Tarot History Forum

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote:See if you get this page of Mullaney -
http://books.google.fr/books?id=X5ms5sM ... co&f=false

I got this, but Mullaney's source is probably the undated electronic source. The Baldo of 1521 creates the problems, it seems rather different to the electronic version (from which I would assume, that it is later).
So far there is no "tarocco" in the 1521 version to me.

1. Electronic version (later than 1521), likely identical to Mullaney-version - with "Zanitonella" and with "Baldo"
http://www.archive.org/stream/lemaccher ... g33982.txt
- has Taroch in glossary of Zantonella
- has Tarocco in Baldo book VI

2. Version of 1521, with a longer and varied "Zanitonella" and with a likely rather different "Baldo" version
"Zanitonella" and with "Baldo"
http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&id=HvM7AAAAcAAJ
- has Taroch in the main text of Zanitonella
- I can't find the "Tarocco" in the Baldo

Please compare the article "new Tarocco".
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=763
I thought it better to keep other Folengo texts outside from the 1427 Triperuno topic.

Generally we have a strange handling from Merlinus-Folengo with the Taroch-Tarocco-Trionfi-cards use.

In the 1527 Triperuno version he uses the old Triumphi name. Folengo (or only Limerno ?) seems to see something positive in it.
In the 1521 version of Zanitonella the speaker Tonella speaks negative about Taroch cards.
In the later electronic version the Taroch has disappeared from the main text of the Zanitonella, but is mentioned in the glossary.
In the later electronic version the term Tarocco appears (Baldo book 6)
It can't be found in the 1521 version.

In 1512 a theater play in Mantova (under the protection of Isabelle d'Este) expresses critique at the new word Taroch. It suggests the old name Ludus Triumphorum. This is in contrast to the use of the word in Ferrara, ruled by <Isabella's brother Alfonso.
Isabella d'Este is still living in 1527. Her son Federico rules in Mantova.

Folengo is as a child in Mantova. Later he is mainly at Venetian territory. In the Zanitonella the speaker Tonelli (1521) speaks with love of Mantova.
In the Baldo there is a figure "Manto". She is "a Fate who gave her name to Mantua; she advises the heroes in book 13. The name is also used as a personification of Mantua."


Picture from the 1521-version. Manto is the dominating female figure at the left.

So Folengo creates a Mantovan sybil ... already in the Baldo. Somehow he uses the association between Mantova and the Greek μαντική - mantikḗ (divination).
This naturally seems of interest, when we consider the Tarocchi-sonnets in 1527 in the Triperuno, which are considered by some as the first example of Tarot card divination.

Folengo in 1524/25 leaves the cloisters. In 1527 he attempts to retire from his earlier sins with approaching the duke Federico of Mantova and the Gonzaga court. As far I get from the life description, this approach didn't really work immediately. But a few years he seems to be accepted again, but now with religious texts.
We can note, that he uses for the Tarocchi cards in 1527 the older expression Trionfi ...

Limerno. Dirottilo ispeditamente. Giá la signora non è cagione propria di questi: ma heri Giuberto e Focilla, Falcone e Mirtella mi condussero in una camera secretamente, ove, trovati ch'ebbeno le carte lusorie de trionfi, quelli a sorte fra loro si divisero; e vòlto a me, ciascuno di loro la sorte propria de li toccati trionfi mi espose, pregandomi che sopra quelli un sonetto gli componessi.

Triperuno. Assai piú duro soggetto potrebbevi sotto la sorte che sotto lo beneplacito del poeta accascare.

Limerno. E questa tua ragione qualche bona iscusazione appresso gli uomini intelligenti recarammi, se non cosí facili, come la natura del verso richiede, saranno. Ora vegnamo dunque primeramente a la ventura ovvero sorte di Giuberto; dopoi la quale, né piú né meno, voglioti lo sonetto di quella recitare, ove potrai diligentemente considerare tutti li detti trionfi, a ciascaduno sonetto singularmente sortiti, essere quattro fiate nominati sí come con lo aiuto de le maggiori figure si comprende:

As already said, there was discussion in Mantova about the right name for these cards in 1512. We see, that the "Taroch" word in the later edition of the Zanitonella disappears, and so isn't attacked by the speaker Tonelli.

Well ... it's interpreted, that Limerno meets 4 persons Giuberto, Focilla, Falcone and Mirtella. But then later only Giuberto is mentioned. Who are these four?

"Baldo" is the son of Guido and Berta is his wife. Together this sounds a little bit like "Giuberto". Baldo (which seems to be associated to "Fool") got his name from Baldovina, his mother, the daughter of a French king. "Falcone" might be an association to the half-men-half-dog, Falchetta (which seems to be also called Falco). The other both ... Focilla and Mirtella , I don't know.
We have a Giuberto in the Baldo-text. Mullaney translates him with Gilbert. He appears in book 13, and he is "pacifist musician and song-writer, one of Baldo's friends, dear to Seraphus." And Seraphus is "a wizard, prophet and poet who aids the heroes but also plays tricks on them. He composes a poem on the death of the cow Chiarina.". And Chiarina is "a cow".
Giubertus appears in book 13, and 13 is the middle of 25 (and 25 books has the story of Baldo) and 13 is the number of the Tarot card "Death". And Balbo meets his father, who has become a blind eremit. And Guido dies, and Giubertus plays a significant role, cause his music playing opens the door to a new development. Guido dies, an earthquake comes and it only stops, when Baldo enter the door to a specific room. There is Guido as if he would be alive, and there are 30 chairs. Why 30? The 30 plays a role in the Triperuno.
In the plot it is necessary, that Guido dies. Otherwise Seraphas wouldn't appear.

Well, that's the electronic version, and I've reason to assume, that this version is from 1552, but naturally finished by Folengo before his death in 1544.

From a dictionary:




From the Mullaney text:


For the "genesis of the Triperuno" understanding likely the version of 1552 likely isn't very interesting. The earlier versions would be of interest. But likely there isn't a translation.

Here we have Giubertus with Seraphas.



Before Guido the blind hermit and Baldo-father is telling his story and he dies.



Between the both pictures appears a devil and a journey with a ship. Here's the devil Rubicanus (likely associating the river "Rubicon") ...



Who's Serafus or Seraphus or Seriphas? Giubertus clearly has Apollo character and from Apollo (sun) to Zarathustra (fire) it isn't far. That now just Giubertus alias "somehow Apollo (also god of divination)" is drawn into the Tarocchi divination in the Triperuno is indeed a "speaking detail" of some interest.

A little later than Giubertus and Serafus comes the meeting with Merlinus Cocai, the author himself:



... and the last picture is a scene in hell, somehow strongly pointing to the Theseus and Peirithoos story.



We.. ... the English version is difficult to read with all its interruptions.

Huck wrote

I gave it, though earlier, not with the page picture. Okay, I add it, also there, that it is found. But here it is, the edition of 1546.
http://books.google.de/books?id=nyQ8AAA ... &q&f=false

Thanks. Scrolling through these images of the 1546 "Caos," especially the beginning and the end, I see no "Indice," much less one with 22 sections. I would assume that Renda used this edition for his version; generally editors respect an author's revisions. So unless evidence can be found to the contrary, I would conclude that the division into exactly 22 sections is Renda's contribution. Perhaps he wanted us to discover something he saw but did not feel it was his place to speculate about. And so a hundred years later...

I would say, that - after some studies about the surrounding of the text and about the earlier time of Folengo - some confirmation has developed, that the hypothesis doesn't lead in the wrong direction. But anyway, you're right, we should see the original of 1527.

I add for later readers, that part of the research is presented in the topic "new early "Tarocco" note" ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=763

Further I point to this source, which partly offers a good overview, for instance to the Orlandino text ..
http://www.freefictionbooks.org/books/r ... ?start=151

Folengo has told us that the _Orlandino_ was conceived and written before the _Maccaronea_, though it was published some years later. It is probable that the rude form and plebeian language of this burlesque romance found but little favor with a public educated in the niceties of style. They were ready to accept the bastard Latin dialect invented for his second venture, because it offended no puristic sensibilities. But the coarse Italian of the _Orlandino_ could not be relished by academicians, who had been pampered with the refinements of Berni's wanton Muse.[389] Only eight cantos appeared; nor is there reason to suppose that any more were written, for it may be assumed that the fragment had fulfilled its author's purpose.[390] That purpose was to satirize the vice, hypocrisy and superstition of the clergy, and more particularly of the begging friars. In form the _Orlandino_ pretends to be a romance of chivalry, and it bears the same relation to the _Orlando_ of Boiardo and Ariosto as the _Secchia Rapita_ to the heroic poems of Tasso's school. It begins with a burlesque invocation to Federigo Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, in which the poet bluntly describes his poverty and begs for largess. Then Folengo passes to an account of his authorities and to the criticism of his predecessors in romantic poetry. He had recourse, he says, to a witch of Val Camonica, who mounted him upon a ram, and bore him to the country of the Goths. There he found forty decades of Turpin's history among the rubbish of old books stolen from Italy. Of these, three decades had already been discovered and translated by Boiardo; but, after versifying a large portion of the second, the poet left the rest of it to Ariosto. The sixth was stolen from him by Francesco Bello. The last he gave with his own hands to Poliziano, who put it into rhyme and allowed Pulci to have the credit of his labors.[391] Folengo himself took a portion of the first decade, and thus obtained material for treating of the birth and boyhood of Orlando. This exordium is chiefly valuable as a piece of contemporary criticism.

Further I think, that focussing the Triperuno naturally involves the general "Macaronic movement".
This German article I think good ...

Maccaronische Poesie (Maccheronische Poesie), nannte man ursprünglich scherzhafte lateinische Gedichte, in welche Wörter der jedesmaligen Nationalsprache des Dichters mit lateinischen Endungen eingestreut waren, um einen komischen Effect hervorzubringen, od. überhaupt eine auf Vermischung der Sprachen gestützte Art der komischen Poesie. Als Erfinder derselben wird Typhis Odaxius (Tifi degli Odasi) aus Padua (gest. 1488) genannt, dessen wiederholt in Venedig gedrucktes Gedicht La Maccharonea zu den größten Seltenheiten gebört. Poetische Bedeutung erhielt die M. P. aber zuerst durch Teofilo Folengo (od. De Folenghi aus Cipada bei Mantua, geb. 8. Nov. 1491, trat 1507 in ein Benedictinerkloster, lebte dann mit einer schönen Frau als Abenteurer in verschiedenen Orten Italiens, kehrte jedoch 1557 zum Mönchsleben zurück u. st. 9. Dec. 1544 im Kloster Santa Croce di Campese). Sein Hauptwerk ist das Gedicht von den Thaten des Baldo da Cipada in 25 Büchern, eine Parodie der Äneis; diesem schließen sich die [663] Ekloge Zanitonella, die Moscheis od. Moscäa (herausgeg. von Genthe, Eisl. 1846, deutsch von Hans Christoph Fuchs, Schmalkalden 1580, dann 1600, Strasb. 1612), ein heroisch-komisches Gedicht vom Ameisen- u. Mückenkrieg in drei Büchern, u. das Chaos del Triperuno an; seine Macaronica gab er unter dem Pseudonym Merlinoes Cocqius 1517 heraus (Vened. 1530, Amst. [Mantua] 1768–1771, 2 Bde.) u. erklärte in der Einleitung den Namen M. P. daher, daß er zu ihr, wie zu den Maccaroni verschiedene Mischtheile genommen würden, das Lateinische mit dem Italienischen vermischte. Nach Folengo traten Guarini Capella, der Piemontese Giovanni Aglione od. Ariane aus Asti (1490–1560), Bartolommeo Bolla aus Bergamo (um 1570), Bernardinus Stephonius (gest. 1620), Andrea Bajani u. Cesare Orsini aus dem Genuesischen (um 1630), als maccaronische Dichter auf, doch reicht nur der Letztgenannte an den unübertroffenen Folengo hinan. Der erste u. zugleich auch beste maccaronische Dichter der Franzosen war Antonius de Arena, auch Sablon od. de la Sable genannt (aus Souliers in der Provence, gest. 1544), ein gelehrter Jurist, dessen Satyre auf den Kriegszug Karls V. gegen Frankreich am meisten geschätzt wird. Sonst haben noch die bekannten Dichter Remy Belleau, Etienne Tabourot u. Eduard du Monin sich in dieser Dichtungsart versucht, doch wurden dieselben von Janus Cäcilius Frey (aus Kaiserstuhl in Baden, gest. 1631), dem Leibarzt der Katharina von Medici, übertroffen, welcher in einem maccaronischen Gedichte den Aufruhr der Winzer des Dorfes Ruel u. der Häscher von Paris besang. Maccaronische Satyren lieferten auch Hotoman, Beza, Lichiard u. Andere. Die in dem dritten Zwischenspiel zu Molières Malade imaginaire vorkommenden Verse sind mehr Küchenlatein als maccaronisch. In Deutschland hat diese possenhafte Dichtungsart, zu welcher wahrscheinlich das Mönchslatein des Mittelalters Veranlassung gab, keinen festen Boden gewinnen können; das bedeutendste Denkmal derselben ist die Flohiade (s.d.), da das Gedicht Lustitudo studentich kein wirkliches Maccaronisch enthält. Einige maccaronische Stellen finden sich in Fischarts Geschichtsklitterung (Cap. 22). In England sind John Skelton, der Schotte William Drummond u. der katholisch-theologische Alex. Geddes (gest. 1802) als maccaronische Dichter zu nennen; einzelne Versuche sind auch aus Spanien u. Portugal bekannt. Vgl. Genthe, Geschichte der M-n Poesie u. Sammlung ihrer wichugsten Denkmale, Halle u. Lpz 1829; Eichstädt, De poesi maccaronica, Jena 1831.

http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/pierer/160/Maccaronische

It just offers a lot of connected names, otherwise not delivered. For instance I see "Antonius de Arena, auch Sablon od. de la Sable", who's connected to the 1512 theater play in Mantoa/Verona. Also Alione (Ferragu/Taroch) an Tabourot (the French list about Tarot use from Ross). Further some very interesting German authors, which will give me something to do.

The 22th chapter of Fischart you can see here ...
http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Fischar ... 2.+Capitel
... and you can attempt your translation program, and you will have some fun from it ... :-)
But Nothing about Tarot. Fischart is a German 16th century James Joyce, only a little more exaggerated... although he "only" translates Rabelais.

Anyway, it helped to find this treasure ...
books.google.de/books?id=VHsrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA94
... which as a begin gave me this both snippets:


a note about a problem with the "30th year" of the author


a list of not published works of Folengo

Well, I've to read something ...

Huck wrote: In 1512 a theater play in Mantova (under the protection of Isabelle d'Este) expresses critique at the new word Taroch. It suggests the old name Ludus Triumphorum. This is in contrast to the use of the word in Ferrara, ruled by <Isabella's brother Alfonso.
Isabella d'Este is still living in 1527. Her son Federico rules in Mantova.

Remember that Vigilio's 1512 play is presumed to be preserved by Marino Sanudo, and is otherwise lost. Sanudo's text is not the same dialogue as that from Vigilio (father or son) in 1532-34 which contains the portion about tarocchi and triumphs.

As I wrote on AT in November -

"Most interesting perhaps is that he has Petrarch naming the game "Triumphs"! It's also important as the only explicit witness to the name change from triumphs to tarocchi.

But, on the date, I think this quote comes from the 1532-34 play Italia e Mantua, and not Vigilio's lost dialogue performed in 1512. If you read Vitali's text closely, you'll see that Carlo Dionisotti and Tania Basile, the editors of "Italia e Mantua" contained in Scritti di storia della letteratura italiana (vol. 1 (2008))
http://books.google.com/books?ei=rMeyTs ... rch_anchor
attribute the preservation of the 1512 dialogue to Marino Sanudo (Vitali's article, par. 5).

The dialogue Comoedia Veronae habita coram reverendissimo Gursensi Cesareo oratore et gubernatore ("A Comedy of Verona, Held in the Presence of the Most Reverend Imperial Orator and Governor of Gurk" [Matthew Lang]) is in volume 15 of I Diarii di Marino Sanuto
http://www.archive.org/details/idiariid ... 35sanugoog
- columns 146-151.

It does not contain anything like the stuff about barbarous words in the later dialogue.

It goes like this:

1512 - Dialogo de Italia by Francesco "Mantovano" Vigilio - lost.
1512 - Marino Sanudo, Comoedia Veronae habita coram reverendissimo Gursensi Cesareo oratore et gubernatore, probably a close version of the lost Vigilio text, preserved in his diaries.
1532-34 - Italia e Mantua, published by Dionisotti and Basile, contains the triumphorum-tarocchi reference.

It doesn't really matter, but it would have a little more urgency if it were earlier, as a snobbish plea for the old, dignified name right at the time the name of game was changing, and like Berni, providing evidence of its real meaning. By the 1540s, Alciato was inventing a fanciful Greek etymology for the word tarocco, and in the 1560s, the Anonymous commentator invented yet another."

http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=10

Huck wrote:This post has developed from the Fama Sol thread ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=747&p=10850&hilit= ... tia#p10850

Framed Story: TEOFILO FOLENGO
CAOS DEL TRIPERUNO Dialogo de le tre etadi ... (1527)

Giove, Nettuno, Pluto d'un Saturno
ebber a sorte il ciel, il mar, l'inferno;
fulmini, denti, teste in lor governo:
tre trine insegne per tre cause fûrno.
Tre fonti, oltra le tre del mio Liburno,
nacquer d'un capo santo al sbalzo terno:
cosí Merlino, Fúlica, Limerno
si calcian d'un Teofil il coturno.
Mantoa sen ride e parla con Virgilio:
— Tu sei pastor, agricola, soldato,
perché del nòmer terno Dio s'allegra.
Ridi tu meco ancora, dolce filio,
quando che sotto un nome triplicato
sortisca una confusa mole e pegra.

Yes, right plenty of peudonyms.

Caos del Tri per uno means chaos of the three for one.

It's a difficult text. I try to contribute with a would be translation .

Saturn's sons Juppiter, Neptune and Pluto
received the sky, the sea, the hell;
thunders, teeth, heads under their command:
three trine insignias for three causes were.
Three spings, beyond the three ones of my Liburno,
sprang from a saint head to triple jump :
so Merlin, Fulica, Limerno
kick the cothurnus of a Teofilo.
Mantua laughs and speaks to Virgil :
- You are shepard, peasnt, soldier
because God cheers the trine name.
Laugh with me again, sweet son,
when under a tripled name
is endowed a confused and slaggish mass.

Comment : three and trine all over the stanza. Liburno was the old name of Dalmatia, an Adriatic sea area. I have no idea who was the owner of the saint head, may be Athena. Merlin, Fulica and Limerno are three Folengo's names : Merlin Coccai and Limerno Pitocco are Folengo pseudonymus, Fulica is the latin name of a bird, in Italian called "fòlaghe". I surmise that Folengo is an adjective of fòlaghe. Mantua is Virgil's and Folengo's hometown. The final vers is a manifesto : Folengo wants his poem to be confused and slaggish. And it is !

The bird association is new to me.

My wordbook has "fòlaghe" as "Folaga" and it translates it as "Blässhuhn". I think it is this one ...



Mantova is at a lake, and at lakes these birds are not rare. Folengo presents a sort of heraldic in his book ...



... from which it is said "old Mantovan". Are these 3 Folagas? Is this true with the old Moantovan heraldic?

The German name Blässhuhn finishes with a -huhn, which is a hen. The male part would be a cock .. in English. Folengo uses the similar word Coccai as pseudonym.

Recently we discussed the word "Coquille", a French printing error. Here ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=754&p=10773&hilit=Coquille#p10773
The possibly inventing user of the word used it as as pseudonym for his authorship of a text in which the word "taroc" appeared ...

http://books.google.fr/books?id=XmQ7AAA ... oc&f=false
by "Seigneur de la Coquille" in c. 1580

Possibly an indirect reference to Merlinus Coccaius?

The German word Blässhuhn starts with a Bläss- ... , which comes from "Blasen" and this has sexual association (modern English "blow job) for "oral sex".
Two days ago I wrote this ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=763&p=10893&hilit= ... nis#p10893
... in relation to this passage in the opening of the Baldo ...



... in which I analyzed a very sexual composition of 5 pseudo names of scholars, who detected writings of Merlinus Coccai in Armenia (somehow in a cavern of the region of dea Syria - similar to Venus).

But "cock" is English.
Cuccù for German "Kuckuck" or English "cuckoo" is very similar, well known for his quality to smuggle the own eggs in foreign nests. And Cuccù is the name of a card game ... since when? The game is very old, I remember, earlier used as a dice game, yes, right in Bologna 13th century. But since when it runs under the name Cuccù ? I remember ...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=714&p=10404&hilit=Gnav#p10404

For the game Malcontento:

I got the information (thanks to Franco Pratesi), that a recent article in IPSC, vol 39, p. 232-33 (2011) by Kimihiko Kuromiya asked and answered a similar question: "A note on the history of Cuccù".

According this "al Malcontento" presents another name of Cuccù. It's assumed, that Cuccù developed in France around 1490. The text of Luigi Tansillo 1547 is seen as the first sign, that the game had reached Italy.

http://www.pagat.com/cuckoo/index.html

The text offers another link to the text of Tansillo:
http://books.google.fr/books?id=rlg0AAA ... &q&f=false

The article points to the author Saverio Franchi:
"Le carte del cucu - un antico gioco europeo sopravvisto a Montorio", Cassa di Risparmio della Provincia di Teramo (ed.), "La valle dell'alto Vommano d i monte della laga", Pescara: Carsa Edizioni, 1991 (Documenti dell'Abruzzo Teramano III, 1), pp. 93-115

Saverio Franchi thinks, that the game is older. He thinks, that "al Malcontento" alias Cuccù has developed from a dice (or "taxilli") game Gnaffus, which was noted twice in Bologna 1250 and 1286. Gnav is still an expression for games of the cuckoo group.
Compare: http://www.pagat.com/cuckoo/gnav.html
Generally it's assumed, that special cuckoo cards weren't used in the early time.

Franchi lives near Teramo, which earlier had close relations to Naples. Cuccù is still played in the region, so Franchi's interest developed.

Cuccu cards
http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks02/d00590/d00590.htm
http://www.endebrock.de/coll/pages-de/d1528.html
***************

Gnav - Malcontento (1547) - Cuccù
... but "It's assumed, that Cuccù developed in France around 1490."

Merlinus Coccai entered the world 1517, short after France took Milan again after September 1515.

Luigi Tansillo used 1547 the term "Il Malcontento". 1547 was the death of Francis, king of France 1515-1547. Surely the Cuccù was "malcontent" then - Francis hadn't gotten Milan.

I get for the Malcontento:

"Ecco perché, in virtù di quanto fin qui argomentato, dubbia rimane l’ipotesi che
Tansillo possa aver fatto ancora ricorso al registro lascivo, seppur limitatamente nel capitolo
XVII, l’unico datato con certezza perché accompagnato da una dedicatoria del 10
settembre 1547. I ternari sono dedicati al nano del Principe di Bisignano e costituiscono un elogio al gioco del Malcontento "

For Francis I

Francis I (French: François Ier) (12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547)

That's a half year difference, enough time to write a poem. Luigi Tansillo was at the court of Naples and the principe of Bisignano was also from the region of Naples and Naples belonged to the Spanish Habsburgers, and these were not really unlucky about the death of the decades long enemy. Reason enough to transform a game which was connected to the earlier enemy.

... .-) ... you initiate interesting ideas, Girolamo.

Merlinus Coccai had a French orientation, at least in their years in Italy, and he was loved in France. Still cardinal Mazarin, another playing card friend, knew lots of his verses by heart about 100 years after Coccai's death, I've read.

For

Giove, Nettuno, Pluto d'un Saturno
ebber a sorte il ciel, il mar, l'inferno;
fulmini, denti, teste in lor governo:
tre trine insegne per tre cause fûrno.
Tre fonti, oltra le tre del mio Liburno,
nacquer d'un capo santo al sbalzo terno:
cosí Merlino, Fúlica, Limerno
si calcian d'un Teofil il coturno.
...

GirolamoZorli wrote

Saturn's sons Juppiter, Neptune and Pluto
received the sky, the sea, the hell;
thunders, teeth, heads under their command:
three trine insignias for three causes were.
Three spings, beyond the three ones of my Liburno,
sprang from a saint head to triple jump :
so Merlin, Fulica, Limerno
kick the cothurnus of a Teofilo.
...

And so on. Very good. It is close in meaning to Mullanney's, p. 12 at http://www.scribd.com/doc/50190814/Tota ... quote]Jove, Neptune, Pluto, from one Saturn divided up the sky, sea, underworld;under their control were lightning bolts, teeth, heads; there were three trine insignia for three causes.Three fountains, in addition to the three of my Libernio, were born at the third shake of a holy head; thus Merlino, Fulica, and Limerno put on the buskin of a Teofilo. ...[/quote]
Limerno is speaking these lines.

It is good to have two translations; it gets an English-speaker closer to the original. Here are Mullaney's comments and my thoughts, about hers and yours.

Mullaney says that Pluto had three heads; hence (my thought) he is one of the "triple insignia," the one pertaining to "heads."

However that doesn't explain the "were born at the third shake of a holy head." Mullaney thinks that the saint is Paul, who spoke of someone being raised to the third heaven. I disagree. By "saint head" (or "holy head") I think he means, partly, one of those saint's heads that kept on preaching even after the saint was decapitated. St. Louis comes to mind. He uses the same expression in Baldo, and there Mullaney interprets it correctly (sorry, I don't remember where in Baldo). Here I think Folengo also means Jove's head, from which Athena was born, as perhaps you meant to say. He is that Athena, goddess of wisdom; but in his case there are three births, one for each of the three personae.

I had not noticed the "Liberno" spelling in Renda's edition before. Mullaney has "Libernio." She says that Liburnio was a fellow poet, Niccolo Libernio, who published Le tre fontane in 1526, one year before Caos. Given the reference to three fountains "in addition to the three of my Liburnio" (or "beyond the three ones of my Liberno"), she is probably right.

Mullaney translates "coturno" as "buskin." Both are pretty unfamiliar words to me. A "cothurnus" (in English) is (1) the type of sandal worn by a Greek tragedian, and (2) the "dignified, somewhat stilted style of ancient tragedy" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cothurnus). So the three personae are going to kick the stilted style of Teofilo. A "buskin" is, in addition, a liturgical stocking, since the 8th century worn only by bishops(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buskin). Teofilo, i.e. Teofilo Folengo, had been (and would become again) a monk, but hardly a bishop.

GirolamoZorli wrote

Fulica is the latin name of a bird, in Italian called "fòlaghe". I surmise that Folengo is an adjective of fòlaghe.

Excellent comment, catching the meaning of "Fulica" and its relationship to "Folengo." That was new to me, too. Mullaney doesn't comment on that, and she's usually good explaining the meaning of names. Folengo even treats "Fulica" as the name of a waterfowl. On p. 1 of the translation, the Hexasticon (six-lined poem), commenting on the birds on the coat of arms, says

...And which one visits the pinnacle of the sun, like the bird of love? It is Fulica, as it plays in the water of its Mincio...

Or in the original

Nam quae Solis adit veluti iovis Ales acumen?
Est Fulicae ut Minti ludat in amne sui.

For the word "grattarognis" or "grata rognis" or "Gratarognis" (all three versions in Baldo editions, likely cause nobody knew, what he had to do with this word) I've meanwhile this state:

Buttadeus grattarognis (used in the 1517 edition of Baldo)
... with my suspicion that Gra-Tarog-Nis might refer to Taroch in a sort of Mockery

The Italian verb "gratare" or "grattare", meaning to scratch, to rubble, to grate

Gratarola
... a tool in the kitchen, connected to scratching, occasionally used as word by Folengo .... ??? possibly used to make Macaroni, an Italian pasta, which possibly participated in the creation of the term Macaronea



Le Gratticie
... title of a not printed work of Teofilo Foligno (it's given to Folengo, but might be also of another author)



Grattaculo
with "culo" meaning "ass" and Grattaculo meaning "Ass-Scratcher"



... and as such it appears in a Venetian version of the Cuccù game, otherwise according Franco Pratesi in IPCS 19, p. 76, also called Cacaccio with the meaning of dysentery. This card is the lowest of the 20 Cuccù-cards:

0 Grattaculo or Cacaccio (lowest)
00 Mascherone
000 Secchia
0000 Nulla
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
11 Taverna
12 Gnaff
13 Salta
14 Tuffo (Venetia: Bragon)
15 Cuccù (highest)
outside of the row: Matto

Naturally the lowest card has a very special role. The motif of the ass-scratcher is also found variously in older German playing cards (c. 1520-40), then integrated in the usual suits:





The Venetian picture of the ass scratcher is of a younger date. Franco Pratesi notes: "In the Jesuit collection of manuscripts at the National gallery in Rome some ancient cucù drawings are kept, which are older than most of the preserved cucù packs (Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Ms. Ges. 1364, cc. 59r-63r)". However, Franco's article c. 1990 was focused on 18th-20th century.
The article of Kimihiko Kuromiya 2011 (IPSC 39, p. 232) is much further developed, so there were improvements in this research field in the meantime. Kuromiya refers to Thierry Depaulis (L'as de Trèfle No. 11, 1981 p. 23-24; IPSC 24, p. 38-42) Anthony Smith (IPSC 19, p. 93-103; IPCS 20, p. 22-28), Franco Pratesi (as already mentioned) and Dan Glimne (Kortspelshandboken, Wahlströms, 1996).

The IPSC article of Depaulis is reachable ... and so I read, that Malcontento (or similar) had been the early name, not Cuccù. In a rough way Depaulis structured in his summary the development ...

16th century: Malcontento or similar
17th century: Hèri
18th century: Cuccù or Cuco

... according which Cuccù as name of the game appears rather late and .... my fine speculation drops in the sand. ... :-) ... This naturally changes the situation.

However, Rabelais (1534) knows a game "Cuco" and he lists it as not far from "Malcontento", so he knows both as two different games and it isn't the same for him ...

a la triumphe
a la picardie
au cent
a lespinay
a la malheureuse
au fourby
a passe dix
a trente et ung
a pair et sequence
a troys cens
au malheureux
a la condemnade
a la charte uirade
au maucontent
au lansquenet
au cocu
a qui a si parle
a pille,nade,iocque,fore
a mariaige
au gay
a lopinion
a qui faict lung faict laultre
a la sequence
au luettes
au tarau
..

Rabelais should have known at least a few of Folengo's texts ... they were possibly about the same age, and it even can't be completely excluded, that they once met.
But Depaulis' net seems rather full of with "mécontent", "maucontent", "malcontent" ... also he mentions a game Cartaccia, which should have been a similar game (and sounds similar to the card name "cacaccia", which was mentioned by Franco Pratesi as lowest value card), which appeared first 1510 in a letter of Macchiavelli and a few times later. Other names are "Gnav" and ""Hexenspiel", and perhaps a few other names, which aren't identified.

Well, and there is some similarity of Cuccù to the somehow fictive "Trionfi games with 20 special cards" ... this is also a greater problem.

Right, re-reading my translation I find few typos. Sorry about my English. Spings are springs, of course. I prefer the more poetic spring to fountain, but it doesn't really matter. I wrote fòlaghe instead of the more correct folaga, the accent to help foregniers' correct pronounciation. Why the plural folaghe and not folaga I don't know - I was possibly asleep already.
Interesting the translation of the springs/fountains created by three holy head nods. It could be right. I understand that the three fountains fell three steps down. A three step waterfall. In my Hazon dictionary, sbalzo is translated bound, jump, leap.
Folaga is translated coot, morhen. I have no idea what those birds are, I am a townboy. Right, Mantua it's on the Mincio and Po rivers confluence forming a lake. So folaga could be a water bird. The Folengo's coat of arms is difficult to check, as they weren't noble and I have access only to noble families' coats. If my conjecture about the relation Folengo-folaga is correct, folaga should be in the coat.

Ah, the sandal. In Italian, coturno is the italianisation of the Greek tragedy shoe that raised the actors. That shoe had a very hig sole, it was a kind of clog. It was so high, that was impossible tu use. I believe that coturno is only that specific shoe and nothing else.