerbriefe, which is a collection of at least 110 letters, as they were shown in 3 early editions, but actually, there were probably some more ..."Thus informed of Reuchlin's vote Pfefferkorn was greatly excited, and answered with Handspiegel [hand mirror](Mainz, 1511), in which he attacked Reuchlin unmercifully. Reuchlin complained to the Emperor Maximilian, and answered Pfefferkorn's attack with his Augenspiegel[eyes mirror], against which Pfefferkorn published his Brandspiegel[burning mirror]. In June 1513, both parties were silenced by the emperor. Pfefferkorn however published in 1514 a new polemic, Sturmglock, against both the Jews and Reuchlin. During the controversy between Reuchlin and the theologians of Cologne, Pfefferkorn was assailed in the Epistolæ obscurorum virorum by the young Humanists who espoused Reuchlin's cause. He replied with Beschirmung, or Defensio J. Pepericorni contra famosas et criminales obscurorum virorum epistolas (Cologne, 1516), Streitbüchlein (1517).[3] In 1520, Pope Leo X declared Reuchlin guilty with a condemnation of Augenspiegel, and Pfefferkorn wrote as an expression of his triumph Ein mitleidliche Klag (Cologne, 1521).
It's a "flaming war" of its best against Pfefferkorn and the very conservative Cologne dominicans, long before the times of Internet.Sie enthielten im ersten Band 41 Briefe, denen in einem Anhang 7 weitere Briefe beigefügt wurden (2. Auflage 1516); eine zweite Sammlung mit 62 Briefen folgte 1517. Als Hauptverfasser des ersten Teils gilt der zum Erfurter Humanistenkreis um Mutianus Rufus gehörende Crotus Rubeanus. Der zweite Teil wird vor allem Ulrich von Hutten zugeschrieben, zum geringeren Teil auch Hermann von dem Busche in Leipzig."
If Jess Karlin could read them, he would have his fun with them. Here are some of them:
http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=5 ... 1#gb_found
The whole is politically very important and the preparation of the storm, which followed ... Martin Luther, the farmer's rebellion, the sacco di Roma. The various attempts to unite the Empire in a religious peace, which weren't successful.
The whole movement is based on the fact, that "Ship of Fools" became the dominant German bestseller since 1494, and the general advances and explosion of literature at the German (and international) bookmarket, a historic movement, which knows a lot of parallels with the explosion of the internet in modern times. Murner became one major motor of this Fool's movement, which naturally also had many other contributors.
"Doktor Murner's Narrenbeschwörung", 1512
("Doctor Murner's Invocation of the Fool")
In the iconographic development Fool and Prudentia (traditionally with mirror) are naturally contrasts. In the figure of Ulenspiegel a figure was created, which was "double wise", once cause the owl in his name and second cause the mirror in his name.