Re: The World

11
cadla wrote: Oh look everybody haddock is "gadus" in Latin. How incredibly interesting. Yes, those haddock know how to gadus about, don't they?
While I don't think we have an example of it in this case in general macaronic punning, references and appearance of the words from several vernaculars in a single piece of work was a quite common devise of poets, playwrights and scholars of the period. However the identification of the sun with the Son of God rests more in biblical references and exegesis (e.g., to the Lord as Light of the World, or praises such as "For the Lord God is a sun and shield." from the psalms) than in the English pun. The comparison between the Sun and Christ was one commonly explored by Christian platonists, such as Ficino for example:

"Therefore when lately I come to that Platonic mystery where he most exquisitely compares the Sun to God Himself, it seemed right to explain so great a matter somewhat more fully, especially since our Dionysius the Areopagite, the first of the Platonists, whose interpretation I hold in my hands, freely embraces a similar comparison of the Sun to God."

"...Having very diligently considered these things, our divine Plato named the Sun the visible son of Goodness itself. He also thought that the Sun was the manifest symbol of God, placed by God himself in this worldly temple so that everyone everywhere could admire it above all else.

"... There is nothing in the world more like the divine trinity than the Sun. For in the one substance of the Sun a certain three-foldness exists, distinct in its parts yet united. Firstly a natural fecundity which is completely hidden from our senses, secondly, a manifest light flowing out of this fecundity, ever equal to it, and thirdly a heating virtue quite equal to both. The fecundity represents the Father; light, likened to intelligence, represents the Son conceived of intelligence; heat stands for the loving spirit. Around this divine trinity our theologians discovered three hierarchies of angels, each one containing three orders. The first consecrated to the Father, the second to the Son, the third to the Spirit. Also around the solar trinity we find similar three-fold and nine-fold orders, since out of that very fertile nature of the Sun, three natural fecundities are generated through everything. The first of them is found in celestial nature, the second in the simple nature of the elements and the third in the nature of mixed things. Furthermore, beyond these natures both life and that three-fold order are propagated far and wide from the vital heat of the Sun. The first is vegetable as in plant-forms, the second is responsive but immobile as in zoophytes (plantlike animals), the third is responsive and purposively mobile as in more perfect living things, that is, animals.

“...I certainly would dare to affirm that Socrates in his state of ecstasy had admired not just the visible Sun, but its other, hidden aspect. For since novelty alone encourages admiration, why would Socrates be so amazed at what he saw everyday, whose movement and all power mathematics and physics have for a long time comprehended? According to Plato, he called the Sun not God himself but the son of God. And I say not the first son of God, but a second, and moreover visible son. For the first son of God is not this visible Sun, but another far superior intellect, namely the first one which only the intellect can contemplate. Therefore Socrates, having been awakened by the celestial Sun, surmised a supercelestial Sun, and he contemplated attentively its majesty, and inspired, would admire the incomprehensible bounty of the Father."

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~alfar2/ficino.htm

Re: The World

12
I found that britannica.com presents some interesting information about Christmas and the connection between Christ and the Sun.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/top ... ef=ref7681

In particular, the article mentions the relation with “Sol Invictus” (Unconquered Sun).


There is no certain tradition of the date of Christ’s birth. Christian chronographers of the 3rd century believed that the creation of the world took place at the spring equinox, then reckoned as March 25; hence the new creation in the incarnation (i.e., the conception) and death of Christ must therefore have occurred on the same day, with his birth following nine months later at the winter solstice, December 25. The oldest extant notice of a feast of Christ’s Nativity occurs in a Roman almanac (the Chronographer of 354, or Philocalian Calendar), which indicates that the festival was observed by the church in Rome by the year 336.
Many have posited the theory that the feast of Christ’s Nativity, the birthday of “the sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2), was instituted in Rome, or possibly North Africa, as a Christian rival to the pagan festival of the Unconquered Sun at the winter solstice. This syncretistic cult that leaned toward monotheism had been given official recognition by the emperor Aurelian in 274. It was popular in the armies of the Illyrian (Balkan) emperors of the late 3rd century, including Constantine’s father. Constantine himself was an adherent before his conversion to Christianity in 312. There is, however, no evidence of any intervention by him to promote the Christian festival. The exact circumstances of the beginning of Christmas Day remain obscure.

Re: The World

13
Pen wrote: Like you, I should have chosen an anonymous new username - it would have spared my blushes on more than one occasion... (*)
I love it when people blurt things out, sometimes great things come of it. I consider history rather plastic in exploration, you can pull it like taffy. Your comment was sensible, just not the truth for an earlier time period. Certainly today I think it valid, that old neoplatonist James T. Kirk obviously did.

I have to remember that this isn't a general forum but a history forum. People will niggle the history to death even though there isn't documentation for something--that's the particular vibe here, kind of like creating cryptograms where you change the code for every word. In that respect, not everyone who thinks they are correct is actually correct, so I wouldn't worry about feeling foolish Pen, it's fair game to say what occurs to you.

Besides, in a very long ago study at AT, I said that Bundie from the Phantasmagoric Theater deck was the Sun, and he is.

Back to The World: Do you know, I rarely pull The World in draws, so it's rather meaningless to me as anything other than "the world at your doorstep." The fact that the symbols of the Evangelists are there on most decks, or a Christ figure (or Christ figure morphed into a woman kind of like the male Indian deity who became the female Quan-Yin), doesn't enter into it for me, which is why I usually don't participate in discussion. You could just as well have Bundie and the Sandtwitchers on there in my mind, it would have more meaning for me.

While interesting to know, after several years I can never remember which symbol is what evangelist--I always mix them up, so finally had to disregard them! If anyone knows a mnemonic to help relate a particular symbol to an evangelist, please post it.
Last edited by cadla on 09 Jan 2010, 13:56, edited 1 time in total.

Re: The World

14
In regards to Tarot de Marseille World- I would like to offer this idea (get ya canons ready to blast me out of the water)

From the 13th Century, but mainly in the 14th in Italy a Biblical story and a Legend became intertwined.
It is the story Of Salome and the legend of Herodias the daughter of Lucifer the Sun and Diana. Diana was a triple goddess and Christianised was like the Trinity.

Anyway the story goes that Salome danced, and for dancing was rewarded with the head of Saint John the Baptist; when she saw the head of John she was remorseful and the mouth of John the Baptist's head on the platter opened up and blew strong winds. These wind from 4 directions (how he did that I do not know :D) blew her up to the sky where she became the Eternal Dancer. Reformed of course and Christianised. It was a statement that the healing of the World (the pagan witches of Italy) would be complete when they became Christian like Salome.

You can see images of Herodias dancing in the sky- mainly as statues- small figurines for the women of Italy from the 14th Century like small versions of the World figure. If you google images of Salome on page three- 4th image along- I cannot see how to link it.
~Lorredan
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: The World

15
An alternative hypotheses is that in the unbreasted figure we have an image of Adam. The breasted version could either be Eve, or an androgynous version of Adam as first Adam, Adam Kadmon [Primal Adam].

We may relate it to the millenarium conception that at the end of the world the jews would convert to Christianity [much of the often cabbalistic based Christian missionary work among Jews was motivated by the desire to bring such about]. In didactic imagery old Adam, Eve, Syngogia or the Shunamite woman were often used to represent the old law, old testament, Judaism. And in exegesis of the Song of Songs for example the Shumanite woman was portrayed with the Jews in train behind her as she riding in a chariot the four wheels of which contain the four symbols of the tetramorph to symbolise the conversion of all to Christianity at the end of time and sharing in the world to come. The conversion of all being also symbolised by the redemption of Eve, who as Mother of All thus symbolised the conversion and redemption of all in the restoration of the cosmos in the world to come. I suggest the image of Eve with the Apostles is cognate with that of the Shunamite women in her Chariot and its wheels and four evangleists.

"It was on New Year's day, when God sits and judges the world, that Elisha was staying in the house of the Shunamite woman. And he said unto her wishest thou that I should speak unto the king for thee, that is, the Holy One who called a King, the King of righteousness, the Holy King. And she said, I dwell amongst mine own people; meaning, I wish not to be remembered or spoken of to the Holy One save as one and along with those with whom I live, so that our deeds and acts may not be judged and examined separately but collectively together." Zohar

The Shunamite woman’s son dies, and is brought back to life by Elisha; she is a woman who lived by faith and representative of those who through faith ‘received back their dead by resurrection.”

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There is also the conflation with the bride, the beloved, of the Song of Songs, performing her bridal dance:

Return, return, O Shulammite!* Return, return, that we may look upon you. What would you see in the Shulammite, as it were the dance between two hosts?

SteveM
*“O Perfect One.” Alternately, “O Shunammite” or “O Shulammite.” The term הַשּׁוּלַמִית (hashshulammit) has been variously translated: “Shulammite maiden” (NEB); “maiden of Shulam” (JB); “O maid of Shulem” (NJPS); “the Shulammite” (KJV; NASB; NIV)....the town of Shunem was also known as Shulem, due to the common interchange between נ (n) and ל (l) in Hebrew (Aharoni, 123), as seen in Eusebius’ Onomasticon in which Shunem = Shulem; and (d) later revisions of the LXX read ἡ Σουναμωτἰ (“the Shunamite”) instead of the Old Greek ἡ Σουλαμωτἰ (“the Shulamite”). Shunem was a town in the Jezreel Valley at the foot of Mount Moreh near Mount Tabor and situated about nine miles east of Megiddo, fifteen miles northwest of Beth-shean, and five miles north of Jezreel (Josh 19:18; 1 Sam 28:4; 2 Kgs 4:8). During the Roman period, the town was called Shulem. See Y. Aharoni, The Land of the Bible, 24, 152, 172, 442, 308

http://net.bible.org/verse.php?book=Sos ... mode=print

Re: The World

16
SteveM wrote:
The Shunamite woman’s son dies, and is brought back to life by Elisha; she is a woman who lived by faith and representative of those who through faith ‘received back their dead by resurrection.”

Image


The Shunamite woman from 12th century exegesis on the Song of Songs by Honorius Augustodunensis, Augsburg University Library, Cod.1.2.2 13, Folio 48 verso. Published in Jews in Christian Art by Schreckenburg. The wheels of her chariot showing the symbols of the tetramorph with the names of the four apostles."
Faith as triumphator is more typical of Protestant that Catholic sensibilities, more commonly as far as I am aware to be found in Protestant adaptions of the triumphal tradition, such as the Triomphe de la Foi (1574) of Guillaume Du Bartas for example:

Faith sits triumphant in a Carr of gold,
Of Tubals making...
Her glorious Charrets rowling wheels are like
The holy wheels the great Ezechiel saw.

Re: The World

17
In this post I want to show a connection between a common 15th century "World" card style and the 17th century Parisian versions by Noblet and Vieville. Here are the d'Este and Charles VI World cards:

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The d'Este is from Ferrara, probably 1470's; the Charles VI is currently thought to be of Florence, perhaps early 1460's. The name "World" first appears in the "Steele Sermon", second half of 15th century, Ferrara area, as a name for its last numbered trump.

For clues on how the card might have been seen at the time, here is a fresco by Lorenzo Costa, an artist from Ferrara, done for the Bentivoglio Chapel, Bologna, around 1490. It is usually called a "Triumph of Fame," or sometimes "The Triumph of Fame (and Fortune). (My source for the color image is Evelyn Welch, Art in Renaissance Italy ).

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This fresco has been discussed extensively in relation to the tarot in a thread on Aeclectic initiated by M J Hurst. However people there did not discuss the main aspect of the fresco that relates to the later French tarot. Hurst began the thread by quoting an analysis of the chapel artworks by David J. Drogin, in "Bologna's Bentivoglio Family and its Artists", an essay in the book Artists at Court, 2004) After first discussing a group portrait of the Bentivoglio and a "Triumph of Death" next to the "triumph of Fame," Drogin says:
The Triumph of Fame (and Fortune) appears to have fewer correspondences between text and image. Warriors and scholars are enumerated in Petrarch's text, however the image yields few clues that permit definitive identification. The painting's most enigmatic feature is the sky-borne tabellone. Here, small figures interact in abbreviated, enigmatic narratives. Deciphering these, Wendy Wegener suggested that the painting conflates a Triumph of Fame -- the natural partner to the Triumph of Death in a Petrarchian framework -- and a Triumph of Fortune, in which the roundel represents a Wheel of Fortune. In it, historical and literary events around its circumference mark degrees of Fortune's favor according to the position on the wheel. The Bentivoglio's interest in Fortune is demonstrated by a tournament in 1490, the same year that Costa painted these scenes. There is a general parallel between these scenes and ones enacted in Bolognese piazze, supported by similarities between festivals and the ceremonial splendor in the paintings. There is also a specific parallel to the 1490 celebrations, as in the painting, Giovanni II, Annibale II, and others appear in Fame/Fortune's entourage, aligning Bentivoglio leaders with Fortune's favors, just as occurred in the spectacle itself.

In the Bentivoglio Chapel, as in Petrarch's poem, fame and its immortality come not only to warriors (as Annibale I and Giovanni II are represented), but also to famous thinkers. Petrarch wrote that, contemplating the warriors in Fame's entourage, he could not take his eyes from them, until a voice encouraged him to look to the side, where he saw renowned philosophers. Standing before the painting, one sees on the left Antongaleazzo's professor tomb. This is, perhaps, a spatial-artistic parallel that demonstrates the range of Bentivoglio success under Fame and Fortune's (and Knowledge's) aegis. This conflation also appears with Giovanni II's figure in the Triumph of Fame (and Fortune), as he is addressed by two figures, one in robe and turban, the other armored with a sword. Nieuwenhuizen suggested that they represent Giovanni's equal interest in the active and contemplative life, or litterae and arma, qualities combined in the ideal prince.
Hurst also quotes an endnote by Drogin listing the legendary or historic personages portrayed in the upper circle. Since that aspect was discussed thoroughly on the Aeclectic thread, I omit it here.

Here is the detail of the Costa painting to which Drogin refers at the beginning of the second paragraph quoted,(in Welch, but not posted by Hurst).

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Likewise, here are the two tombs to which Drogin refers later in the same paragraph (in Drogin, but not posted by Hurst). To the left of the Costa fresco but outside the chapel is the "professor's tomb," for Antongaleazzo Bentivoglio, who had received his Doctorate in Civil Law at the University of Bologna in 1412 and lectured there in Civil Law in 1418-1420. It is typical of a type that had been popular since around 1300. True to type, there is a lecturer holding a book and his students to each side. He was assassinated almost immediately upon becoming "first citizen" of Bologna in 1435.

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Inside the chapel, on the right side, is another tomb, this one of Annibale Bentivoglio. This one is of a condottiere on his horse, a soldier of fortune embarking on his adventure. Annibale had become a condottiere starting quite young, perhaps as early as age 16, in company with his father Antongaleazzo, who had become a condottiere himself after his and his family's exile from Bologna. He was assassinated in 1444 soon after regaining his position as "first citizen" of Bologna after an arduous struggle.

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Thus we have the representatives of the active and the contemplative life, scholars and soldiers, as represented both in Petrarch's poem and in Costa's painting. The woman with the horn in the center of the painting is Fama, identifiable by the horn she is carrying.

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But I do not think that is all she is. The tournament of 1490 to which Drogin refers was a contest between Fortuna and Sapienta, Fortune and Knowledge (or Wisdom). Since Drogin does not mention the Sapienta aspect of the tournament, here is Cecilia Ady's account of the tournament in her book The Bentivoglio of Bologna, p. 171:
On Saint Petronio's Day, 1490, the tournament proper formed the climax of a pageant. The idea originated in a discussion which took place between Annibale Bentivoglio and Niccolo Rangoni, as to whether wisdom or fortune wielded greater influence over the affairs of men. It was in fact a tenzone, in which a contest of words culminated in an appeal to arms. Proceedings opened with the appearance on the Piazza of a triumphal car in which the goddess Sapienza sat enthroned among representatives of ancient wisdom. Behind the car rode Sapienza's champions, headed by Niccolo Rangoni in a sky-blue coat richly embroidered with pearls. The company processed round the Piazza to the sound of pipes and drums, and then made way for the car of the goddess of Fortuna, attended by Annibale Bentivoglio and his band of warriors, arrayed in green. After the processions came verse-speaking in which the two goddesses in turn pleaded their cause with a venerable man in the robes of a doctor of the University. He, having declared his inability to decide between them, made appeal to the judges of the tournament, and at their signal the fighting began. Fortune emerged victorious from the battle, and the palio awarded to the victor was placed in her car. Then amid shouts of 'Sega", 'Annibale', 'Fortuna' the procession passed like a Roman triumph through the streets on its way to the Bentivoglio palace. [Ady's References: Poggio, Cronaca, ff. 48-33. Ghirardacci, Della Historia di Bologna, 1669, Pt. III, pp. 257-62.Other descriptions of the tournament of 1490 are to be found in an anonymous poem (Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna, Ms. 774) and in a letter from Alfonso d'Este to Isabella Gonzaga (Mantua 1882. Per nozze Cavriani-Hercolani).]
In my view the pageant portrays Fama in two aspects, Fortuna and Sapienta. Fortuna wins not on her merits but just because a future ruler, Annibale II, ought to have her on his side. The contest is rigged. Perhaps not coincidentally, the wife of Annibale II, Lucrezia d'Este, is, like the painter Costa, from Ferrara.

There were two kinds of Fama and Sapienta, worldly and eternal. Worldly Fama, fame in the eyes of the world, is transient. In Petrarch's "Trionfi," Fame triumps over Death, but not Eternity. However there was also a saying, quoted by Macchievelli and perhaps said originally by one of the assassins of Galeazzo Sforza just before execution, "Death is brief, but Fame is eternal." I don't think he means to be contradicting Petrarch. He was thinking of Fama in the sense of the English "glory": there is eternal glory as well as worldly glory. On the way to death, the saying reminds us of glory in the eyes of eternity.

Similarly, there was wisdom of the world and the wisdom of God, in the famous contrast by St. Paul in Romans 8:6. Whether there were two kinds of Fortuna I don't know. Usually it was discussed in a worldly context.

Fortuna was conventionally represented as a woman turning a wheel. Fama is not turning the wheel in Costa's frescoe, but she is below one containing people raised or lowered by Fortune. Sapienta, Wisdom, was frequently represented as the goddess Minerva or Athena, goddess of Wisdom. She held a scepter, or lance, and a globe. Here is an example, from Mantua, early 16th century, done for Isabella d'Este Gonzaga, originally of Ferrara.

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In this painting, Minerva's scepter/lance is broken, from expelling the Vices. She stands above a lady personifying the four virtues. This type of portrayal of Minerva/Wisdom was taken up by the city of Florence as its personification, Florentia, as on the coin below. (The essay from which I took this image specifically identifies her as Minerva. I can't find it at the moment. I will locate the reference and put it here.)

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It seems to me that the Charles VI lady is just such a Minerva. She is also Fama.

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In a 16th century Bolognese version of the card (above), a male figure stands above a circle divided into quadrants, suggesting the four elements. There are also the four winds, each of which was identified with a particular element. He is above them, transcending them in the way that the quintessence, the godly element, was said to transcend the four elements of this world. That can either mean to dominate the world, as Fortune, or to rise above it, as Sapienta. He wears a winged helmet, suggesting either the helmet of a conqueror or a cap enabling flight.

Sapienta, in the higher sense, is different from Prudence in that it comes directly from God as his Truth. As such it is the last rung on the celestial ladder to union with God, as shown below (Prudence is one of the lower rungs). Hence the World card is appropriately at the end of the sequence.

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In Greek, Sapienta is Sophia. "Sophia" is a term in the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible for Hochmah, also meaning Wisdom. Sophia, the Wisdom of God, is, in the Hebrew Wisdom literature, the bride of God, hence identifiable with the Shulamite of the Song of Songs.

In Christianity, however, the Wisdom of God was interpreted as Jesus. Here is Sapienta as Jesus. I include an enlargement of the part showing the label "Sapienta."

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A similar pose was taken in paintings called "The Madonna of Mercy." This image, Mary above humans yet covering them, it seems to me, is Mary as Queen of Heaven, another version of the Bride of God. One prays to Mary as well as Jesus for mercy at the Last Judgment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_Mercy)

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In a similar configuration, in the Cary-Yale "World" card, sometimes called "Fama," the lady with the horn stands above the world, as though admiring and honoring the scene below. In the other hand she holds a crown, not far in symbolism or imagery from a globe.

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From the depiction of Sapienta as Jesus and Sophia it is a short step to later, more familiar images.

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Vieville has a male figure in a mandorla (almond), reflecting a conventional representation of Jesus, often with the four evangelists or their characteristic animals in each corner.

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In Noblet, the figure is female but still with masculine features. Likewise, in the 16th century version of the card found in Milan's Sforza Castle (third image above, on the left), the World card figure is more clearly feminine, a characterization that will be repeated by Conver, 1760, and many others. The Virgin Mary , like Jesus, was put in a mandorla; Andrea Vitali shows us an image in his essay on the World card (http://trionfi.com/i/21/v.php, figure 12).
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Thus we have in the World card--among other associations--the masculine and feminine versions of Sapienta. The four winds from the Bologna card are here the four evangelists, each of which was associated with one of the four elements.
Last edited by mikeh on 07 Feb 2010, 06:56, edited 4 times in total.

Re: The World

19
I woke last night to a voice informing me that a flaming orb was the alchemical symbol for reaction (it was a dramatisation on the radio of something by Terry Prachett). I had a slight 'Eureka' moment then, remembering the burning animal in the minchiate decks and the alchemical connection to an almost identical image in an allegorical illustration regarding sulphur/stibnite/antimony on this thread,

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=438

and wondering if the flames held by the figure in the preceding card could reveal an orb on close examination. Well, no, actually. Anyway, I found this while rooting around in Adam McLean's Alchemy catalogue, although the link leads to a differently coloured version of the same engraving.


An interesting image of a naked Christ in glory. Adam writes about it in the catalogue for his exhibition 'Alchemy':
The alchemist and kabbalist Heinrich Khunrath, at the end of the sixteenth century, centres his cosmos firmly on the figure of Christ in glory. Here is one of the great circular engravings from his Amphithetrum sapientiae aeternae 1609.
http://specialcollections.library.wisc. ... osefig.jpg

Pen
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...

Re: The World

20
From a post by robert on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=464&start=20
The cognate in the S series is the Prima Causa:
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I'll be honest, I don't know much about this other than that it represents the "First Cause". I looked it up to see what I should know about it to see how it would relate to the Tarot de Marseille World, and wikipedia says this on the page for the Mantegna:
A (41-50): The seven Spheres of the Sun, Moon and five traditional planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn), the eighth sphere (Octava Spera) of the fixed stars, the Primum Mobile and Prima Causa (God)
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...