Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

41
mikeh wrote:
The earlier name of the game had been "Trionfo", "Trionfi", " Ludus triumphorum" and all this had good language connotations to "triumphal festivity" and "Trionfi" as poem of Petrarca.
In the first game, that we know (Michelino deck), we have the curious appearance, that Michelino first painted a Visconti genealogy (before 1503) and then, when coming back, a "system of gods" for a card play, from which curiously 2 figures before also had appeared as ancestors: Iupiter Rex and Venus.
http://trionfi.com/visconti-genealogy

There we have the "tarocch" = "genealogical tree" close to the "Trionfi" cards.
You are combining two cities and families as if they are one.Jupiter and Venus are not part of the d'Este family tree, or even of any d'Este deck that we know of. It is true that the Visconti loved their "tree" and "ancestors"; but no indication that they used the "Milanese dialect" word for any deck of cards. Their successors might have, but by then the Michelino was long forgotten; and even it is hard to see as an "ancestor" deck, just because Jupiter and venus are in it, because there are also 14 other gods and demigods.
Well, we have the aim to understand the word "tarochus" in the Bassono context and also to understand possible mutations of the Milanese word "Tarocch".
Naturally also the word "Tarochi" in the context of Alfonso in the year 1505.

The story of Bassano seems to have belonged to a series of texts with mockery about the Savoyans. "Bassani Mantuani Macaronea contra Savoynos, quos vilopendiose appelat Magninos, Codimos, Broacerios, Botigliones" is given as a title.
Actually one should understand also the other stories, which belong to this title. But this is from my perspective "too difficult" ... I even don't know, if these other stories still exist, and even if I would get this Latin text, I'd much trouble to understand it.

Generally I understand, that it doesn't sound true, that Bassano wrote these texts before 1494 and also not in 1494. The political reason wasn't given, Milan was united to the French interests. When Milan declared war on France, then a political reason existed.

Storiadimilano.it has ...
1495, 31 marzo: Ludovico il Moro aderisce alla Lega contro Carlo VIII

1495, 11 giugno: Luigi d'Orléans, rimasto ad Asti con un contingente di truppe francesi, prende possesso di Novara, che gli si offre spontaneamente per sfuggire alle tasse del Moro. L'Orléans si fa chiamare Dux Mediolani, rivendicando l'eredità di Valentina Visconti.

1495, 6 luglio: Battaglia di Fornovo contro Carlo VIII che viene sconfitto dalle truppe della Lega, ma subisce pochi danni.

1495, 9 ottobre: Pace a Vercelli tra Ludovico il Moro e Carlo VIII. Carlo VIII rientra in Francia. Novara ritorna con Milano.

http://www.storiadimilano.it/cron/dal1476al1500.htm

I think, the bridge at Vercelli (place of Bassano's episode) is the frontier between Savoy and Milan territory. We learn from this story (which well might be not a "realistic poem"), that Bassano together with his mother-in-law is enough to make Savoy tremble with confusion.
Actually one should wonder, what else this "mother-in-law" was good for in the other stories ... in the case, that these stories are indeed known and she had reappeared in these stories.
I note, that the Tarocus text has ...

"Quidam Vercellis stat a la porta Botigliano
Omnes qui Sessiam facit pagare passantes ;"

... and the meta title includes the word Botigliones ("... Magninos, Codimos, Broacerios, Botigliones")
In the Tarocus-text it's the name of a door (possibly a Vercelli city door). Webresearches hadn't success for this terminus.
I get, that Magnino is a family name in Vercelli, possibly from a location (?).

For "tarocch", from which I assume, that "blockhead" is a younger meaning, but that the "genealogical tree" possibly is indeed old meaning, I don't understand your argument. "tarocch" is definitely close to "tarocchi", which became the dominant later for the later card deck.
With the Michelino deck I've given an example, how "genealogy" and "card game" once was close, and generally I think, that family genealogy was part of the general triumphal habits and topics during 15th century, not only in Milan or Italy, but everywhere, where one had noble houses.
The Este and their genealogical experiments (in the Orlando texts) ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradamante
... have it, that Bradamante, Orlando's sister, and Ruggiero, a Saracen warrior, became the ancestors of the d'Este house. From a late Tarot variant we learned, that Orlando also appeared on Tarot cards (Kaplan II, p. 287/288).

For the wedding of Alfonso we have, that the "trunk of a tree" (in Milanese dialect "tarocch") was part of the theater show for Alfonso's wedding.

For the "taroch" of Alione we have, that the name Ferragu is rather close to this Taroch in the text and a "Ferragut (also known as Ferragus, Ferracutus, Ferracute, Ferrakut, Ferraguto, Ferraù, Fernagu" ...
wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferragut
... and ..
"Ferracutus" was the Latin form of the name used in the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle. Thomas Bulfinch used "Ferragus" in his English adaptation Legends of Charlemagne,[2] but the form "Ferragut" appears to be the most frequent in English today.
In his Orlando innamorato, Matteo Maria Boiardo used Feraguto/Feragu (Ferraguto/Ferragu). Ferraù is a syncopated form used in Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto.
Andrea's explanation, that Ferragu explains as a local surname in the region, isn't satisfying. "Melchidezek" or "Melchisedech" a few lines above is also not understood as a "local surname".
Marì ne san dè au recioch
Secundum el Melchisedech
Lour fan hic. Preve hic et hec
Ma i frà, hic et hec et hoc
Ancôr gli è – d'i taroch
Chi dan zù da Ferragù


We've no guarantee, that the text is "before 1499". The printed text is from 1521, with the background, that France still reigned in Milan. It's easily possible, that the author gave the text a final redaction using older material.
Although ....
... following the English definition of frottola ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frottola
... then frottola is a song, an explanation, that I don't remember from Andrea's text (maybe I overlooked it). Songs might have some more stability, I would think.

Names:

In the full text ...
Frotula de le dòne

Nostre done han i cigl ercù
Porton cioche e van stringà
Per fè attende a la brigà
Cogle pias el mazocù.
S'una dona va a remusg
E feis ben so marì bech
El pan ong ne lo pù lech
A travonder chel pan sug
E pos cha a fer gnun ni tug
Ma cla porta a cà di scù.
Le putein ch' aveon pr' un quart
Volon ades un cavalot
S'el consegl nel fa stè ascot
Nostre done andran fer l'art
Speisa tant che Dè gle a part
Valo antorn soi paracù.
Рos chel done han preis al bot
Un vergilli han cià derrer
O gle ha mis el feu derrer
Pr'avischer nosg ciriot
Ch'ancor van nesch stradiot
Ciriant and o circù.
Aristotel nan scampè
Ch'una dona el cavalcò
Se voi done fè dercò
Penitenzia a quater pè
Guardè a non squarciè el papè
Pr'andè a studi in utroquù.
Mi ne seu pu bel pareir
Che fè stragichè el frangougl
Crubir gloeugl con i zenougl
E attacherse ai contrapeis
Cost è un at' chi tost è ampreis
Chi fa fer l'erbor forcù
Guardè done a non fiacher
So sij gravie cho gle i group
Vozì aneing la schina a i coup
E la chiesia su o ciocher
Ma sei destre al sabacher
Degle o so reciprocù.
O gle o zeu del cazafrust
Zeu da cog quant el fa brun
Zeu che doi ne paron ch'un
La gatta orba è ancor pù iust
Ma val poc chi nalcia el bust
Per dè an brocha a piza o cù.
Marì ne san dè au recioch
Secundum el Melchisedech
Lour fan hic. Preve hic et hec
Ma i frà, hic et hec et hoc

Ancôr gli è – d'i taroch
Chi dan zù da Ferragù
Cole chi per so zovent
Ne se san fer der sul tasche
Con o temp devantran masche
Quant gnuni ni dirà pù nent
So dagn per ciò gl'abion el ment
Cho diao san furb el cù.
S'isg bigotz gent dal mantel
Queich fratesche o crestian vegl
Vorran creze a i soi cervegl
Despresiant o nostr libbel
Mandegle autr da preve Raphael
Ferse scrive un k. s. u.

Finis


I recognize as other names Aristoteles as Aristotel and Raphael as Raphael, but perhaps there are other names.
Andrea gives an erotic explanation for the whole text (which explains Aristoteles, who is known for such a theme). "Ferragu" has erotical components in the version of Boiardo (as far I can recognize it from the wiki-article) ...
Ferraguto in Orlando innamorato
In Matteo Maria Boiardo's Orlando innamorato, Ferraguto is a leading Saracen knight (and not a giant), the nephew of King Marsilio of Spain, and one of the many characters passionately in love with Angelica. At the beginning of the poem, Angelica and her brother Argalia arrive at the court of the Emperor Charlemagne in Paris, announcing that any knight who defeats Argalia in single combat will win Angelica's hand in marriage, but if he loses he will become Argalia's prisoner. Ferraguto is among the first knights to try and is unhorsed. However, he angrily refuses to accept his captivity and Argalia and Angelica flee in terror. Ferraguto catches Argalia, kills him and steals his helmet, but he promises the dying man only to wear it for a few days.

Ferraù in Orlando furioso
At the beginning of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso (a continuation of Orlando innamorato), Ferraù loses the helmet in a stream and is confronted by the ghost of Argalia, who tells him he must find another helmet instead. Ferraù vows to win the helmet of Mambrino, which now belongs to the greatest Christian knight, Orlando. He manages to possess it for a while but Ariosto predicts his ultimate death at the hands of Orlando. Like the character in the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle and the 14th-century Italian epic La Spagna, Ferraù is completely invulnerable except via his navel.


Well, the more I read about this Ferragu, the more I believe, that Ferragu in the text addresses this giant.
Huck wrote,
Bassano seems to have had the higher intelligence and preferred the more subtil messages. If "Tarocus" had been a well-known attacking word like for instance "asshole" or normal "Fool", it would have been just a low language word and he would have been similar to Alione later. Using "Tarocus" - an unknown word, but reflecting an actual context (the recently lost battle at the Taro river) and so formulated, that a reader or listener could recognize the context - is a more intelligent attack. Describing, that he had hit the opponent on the nose with brute force, wouldn't have been really funny, but describing, that he just made a threatening gesture, which caused the opponent to run for fear and so running against his own pilastrum and getting the same bloody nose, is funny.
In Bassano's poem, the word "tarochus" is perhaps chosen because it refers to the Taro River. Fine. But that does not suggest that he made up the word. What is funny is when you combine two things that aren't actually associated, but do already exist, for a mocking point. It's called a pun. Wikipedia:
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play that suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect
These are pre-existing meanings, not meanings one of which you are giving the word as you say it. It's not clever if you don't use at least two pre-existing meanings. See any of the examples on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pun).

I don't know which poet is cleverer, because I don't know the rest of Alione's poem. But I think it is more likely that Alfonso knew Alione's verse than that he did Bassono's, because (a) Lucrezia likes frattole, and (b) Alfonso likes French music. There is nothing comparable for Alfonso and Bassano. But it didn't have to be Alione, it could have been somebody else from the same general region; and the word could even have been used to refer to the game in that region, before Alfonso, and Alfonso simply copied that. Also, there is no indication that Alione's use of "taroch" is in response to Bassono's. There would be more in common between the two verses than that if it was.
If "Frotola" is a song, then I would think, that Alione's text is complete. Songs don't have so much text.

Generally I would think, that we naturally don't know all communications about this word "Tarocus" or "Taroch" between 1495 and 1505. We just were able to capture a few communications, which contained the word.
I see your point about the French not minding a word suggesting the Taro River after 1500, because they've gotten their revenge. But I don't think it counts either way on the issue of whether "taroch" was inspired by a pre-existing "tarakh" word or by the Tarot River, or by both.
Games use "fighting words" like "chess" (when you threaten the king) and "mat" (when you finish the game) in chess. In Go you say "Atari", when you threaten to capture a stone.
Card games also have occasionally such words, for instance Contra (x2) - Re (x4) - Bock (x8) in German games doubles usually the value of the game. Considering the usual rules of the Tarot game, such words might have existed for the case, that you capture the Pagat or that the Pagat makes the last trick. Playing the Fool likely was combined with "Excuse", which gave his Swiss-Austrian name "Sküs".
In "Doppelkopf" you say "Doppelkopf", when you get a trick counting 40 points or more (which demands, that the trick contains only Aces and 10s) ... an example, that the name of a game can be identical to such a "fighting word" (as it is also "chess" in the game of chess).

Actually we really don't have reliable ideas, how the Trionfi game were played around 1500. It's against plausibility to conclude, that none of the French soldiers learned the game and that no Trionfi cards were brought to France in that time (which naturally doesn't automatically mean, that a French Trionfi card production had started).
If the French suffered by the Italian mockery about the battle at the river Taro, it might have become popular (likely after the recovery of the victory in Milan 1499/1500) to use the fighting word "Taraux" for situations, when a trick looked lost (by the "highest trump"), but was nonetheless taken by a "special rule".

We have had in Piedmont the curiosity, that Angel was higher than World ... in contrast to the Milanese rule World higher than Angel. How might this have developed?
In Doppelkopf you've two "10 of hearts" curiously chosen as highest trumps. In one version the first played 10-of-hearts captures the second played 10-of-hearts (as it is usual in this game for all other cards; the first Queen-of- Clubs captures the second etc for all others). In another version of the game, however, the second 10-of-hearts captures the first (all other pairs are functioning as usual).

This second version limits the power of the "highest trump" in an interesting manner. Naturally it's an interesting detail of the game to hunt for a capture of the foreign 10-of-hearts.
In a Tarot game it might be interesting to give the card 20 (Angel) the power to beat card 21 World, when it is played as the second in a trick ... especially, if World was connected to the 5-points-value (like Pagat and Fool) and the Angel not.
So, if the capture of the World card was connected to the fighting word "Taraux" (to this rare action of "capturing the World, which meant a rather revolutionary turn of the game), then we would have an explanation for the choice of a new name for the game "Trionfi".

Early confirmation for the use of the new game terminus Taraux/Tarochi are rare for the first 10 years after 1505, Ferrara 1515/16 alone has a series of productions.

Farsa Satyra Morale (1508-1512 ?)
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=255
Spampana
Non e tua arte? questa mosca ho presa.
Trova pur chi te creda in altra purte.
Hor non teniam la cosa piu suspesa:
Con dadi a passa dece, a sanza, al sozzo,
A darli la man larga e ben distesa;
Minoretto, sbaraglio, ad urta gozzo,
A trichetrac, et a torna galea;
Vedi se come un pipion te ingozzo.
Ah, ah, scio quel che vuoi, no te intendea:
Eccole qui le galante sfogliose :
Chiama te: fante; ve, chel te venea.
Io voglio contentarte in tutte cose;
O voi alla crichetta, o alla fluxata,
A rompha, a fluxo, et a le due nascose;
Primera, al trenta, et alla condannata;
A rauso, a cresce el monte; hor apre gli occhi:
Che tua o mia sara questa giornata.
Mancava anchora el gioco de tarocchi,
Chesser mi par tuo pasto: e un altro anchora
Minchion, sminchiata voise dir da sciocchi.
Hor prende qual tu voi, chel fugge lhora.
Taroch: nulla latina ratione
With Barbarian rite, without relationship to the Latin, now they call it taroch (possibly already in 1512, but from c. 1534)
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=263&lng=ENG
Barbaro ritu, taroch nunc dicunt nulla latina ratione
"

Now we have a 1505 "French Trionfi" from Florence as a new finding, together with a "first Germini".

A few Trionfi notes might be there for the same period.

Comparing our notes 1500-1514 with the well researched time 1451-1565 this gives the result, that this period isn't very well researched. Or it hadn't so much Taraux/Taroch/Trionfi cards.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

42
Huck wrote,
With the Michelino deck I've given an example, how "genealogy" and "card game" once was close, and generally I think, that family genealogy was part of the general triumphal habits and topics during 15th century, not only in Milan or Italy, but everywhere, where one had noble houses.
The Este and their genealogical experiments (in the Orlando texts) ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradamante
... have it, that Bradamante, Orlando's sister, and Ruggiero, a Saracen warrior, became the ancestors of the d'Este house. From a late Tarot variant we learned, that Orlando also appeared on Tarot cards (Kaplan II, p. 287/288).
I don't see how the presence of Venus and Jupiter in the Michelino makes it a "family tree". It is a "game of the gods", two of which happen to be fancied Visconti ancestors. But where are Aeneas, Ascanio and any of the early Visconti? If it's a "geneological tree" they should be there, too. The PMB has the best case for being "genealogical", in that a case can be made for many Visconti and Sforza actual family members being portrayed there, in at least 4 generations; but even if so, it still wouldn't be "genealogical" enough to be named a "family tree": no line of descent is represented. They are just, at most, the standard subjects portrayed as Visconti and Sforza family members. If such a deck deserves the name "tree", then so does the Medici-owned painting of the "Procession of the Magi".

As far as the d'Este "family tree", in the Museo della Arti e della Traizioni Populari deck, thought to be of Ferrara or Venice, several cards, indeed, have scenes from one or another of the "Orlando" epics. Orlando, depicted on cards XVI and XVIIII, is not a d'Este ancestor, but since he is the brother of an ancestor, that would count. Card VIII, if it indeed portrays the wedding of Ruggiero and Bradamant, does portray d'Este ancestors. In that these three cards do portray episodes in "Orlando", they have to do with fictional ancestors of the Estensi. But this is only within the poems, to flatter their patrons. I cannot see how anyone could say that a "family tree" of the Estensi is there. As in the case of the Michelino, it would be a tree with a small top and no middle or bottom. These decks are not trees in the genealogical sense, and I don't see why anyone would call them that. (They might conceivably be considered ladders to heaven; if ladders are trees, so be it; but that is not a genealogical tree.) A more reasonable way to connect the game and the word is that in songs of Piedmont, loved by Lucrezia and probably also Alfonso, the word means "mentally defective", and the game with the strange fifth suit is the game of the mentally defective, i.e. the fool, the game's craziest card..

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

43
I made it to the library . The Grand Robert has for "tare" (unaccented, but explicitly connected to the word with the accented "e"; I leave off the dots on the Arabic "h"s, this time put above the letter)
Tare. n. f. 1318. "déchet dans le poids ou la qualité", ital. tara; arabe tarhah "deduction, décompte"; p.e. [peut-être] avec ifl.[inflexion] de taré; "mangé de vers", que rattacherait le mot à la series de taret, tarer.

1. (v. 1460). Défectuosité (que présente qqch.)...

2, (1572). Défectuosité héréditaire, plus ou moins grave, d'ordre physique ou psychologique. ...

3. (XVe), Ce qui diminue la valeur, le mérite, ce qui entache l'honneur de qqn.; défaut, vice, (d'une personne, d'une société, d'une institution). ..

(Tare. feminine noun. 1318. "waste in weight or quality," Ital. tara; Arabic tarhah "deduction, discount"; perhaps with inflection taré'; "worm-eaten", which would link the word to the series of taret, tarer.

1. (c. 1460). Defectiveness (presented by something.)...

2, (1572). Hereditary defect, more or less serious, of a physical or psychological type...
3. (15th) What decreases the value, merit, tarnishes the honor of somebody; default, vice, (of a person, company, institution)...)
So already in 1318 the sense of "waste, garbage", continuing in 1460 as "defectiveness", applied to a person by 1572. "Hereditary defect" is interesting. It lists "gigantisme" as an example.

Later on it lists another meaning of "tare":
(1723) Poids de l'emballage, du récipient pesé avec une merchandise, un produit, et qu'il faut déduire pour obtenir le poids net.

((1723) Weight of the package, of the vessel weighed with a piece of merchandise, a product, and that must be deducted to get the net weight.)
But this isn't documented until 1723!

From the Robert Dictionnaire Historique, 1992, we have other information:
TARE. n.f. est emprunté (1318), par l'intermédiare de l'ancien provençal tara (seulement attesté en 1375) ou de l'italien, à l'arab tarha "poids des emballages", substantif verbal de taraha, "enlever, ôter".

(TARE. feminine noun, is borrowed (1318), through the old Provencal tara (only attested in 1375) or Italian, the Arabic tarha "weight of the package" verbal noun of taraha, "remove, take off.")
Then it repeats the other information, about 1460 as "defectiveness" and that the sense of "defaute [defect], vice, dommage [damage]" already is "attesté" in the 15th century, as well as the spelling "taré" by 1500.

For "tarot", the 1992 says:
TAROT n. m. est emprumé au XVIe s., écrit tarau (1534, Rabelais) et resuffixé au début du XVIIe s. (1604), à l'Italien tarocco, généralement employé au pluriel tarrochi [sic]. Le mot est d'origine obscure; il est probablement dérivé de tara "déduction" correspondant du même origine arabe que le français tare*, parce que dans ce jeu le joueur doit, dans certaine circonstances, mettre de côte une carte.

(TAROT. masculine noun. is taken from the XVIth century, written tarau (1534 Rabelais) and resuffixed at the beginning of the seventeenth century, (1604) to [or from?] the Italian tarocco, usually used in the plural, Tarrochi. The word is of obscure origin; it is probably derived from tara "deduction" corresponding to the same Arab origin as the French tare*, because in this game the player must, in certain circumstances, put a card to the side.
I am not sure what "resuffixé" means; "re-spelled", perhaps. I do not know whether the dictionary is saying that the word "tarau" comes from the Italian "tarocco" or whether it is only the spelling with "o" that derives from "tarocco". I suspect the latter, since "à" means "at" or "to". I have preserved this book's misspelling of the Italian "tarocchi"; "tarrochi" is obviously not the plural of "tarocco" (even though you can find instances enough of "tarrochi" on the Web).

This 1992 Robert "historical dictionary" is much the same as Depaulis's account. In contrast, the 1985 dictionary's account only says that "tarot" is derived from tara, "tare", and the Arabic "tarh" meaning "deduction", without further elaboration, ignoring the cause of the deduction (packaging vs. defectiveness).

What is different from Depaulis, who sticks to the sense of "deduction" and "putting a card to the side", is the 1985 entries for "tare", which give a much different sense of the term than the 1992 work or Depaulis: already in 1318 the word in its Romance language versions had a negative sense of "waste" or "garbage", and "defect" by 1460. Also, the word\t might not have been originally French, but Provencal or Italian. So "tara" probably had the sense of "mentally defective" by the 1490s if not earlier. As a meaning of the word before 1723, The Grand Robert 1985 does not even mention "tare" as "deduction". While it does mean "deduction" in Arabic, what is deducted does not, at least in its use in Romance languages, seem to be the container (until documented in 1723), but rather that which is spoiled or defective.

I suppose that when players pick up the last three cards and discard one card from their hand, that card could be considered "defective". But it is a stretch. It is a much smaller leap from "defective merchandise" to "mentally defective", i.e. crazy.

In search of more evidence, I looked up the verb "tarer" in an 1873 Dictionnaire de la langue Francaise (ed. E. Littré, vol. 4, p. 2150). It does not mention "putting aside" or deducting the weight of a container. Its first example is "L'humidité a taré ces merchandises": the humidity has taré these pieces of merchandise". It also gives several examples it says are from the 16th century:
Un medecin, qui, pour mieux cognoistre quelz sont les corps sains et nets, les compareroit aux gastez et tarez, AMYOT, Lyc. 5. Les enfans naissent viciux et defectueux, quand ilz naissaent de personnes tartarées, ID. ib. 30. L'ambition est un vice fort odieux, duquel Aristides estoit totalement delivré, et Caton fort taré , ID. Arist. et Cat. 11. On mettoit en religion les femmes borgnes, bossues, deffaites, folles, taréés. RAB Garg. I, 52.
Whatever the word meant in Arabic, it does not seem to have meant "weight of the package" in 16th century French.

One thing not yet confirmed is that Provencal had, besides "tara", this word "tarou", pronounced like "tarot", at that time, as another version of the word. I have not located a Provencal historical dictionary.

So in addition to Depaulis's and Huck's suggestions, I see two other possible explanations, neither confirmed, starting with the Arabic and getting to "tarau" and "tarocco". One is by way of satirists twisting pre-existing words in Italian and Provencal or French so as to suggest the Taro River. The other is by way of a Provencal way of pronouncing and spelling what otherwise would be "tara", meaning "a defective (person)". Given "theroco" as a name for the Sirocco wind, and the non-tarot use of "tarocco" in Italian (as an unreasonably angry person), I would still guess the latter: the word had a meaning outside of macaronic poetry and card-playing.

So far I have not found any dictionaries referring to Bassano or Alione; they are too new. It will be interesting to see what future philologists make of them.

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

44
This replies to the post starting with ...
I don't see how the presence of Venus and Jupiter in the Michelino makes it a "family tree".
***********
The name Jesse is referenced in the Old Testament, and in particular the passages of Isaiah, Chapter 11, Verses 1–3:

“ 1. And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Jesse

****************

Somehow the Visconti genealogy imitated the Jesse genealogy ... a long line of names to demonstrate, that the Visconti had their origin from Aeneas and his Trojan invaders to Italy.
Also the Merovingians were interested to have Trojan ancestors, but their story involved a "Francus" and the Trojan hero Hector, who became part of the neuf preux and also appeared as court card figure in French card decks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francus

Michelino had the commission to paint the Visconti genealogy short before the death of Giangaleazzo (1903). Then it looked for some time, as if this would be the end of the Visconti line, at least as rulers of Milan. Filippo Maria saved the situation and restored some of Giangaleazzo's possessions. Then Michelino came back (1418) and Filippo Maria made his best to prolong the Visconti line, which didn't work. It may well be, that he ordered the Michelino deck when his lover was pregnant (and he hoped for a son).
Martiano da Tortona gave his best to argument, that Greek gods were originally humans.

Image


"Tractatus de deifiatione sexdecim heroum ..." - the title speaks of heroes, which were deified, and also in the later text: " And it is more pleasing, since through the keeness of your own acumen you dedicated several to be noted and celebrated Heroes, renowned models of virtue, whom mighty greatness made gods, as well as to ensure their remembrance by posterity."
http://trionfi.com/martiano-da-tortona- ... -16-heroum

The Este made a lot of their old ancestry ... it definitely was early part of their family pride and helped them to make profitable marriages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Este
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Welf

How Boiardo and Ariost arranged their line to Orlando's family I don't know. It can't have been very difficult, as the "normal family tree"of the Este is already very close to the time of Charlemagne.

Emperor Maximilian an Habsburg embedded some of their ancestry in the gigantical projects of the triumphal arch (2,95 × 3,57 meters) and Maximilian's Triumphal procession (length 54 meters according the English wiki description; the original plan had been more than 50 % longer). That's around the same time as the Orlando of Ariost.

Rabelais' fabulous ancestry of giants as ancestors of Gargantua is naturally meant ironical and demonstrates, that time is ready for mockery of the nobility fashions.

*************

The Michelino deck is naturally not itself a "family tree", but plays with content of the "family tree". Similar Filippo Maria sponsored the picture gallery around the Theodelinda story, who also belonged to the family tree. "Agistulfus Rex" appears at the Visconti list, and Theodelinda ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodelinda
Theodelinda, queen of the Lombards, (c. 570-628) was the daughter of duke Garibald I of Bavaria.[1]

She was married first in 589 to Authari, king of the Lombards, son of king Cleph. Authari died in 590. Theodelinda was allowed to pick Agilulf as her next husband and Authari's successor in 591. She thereafter exerted much influence in restoring Nicene Christianity (the mainstream, later split in 1054 by the East-West Schism in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) to a position of primacy in Italy against its rival, Arian Christianity.

After the conversion of Agilulf to the Catholic faith, she started building churches in Lombardy and Tuscany, among them the cathedral of Monza and the first Baptistery of Florence. They were all dedicated to Saint John the Baptist.
Nr. 36 "Agistulfus" = "Agilulf" (died in reality 616), followed by Nr. 37 Desiderius, last king of the Lombards (died in reality 786) on the Visconti list.

For the situation of 1502 (wedding Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso d'Este) we don't know, if already cards existed named Taraux or Tarochi. We have just the symbol of a "Tarocch" (= stump or trunk of a tree) in the first theater play of 5 as an intermezzo dance. Between the described dances of this intermezzo functions it's the only one with a "big symbol". Theater plays 2, 3 and 4 also didn't include a central symbol. Theater play 5 according the description ...
The last day of the festivities, February 8th, also marked the end of the carnival. ...

In the evening they danced for the last time, and attended the final theatrical performance, the Casina. Before the comedy began, music composed by Rombonzino was rendered, and songs in honor of the young couple were sung. Everywhere throughout the Casina, musical interludes were introduced. During the intermission six violinists, among them Don Alfonso, the hereditary prince, who was a magnificent amateur performer, played. The violin seems to have been held in great esteem in Ferrara, for when Cæsar Borgia was about to set out for France he asked Duke Ercole for a violin player to accompany him, as they were much sought after in that country.[173]

The ballet which followed was a dance of savages contending for the possession of a beautiful woman. Suddenly the god of love appeared, accompanied by musicians, and set her free. Hereupon the spectators discovered a great globe which suddenly split in halves and began to give forth beautiful strains. In conclusion twelve Swiss armed with halberds and wearing their national colors entered, and executed an artistic dance, fencing the while.
Well first and last play are the natural place for distributing "symbols" in the dramaturgy of 5-plays-sessions. We see "songs in praise of the young couple" (logical), we see Alfonso taking part in the show (logical, his male side of the show), we see a female beauty molested by savages (the bride), set then free by the god of love. A globe split in two halves giving forth beautiful strains ("strains" should mean in this situation "children"). Why just Swiss soldiers appear to present the end, is a little bit strange, actually one might expect "trumpets", but perhaps they were also there and just forgotten in the description, which actually is rather short and too short to have mentioned all, what has happened. Perhaps the source of the author had more information.

As already stated: "For the situation of 1502 (wedding Lucrezia Borgia and Alfonso d'Este) we don't know, if already cards existed named Taraux or Tarochi."
The "trunk of a tree" had its own role in the show and it makes logic to suppose "a genealogical context" (as should be common for a wedding). The Milanese dialect word for this was "tarocch" ... it seems plausible, that Ferrara, not too far from Milan, understood at least a little bit also Milanese dialect. We have just the strange condition, that Alfonso 3 years later used this word to name a card deck type before called Trionfi in this manner.

********************

For the name "Germini" Franco Pratesi (surely an expert for Germini and Minchiate) has stated, that he thinks, that the word means "sprouts". Franco naturally knows, that others (early historical sources and contemporary researchers) have had expressed the opinion, that Germini comes from "Gemini", the 35th card of the Minchiate game.
Recent article:
Secolo XVI: Firenze – Il nome dei germini
Franco Pratesi – 06.09.2014
http://www.naibi.net/A/332-GERMINI-Z.pdf

English language has "suits" as a word for the 4 components of a card decks. German language and others has "Farben" or colors for the same components.
Italian language, however, uses "semi" (plural, singular "seme") = seeds, which is at least from German language perspective rather surprising.

Germini = sprouts and semi = seeds have a natural connection to another. If one considers "Minchiate" as a word for the "male genital" (as it at least in some Italian regions was used) it would belong to the same context. If I add now "tarocch" with the meaning "genealogical tree" to this small community of Italian playing card deck words, then it also belongs to the same field of association.

I once was surprised to notice, that Andrea Vitali used "semi" for playing card suits. In his article Franco discussed the context between Germini and Semi ... I can' recognize how old this word "semi" in its use as a playing card expression. I can imagine, that it's very old.

For Minchiate we've the earliest note in "1466", further there is a meeting of the words minchiatar and triumph in a poem of Burchiello around 1440.

For Minchiate (or similar) as sexual association I don't know. For a genital connection to the Trionfi card Fool we've clearly the d'Este Fool, but also the PMB-Fool and the Charles VI have already no real trousers.

Image


For "tarocch"= "genealogical tree" we have an unknown date of origin, for Taraux and Tarochi we've the year "1505".

For Germini we've since recently the year "1506".

Some dates for this word group are close in time (as far we know it): Taraux, Tarochi and Germini (1505-1506). As I already noted variously, it might be well, that all these 3 recorded activities did belong to the same creative moment, which stimulated "new words" in playing card context.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

45
For "Tare" ...

On tar- can be formed a lot of words, with the 4th letter being possible likely each vocal and some of the consonants.

With the river name Taro much less words can be formed (taro-).

Taro-chi
Taro-cchi
Taro-cch
Tar-aux (forming the French sound "o")

From this a context of "tare" to Tarocchi - even if some connected meanings meet the rather broad sense of "foolish" - seems not similar probable as a context between "Taro" and Tarocchi.

*************

Persecuting Tarocch ...

Stephen noted this word for the first time at AT in 2007 ...
http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=11 ... tcount=270
Tarocchista. Minchiatista. Joueur de tarots m.
Tarocch. Tarocco, germini, minchiate. Tarots.
Tarocch. Borra, pedale, toppo, tronco. Tranc, grosse souche de bois, f., chantier, chicot m.

Tronco: a trunk, a stock, a log, a block, a stump, a stem without boughes. Also a bodie without a head. Also a troncheon or a bat. Also a loggerheaded felow, a block-headed dunce, a heauie-nole.

Pedale: a foote, a base, a foundation, the stocke or roote of a tree or any thing else, a foote-stale, a foote-stoole, a supporter, a stake or forke to beare vp any vine, hops, or trees, a prop, or stay. Also the measure or space of a foote. Also a mans stocke, wealth, or substance. Also socks, or thin dancing pumps. Vsed also for a mans off-spring, stocke, lineage, blood, or descent.

Toppo: a counterbuffe, a counter shocke at tilt./ Related to Toppáre ~ to counter-shocke or giue a counter-buffe. Also to finde or meete withall by chance. Also to snatch or take away. Also to set, to cast at, to plaie at or hold the by or vie at any game namely at dice. Also to put to a dore and make it fast with a haspe or latch or wodden locke. / A tóppogiuócare a tóppo, to play at gresco or hazzard, and then to set at euery chance or cast, or to set and cast at the by.

Chantier: m. A Wood-mongers, or Tymber-sellers, yard; also, a Staulder, or Wood-pile; also, a Vine-supporting pole, or stake (whether it stand vpright, or lye, as a crosse barre, ouerthwart; and (hence) also, as Treillis, or a rayle for the same purpose; also, a Stoope, or Pile, vnderpropping the banke of a riuer; also, a Gauntrie, or Stilling, for Hogs heads, &c. to stand on; also, a Tresle to saw Tymber on.

Chicot. A stub, or stumpe; or as Chiquot: m. A scale in the root, or end of a nayle; also, a sprig, or shoot of a tree; also, the stumpe of a tooth

Souche: f. The stock, trunke, or bodie of a tree; a log; also, the maine stock, or direct line of a pedegree, progenie, or familie; also, as Souchet; or, the root of the wild, or English Galingale. Souche commune. The descent of many brothers or cousens, from one father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother. Tant que tige fait souche, elle ne branche iamais.

Stephen gave this references (I expanded slightly):

Vocabolario milanese-italiano-francese by Eugenio Cappelletti (1848) Dalla Tipografia Boniardi-Pogliani di E Besozzi
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FHi ... html&hl=en

Definitions of synonyms and translated words:

John Florio, Italian english Dictionary and Cotgroves French English.
Author biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Florio
John Florio 1611
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/
John Florio 1598
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio1598/

Cotgrave French-English 1611
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cotgrave/

*****************

Added ...
Some interesting statements to Tare, Taro river and the general situation 1494-155 are given by Stephen and also Ross at
...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p= ... ost2934677
(the full page)
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

46
I found in a German dictionary from 1711 ...
https://books.google.de/books?id=HLxRAA ... ni&f=false

Image


... which offered German and French translations for "il gioco de' germini". One German translation is "Venusspiel" (game of Venus)" as translated from an Italian source and another "des letzten Stiches" (game of the last trick). The French explanation is "une sorte de jeu à la triomphe (par allusion) l'acte charnel", whereby acte charnel means simply "coitus", so rather identical to "game of Venus".

The association of the Florentine courtesans to trumps in the Germini text of 1553 ...
(I GERMINI, sopra le quaranta meretrice della città di Firenze, pubblicato da Bartolomeo di Michelagnolo, Firenze)
http://www.tretre.it/uploads/media/Germ ... etrici.pdf
... is under these conditions (game of Venus, coitus) rather natural.

I captured the whole passage of "Germini-related"-words in the dictionary, which beside one note all relate to botanical matters. The one exception (beside the note to the game) is germire, which (erhaschen, ergreifen) means "to capture (with hands)".
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

47
Huck wrote,
How Boiardo and Ariost arranged their line to Orlando's family I don't know. It can't have been very difficult, as the "normal family tree"of the Este is already very close to the time of Charlemagne.
I know that the connection of Orlando, etc. to the d'Este is in Furioso, but Ariosto didn't even start it until 1506, according to Wikipedia. I suppose he could have told the d'Este his idea earlier, but that is pretty speculative. As for Boiardo, does he refer to Bradamante and Ruggiero as ancestors of the d'Este at all? Their meeting, a brief one, is something at the very end of the poem, where it breaks off in the midst of the action.I have read that whole part of the book, in the online translation, and don't see any reference to the d'Este, or Ercole, or Ferrara. Nor do I when I use these search words in the online versions of the original. Boiardo goes into Ruggiero's own family tree at great length, but nothing about his descendants.

In any case, the connection to Orlando not part of the family tree, it's just something in a chivalric romance written for the d'Este. And if the only members of the "tree" in any tarot deck are Bradamante and Ruggioro, it's still just the top of the tree, which hardly counts. The same is true of the Michelino, which has only Jupiter and Venus and not even Aeneas and Ascanio, the next ones down, as I have said. That's not much to make a "trunk" out of.

And finally, even if "tarocch" meant "trunk of a tree" in 1500, we don't know if that somehow extended to "genealogical tree". That definition was for two other words whose meanings overlap with "tarocch", "Pedale" and "Souche" (viewtopic.php?f=11&t=245&p=3000&hilit=trunk#p3000). Just because two words are sometimes synonyms (in the sense of "tree trunk"), it doesn't mean that they are always synonyms, i.e. that the extension "genealogical tree" also applies to "tarocch". Many of the synonyms listed in the link have no such extension of their meaning. And if "tarocch" is defined as "grosse souche de bois", the "de bois" implies that there are other kinds of "souches" besides those made of wood: in other words, it is more general than "tarocch".

There are far too many "ifs" here for me.

Huck wrote
On tar- can be formed a lot of words, with the 4th letter being possible likely each vocal and some of the consonants.

With the river name Taro much less words can be formed (taro-).

Taro-chi
Taro-cchi
Taro-cch
Tar-aux (forming the French sound "o")

From this a context of "tare" to Tarocchi - even if some connected meanings meet the rather broad sense of "foolish" - seems not similar probable as a context between "Taro" and Tarocchi.
What you are leaving out is the derivation of "taré" (accent acute), meaning "defective", from the Arabic "tarah"with a hard "h" (as in German "ch"). I gave several examples from 16th century France where the word is applied to people; in Gargantua it is the last in a list, all applied to the same person, that also contains "folle". Meaning "defective" it goes back to the early 14th century, verified. There is also, in one dictionary but without an earliest date, the Provencal word "tarou", from the same root, meaning "foolish", and pronounced like the French "tarot".

Huck wrote,
One German translation is "Venusspiel" (game of Venus)" as translated from an Italian source and another "des letzten Stiches" (game of the last trick). The French explanation is "une sorte de jeu à la triomphe (par allusion) l'acte charnel", whereby acte charnel means simply "coitus", so rather identical to "game of Venus".

The association of the Florentine courtesans to trumps in the Germini text of 1553 ...
(I GERMINI, sopra le quaranta meretrice della città di Firenze, pubblicato da Bartolomeo di Michelagnolo, Firenze)
http://www.tretre.it/uploads/media/Germ ... etrici.pdf
... is under these conditions (game of Venus, coitus) rather natural.
At the time, the 16th century, it was thought that the reference to coitus was due to the "Gemini" card having on it two naked people. Andrea Vitali cites a passage in the comedy La Pinzochera (The Bigot) by Antonfrancesco Grazzini (1503-1584). Andrea explains (http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=338#):
During a dialogue between an old man and his servant, the words of the latter turn out to be enlightening in this regard: “Giannino. Cosi come il trentacinque de' germini si dipingon due ignudi abbracciati insieme; cosi vuol significare che starete voi con la Diamante vostra” (Giannino: Just as the thirty-five of germini depicts two who are naked embracing together, so does it signify how you'll be with your Diamante).
The Gemini are also on some tarot Sun cards. The Sforza Castle Sun card shows a man and a woman wearing almost nothing and touching each other in the usual manner.

Also, "Minchiata" originally meant "foolish", according to Vitali in that same essay.

Finally, why are suits in Italian called "semi", meaning "seeds"? Looking in Vitali's "Symbolic Suits" I see that in 16th century Latin (Juan Luis Vives, 1493-1540) the word for "suits" is "genera", with the explanation that they are families. "Genus" in Latin means "birth, race, stock". Hence "seed", as in "seed of Jesse", i.e. family. The suits are metaphorically four families. Suits of course predate tarot and minchiate. I do not know how old this practice is, of speaking of suits as families. Vitali cites a Latin text of 1434 about suits but does not give us the Latin. Its translation into the vulgar tongue, done in Feltre in 1466, has "zuogo" as suit. My Italian is not sufficient to trace the origin of that word.

Added: How is a suit a family? In the four suits, we have a father, a mother, and maybe an older brother and a younger brother or perhaps sister (some decks had female pages). Then the pip cards are other members of the family, unspecified as to gender or relationship, but not in the royal family. That doesn't really work in the trump sequence. It's not a "seme".

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

48
Presentation of a "Tree of Jesse" was a common stage in Civic Triumphs, for examples see Enter the King by Gordon Kipling, especially the chapter on the Dance of Death. The concept of Tarocch as family tree may be seen in relation to other words connected to the cards as already mentioned (suits as families, seeds, pips). As meaning 'blockead/loggerhead', figurative terms usually derive from literal ones (but not always)... Germini itself means to seed, sprout. (From latin, germinare -- germinate.) As germination, in human terms, requires coitus, then it could be related to the 'game of venus'.

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

49
Steve, my difficulty was in seeing the triumph sequence as a family tree. However I have thought some more about it.

I wrote,
How is a suit a family? In the four suits, we have a father, a mother, and maybe an older brother and a younger brother or perhaps sister (some decks had female pages). Then the pip cards are other members of the family, unspecified as to gender or relationship, but not in the royal family. That doesn't really work in the trump sequence. It's not a "seme".
My new thought: if the four courts constitute a family of sorts, there actually is a parallel in the trump sequence, as a fifth suit. The empress and emperor could be thought of as the mother and father, and the popess and pope as grandparents, of a spiritual sort, or maybe godparents. The son is the male Lover, the female lover is his wife, the charioteer is the son again (or daughter, if female), the Old Man is a godfather (or grandparent, if there already is a godfather). Then the son (and maybe a companion) is on the Wheel and has other adventures. We don't actually know whether the cards from Devil to Sun were there early on in Ferrara, or some of the others. So for the "original" ones in Ferrara, it is a kind of family tree. Elsewhere I have presented the idea that a way the Estense have seen the cards was in terms of their favorite god, Dionysus. Then the Emperor is his father Jupiter, the 'Empress is Semele, the Popess is Rhea, the Pope is Saturn, the Old Man is Selenus, and the cards after him are Dionysian Mysteries.

So I can see that the trump sequence in Ferrara early on might well have been a "family tree"--not the Estense family tree, but one of its own. Likewise, the PMB is a kind of family tree, as I have already said. That makes the jump to "tarocch" somewhat shorter. There is still the problem of whether the word "tarocch" existed with that meaning, "tree", or, even figuratively, "blockhead". at that time, in some dialect known to the Estense. In its favor is that a similar word seems to have had the meaning "piece of wood" in Galicia However that does not extend to "blockhead". Andrea writes (http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page. ... 09&lng=ITA and http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page. ... 09&lng=ENG):
Il Prof. Antón Santamarina, membro del Consiglio Direttivo dell'U.S.C. (Instituto da Lingua Galega) dell'Università di Santiago de Compostela, ci ha comunicato quanto segue: «Il dizionario galiziano registra la voce 'taroco', ma con il significato di “pezzo di legno, pezzo di pane duro” (trozo de madera, trozo de pan ‘duro’), nulla con il significato di 'pazzo'. In base ai dati lessicografici medievali non trovo nulla. Questo 'taroco' ('pezzo di legno', con la variante 'tarouco') è molto simile alla parola castigliana 'tarugo' secondo il DRAE: "1. m: Pezzo di legno o di pane, di solito spesso e corto; con il significato secondario di 4 m. coloq: Persona di comprensione approssimativa (= che tiene la testa dura, che è goffo, come un pezzo di legno)” (Persona de rudo entendimiento = que tiene la cabeza dura, que es torpe, como un trozo de leña). In lingua leonese esiste la variante 'taruco'. I dizionari portoghesi registrano anch’essi 'tarugo' (1721), che deriva sicuramente dal castigliano (1386). Tuttavia, la somiglianza può essere casuale e la parentela tra le due parole è difficile da giustificare perché 'taròco' possiede la ò aperta. Inoltre, il significato 'scarso di comprensione' risulta moderno».

(Prof. Antón Santamarina, a member of the Executive Council USC (Instituto da Lingua Galega) of the University of Santiago de Compostela, has informed us that: "The Galician dictionary records the word 'taroco', but with the meaning of ‘piece of wood, piece of hard bread’ (trozo de madera, trozo de pan 'duro’), nothing with the meaning of 'crazy'. Based on the data, medieval lexicographers find nothing. This 'taroco' ('piece of wood', with the variant 'Tarouco') is very similar to the Castilian word 'tarugo', according to the DRAE: "1. m: Piece of wood or of bread, usually thick and short; with the secondary meaning of 4 m. coloq: Person of approximate understanding (= holding the hard head, which is clumsy, like a piece of wood) "(Person de rudo entendimiento = que tiene la cabeza hard, que es clumsy, como un trozo de leña). In the Leonese language there exists the variant 'taruco'. Portuguese dictionaries also recorded 'tarugo' (1721), which surely comes from the Castilian (1386). However, the similarity can be random and the relationship between the two words is hard to justify, because, 'taròco' has an open ò. In addition, the meaning 'lack of understanding' is modern".)

Presumably the context for the meaning "piece of wood" is medieval, although Andrea doesn't say explicitly.

Re: Germini - Florentine-French Trionfi 1506

50
SteveM wrote:Presentation of a "Tree of Jesse" was a common stage in Civic Triumphs, for examples see Enter the King by Gordon Kipling, especially the chapter on the Dance of Death. The concept of Tarocch as family tree may be seen in relation to other words connected to the cards as already mentioned (suits as families, seeds, pips). As meaning 'blockead/loggerhead', figurative terms usually derive from literal ones (but not always)... Germini itself means to seed, sprout.
I searched for "Tarocch" and found that most definitions in 19th century related to the card game ... which is logical, that the popular game finally dominated the word.
Looking through your definitions from the 1611 dictionary it seems to me, that at least some are related to "wood". From this I conclude, that the wood association was the earlier meaning "before Tarocchi as card game".

In German "Block" is often associated to the word "Holzblock", used as a undment to cut smaller pieces of wood with an axe. A surely common tool for every household, as long heating wasn't solved with coal or oil.

On your list you have a "Borra", which you don't follow (likely you didn't find it). I found a Borrò and a Borró , and one of them was related to corke (the other meant "stuffing or quelting"). The use of corke is very old (German wiki: "Die Rinde der Korkeiche wird seit dem 2. Jahrhundert n. Chr. im Mittelmeerraum, vor allem in Mittelitalien und in Spanien bzw. der damaligen römischen Provinz Hispania und heute vorwiegend im Süden von Portugal, mit Schneideäxten von Stämmen und Hauptästen geschält und verarbeitet.") 2nd century according to that.

The Korkeiche (corke-oak) only grows in Portugal, Spain and in some places in Italy. So this - if it has anything to do with Borra - would be again a relation to wood.

"Borra" is the first word in your row, possibly meant by the author of the dictionary as the major explanation for "Tarocch".

In Germany we've the general term "Borke" for the outside of the trunk of trees, not limited to a product of the Korkeiche.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borke

In the Spanish article to Kork (Corce) the expression is "Corcho". The word borra is known in Spain, but it has other meanings:
http://www.wordreference.com/es/en/tran ... spen=borra
The associations to "borrar" are "erase, delete, wipe out, remove, clean", something, which one actually does when harvesting Kork (see picture). The first harvested Kork is called "corcho bornizo" in contrast to the product of later harvesting ("corcho secundario").

Image


Interestingly Spanish "borra" knows the meaning "stuffing", which the old dictionary gives also for one of the borro words in Italian (either borró or borrò).

Milan doesn't belong to the Italian regions, where Kork productions is common nowadays. But they might known the product by imports.

**********

http://www.teleticino.ch/programmi/2463 ... -e-tarocch
... announces "La commedia dialettale" with the name "P.T.T. Piega Taj e tarocch".
Ticino is North of Milan (already Switzerland), it might be well a region, in which Milanese dialect is still understood. It's close to Graubünden, which is an intensive "troggn"-region, so this might well also refer to the cards.

Image


The picture shows a family scene, otherwise no information is given, what sort of meaning the word might have.
Last edited by Huck on 26 Oct 2015, 12:33, edited 2 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com