So now I am ready to begin posting Franco's "note" on the Cary-Yale. Notes in brackets are by me. The Italian original is at
http://www.naibi.net/A/502-CARYYA-Z.pdf. I didn't have a lot to do with this part of Franco's "note".
Ruminations on the Visconti di Modrone or Cary-Yale Tarot
1. Introduction
The tarot pack discussed here is part of the Milanese Visconti-Sforza tarots [
tarocchi] illustrated and discussed in countless books and articles, often at odds with one another for attribution, date, and interpretation. So much attention is justified by the extraordinary workmanship of these precious cards and even more because they represent the principal ancient specimens of tarot cards that have been preserved. The pack in question is that which, out of all of them, presents the most puzzles to be solved in order to seek a convincing understanding. The name of Visconti di Modrone comes from the Milanese owners who possessed it for generations; the name of Cary-Yale, now more used internationally, comes from the American Cary family who purchased it from the Visconti di Modrone, from whom Yale University acquired it, where it is now preserved in the Beinecke Library in New Haven.
The present contribution does not come from the discovery of new documents, but only from reflections on what is presented and how the pack could have originated; the discussion will proceed with some deviations and parentheses, in a nonlinear manner. The credit for this study (but one could say the blame) is Michael Howard, who has stimulated and assisted in it. In truth, that assistance would have more necessary and more useful if I had the opportunity and desire to write a big book on the subject, rather than a short note. I must acknowledge in this regard, and make the reader aware, that the bibliography on this theme, including discussions on the internet, is vastly more extensive than that used and cited here.
2. The Courage of Sylvia Mann
The figure of Sylvia Mann has been fundamental for historical research on playing cards. The fact that she found herself working with an author of the caliber of Michael Dummett had as a consequence
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that she soon took a back seat, and her enormous contribution to the material could not be recognized.
From an organizational point of view, Mann was the person who brought life to the IPCS [International Playing Card Society]and to its official organ,
The Playing-Card, a journal that continues to be published today after 40 years. In that journal she was proud to offer a secure reception for studies on the subject, not easily published in academic journals. Personally I owe a great debt of gratitude for her encouragement to continue my research, by including card games along with board games, chess at first, whose literature and history I studied for years. It was she who gave the title “Italian cards - New discoveries” to the series of my articles, and assisted me more than once in their revision, also from the point of view of language.
Her most important contribution was in my opinion to fix with precision and force a line of demarcation among playing cards, one very useful for further research. Of playing cards Mann was primarily a collector (and I seem to remember also stamps before, like many other people). What is usually meant by an "object of collection" [
oggetto da collezione] in general, and thus also in the particular case of playing cards? If it is a postage stamp, what is considered "of collection" [
da collezione] is not the most common one that you can put on a letter every day, but an unusual specimen, a commemorative, striking precisely because it is unusual, even before its possible beauty.
One can also go back to the
Schatzkammer, or treasure chambers of the princes, with their precious objects, as many extraordinary ones as possible, able to fascinate any observer. As always, an "object of collection" is in fact an object out of the ordinary, which never or almost never occurs in daily life except, possibly, in the very poorest versions. For playing cards there is the same reasoning: they deserve so much more the name "cards of collection" [
"carte da collezione"]as they are different from those that can be bought in local stores and used in the family or in traditional games with friends. With cards of collection it is instead probable that no one ever played with them; for the collector, there are still artists and publishers who make special packs, and among them you can even find whole types of packs: travel, advertising, erotic, fantastic, round, and so on.
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Mann instead taught all collectors of playing cards - or at least all those, perhaps few, who have assimilated her lesson - that there was a different way to find the extraordinary in cards of collection [
carte da collezione]. Mann’s revolutionary proposal was very simple: all the "ordinary" cards can and indeed must become "extraordinary", collectible: it is sufficient to leave the familiar framework and procure ordinary cards of distant countries and times! Indeed, on closer inspection, precisely those cards are to be collected and then studied in their historical and geographical evolution. As an example it can be very revealing for us to consider some strange Japanese playing cards, that with a little attention we can succeed instead to understand not only how ordinary they were, but also clearly how they are derived from the cards, also ordinary, of the Portuguese. In short, Mann has deserved much more than my personal recognition; all the historians interested in this material owe her gratitude. We will see shortly how this parenthesis is not so far outside the subject as it might appear.
3. Experimental Character of the pack under study
The pack in question presents itself as a unique example among the preserved ancient tarocchi, not so much for its workmanship or style, as for the figures on the cards. Already the pips [carte numerali, number cards] are not the usual ones, for example, with the usual staves or scepters, but here represented by arrows; also among the triumphal cards [
carte trionfali] appear unusual ones. Perhaps even more characteristic is the fact that in addition to the queen, there are other female characters [
personaggi] among the court cards [
carte figurate]. Alongside the male pages [
fante, which the Beinecke translates as I have given] are the corresponding female pages [
fantine, again following the Beinecke]. That happens in other cases, starting with minchiate; but everyone knows that minchiate was introduced later, and above all, in those cards the two female pages take the place of two missing male pages, while in the CY pack there are both the one and the other. Not only that, but here the knights, too, have beside them their feminine counterparts, not in substitution but in addition, and this seems precisely a unique case among all the playing cards, which deserves a separate reflection.
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1. S. Mann, Collecting Playing Cards, Wimbledon, 1973.
2. S. Mann, V. Wayland, The Dragons of Portugal, Sandford 1973.
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In conclusion, all the evidence leads us to consider the CY pack as a pack of collection, from two points of view: it is obvious that today it is because of its age, rarity and beauty, but also, it looks so unusual that at birth it must have been an object to impress anyone who saw it. You can then take into consideration the great teaching of Mann: with all its beauty, being an unusual pack not intended for a traditional game, it certainly deserves the attention of historians (not for nothing have thousands of pages already been written on cards like these), but, precisely because of its extraordinary nature, it can bring much useful information for our reconstruction of the history of playing cards and their development. In the case of the CY pack, however, it cannot be excluded that it was instead a precursor to a triumph pack [
mazzo di trionfi] that in its final form did not precisely exist; in which case, by the same criterion of Sylvia Mann, it would appear of enormous historical interest, while remaining an experiment, since it would be pointing toward a pack which at this point needed only to establish its standard characteristics.
From the above it is evident that for the history of playing cards it is essential to propose as accurate a dating as possible for the CY: a difference of a few years can transform it from an insignificant variation on a well known theme to a pioneering experiment destined for a great future. To resolve the problem, the skills of historians of playing cards do not seem sufficient. To be convinced, it is sufficient to read what was written in this regard by one who can be considered the greatest of all (3)
It is impossible to determine if the Visconti di Modrone pack was an isolated experiment, which was detached from a standard already established, or if it is the only surviving example of a primitive stage in which the tarot pack had not yet acquired the structure that was to later become canonical. If it does represent a primitive stage, it is also impossible to determine if it was of a time when there coexisted significant variations in the composition of tarot decks or one in which a precise standard prevailed, different from what was observed later. One hypothesis, advanced, for example, by Dr. Algeri and Mrs. Gertrude Moakley, can be excluded with certainty as completely anachronistic, and that is that it was a Minchiate pack.
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3. M. Dummett, Il mondo e l’angelo, Napoli 1993, p. 52. [original in Italian]
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Michael Dummett having passed on, we can turn to another scholar of a high level, Thierry Depaulis, whose last book updates with simple precision much of our knowledge about the history of the tarot (4). Here is what we can read on the CY deck:
The first [Visconti di Modrone] has only 67 cards, including eleven triumphs [atouts], but offers some unexpected pictures [figures], male and female knights, maids and valets, and the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity, which are not normally part of the series. This atypical tarot could be a kind of trial run, especially the presence in two suits - batons (here, in fact, arrows) and swords – of emblems of the Sforza (the fountain and the quince, mela cotogna) while the other two - coins and cups – bear the emblematic of the Visconti, seems to be explained by the union of two families that the Love card could represent. Only one possible date, 1441, when Francesco Sforza marries, at Cremona, Bianca Maria Visconti, the only child, natural but legitimated, of duke Filippo Maria. It would then be the oldest preserved tarot deck.
The attribution seems reliable to me, because we know that Cremona played a significant role in the production of triumphs in Lombardy; but some conclusions must still be drawn, and some contraindications are still found. A particularly significant one is that very same Thierry Depaulis, also with the book just quoted, has brought to the attention of playing card historians the quotation from the Diaries [
Giornali] of Giusto Giusti, in which a triumph pack [
mazzo di trionfi] was produced in Florence in 1440 for use in and around Rimini. But if in 1440 "normal" triumph packs already exist, it must be deduced that the CY pack, precisely because of its exceptionality, coexisting among objects of more common use, is of secondary historical significance. If we think instead of a prototype destined to obtain shortly afterwards considerable success in a normalized form, it is necessary to go back to earlier dates, like the year 1428 supported by others. Ultimately, the discussion on the subject is not closed, if we find traces recurring until the last days.
I tried then to seek an answer in one of the forums on the internet that are dedicated specifically to the subject 5. In this case the search for contributions on the subject is easy and assisted by powerful search
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4. Th. Depaulis, Le Tarot révélé, La Tour-de-Peilz 2013, p. 20. [original in French]
5. viewforum.php?f=11
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engines. The problem is that if you insert “Cary” you get in response: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words", while if you insert “Cary Yale” the answer is: "Search found 400 matches". There was a time in which the second answer would make me very happy, but now even 40, rather than 400, would be too much; at least for me, and at this age, not only the verba volant, but also
volano these
scripta [allusion to the Latin adage
verba volant, scripta manent: “spoken words fly away, writings remain”].
Let us then try to consult different historical skills, those of the historians, who have devoted considerable attention to the Visconti-Sforza tarot.
4. The questionable discussion of art critics
There is, to my knowledge, no academic discipline with the name “History of card games”, and thus as specialists in the history of card games and playing cards are met only amateurs, with very few exceptions. But as for the history of art, there are many chairs, academics abound, and their writings fill libraries; thus a history of playing cards has everything to learn from experts on the history of art. From the foregoing it is evident that the problem of the dating of the CY pack, which has been shown of enormous importance, one could reasonably expect to find already solved in the writings of historians, who also have paid recurrent attention to this topic.
Unfortunately, the contribution of the art critics does not resolve the problem, but might be said to complicate it more. It seems that for an art historian, the dating of a work of this kind can vary in intervals so large as to render unnecessary and unreliable their contribution, at least until a proposal becomes really more convincing than all the others, which to everybody 'today would not seem accomplished. In this regard have to mention at least one recent publication on the Visconti-Sforza decks, which unfortunately leaves behind the scenes the specific deck at issue here, the CY; however, the treatment of data and the bibliography should still prove useful to anyone wishing to deepen [one’s study] (6).
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6. S. Bandera, M. Tanzi (eds.), Quelle carte de triumphi che se fanno a Cremona. Milano 2013.
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Among all the stylistic particulars and details in the depictions, none drew the attention of the experts more than the alternating coats of arms on the tent in the background of the Love card; while one is definitely Visconti, the other was variously attributed to the House of Savoy, the city of Pavia, and perhaps to other noble houses. The importance of the attribution is linked to the hypothesis (shared by the majority of the historians) that the deck had been produced on the occasion of a marriage between a Visconti and a Lady X, with its related dating easy to find. Usually, in the case of assignment to the House of Savoy, the wedding would be in 1428, between Filippo Maria Visconti and Marie of Savoy, but even this is uncertain because other critics argue that it is indeed the House of Savoy, but the marriage would be in 1468 between Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona of Savoy. The distance between the two cases is such that our request for help is unmet.
[Translator's note: Here is the middle section of the CY Love card, with the coats of arms on top:
The Visconti coat of arms is the viper with the red man in his mouth.]
A different discussion was of the clothes of the characters depicted on the cards. According to some historians the CY deck should be considered prior by a few decades to the other Visconti-Sforza decks. in order to justify the significant difference in the style of clothes. Again art historians have not reached agreement, and in any case the for playing cards it is commonly known that dating the epoch of production on the basis of the clothing of the characters leads to the possibility of big mistakes.
When, as often happens, we are in the presence of historians who do not know the history of playing cards, we find ourselves faced with curious attributions, like that of considering the deck CY a kind of minchiate; it is easy then for a Dummett is to counter, as in the quote above, that minchiate was of an epoch still to come. It is a situation that I know well, because I found myself there, bogged down in my first encounter with the comedy by Notturno (7); also then it was minchiate that appeared before being invented; it is a bit as if one found a manuscript of the Gospels dating from the first century BC ... Nevertheless, the appearance of the female page in the CY deck, and other details that are not secondary, such as the presence of the theological virtues, the interweaving of the swords, and others, cannot but recall the minchiate pack.
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7. F. Pratesi, The Playing-Card, Vol. 17 No. 1 (1988) 23-33.
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5. Connection with chess.
Recently the triumphal cards in the CY pack have been put in relation with the figures of chess, and it has fallen to me to discuss this proposal, advancing reservations (8). However, it is precisely for the CY deck that it is inevitable to recall some reference to chess, even before considering the triumphal cards. In order to advance interpretative hypotheses about the preserved cards, let us try preliminarily to proceed in reverse, trying to "build" a deck of cards on the basis of the pieces on the chessboard. A premise is necessary as to what historically was the case when chess as well as cards passed from the Islamic world to the European one. Originally there were no women on the board, or even civilian characters; they were all soldiers of various degrees around the king. Soon, however, the army of chess in Europe became a representation of the environment of the court, with the queen by the king and then the judges [ or bishops and knights [
giudici o vescovi e cavalieri, with a maximum of eight pawns [
pedoni, also meaning pedestrians] still with the function of soldiers.
In playing cards there was a similar transformation, although later, be-cause cards came after the transformation had already taken place in chess. Before, they were king, senior officer, and junior officer; then they became king [
re], queen [
regina] and jack [
fante]. For the new pair of king and queen, the situation is closely analogous; for the other chess pieces, in playing cards we can accommodate a limited number: only one in normal cards, only two in the tarot type, while in chess there would be three (bishop, knight, rook [
alfiere, cavallo, torre]). Not only that, the three characters that accompany the pair of king and queen are in turn couples, i.e. 2x3 pieces, which would require six cards and then eight including the royal couple. (A further problem is encountered if the couples are separated: including the royal pair, there are four, while the individual pieces in chess are not four but five, for the necessary distinction between the king and queen.)
Even today in chess, the Queen's side is distinguished from the King's side; we speak, for example of the queen’s bishop [alfiere di donna] or the king’s bishop [alfiere di re]. It is not a long way to get to a change of sex of the pieces initially located to the left of the white queen or right of the black queen! So, if you want to fit a deck of cards to the typology of chess
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8 http://www.naibi.net/A/129-CHESSCARDS-Z.docx
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pieces, the easy solution is to construct a deck with eight pip cards corresponding to the pawns and eight court cards corresponding to the chess pieces initially in the first row of the board. It should be borne in mind that a pack of cards has four suits instead of the two sides present on the board (so that historians like Rosenfeld have argued, with little success toward the truth, that chess in four was the primitive form and had the greater influence); thus we get a hypothetical deck of 64 cards, twice as many as the chess pieces.
6. Adding the triumphal cards
In the search for a hypothetical construct a priori of the CY type pack one must proceed with the necessary additional cards with the function of trumps. For these cards it is not even easy to find a suitable name, because the name “triumphs” [
trionfi] was used mainly for the entire deck, and the name “tarot” [
tarocchi], which was initially adequate, soon passed into indicating, similarly, the full deck. To avoid confusion, the terms “triumphal cards” [
carte trionfali] or “higher cards” [
carte superiori] might be used. How can these new cards be characterized? As mentioned above, even for these cards an origin has been proposed associated with chess pieces, but I cannot be convinced of the validity of such a proposal. In my opinion, a derivation from chess can serve for the court cards and possibly for some of the higher ones, but not for the whole triumphal series [
serie trionfale].
We would be in complete darkness regarding any proposed hypothesis were we not provided the schema of the higher cards designed by Marziano a few years earlier, again in the same environment of the Milanese court, perhaps in collaboration with Duke Filippo Maria Visconti. The number of 16 triumphal cards is also in accordance with the ratio of 1:4 with the other cards in the deck, which can be found in decks of succeeding Bolognese triumphs (9). With this background, it is not difficult to reconstruct the hypothetical full deck. We need "only" sixteen other cards and also, for their type, certain requirements that have to be met, especially two.
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9 http://www.naibi.net/A/323-BONOZZI-Z.pdf
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The sixteen additional cards must first of all correspond to a series of triumphs, with a hierarchy that is presented as logical and easy to remember, and perhaps if possible organized like the series of the Triumphs of Petrarch, with a clear justification for why each triumphs over the previous card and is overtaken by the subsequent. If the succession in trick-taking power is not clear, it would be necessary to add the sequential numbers on the cards, as was done in the tarot later. The requirement indicated may be the only one necessary, but if following the example of Marziano is desired, there is a second to be fulfilled: sixteen additional cards should also be situable into four groups of four triumphal cards, each at the head of one of the four suits of the 64 card deck identified earlier.
7. Discussion of the pips and courts.
One can proceed to a first comparison between the hypothetical deck imagined before and that of the CY. As for the pips in the deck the CY contains thirty-nine of forty, and nothing suggests that the one missing card (the 3 of Coins) was originally absent. So, compared to the eight pawns of chess we definitely have two extra cards. One might think to take as a model chess existing on 10x10 board, but accommodating the pips in that way departs even further from an accord for the court cards, so you have to find “another way.”
The court cards in the CY deck are six per suit, and this is a real record compared to the three in ordinary card decks and the four usually present in tarot decks; the number of six courts in each suit, although unusually high, cannot suffice to establish a one to one correspondence with the major chess pieces. If we want to insist on the usefulness of the comparison, or the opportunity to find it, there remains the possibility shown in Fig. 1, in which the cards with the numbers 1 and 10 have taken the place of the rooks in chess. (With the final F is indicated the feminine correspondents of the Male Page [
fante, in the diagram PM] and Male Knight [
cavallo, in the diagram KnM]. To respect the chess positions each P should trade places with a Kn, but here the hierarchy of cards is being respected.) As weak support for the hypothesis in such circumstances, it is possible to advance a few considerations. From the side of chess, it is not easy to Associate
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the members of the court to the rooks as it is to the other figures, so much so that also historically, various types of associations have been proposed, and often rooks were artifacts of defense and not characters [
personaggi]. [Translator's note: here I have replaced the Italian abbreviations for the chess pieces and cards with their English equivalents.]
On the side of the cards, it can in fact be recalled how in many card games the ace and the 10 had special roles. It is true that in the current Italian game of
briscole [trump] the 10 is not used (of course, in the normal deck it no longer exists and was replaced in that function, oddly enough, by the 3); however, it is equally true that in many foreign trick-taking games with trumps it happens that the ace is in fact the highest card and 10 the second, followed in order by the courts. You can push beyond the association with chess, considering the power of the court cards, given that at the time, before the spreading of modern chess with the new queen, precisely the two rooks were the most powerful pieces on the board (like cards 1 and 10 in games of trumps).
In conclusion, a way can be found to move from a fairly logical structure of these number and figure cards and from the obvious type 8 + 8, as in chess, into a type 10 + 6. Fig. 2 shows, according to the diagram, all the number cards and figure cards still present in the CY deck.[Translator's note: In the Word document version of this table, which I used to put in the English abbreviations, the top quarter slid to the right from where it is in the pdf online. I was not able to fix this problem, and I don't think it matters much.]
I will finish posting the translation in another post. There are about 8 of the 19 pages left.