Re: Temperance
Posted: 29 Jul 2012, 13:14
Good point about temperance with an hourglass.
My speculation here is that the "time-temperance," (I guess with either an hourglass or clock) originates with the reformation and counter-reformation (1520 and later), which marks the passage from public time (a civic calender of festivals and parades, planting and harvest times, court and market times) to private time (everyone making up their own schedules). In England, it was the Puritans, especially Cromwell, who are credited, a century later, for being the killjoys who kill off "Merrie Olde England." But I think you can see the old Roman/medieval public life falling into disrepute in the German and Dutch cities already by the mid-15th century. I am not sure of the timing in in the Northern Italian cities.
In the Tarot, the public calendar doesn't seem to be represented by a single card: the wheel of fortune seems to chaotic and the hermit too fatalistic. It's an interesting line of thought to speculate if the civic calender of the Italian renaissance cities has left a trace in the cards; but I have no idea how to go about it.
My speculation here is that the "time-temperance," (I guess with either an hourglass or clock) originates with the reformation and counter-reformation (1520 and later), which marks the passage from public time (a civic calender of festivals and parades, planting and harvest times, court and market times) to private time (everyone making up their own schedules). In England, it was the Puritans, especially Cromwell, who are credited, a century later, for being the killjoys who kill off "Merrie Olde England." But I think you can see the old Roman/medieval public life falling into disrepute in the German and Dutch cities already by the mid-15th century. I am not sure of the timing in in the Northern Italian cities.
In the Tarot, the public calendar doesn't seem to be represented by a single card: the wheel of fortune seems to chaotic and the hermit too fatalistic. It's an interesting line of thought to speculate if the civic calender of the Italian renaissance cities has left a trace in the cards; but I have no idea how to go about it.