I see this line:
Around 1500
Chaos not a theme, but the shepherds literature and with it Hesiod
1527 Teofilo Folengo has fun with some language Chaos and writes Caos del Triperuno.
Rabelais gets the Folengo fever and has an Italy journey. He loves games. He indirectly propogates Folengo and Tarot in France. He has success, but fights with prohibitions.
A not so much known "somewhat chaotic" poet comes to Italy and at the Ferrarese court. He has some connections king Francois ... but occasionally he's also in prison. He translates Ovid. He's published in France, with a Chaos picture. The picture is used for the Alciato genre. (around 1550).
Tarot becomes really popular in France c. 1574, with king Henry III. He's friendly to Italian culture ... but he has to arrange with contemporary politic. Tarot cards get the double tax than playing cards (1483). But generally the French world stays open for Italian influence, especially when the new king Henry IV marries Maria de Medici. Tarot is on a triumphal march. This gets a crisis in 1617. Too much Italians. Again taxes problems. Also other problems, especially between son (Louis XIII) and mother (Maria de Medici). And the world has problems, the 30 years war in Germany involve a lot of other parties. In 1627 the current Gonzaga duke of Nevers-Rethel (Tarot promoter) leaves France and goes to Mantova to become duke of Mantova. This causes another war as part of the war in Germany. Mantova is sacked and robbed. The Gonzaga daughters in France are more in prison than in freedom. In 1637 the princesses are free, but the Gonzaga duke dies (the scene with Tarot rules and with Marolles). The king gets the son, which he long desired (in the 22nd year of the marriage). The Gonzaga daughters arrange salon life in Paris. One becomes the queen of Poland (1445). The king dies, Richelieu dies, again France get's a reigning King's mother (1643). She arranges herself with Mazarin - an Italian. Mazarin was a card player since his youth. He ascended from low birth to highest positions with the help of playing cards. He also loved books - 40.000 in his library. He loved Folengo. The young Louis XIV got a lot of playing cards for his education. Also Mazarin brought his nice nieces to the French court. Mazarin got his crisis, but he survived it and France with him. Germany was weakened by the long war, Spain was also weak and France had splendid conditions. Poland got a crisis and France bought Polish art en masse for cheap money. Louis reigned 72 years and survived all and everything.
Marolles reopened the Chaos chapter with his Ovid (1655). The French graphical art reached its height, Marolles participated, becoming the father of the French collections. Mazarin bought Nevers-Rethel from the Gonzaga ... and died. And with him the Italian influence. At the gambling casino court of Louis XIV it was played likely with French playing cards.
Poilly took the Chaos motif, and later followed Etteilla. Folengo was well known in France. Etteilla influence dominated the whole cartomancy scene for some time. Usual Tarot was a card players Tarot.
Minchiate was popular in Florence. It had there (possibly) 10% of the market around 1790. Around 1840 this were (possibly) only 1 % ... so there was then a dramatic change in the interest. Genova (not far from France) is said to have had also an interest in Minchiate. Actually it is said to have played the game longer than other regions. It appears, that it had been played with 98 cards mostly ... well, as the Poilly deck. Dummett and McLeod express the opinion, that a lot of South Italians went to Genova and lived there. as Minchiate (as Gallerini or Ganellini) also had been in Sicily, it's possible, that Sicilian persons brought the game to Genova. Tarocco Siciliano (called a shortened Gallerini) had two beggars. Actually I would like to see such a Genovese Gallerini. But I don't know it.
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The mentioned crazy Ovid poet is here noted ...
Aneau explains in the preface to the Imagination poetique that he found a set of woodblocks in Macé Bonhomme’s workshop which he was told were useless because they had no text to go with them, and so Aneau undertook to give them new life by creating a text (the Picta poesis/Imagination poetique). The account is interesting, illustrating clearly the way in which old woodblocks could be used as a starting point for emblems. But Aneau’s statement that the woodblocks lacked a text is inaccurate, since a number of the blocks he used as a basis for his emblem book had already been recently used by Bonhomme in 1550 and 1551 for editions of a French translation by Clément Marot of the first two books of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and together with others were also to be used in 1556 for an edition of the first three books (the third book being translated by none other than Aneau himself). Aneau’s Picta poesis was popular enough to justify Bonhomme producing a second edition in 1556, and a third in 1563/4, in association with Charles and Louis Pesnot. (The French version ran through only two editions.)
http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/frenc ... hp?id=FANa
And the noted image is this one:
http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/frenc ... id=FANa040