Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 06 Apr 2020, 18:32 ....No, the real message, if we want to find one, is the danger of Filippo Maria's sudden wealth and power. It was not some Virgilian danger from Beatrice-as-Dido in a personal sense.
And you might add that CY King of Cups rejecting the coin, whom I identify with Filippo, as part and parcel of that same theme. Certainly Filelfo, arguably Filippo's most important humanist after he arrived in court in 1439, nagged about the riches versus virtue theme non-stop (even to temperate Alberti), so he would have simply reinforced Marziano's pre-existing theme, to the approval of Filippo.
And from your first response, a good summary: "If there is a personal moral message (and not just a general one), the admonitions against luxury and wealth are explicit and far more prevalent - whole suits are named for them."
And yet there is something nagging at me. Marziano clearly packages the suits into pairs in his introduction, so riches are linked to pleasures, both of which "lead to the deterioration of our station" (your 25). You're certainly not wrong about the "riches" thesis, but does that exclude the "pleasures" angle? You might also note that Aeneas meets Dido in her temple to Hera (who is of course a goddess of marriage and it was Hera that directed Aeolus). Again, I'm focusing more on exposing the full subtext before making any definitive dating proposals, if that is even possible . If the deck was made for Filippo and specifically not Beatrice in 1412, the deck could have been an inside joke of sorts - a consolatio - while Filippo bided his time; the death for which he was being consoled as his own blunted eros (due to the marriage with Beatrice), and perhaps that is why the impossible love of a Daphne is played up right before Cupid?
Go ahead and reply to the above, but I have something for you that I've been working on for a coupe of weeks now that pertains to all this and more: 16 gods (not Marziano's 16, but in Capella's context and thus suggestive nonetheless) appearing in Petrarch in connection with an explicit echo of Dido. I'll try to get it finished it off tonight, but it might affect the way we view the above. Why I sent you that section of Bernardo....
Phaeded