Princes and Princely Culture. 1450-1650, Volume 2 by Arie Johan Vanderjagt, p.35
*encomiastic - expressing praise
Milan rests under the protective shade of the Mulberry Tree:SteveM wrote: The mulberry itself was used by poets in reference to the Dukes of Milan, especially to Ludovic, who was nicknamed after the mulberry (il moro) -
E perché la mia patria è il bon Milano,
Milan, d'ogni paese il più suave,
a Iove, da quel cel che è più soprano,
per crescere il mio ben, non parve grave
per un suo messo farme aperto e piano
che men non ha mia patria che mai have
di ben, di gloria, sotto un Moro a l'ombra
che di sua fama tutto el mondo ingombra.
Only the Mulberry is more glorious and greater in virtue than the laurel:often with statements as to how it ranks above the laurel (i.e., Florence).
APOLLO a DAFNE alora alora conversa in lauro.
I' t'ho seguito cum il pie' veloce
non già sì come tuo mortai nemico,
ma constretto d'Amor crudo e feroce,
che meco fa vendetta d'odio antico;
tu il cor avesti verso me sì atroce,
sì rebelle ad amarme e sì pudico,
ch'hai pria voluto transmutarti in legno
che d'una iusta grazia farme degno.
Or, poi che non ti posso aver per moglie,
ché dura scorza il tuo bel volto asconde,
per aquetare in parte le mie voglie
almen serai la mia diletta fronde:
de imperatori e vati le tue foglie
seran corona, e de mie chiome bionde,
et ornerai mia gravida faretra
l'arco mio curvo, e mia sonante cetra.
Fra gli arbori gloriosi serai prima,
exceptuato solamente il Moro ,
che per valor più inalzerà sua cima,
el qual non solamente io Febo onoro,
ma Jove che primer ne fa gran stima,
e tutto quanto il cel de coro in coro,
sì che per sue virtù nel mondo rare
d'ogni altro il Mor serà più singulare.
There is also the story of how the white fruits of the Mulberry turn red:
APOLLO.
Da questa causa adonca serà nato
che 'l frutto monstra obscurità vermiglia,
chè degli amanti el sangue è qui arivato
là dove il colore atro ciascun piglia,
onde, se 'l Moro è sempre inamorato
aver non se ne die' gran maraviglia,
che 'l sangue degli amanti non pur fuore,
ma tinto l'ha perfino in mezzo al cuore.
Dimme ancor se la donna morta è bella.
Based on Ovid's story of Pyramus and Thisbe:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramus_and_Thisbe
ref:
Pasitea, by Gasparo Visconti*:
http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/xtf/vi ... 001426.xml
In Ludovic's lament in Gringore's lettres nouvelle de Milan, I think he is made to say something along the lines of "I am not of the king's noble lineage, I am from the line of madness (folie) and unwise courage (imprudent couraige) -- but I have difficulty with the script, which someone more familiar with French would better comprehend:SteveM wrote:
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.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7 ... ore.langFR
The tree of Sforza lineage, one of madness (folie) and unwise courage, was uprooted and replaced with the rightful lineage of the King, whose claim rested on his family tree lineage to the Visconti's through Valentina. If I am reading it right, then it gives some credence I think to my suggestion that if the french were to attribute a card to il Moro, as they did with the traitor Coste, it would have been with il Matto. (One then is also led to wonder, why should the french use cards from such a game to mock the Sforza, was it thought that triumphs/tarocchi had some special connection with the Sforza - to mock them with a game of their own families invention perhaps? Or, less ambitious, which they were introduced to via Sforza/Milanese connections? Or more simply (and less speculatively) one in which, as we know, the Sforza celebrated in propaganda emblems and slogans its 'rights' as heirs to the Duchy of Milan?)
From the (admittedly limited) examples of poetic use in the late 15th and early 16th century however, tarocchus/tarocch does seem to have been used to mean fool or variations of such, and it is that meaning that Florius gives it in his 16th century Italian/English dictionary.Lorredan wrote:..but I have never seen a 'Fools' game.Who wants to win at a Fools game?
~Lorredan
SteveM
*re: Gasparo Visconit, as mentioned by Huck in research forum, Gaspare Visconti was noted in the dedication of the work by Bassano Mantovano, which presented the earliest Tarochus note. Another poet who uses the term ‘tarocch’ (in the sense of idiot, fool), Alione of Asti, also wrote poetry celebrating the victories of the french over the Italians, for example:
La conquest de Loys douziesme roy de France sur la duche de Milan. Avec las prise, du signeur Ludoviquepar Alione d’Asti