On Aeclectic, Bernice has recently pointed out that this version of Ripa reprents the four "complexions":
http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/Ripa/Im ... pa015a.htm
http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/Ripa/Im ... pa015b.htm
In this case, the purse (of coins) is assigned to the Melancholic (and the goat to Sanguine).
robert wrote:
I find this fascinating, and would love to have some confidence of matching a humor to a suit. I suppose this match is the best we have at the moment??
What do you mean by "best" here?
I think that swords/choleric and cups/sanguine are good matches. Swords can well represent fight, and cups pleasure (the falcon and the lute are other forms of pleasure).
The other two suits are much more difficult. The point is that the four suits were not originally derived from the four humors, so it is not possible to find a perfect match. But if we accept that swords and cups are ok, we only have the two options we are currently considering:
* coins=phlegmatic & batons=melancholic
* coins=melancholic & batons=phlegmatic
A general difficulty is that it is not clear what batons represent. It is the suit whose symbols are more variables. Clubs, trees, staffs, sceptres. In Sola Busca, I never understood what those "staffs" are.
Marco