Ludovic is figured as a mulberry tree on the Frontpiece of the 1490 translation into Italian of
The Life of Francesco Sforza. The emblem as signifying Ludovic is used in the poem Orlando Furioso by Ariosto:
See! he twelfth Lewis from the hills descend,
And with Italian scouts his army bend
T’uproot the mulberry, and the lily place
In fruitful fields where rul’d Visconti’s race
The twelfth Lewis = Louis XII King of France (lily) and enemy of Ludovic Sforza (mulberry). In league with pope Alexander VI, the Venetians and Ferrance King of Spain he sought to drive Ludovico from government. Ludovic fled to the emperor in Germany seeking to raise an army, leaving the defence of Milan to Bernadin di Costi, who promptly sold it to the French; for which betrayal it is said the French called the traitor card of the Tarocchi after Bernadino di Corte:
quote:
For example Benadino di Corte who sold the city of Milan to the French on the 14th of September 1499 after Ludovico had left to raise an army. Ludovico had a shame painting made of Bernadino, of whom he said "Since the days of Judas Iscariot there has never been so black a traitor as Bernadino di Corte." It is also said the French themselves called the traitor Tarocchi card 'Bernadino di Corte'.*
(*"Narra il Porcacchi, che i Francesi stessi, giocando a'Tarocchi , nel dar la carta del traditore dicevano: "do Bernardino da Corte."
Saying after Plutarch "I love the treason but do not praise the traitor" Proditionem amo, sed proditorem non laudo).
end quote:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=42
quote:
The quote of the French naming the traitor card after Bernadino can be found in several 18th and 19th century Italian and German books, and the primary source of all of them seems to be the 16th century mapmaker and cartographer Tomaso Porcacchi da Castiglio Aretino, who also illustrated some allegories for the poem 'Orlando Furioso' by Ludovico Ariosto.
From what I can make out the story of Bernadino appears in book 4 of "Giudicio di Tommaso Porcacchi, la vita del Guicciardini descritta da Remigio Fiorentino, dediche al conte Leonardo Valmarana e a Cosimo de' Medici." That is contained in the History of Italy divided into 20 books, by GUICCIARDINI FRANCESCO written between 1537 and 1540 and first published in 1561. (Note this information is from sources in languages other than English which I may have misunderstood and need verification by someone with greater knowledge of Italian and German).
Michael Dummett in "The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards" lists among several examples of shame paintings that ordered by Lodovica Sforza of Bernadino da Corte, as mentioned by 'catboxer' in an old thread on the subject here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread...&threadid=4868
Sforza calling Bernadinno 'never so black a traitor since Judas Iscariot' is in 'Leonardo Da Vinci' by Maurice W. Brockwell (F.A. Stokes co, 1908) available as a Gutenberg Ebook:
http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenb...05/7ldvn10.rdf
quote:
"In 1499 the stormy times in Milan foreboded the end of Ludovico's
reign. In April of that year we read of his giving a vineyard to
Leonardo; in September Ludovico had to leave Milan for the Tyrol to
raise an army, and on the 14th of the same month the city was sold by
Bernardino di Corte to the French, who occupied it from 1500 to 1512.
Ludovico may well have had in mind the figure of the traitor in the
"Last Supper" when he declared that "Since the days of Judas Iscariot
there has never been so black a traitor as Bernardino di Corte." On
October 6th Louis XII. entered the city. Before the end of the year
Leonardo, realising the necessity for his speedy departure, sent six
hundred gold florins by letter of exchange to Florence to be placed
to his credit with the hospital of S. Maria Nuova."
end quote:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=59
Pursuing this french version of a
tarocchi appropriati like game I ask myself, if the french associated Costi with the tarocchi traitor, with which card would they associate il moro? I would say it is feasable that
il moro would be
il matto, and we are very close then to
il moro (the mulberry tree, Ludovic Sforza) as this tarocch (tree) who was a blockhead (tarocch) for entrusting Milan to Costi, the traitor (of the tarocch).
In the frontpiece of the Italian translation of
The Life of Francesco Sforza, 1490, in which il moro is portrayed as a mulberry tree, he is also shown with a gold disc with the letter M in it - which some french or papal wit of the time in making such tarocchi appropriati may read as M for Matto (it is indeed a bit like the M on the back of the 19th century soprafino matto).
So then the word Tarocch would have arisen from a form of appropriati - in which persons connected with the french occupation of Milan are identifed with the trumps... in particular Ludovic the tree il moro with il matto (= tarocch as both tree and blockhead) c. 1499 - 1505? Also, as well as possibly being considered a 'blockhead' for entrusting Milan to a traitor who sold it to the french; he was indeed 'uprooted' from govenment, and thus, like the fool of the tarocchi, here, there and everywhere, has no place, no rank.
See! he twelfth Lewis from the hills descend,
And with Italian scouts his army bend
T’uproot the mulberry, and the lily place
In fruitful fields where rul’d Visconti’s race.