We know to look for heraldics to find out information about when, where, and for whom an early deck is made.
Well, here is one type of heraldic I didn't know about: stockings. Kristin Lippincott, in "The Genesis and Significance of the Italian Impresa" (Chivalry in the Renaissance, 1990, ed. Sydney Anglo, pp.49-76) writes (p. 59):

...Furthermore, members of a ruler's entourage were often permitted to sport his colours or devices as a sign of mutual fealty. Wearing hose or calze of a particular colour, for example, ensured a nobleman the same courtesy, and in some cases, liberties as that of his lord. Of course, the temptation to take advantage of this system was enormous. There is an amusing letter written by Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza to one of his secretaries, in which the Duke complains that too many unauthorized citizens have taken to wearing calze in his heraldic colours - white and morello. Galeazzo Maria insists on a purge in which every person wearing white and morello bi-coloured stockings be stopped and asked to produce the official document which entitled him to sport the Duke's colours.(42) Similarly the notion that accepting a gift of symbolically-coloured calze implied the loyalty of the recipient is made clear by the incident in which Francesco Sforza writes to his then young son, Galeazzo Maria, saying that it is perfectly acceptable to keep some jewels which had been given to him by the Ferrarese Marchese, Borso d'Este, but that Galeazzo Maria had to return the present of a pair of calze in the Estense tri-colore of red, white and green. Francesco was obviously worried about the political implications of the heir to the Milanese Duchy wearing the colours of the Ferrarese. (43)

Footnotes: 42. Milan, Archivio di Stato Archivio Sforzesco, Missive 118, fol. 247v, 23 October 1474; "Intendemo che molti sono nel domiio nostro quali portano la divisa nostra biancha et morelo senze nostra licentia. Volemo faciate fare le cride opportune che chi porta la dicta nostra divisia o con licentia a senza licentia lo mandano ad notificare ad nuy...' Cited in E. S. Welch, "Secular Fresco Painting at the Court of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, 1466-1476', Ph.D. thesis, University of London/Warburg Institute 1987, p. 273.

43. See A. Capelli, 'Guiniforte Barzizza, maestro di Galeazzo Maria Sforza', Archivio storico lombardo, ser. iii, I (ann21), 1894, pp. 399-442, esp pp. 415 and 433-36.

Footnote 43 is of interest also for its title, Barzizza being a maestro of some note.

What color is this "morello"? The online dictionaries have "blackish", but also "cherry", as a type of tree. Also, I know that red wine in French is sometimes "noir". In one well-known depiction of Galeazzo, he is wearing red and white. Perhaps that is meant.

(from the website http://thiswritelife.wordpress.com/2010 ... ia-sforza/, dated there as 1464, a dubious dating, since Francesco was then not yet dead).

I looked in the Milan decks for such calze. I was surprised to find so few on the court figures, only one in the PMB, the Page of Cups, and two in the Cary-Yale, the Page and King of Coins. (The PMB's King of Coins has green and red.) More surprisingly to me, the CY Love card's male figure is sporting red and white calze, but not the PMB, which has him wearing two red calze. The ones on the CY, together with the banners, would suggest, if the hose was Galeazzo's heraldic, that the lovers were Galeazzo and Bona of Savoy, 1468. I know of no arguments conclusively ruling out this date, however improbable.The question is, were such colors on calze proprietary before Galeazzo, and if so, whose?

Purplish-red.

White and dark red -- based I think on the fact that the Mulberry (another Duke of Milan emblem, based on its relation to the silk trade) fruits go from white to dark red. 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) - often with statements as to how it ranks above the laurel (i.e., Florence). It was sometimes used as an emblem of the Tree of Life (a word for which is tarocch - which also figuratively means blockhead, loggerhead, fool).

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.

note: 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.

SteveM wrote: 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.

note: 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

This is probably better in the unicorn terrace, but in pursuing this french version of tarocchi appropriati 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 deck).

So then 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 tree and blockhead) c. 1499 - 1505?

SteveM wrote:This is probably better in the unicorn terrace, but in pursuing this french version of tarocchi appropriati 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).

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.

Hi steve- I was very fortunate to see a 15th century clothing exhibition in Milan. I also learned that the Calze of red and white were the Ghibillene colours, and also the the colours of the crest of Pavia and Cremona; which was a Ghibillene stronghold. The Ghibillhenes who fled Milan were restored to their positions when Francesco Sforza became Duke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavia
Guelphs for the Pope and Ghibillenes for the Emperor (especially Frederick)
~Lorredan

"The frequent encomiastic play on words concerning the mulberry-tree (moro in Italian), which late 15th century poets and painters include in their works, is therefore tantamount to an authentic cultural and political strategy, consisting in the replacement of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s ‘laurel tree’ with a new tree symbolizing the Sforza family, the prestigious emblem of a superiority both political and economic."

Princes and Princely Culture. 1450-1650, Volume 2 by Arie Johan Vanderjagt, p.35

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) -

Milan rests under the protective shade of the Mulberry Tree:

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.

often with statements as to how it ranks above the laurel (i.e., Florence).

Only the Mulberry is more glorious and greater in virtue than the laurel:

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

SteveM wrote: ref:
Pasitea, by Gasparo Visconti:
http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/xtf/vi ... 001426.xml

hi Steve,

I don't know, but likely you realized, that Gaspare Visconti was noted in the dedication of the work by Bassano Mantovano, which presented the earliest Tarochus note.

Huck wrote:

SteveM wrote: ref:
Pasitea, by Gasparo Visconti:
http://www.bibliotecaitaliana.it/xtf/vi ... 001426.xml

hi Steve,

I don't know, but likely you realized, that Gaspare Visconti was noted in the dedication of the work by Bassano Mantovano, which presented the earliest Tarochus note.

Yes, and another Italian poet who is known to have used the term taroch, 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 Ludovique par Alione d’Asti.