Huck wrote: The major message of the document should be, that Francesco didn't get a Trionfi deck ... this tells, the deck type wasn't very far spread.

What I get from the letters is that Francesco knew that fine triumphs were available already made, and hoped Trecho could find some. It seems that he couldn't. I imagine that "the finest" kind weren't too common, but might be found on short notice. But it says nothing of the less fine kind, the same kind that Marcello received as a gift. Francesco didn't want those, and Marcello didn't find his first pack good enough for Queen Isabelle, and so goes looking for cardmakers who have better ones. Marcello's attitude in this instance was the same as Francesco's - he only wants the best, not the common ones.

I imagine that the finest kind weren't even as fine as those commissioned specially. But they might have been like those Francesco Acerbi had in 1465, and Giovanni di Rodolfo di Alemagna recognized as having been stolen from him in Bologna in 1459.

Thanks for the further elaborations on Francesco's letter and the suggestions on "ruff," guys. Googling the word, I can see where it comes from. I have been trying to pursue further the objection by Ross regarding the clothing style of the CY as anachronistic. Ross wrote,

Those were interesting considerations on the clothing. I'm not sure if it were anachronistic by the mid-1440s, or if that style persisted in Milan. The Lancelot of the Lake (Palatino 556) drawings, clearly by the same artist as the Cary Yale and PMB, and almost universally held to be by Bonifacio Bembo

I agree that the Lancelot drawings are by the same artist as the CY and the PMB, and that the artist is of the Bembo workshop. Evelyn Welch in 1996 (Dictionary of Art, entry on "Bonifacio Bembo") challenged the definite attribution to Bonifacio of these works and most of the surviving others attributed to him; while they are all by the same artist, it is not clear which of the Bembo did them. Welch even denies that the so-called "Longhi Triptych" is definitely by him, even though a payment document shows Galeazzo Maria paying Bonifacio Bembo for a painting of "St. Grisante," as the triptych in question is probably not of that saint. There were several Bembo in that family workshop, including one Ambroxio, definitely documented and with an sketch on the same accounts-page as his name in 1450, likely by him and in the same style as the bunch whose attribution Welch questions. I posted the sketch earlier. Tolfo mentions Ambroxio, too, as a possible candidate, and a Lorenzo Bembo as well, but I don't know anything about him. Kaplan (Vol. 2 p. 138) mentions Ambrogio (i.e. Ambroxio), Andre, Girolama. and father Giovanni.

The short, overly simplistic answer to your counter-example of the Lancelot drawings is that they, too, are anachronistic. They are meant to illustrate stories from a bygone era. Bonificacio Bembo was hired by Francesco specifically for his skill in recreating the old style, according to Welch. One may assume that others of the family could do so as well.

But there remains the issue of how we tell when an artist is being anachronistic and when he is not. A clear example of anachronism is Marco Zoppo's sketches, dated variously between the mid-1460's and mid-1470s, Bologna or Venice, for a Venetian patron. Lilian Armstrong, (Paintings and Drawings of Marco Zoppo 1976, notices a similarity between Zoppo's sketches and Pisanello's. But how was that possible? She decides that Zoppo must have seen the frescoes Pisanello did in Venice (now conveniently lost), which would have had such clothing. Pisanello was Gentile da Fabriano's assistant on that project, 1415-1420. There is also the question of whether Pisanello, once he became known for certain costumes, repeated these costumes at his patrons' request, thus becoming an anachronistic painter himself.

Another example of anachronistic costuming, I would argue, is the PMB, which has many examples of the same clothing style as the CY, especially in the courts, but also some in which the style is attenuated, like the Love card. The PMB copies repeat the same anachronistic clothing as the PMB.

An interesting case is the Brera-Brambilla (BB). It seems to me that this is an authentic deck of the 1437-1447 period, and that the dress, while somewhat anachronistic, is not trying so hard. Thus if we compare the BB King of Batons and the Biedak Kings of Cups, we see that the clothing style of the Biedak, with its wide gown of many folds (like the PMB), in that regard looks older than that of the BB. (According to one website on costume history, in 15th century Italy, clothing tended more to fit the body than before. That provided more work for tailors, who no longer produced the "one size fits all" robes of before, and also more room for variations of fashion, thus showing off the wealth of the wearer. Thus the fashion industry was born.)



The Biedak (Kaplan vol. 1 p. 105) is of course quite late, as it is the mirror image of the von Bartsch (p. 101), which has a Temperance lady quite similar to that of the PMB "added cards." (I probably should have posted the von Bartsch here; but I had the Biedak plus BB already in my bank of images.)

Other features show the BB to be older than the CY. The curved swords, following their Mamluk models, are in an older style than the straight ones of the CY. Tolfo assumed that the CY was older than the BB. Yet the BB's older-looking style puzzled even her, someone not usually not bothered when theory conflicts with facts.

Il miniatore è più attento ai particolari della moda che non ai dettagli anatomici (le mani sono inesistenti o grassissime, le gambe dei cavalieri sembrano aggiunte per caso).

Sul Due di Denari, accanto allo scudo col Biscione compare la scritta Dux Mediolani et Comes e Filippus Maria Anglus I semi di Denari esibiscono il recto e il verso delle nuova moneta coniata da Filippo Maria nel 1436, col cavallo impennato.

Sull'Asso di Frecce e di Spade: a bon droyt e phote mante ( il faut maintenir).

La corona piumata è sulla gualdrappa del Cavaliere di Denari, il capitergium cum gassa su quella del Cavaliere di Frecce e la colombina raggiata su quella del Cavaliere di Coppe.

Gli abiti sono cambiati rispetto al mazzo precedente, perché le mantelle sono chiuse alle maniche. In compenso i tessuti sfoggiano motivi decorativi vegetali, non araldici, come nel mazzo ora alla Yale University. Il cappello dell'imperatore, un colbacco dipinto realisticamente dal Pisanello , è in questo mazzo un copricapo che sembra un ventaglio, non può stare in testa. Il bastone di comando è un'asticella rossa, quasi invisibile.

Se non fosse per la moneta nuova di Filippo Maria, sembrerebbe il mazzo più vecchio, che risente dello stile di Gentile da Fabriano. Non venne dipinto per una particolare occasione, ma è di committenza viscontea. (http://www.storiadimilano.it/Arte/carte_gioco.htm)

My machine-assisted translation:

...The illuminator is more attentive to the details of fashion than to the anatomical details (the hands are nonexistent or very fat, the legs of the riders seem to add to the case).

The Two of Coins, next to the Alfa shield, with the inscription appears Mediolani Dux et Comes and Maria Filippus Anglus. The suit of Coins exhibits recto and verso the new coin struck in 1436 by Filippo Maria, his rearing horse.

On the Aces of Arrows and Swords: a bon droyt and phote mante (one must maintain).

The crown of the Knight of Coins is his feathery blanket, the bowline capitergium cum on that of the Knight of Arrows, and rayed dove of the Knight of Cups. (I could not quite decipher this sentence--mikeh.)

The clothes have changed compared to the previous deck, because the capes are closed at the sleeves. In return, the tissues show off decorative plants, not arms as in the deck now at Yale University. The emperor's hat, in a fur realistically painted in the style of Pisanello, in this deck is a hat that looks like a fan that cannot stand on his head. The baton is a red stick, almost invisible.

If it were not for the new currency of Filippo Maria, the deck seems older, which reflects the style of Gentile da Fabriano. It was not painted for a particular occasion, but is a Visconti commission.

According to Wikipedia, Pisanello was famous for his paintings of hats; hence Tolfo's comment about the Emperor's hat. Gentile da Fabriano, famous for his Adoration of the Magi among other things, died in 1427. Below I reproduce three emperors, first the BB, then the CY, and at right the PMB.



Between the BB and the CY, the BB looks to me the more primitive, as it seems to have for Tolfo. There are fewer details; the CY adds attendants, legs, throne, etc.

Here are other examples relating to what Tolfo is talking about. First, for Tolfo's comments about the Knights of Arrows and Cups, with the latter's clothing enlarged to make it easier to see the colombina raggiata:



And also the Queen of Arrows and the Knight of Coins.



We see the lack of attention to arms in the Queen's left. On the Knight, we see his Pisanello-style hat and also his incongruous posture in the saddle, quite at variance to that of the rearing horse awkwardly crammed up against the border of the card. The knight's erect posture, as opposed to a more realistic one of him leaning forward, is also characteristic of Filippo Maria's 1436 ducats (or florino, as Kaplan calls them). His is at the upper left below, with Francesco Sforza's somewhat more natural 1450 version on the upper left. The ducat as it occurs on the BB suit of coins is on the lower left, and that of the CY on the lower right.



When Tolfo says that the BB looks older than the CY, but couldn't be, because of the ducats, she says that because for some reason she thinks that the BB but not the CY reflects Filippo's 1436 "rearing horse" ducat. She needn't have been concerned on that point (although her 1428 dating of the CY definitely should have been a concern): the design of the coins in both decks is virtually the same, and neither is precisely like that of Filippo's ducats.

Perhaps Pisanello had a hand in the improved ducats we see in the BB and CY, from his 1440-1441 medal-making in Milan. The coins on the cards are obviously not imprints of real coins; if they were, they would be reversed images. They are not even facsimiles (Kaplan's word). I speculate that the dyes for the BB coins, done with Pisanello's innovative techniques, were made to order and still in the Bembo shop when the CY was made. Thus both the BB and the CY are likely post-1440, the time Pisanello brought his techniques for making medals to Milan (my source for Pisanello is the Wikipedia article on him).

Regarding actual styles of dress in Northern Italy in the 1440's, I need to look at more art. Unfortunately it was not a particularly prolific period, at least not in sources I have consulted. I cannot even find images of the Borromeo frescoes, other than the one of the people playing cards. And even if I did, I wouldn't know when they were painted. C. 1440 is the usual dating, but that may just be because Pisanello was in Milan then. Pisanello himself has work in that style from the time of the 1432 drawing at least (if not, as for Armstrong, from before 1420). At this point all I have for certain is the imagery I posted earlier, principally the sequence at Monza.

One comment that Tolfo makes that I would like to know more about is that the capes of the BB are closed at the sleeves, unlike the CY. Does this reflect any actual change in fashion, and if so, which came first? I would guess that being closed at the sleeves is later, since it requires more tailoring; so it is another example of the BB's paying less attention to being anachronistic, while still being of an earlier overall style than the CY.

One argument in the "anachronistic style question" is, that Trionfi painter card Iacopo Sagramoro and his follower Gherardo da Vicezenza were both old men ... perhaps cause they were this way qualified for painting in old style.

Huck wrote,

One argument in the "anachronistic style question" is, that Trionfi painter card Iacopo Sagramoro and his follower Gherardo da Vicezenza were both old men ... perhaps cause they were this way qualified for painting in old style.

Iacopo and Gherardo were in Ferrara. The BB, CY, and PMB-1st-artist cards are all Lombard. Many similarities to surviving works in Lombardy and especially Cremona link these decks with the Lombard style and the Bembo in particular.

We don't know what Iacopo's and Gherardo's cards looked like, but most likely they were ancestors of the d'Este deck of the 1470's. This deck isn't anachronistic at all, but very much Ferrarese 1470s.

You're probably right about Iacapo's being an old man, if you mean by 1450. He had a big workshop and much work in 1443; so perhaps he was late middle age then, i.e. around 40. Syson ("Tura and the 'Minor Arts': The School of Ferrara," in Cosme Tura: painting and Design in Renaissance Ferrara, 2002), who is mostly interested in the various painters' work as designers for other media, says:

It appears from his frequent mention in Este accounts that Sagramoro was a painter with a large workshop which operated collectively, when called upon to do so, as designers: Sagramoro "e compagni depintori" are also recorded making two cartoons with the arms and devices of the Signore: "Le quale dite due carte fue conssignate ad Alberto Dolzeto per mandare in Fiandria in Dui luochi per fare banchali per la Corte' (The said two cartoons were given to Alberto Dolzeto to be sent to two places in Flanders in order to make bench hangings for the Court).

He goes on to mention another contract the same year, this one for designing tiles. He would, it seems to me, have paid close attention to current fashions for such work, unless specifically asked to do otherwise. In any case, I can't see how he could have been involved in making the Milan decks.

Syson also gives documentation for Gherardo, with many entries 1455-1474. I expect that he was born 1425-1430, making him an old man by the late 1470s. The d'Este deck very much reflects the style of the years just before and after 1470, which would have been his peak period. Here is a list of his work as documented by Syson. (You, Huck, expressed an interest in knowing Gherardo's other work some time ago. I am finally delivering.) The quotes are from Syson. The documents he cites, unless otherwise specified, are in Franceschini, Artisti a Ferrara in eta umanistica e rinasimentale: Testimianze archivistiche, parte I: dal 1341 al 1471, Ferrara 1993.

October 1455: "two coffanni (chests) and a picture for Beatrice d'Este." (Franceschini doc. 463h.)

After 1455: "He was responsible for the decoration of, for example, the Via Coperta, which included three Labors of Hercules, and he painted a Pieta as the curtain for the altarpiece in the principal chapel in the Corte." (doc. 861, 1228l.)

July 1457; "He was reimbursed ''per sua manifactura et spexa de choluri di avere dipinto para doe de charte da triumphi, zoe per averle cholorade, depinte da lado roverso' (For the manufacture and cost of the colors in having painted two decks of trump cards, that is for coloring them [and] painting their reverse sides)." (doc. 823i, 823m, 916b, 916c, 923a.)

1457: "He received money for tapestry cartoons of Borso d'Este's impresse, including the celebrated unicorn." (documentation not given.)

February 1458: "istorie for marriage chests for Bianca Maria d'Este." (doc. 463h)

1458: "a claim 'per fatura et spese de designado et fato zalo una mostra de una bocale grande como uno folio de carte reale per desegno da mandare a Venexia per fate fare a dito designo dui bocali grandi de arzento per lo Signore' (for manufacture and expenses for having drawn and made yellow the image of a ewer as large as a sheet of reale paper, as a design to be sent to Venice in order to make two large silver ewers for the master), the item struck out with the words "non vale" (not worth paying)." (doc. 861d)

1459: "working with at least two garzoni on the ducal barge." (doc. 1225a?)

1460: "The manufacture of these [trionfi] cards did indeed sometimes involve printing. On 28 January 1461, 'Maestro Girardo da Vicenza dipentore' was paid seven lire, four soldi 'for his manufacture and for the expenses of having painted two decks of colored trump cards, printed and colored on the reverse according to usual practice' (per sua manifactura et spexe de havere depinto para dos de charte da triumphi de coluri, stampate et date di colori da verso secondo usanza)." (doc. 952a.)

Dec. 1464, Dec. 1466: "paid as a journeyman," but "Nevertheless, he was employed so frequently as to merit the description depintore de la corte in payments..." (doc. 1018O, 1059n.)

1467: "Girardo, rather than Cossa with whom he worked later in Bologna, appears to have been Ercole [di Roberti]'s first master: Ercole is called his garzone in 1467." Documentation: "17 marzo, A Jacomo di presian et chabriele del magro per conto di loro oficio L. trenta soldi tri di m. per loro a m.o Girardo depintore per lavorierj luj a rate aporto per polete di le dite con mandato ecc.: zoe L. 4.2.0 portolj conto Sixiismondo suo fiolo insino adj 31 zenaro e L. 7 portolj conto dito Sixismondo adj 7 dio febraio e L. 8 portolj eldito edi 14 de febraio e L. 7 portolj eldito adj 21 di febraio e L. 4.1.0 per luj a Erchules grandi suo garzone conto questo di....L.xxxxS.iii d Jacomo a carta 249." (Archivio di Stato, Modena: Camera ducale, Libri diversi, 62, Zornale de usita per conto di Romano de Lardi, OO 1467, fol. 21r)

1469: "Uno carton designado cum una festa ala antiqua, tocado de aquerella, per patron da raci, da Maistro Girardo da Vicenza depinctore adi XII de zugno." (a cartoon drawn with a festa all'antica, touched with watercolor, to act as a pattern for tapestries, by Master Girardo da Vicenza, painter, on 12 June." (doc. 1158c, 1159f)

1470: "'watercolors of animals and landscapes.'" (doc. 1191d)

1469, 1470: "Girardo received a large payment (284.19.10 lire) for unspecified work on 1 June 1470, with payments continuing throughout the year for different tasks, again not always specified. He had been employed for much of the previous year at Palazzo della Certosa..." (doc. 1189b, 1161m) (Syson is arguing that in 1469-1470 Girardo was the artist directing much of the Schifanoia Palace work.)

March 1471: "we find reference made to the 'botega [workshop] de Magistro Girardo depintore.'" (doc. 952a)

1474: "paid eleven lire for 'two drawings of certain vases on paper, touched with saffron, that in the above year were sent to Venice to Master Giorgio de Alegreto, goldsmith, to make certain pieces silver for the credenza of our above-mentioned Lord'; this was part of the celebrated service." (doc. 72 b of Francescini, Artisti a Ferrara in eta umanistica e rinasimentale: Testimianze archivistiche, Parte II, Tomo I, dal 1472 al 1492, 1995.)

Sagramoro made a will and his activities for the Ferrarese court ended around the same time. In 1459 he was dead. In 1422 he had a playing card activity for the court (the first playing card record of Ferrara) ... I'm not sure, if this is his first recorded activity, but I remember dark, that Sagramoro became active at least around this time, but maybe the playing card record was his first and also maybe his Trionfi card note 1456 was his last.

1422 ... http://trionfi.com/0/d/11/
1456 ... http://trionfi.com/0/e/15/

This is the last entry about Sagramoro in context to playing cards. Sagramoro was the most mentioned artist in the Ferrarese account books, he worked for more than 35 years in service of the d'Este court and his activities in card production had been only a small part of his occupation. In 1456/1457 he retired and was dead in 1459.

Possibly Sagramoro entered the court commissions as a "local playing card producer" ... it was the time, when Parisina caused commissions at the court and Parisina loved playing cards.

Sagramoro's most commissions were heraldic motifs, so "repeating motifs", as also playing cards are "repeating motifs". It seems plausible, that Sagramoro had developed some technique to repeat motifs, which made him in this aspect superior to other artists and cheaper than the other artists - and the result were his enduring commissions.
Also I would think, that Sagramoro had a workshop and didn't work alone.

mikeh wrote:...
In any case, I can't see how he [Sagramoro]could have been involved in making the Milan decks.

Sagramoro was active to make 14 objects for Bianca Maria at 1.1.1441, when Bianca Maria was in Ferrara. These objects, whatever they had been, likely went with Bianca Maria back to Milan in March/April 1441. There is some plausibility, that the 14 objects were designs for "Trionfi" playing cards - but only plausibility, not evidence. The plausibility lies in the fact, that Sagramoro was a playing card artist, also in the circumstance, that the 1st of January was a general date for gambling and playing, and playing cards were an object for young ladies at a wedding, and that the first "real" Trionfi note in February 1442 (again Sagramoro the painter, again Leonello the commissioner) is very near to 1.1.1441. Further the fact, that the activity was repeated, when Galeazzo Maria (Bianca Maria's first son) visited Ferrara in 1457 and two decks with 70 cards were produced before Galeazzo (13 1/2 years old) arrived and another Trionfi card activity took place (the painting page), during Galeazzo's stay in Ferrara.
Naturally there is no suspicion, that Sagramoro painted the Milanese decks ... but the 14 objects might have influenced or initiated the Milanese production (in other words: likely Cary-Yale Tarocchi). Naturally also the Michelino deck initiated the Cary-Yale.

The "true face" of Sagramoro around 1441/1442 is not, that he painted some playing cards for a few Lira Marchesana. It looks rather different, if you compare the humble sums to the following Franceschini note:




In 1435 Niccolo d'Este started to build a summer residence in Voghiera, the Delizia del Belriguardo, in 15 km distance SE to Ferrara ...

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... oramio.all



... most of it destroyed nowadays. An older map ...



... and another ...



and a later view



Well, enough opportunities to paint something. And the sum of something more than 1600 Lira Marchesana tells us the difference to the playing card commissions.

Syson also gives documentation for Gherardo, with many entries 1455-1474. I expect that he was born 1425-1430, making him an old man by the late 1470s.

I thought, that he was much older ... but looking through through my references it seems, that I was fooled.

A Gherardo da Vicenza seems to be the grandfather, an Andrea da Vicenza the father. Andrea worked with Sagramoro in Belriguardo 1441, it seems, that the older Gherardo was dead then.

The d'Este deck very much reflects the style of the years just before and after 1470, which would have been his peak period. Here is a list of his work as documented by Syson. (You, Huck, expressed an interest in knowing Gherardo's other work some time ago. I am finally delivering.) The quotes are from Syson. The documents he cites, unless otherwise specified, are in Franceschini, Artisti a Ferrara in eta umanistica e rinasimentale: Testimianze archivistiche, parte I: dal 1341 al 1471, Ferrara 1993.

October 1455: "two coffanni (chests) and a picture for Beatrice d'Este." (Franceschini doc. 463h.)

These were likely made for the wedding Beatrice d'Este with Tristano.

After 1455: "He was responsible for the decoration of, for example, the Via Coperta, which included three Labors of Hercules, and he painted a Pieta as the curtain for the altarpiece in the principal chapel in the Corte." (doc. 861, 1228l.)

July 1457; "He was reimbursed ''per sua manifactura et spexa de choluri di avere dipinto para doe de charte da triumphi, zoe per averle cholorade, depinte da lado roverso' (For the manufacture and cost of the colors in having painted two decks of trump cards, that is for coloring them [and] painting their reverse sides)." (doc. 823i, 823m, 916b, 916c, 923a.)

This is our entry from 1457, but it seems, that there are 5 (!!!) different records. Perhaps there are more details ?

1457: "He received money for tapestry cartoons of Borso d'Este's impresse, including the celebrated unicorn." (documentation not given.)

February 1458: "istorie for marriage chests for Bianca Maria d'Este." (doc. 463h)

She married much later ... but perhaps there were other preparations before?

1458: "a claim 'per fatura et spese de designado et fato zalo una mostra de una bocale grande como uno folio de carte reale per desegno da mandare a Venexia per fate fare a dito designo dui bocali grandi de arzento per lo Signore' (for manufacture and expenses for having drawn and made yellow the image of a ewer as large as a sheet of reale paper, as a design to be sent to Venice in order to make two large silver ewers for the master), the item struck out with the words "non vale" (not worth paying)." (doc. 861d)

1459: "working with at least two garzoni on the ducal barge." (doc. 1225a?)

1460: "The manufacture of these [trionfi] cards did indeed sometimes involve printing. On 28 January 1461, 'Maestro Girardo da Vicenza dipentore' was paid seven lire, four soldi 'for his manufacture and for the expenses of having painted two decks of colored trump cards, printed and colored on the reverse according to usual practice' (per sua manifactura et spexe de havere depinto para dos de charte da triumphi de coluri, stampate et date di colori da verso secondo usanza)." (doc. 952a.)

Dec. 1464, Dec. 1466: "paid as a journeyman," but "Nevertheless, he was employed so frequently as to merit the description depintore de la corte in payments..." (doc. 1018O, 1059n.)

1467: "Girardo, rather than Cossa with whom he worked later in Bologna, appears to have been Ercole [di Roberti]'s first master: Ercole is called his garzone in 1467." Documentation: "17 marzo, A Jacomo di presian et chabriele del magro per conto di loro oficio L. trenta soldi tri di m. per loro a m.o Girardo depintore per lavorierj luj a rate aporto per polete di le dite con mandato ecc.: zoe L. 4.2.0 portolj conto Sixiismondo suo fiolo insino adj 31 zenaro e L. 7 portolj conto dito Sixismondo adj 7 dio febraio e L. 8 portolj eldito edi 14 de febraio e L. 7 portolj eldito adj 21 di febraio e L. 4.1.0 per luj a Erchules grandi suo garzone conto questo di....L.xxxxS.iii d Jacomo a carta 249." (Archivio di Stato, Modena: Camera ducale, Libri diversi, 62, Zornale de usita per conto di Romano de Lardi, OO 1467, fol. 21r)

1469: "Uno carton designado cum una festa ala antiqua, tocado de aquerella, per patron da raci, da Maistro Girardo da Vicenza depinctore adi XII de zugno." (a cartoon drawn with a festa all'antica, touched with watercolor, to act as a pattern for tapestries, by Master Girardo da Vicenza, painter, on 12 June." (doc. 1158c, 1159f)

1470: "'watercolors of animals and landscapes.'" (doc. 1191d)

1469, 1470: "Girardo received a large payment (284.19.10 lire) for unspecified work on 1 June 1470, with payments continuing throughout the year for different tasks, again not always specified. He had been employed for much of the previous year at Palazzo della Certosa..." (doc. 1189b, 1161m) (Syson is arguing that in 1469-1470 Girardo was the artist directing much of the Schifanoia Palace work.)

March 1471: "we find reference made to the 'botega [workshop] de Magistro Girardo depintore.'" (doc. 952a)

1474: "paid eleven lire for 'two drawings of certain vases on paper, touched with saffron, that in the above year were sent to Venice to Master Giorgio de Alegreto, goldsmith, to make certain pieces silver for the credenza of our above-mentioned Lord'; this was part of the celebrated service." (doc. 72 b of Francescini, Artisti a Ferrara in eta umanistica e rinasimentale: Testimianze archivistiche, Parte II, Tomo I, dal 1472 al 1492, 1995.)

[/quote]

Nice work, thanks.

I wrote

July 1457; "He was reimbursed ''per sua manifactura et spexa de choluri di avere dipinto para doe de charte da triumphi, zoe per averle cholorade, depinte da lado roverso' (For the manufacture and cost of the colors in having painted two decks of trump cards, that is for coloring them [and] painting their reverse sides)." (doc. 823i, 823m, 916b, 916c, 923a.)

Huck commented

This is our entry from 1457, but it seems, that there are 5 (!!!) different records. Perhaps there are more details ?

Well, going back and looking at Syson, I see that I wasn't totally accurate in my reporting. I was trying to present things chronologically, and Syson doesn't proceed like that. I had to do a lot of rearranging of his text, and then going back and inserting the footnotes. For the 1457 and 1460 "trionfi," I oversimplified. There is probably not a one-to-one correspondence between the two footnotes and the two years. The first footnote had to do with both 1457 and 1460. The second footnote on "trionfi" production was for the record dated in January 1461, for work probably done in 1460 but not included in the first footnote! I will explain.

The five records you refer to are what is listed in footnote 79 of Syson's essay; that footnote actually is attached to the previous sentence. The sentence I quoted has no citation of its own; its documentation is included in the earlier citation. The earlier context is the "Mantegna Tarocchi," which he calls "the Tarocchi," and what immediately precedes the sentence with the footnote attached is an argument for why Crivelli isn't a good candidate for their authorship. Syson then writes,

Hind, on the other hand, suggested a link between the production of the Tarocchi with those artists documented as playing-card painters at the court of Ferrara, directing attention in particular to one Girardo di Andrea da Vicenza who was paid for two sets 'da trionfi' (trumps) in July 1457 and no fewer than five sets in 1460 (footnote 79).

Syson's sentence immediately following is the one at the start of this post, which has no citation. Then the 28 January 1461 quote for "having painted two decks of colored trump cards" has as its documentation doc. 952a. Syson doesn't state explicitly that the 28 January 1461 entry is for work done in 1460 and included in the five decks for that year. I assume that it was. If so, probably 823i and 823m are for the two decks in 1457; and 916b, 916c, and 923a for three of the five decks in 1460, with 952a for the other two.

And yes, it would still be nice to know if there are any more details. I don't have Franceschini 1993, but maybe I can get it.

Okay, this sounds, as if he is referring to other documents, which we probably also have (I guess, we have more than 5). So likely nothing is new about it.

Well, Franceschini, though rather difficult to handle, is likely worth a visit. We have only a few copies from the period 1438-1442. If you like to take a look, I can arrange it.

Franceschini docs. 823m and 923a mention cards. 923a is for 1460 - this seems to be the same entry quoted for 952a.

The other entries (823i, 916b and c) don't mention cards. I'll scan them when I have a little time (in an hour or so).

Sorry for the delay. Here are the relevant sections (whole pages) from Fransceschini. Save the image or click on the URL below each for the full-size images.


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/franceschini/822to823.jpg


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/franceschini/823to824.jpg


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/franceschini/915to917.jpg


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/franceschini/919to923.jpg


http://www.rosscaldwell.com/franceschini/924to930.jpg

Note that 924 (8 November) has an entry for two packs as well (possibly one of our duplicates, I haven't checked).