Hi MikeH,
with my currently slow internet connection it's difficult to get an overview. Just a correction:
Lo Scheggia MIGHT be a Tarot painter cause some given reasons, but he is NOT CONFIRMED as a Tarot painter.
Franco Pratesi offered only evidence, that Lo Scheggia made playing cards, which were sold by the Puri family in 1447/1448.
This are the more expensive decks of the objects sold by the Puri family:
"GI" on the list stands for "Lo Scheggia". He got 5 Soldi for each deck ... more expensive than the usual low-price-decks, but not enough to speculate, that this might have been Trionfi decks, which only in two cases were sold for less than 9 Soldi and never were sold for less than 7 Soldi.
More interesting in this list might be the decks of PA (= "Paparello"), who made "Chorone decks" and we don't know, what Chorone decks are.
They might have been something, which Marcello with his broad understanding, what ludus triumphorum might be, would have called ludus triumphorum. They are more expensive and in the rank of prices, which were paid in Florence for Trionfi decks.
I suspect, that Lo Scheggia might be a Trionfi card painter, and I suspect, that he might have been involved in the production of the Alessandro Sforza Trionfi and so possibly also in the production of the Charles VI Trionfi, either as somebody, who only modified the Florentine Charles VI version in the interest of a private collector, or somebody, who was directly involved in the Charles VI. As I suspect, that the Charles VI was made as a commission of the Medici and at least one of the commissions of the Medici went clearly to Lo Scheggia ("Fame" made for Lorenzo's birth in 1449).
Actually: If - as I earlier suggested - the Charles VI design was generated for Lorenzo's 14th birthday (the day, when traditionally boys became "grown-up" and "men"), then it has some internal logic, that the family returned with their commission to the painter, who already made something for the birth. Lorenzo was healthy and had reached his 14th year (not every child did that, and from Lorenzo's cousin we know, that the Medici had a personal bad experience), so Lo Scheggia's Fame had proven as a good "start in life". As the 14th birthday signified a "2nd start in life" ... Lo Scheggia perhaps AGAIN was chosen.
Anyway, we have, that Lorenzo indeed became very FAMOUS, more,than one might have suspected in 1449, and one may conclude in our counting of the facts 564 years later, that this harmless BIRTH MAGIC with FAME with the help of Lo Scheggia had worked very well. Lo Scheggia was used to work for MAGICAL MOMENTS, he made wedding chests (cassone), for events, at which dates likely occasionally were chosen with the help of astrologers and other wise men.or those, which were taken for that.
Perhaps this played a role.
btw. Pratesi wrote a new article to Lo Scheggia:
http://trionfi.com/evx-lo-scheggia
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I've seen, that you've found more Petrarca-Trionfi objects before 1440. That's nice.
Before I left in late December we had 3 (or 4).
1. 1414 Bologna, with two illustations (one - Fame - in the later Trionfi style (text not complete)
2. one of "first quarter of 15th century", found by myself
3. March 1439 - letter from Milan, offered by Ross
(4) 1418 in Cosimo's possession (not confirmed)
If you've found more, things become complicated to keep an overview, and perhaps we should open a new thread for the collection of such items.
We've indeed a problem here to keep some overview. Forums tend to become a jungle.
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Added, cause just detected:
... :-) ... Hm, I'm not responsible for any dating of the Alessandro Sforza cards to the 1440's. I explicitly think, that the Charles VI was POSSIBLY created for Lorenzo de Medici's 14th birthday and that would have been in January 1463. Further I think, that the Alessandro Sforza cards depend on the earlier existence of the Charles VI cards and not vice versa, so naturally the Alessandro Sforza cards would have been later.
Actually I think, that this card Moon ...
... shows the natural persons Regiomontanus and Toscanelli.
Regiomontanus arrived in 1461 in Italy. Toscanelli worked for the Medici. I don't know for sure, if they ever met, but they had letter contact. Both were famous for their astronomical researches.
Toscanelli had in his age a somehow nasty, very unusual face - as the left person (he was 66 in 1463). Regiomontanus designed his head in his own productions similar to the right person.
at the left side in the middle, not the central person, which is Marsilio Ficino
If this assumption is right, then the Charles VI couldn't have been done before 1461. It may be assumed, that the discussions around the researches of Toscanelli and Regiomontanus were popular at begin of 1463. The teacher of Regiomontanus, Georg von Peurbach, was well known in Italy (he gave lectures in Ferrara around 1450). Bessarion went to Vienna to take Peurbach to Italy, but Peurbach had died. So Bessarion took Regiomontanus with him. Regiomontanus arrived in Italy not as a nobody, but with great expectations.
If somebody in 1463 wished to paint 2 contemporary famous astronomers, Toscanelli and Regiomontanus would have been the best choice. Especially, if the painter lived in Florence.
