Tarot History Forum

Huck and Ross: Regarding the reliability of Renda's edition, I am only questioning the list of 22 titles, plus 6 additions that are not part of the poem, that constitutes the "Indice" in Renda's edition. That list is not in the recent (posted Oct. 2010) Italian version with English translation that Marco gave the link for. Nor do the titles in the list correspond precisely to the titles in the text of the Oct. 2010 post. Even in Renda's edition, there are more titles than the 22; the only thing that distinguishes the 22 is a horizontal line below each one in the text, not present in the case of the other section titles. So my question is, were there really intended to be 22 sections in the original (some of which are very short), where these titles are clearly marked off from the others, by something like the horizontal lines in Renda?

I am not doubting, for the most part, the reliability of Renda's edition. However indices and layout are sometimes at the discretion of the editor.

Thanks for the Pico, Huck.

I will conclude going through the "Chaos" poem using Marco's link and Huck's post.

12. Dialogo secondo (Limerno, Triperuno e Fúlica). Limerno's poem on p. 132 has the acrostic HIERONIMA DIEDA IERONIMI MERCATELLI DIVA, Hieronima Dieda goddess of Marcatelli. The translator says that Girolamo Marcatelli became canon of Padua in 1535. That is considerably later than the publication of "Chaos" in 1527, but presumably Marcatelli had some role in Padua then. Hieronima/Girolama is presumed to be his wife. Limerno's poem is about the torments of love, in his case for a nymph he could not get out of his mind even after leaving her. It a typical troubadour theme.

After some banter, we have a couplet found written anonymously on the bark of a laurel tree, called "On Sleep" (p. 134): "Here I lie, and quick covert death swims in my eyes,/ but ambrosia is sweeter than the empire of the gods." The first letters of the words spell out HIERONIMA DIEDA again. Limerno then recites another couplet, found sculpted on the tomb of "Catherine most cruelly murdered by her consort" in the time of Pope Leo. "Fate wounds me, no cause of death rouses the use of power in the Tuscan sphere, if not mine." The first words spell out CONSORS MEUS ROBERTUS. "Robert my consort." The next poem, a sonnet that Trip. recalls, is a poem accompanying the gift of some gloves to Catharine, one extolling her virtues. The first letters of the lines spell out: DIVA CATHARINE H (p. 135).

Limerno warns Triperuno: Don't you think Galanta will guess who wrote these lines, and don't you fear her wrath? She can turn you into an ass. Trip. replies, "It will be the Devil if she turns me into a billy-goat." "And she a she-goat," adds Limerno. But perk up, says Limerno, no one is chasing you yet. And I want you to hear the four verses I have composed, which I'm going to read to the Queen.

Then come the tarocchi sonnets, five, actually. After that, Limerno says, "Who is that solemn fool I now see coming toward us, my [dear] Triperlino? Trip. responds, "So he has crossed from Perissa into Mattotta?" From Vanity into Madness, I presume that means. "Oh how wise he goes along, numbering his steps, this little saint from olden days.So when they address Fúlica as "domine pater" (p. 144) they are being ironic. Fulica has come to free Limerno and Trip. from the labyrinth of error. He includes the silliness of those like himself who shave their heads, go barefoot, etc.--i.e. monks; although good, these practices "make one leave better things."

13. The Asses' den--third dialogue. (p. 145). Fúlica says how he was considering all the contradictory things that various scholars, popes, etc. say on theological matters and was full of doubt: who to believe? Just then an ass brayed and then began to speak, saying he(or she) will dispel their doubts. What follows is a disparaging of Aristotle and the scholastics. But the ass extols Plato (p. 157). The three men each give poems in praise of the one they love. One, his "goddess." The second, the present moment, apparently (I'm not sure). And Fulica extols the asses and oxen who were at Christ's birth in the stable, and the ass that bore Jesus. He is extolling a simple life of service, as opposed to the opulent life of clerics who would not deign to ride an ass. Finally on p. 166 is the poem whose first letters form the words EGNATIUS SQVARCIALUPUS FLORENTINUS DESTRUCTOR RELIGIONIS DIVI BENEDICTI LAVRE SIBI NOMEN VINICAVIT AT LARVAM ILLUM APPELLANDUM ESSE CENSEMUS: "The Florentine Ignatius Squarcialupi, of the religious order of St. Benedict, claimed the name Lauro for himself, but we think he should be called Larva." The poem itself describes how Galanta comes running from the wood being beaten by the whore and enchantress Laura. Triperuno runs and hides from Laura's wrath. Galanta changes to a mouse, which starts running away but comes back to Trip. at his entreaties. He lives the life of a hermit, then a servant or slave, and Galanta, still a mouse, is taken away from him. Laura obtained the throne. Galanta is possessed by the noble young man Grifalco, who kills her by pressing her between the door and a wall. He makes a vase for her and composes a lament. Here I would observe that the humanist noble Francesco Grifalcone was his patron in Venice (http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/teo ... ografico)/).

14. At the tomb of the weasel Galanthis.. The translator explains that Galanthis in Ovid was the maid-servant of Hercules'/Dionysus's mother,; Hera tried to prevent the birth, but Galanthis distracted her and in punishment was turned into a weasel. The poet says "She was a wife, a mouse, a star." She says, "I was mocked, but mourned by the Lord who honors me with a tomb, destroyed by the trickery of Lucina." Lucina is the goddess of childbirth, also an epithet of Juno. My thought: Lucina also = Luna; Diana was another goddess of childbirth. So we have the Moon card.

Another voice asks: why is he praised who killed her, just because he honors her death? Trip. confesses to God his renunciation of his former life. The translator notes that the "weasel" could in Italian be any small rodent, and it somehow stands for the author's sexuality. (Perhaps the real Grifalcone played some role in its sublimation.)

15. The Chaos of Triperuno: Third Forest. Poem with acrostic FRANCESCO in the first letters of the first words and GRIFALCON in the first letters of the last words of each line (p. 174) . The subject is "Fortuna, rotating with her swift gyrations," a possible reference to the Wheel card. She is not to be trusted. He will be a bird that flies above the orbit of Saturn.

16. Preface. (In the original, this occurs before 15 above.) Three different ways of sinning in the name of God are remembered, associated earlier with Livia, Corona, and Paola. Pp. 173-4.

17. Third Forest. Triperuno. starts p. 175. He laments the fog of his previous ignorance and gives thanks to Jesus, "the fixed nail of profound faith, who levels every doubt." He hears a cry like a lightning-bolt, and in a place without sky or earth, where he does not even know what he is, sees a sun above him. He feels like a chick breaking the egg. He sees a young man bathed in light, or an aurora, face shining more than a sun.He feels amorous ardor. The man speaks, and it is the Son to the Father, with a fire between them, or a lightning bolt, or a dove. The poet speaks again of the two paths, where one leads to Death's whip, the other to joy.

18. Dialogue: Jesus and Triperuno. P. 184f. The key line, I think, is "Ne haver huomo de teme/El Spirito Sol, d'amor anco 'l possedi." I think it means "Nor should you have the spirit in fear, if you yet have the Sun of love." (The translator has: "nor should you have the spirit in fear, even if you possess only the Sun of love.") Trip. says he can't find the door out of the chaos. Jesus says that the only door is the one you made when you entered.

The speech of Thalia, muse of comedy, closes this section, starting p. 190. She says, "O therefore, ye mortals, seek the Sun of the Stars,/ of the souls and of us, and not the fog of Socratic doubt" and "...the eagle, John, afixed his eyes in white fog to the sublime Sun of the Sun;/ to the Sun of the Sun, whence the son, sent from the Father. into this Fog up to the Stars,/ made himself our guide love and spirit." (p. 191)

19. Dissolution of the Chaos.. The Sun speaks. He says "My being was only in your service" and; and "I temper the trace of my horses"--perhaps another reference to the Chariot. "I cause much beauty in nature...first the ear [of grain] and the ice, then the flower and the fruit" (p. 193). And "Above the highest peaks, you planted a terrestrial paradise." Then he comments on the Moon: "Every wandering star wants to unite in vain with my sister. for she is the adulterer of every planet, yet without the two of us, her virtue goes forth with little effect (p. 195.) Then a lady emerges from a wood, giving life to everything she touches. So Nature speaks, and sees that animal that surpasses all others. "I must name him fragile man."

20. Dialogue between Trip. and Nature. He recognizes her as Mother. She implores him to love God. He turns from lofty things to look at the little things of nature, the ways of the bees, the flowers, silkworms, etc.

21. Terrestrial Paradise. p. 209. God called it Strength ("Fortezza," p. 210). After first seeing it from afar, he comes to the gate, and a new section (with no horizontal line beneath it in Renda's edition), "The Portal" (p. 211). This is where Trip. enters the terrestrial paradise, which is surrounded by a high wall. The gate is studded with jewels, an angels swarm around it. Inside is a land of "eternal spring" filled with angels, some in white and some naked, playing harps, dancing, playing "chaste games" or hunting, gathering, or fishing. (I wonder if there is any relationship to Bosch's famous garden.) Two figures welcome him, Enoch and another whom someone named "Heliseus" saw ascend into heaven; they walk toward the palace. In the pond in front is a maiden-headed serpent, who enchants instantly with her gaze. The enchanted ones bite the forbidden fruit and fall dead; but no matter, a miraculous bread will revive them. Now he is no longer Merlino, Limerno, and Fulica, but only Triperuno. The end.

Now I will try to correlate sections with tarot subjects. For documentation, see my previous posts in this thread.

0. This section says what the whole poem is about. Hard to correlate with any one subject. Childhood ignorance would fit. But there is also the fork in the road, the "pretty girl on the horse of pleasure," the terrestrial paradise, etc.

1. 1st Forest. This is about the fall of a post-lapsarian soul, from paradise to earth. To the extent that the Fool represents innocence, he's there. To the extent that the Bagatella represents the arts and mastery over matter, he's there. Next sentence added Dec. 12: To the extent that this section is a fall into the world of illusion, he is there. But nothing explicit.

2. Urania's poem. "All the laws of nature remain in harmony." The Empress appears later (11) as nature. But Urania is above nature. Urania as the Popess?

3. Euterpe's poem on childhood. The Empress might fit. But nothing explicit.

4. The 8 lines that begin the 2nd Forest. Trip.'s little boat is guided by the Big Bear, Orso. A reference to Camillo Orsini, Captain General of Venice, who in 1526 employed Folengo as tutor, according to the translator. (The CA.VR is also him.) Perhaps one form of the Emperor.

5. Preface to 2nd Forest. The acrostic is about entering the Benedictine order. So the Pope as Abbot. But there is much more in this section (if indeed it is only one). There is the fork in the road and its the choice between fama and fortuna; there is acrostic about the ruination of the Benedictines by the Florentine Ignatius, etc.

6. Carosso, Corruption. Begins with sexual desire, which correlates to the Lover, then recaitulates the misadventures of Baldus, with careless acts of harm but also goodness. Baldo could possibly correlate with the Charioteer.

7. Matotto, craziness. This is one place the Mato would fit, as they (I think) praise the fame of a pig, whom they call "Madonna." A good example of "Mato" in 16th century Italy (many commentators haven't found it there).

8. Limerno vs. Merlino. The acrostic has "divine justice." But the poetry is learned banter about poets They also talk about fama, earthly and heavenly, settling on earthly.

9. The "Justina" poem, about a lovely, sad woman, whose name, the end of the poem says, is in the acrostic. So Justice again.

10. The vanity of theologians, and "inflated justice" in the acrostic as continued in the next section. Possibly the Old Man, in his negative expression..

11. Love of Triperuno for Galanta. The "Empress" provides the girl, and Cupid enflames him with love. Correlation with Lover and Empress cards.

12. Second dialogue, mostly Trip. and Limerno. The subject seems mostly to be the murder of a wife, Catharina, by her husband Roberto, so betrayal, i.e. Hanged Man, and death.

13. In the old theologian Fulicla's account, the ass delivers a message of salvation. So we have the Old Man in his positive aspect (although initially in this section described as a "fool"), and perhaps also heavenly fama although not stated as such. In the acrostic, the Benedictines are in the hands of a devil-like personage calling himself Lauro. In the poem, Galanta is persecuted by Laura.

14. At the tomb of the weasel Galanthis. "The trickery of Lucina." As in Luna.

15. 3rd Forest. The poem's subject is Fortuna, the acrostic is Grifalcon, Folengo's Venetian patron.

16. Preface to 3rd Forest. Sinning in the name of the Lord. But no fire or lightning. This part is actually before 15 according to the 2010 translator.

17. 3rd forest. Triperuno hears a cry like a lightning bolt (as in the Fire card). Later a lightning bolt is also between the Son and the Father.

18. Thalia's poem advises Trip. to "seek the sun of the stars." and "the sun of the sun." Also Jesus is said to have come "into this Fog and up to the stars." So there is the Sun and the Stars. No singular Star that I can find.

19. Poem of the Sun, who at the end speaks of the Moon, "adulterer with every planet." Says that he "tempers" his steeds.

20. Dialogue with Nature, who is the spirit of the earth, but is not portrayed as an angel. However she is now represented as an agent of divinity.

21. Terrestrial paradise. Called "Strength," as in Capata's phrase "strength of divine mercy."

So, yes the whole poem could be seen as having most of the tarot subjects sprinkled throughout, roughly but not precisely correlated with the 22 sections of the 1911 edition, in roughly the usual order, and more or less obliquely referred to.

I wrote

In the third sonnet, when I objected to the "Fortune made Papess," or "Fortuna fata Papessa," I didn't realize that this sentence was in the text. In the link you gave, it appears as a footnote, a "gloss." So did Folengo himself write these glosses, or did someone else? If Folengo, then I am wrong to object, although I still don't understand. Also, if this "gloss" was written by Folengo, then perhaps the other "glosses" to the text in this section should also be included on Tarotpedia, as Folengo's footnotes. But I really think these glosses are those of the 1911 editor, Renda, and not Folengo. It might be useful to include these glosses in the tarotpedia version, as Renda's comments. But in this case I think he is wrong.

Well, I am wrong on at least one count, in thinking that the note was Renda's. Also, Tarotpedia does have the other glosses on these sonnets--although sometimes they are in the wrong place, applied to the whole sonnet instead of to a particular line.

At the bottom of the "Notes" section of Renda's 1911 edition of "Chaos" (at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35799/35 ... 5799-h.htm) I see the following, which I missed before.

Nota del Trascrittore
Le Note, ad esclusione della 252 e 329, riportano annotazioni manoscritte dall'autore in alcune copie della prima edizione.

Ortografia e punteggiatura originali sono state mantenute, correggendo senza annotazione minimi errori tipografici.

In other words, with two exceptions the notes are those of Folengo himself. 252 is the complete version of the third tarocchi sonnet, from the later edition. 329 notes a lacuna in the text. These two were added by Renda. The others are annotations by Folengo himself in some copies of the first edition.

So the comment "Fortuna fatta Papessa" is Folengo's interpretation of his text at that point.

The question then is, how seriously should we take Folengo's notes, here and elsewhere? That particular note (251) still doesn't seem to me to fit the text. He might have been wanting to protect himself from reprisals for that third sonnet, even after it had already been gutted, to say that he was identifying "Papessa" with Fortuna and not with the current Pope. Also, were these notes part of the printed edition of some copies, or were they written longhand? I am not clear. If longhand, they might have been for the benefit of particular readers, or for a projected 2nd edition durinig his lifetime.

There is also the general question of how definitive an author's own interpretation later of his work is. Besides the political and personal considerations, he may have forgotten part of the ambiguity, or not been fully aware of it even then. The text itself has a meaning apart from an author's intentions, which people discuss later.

In any case, it strikes me that these notes, since they are Folengo's, need to be included as such in our attempts to reproduce, translate, and discuss the tarocchi sonnets--and in the place where Folengo puts them, with the information that they are his "gloss" on his own work.

For the fifth sonnet, Folengo attaches the gloss "Venere" for word "Stella." Tarotpedia gets that one right. But are we considering that gloss in our discussions?

In the fourth sonnet, the quote from Cicero. which Tarotpedia has at the top, is a gloss on the line about the "Matto."

In the second sonnet, it is the line with "temperata" that gets the gloss.

In the first sonnet, the line with "amore" gets the quote from Seneca.

In this spirit, I am going to have to go through my previous posts and distinguish better the editors' notes from the author's. For factual information, at least--such as who is meant by various abbreviations and names--the author's notes surely have more weight than an editor's.

Thanks Mike,
this looks like a good analysis.

The doubts about Renda's version and the original can only be cleared, if one gets a look at the version of 1527.
For the moment I would assume, that Renda's version is a correct interpretation.

One passage gives to think:

Pause a while, dearest reader. I am certain that the hexastich and sonnet of my companions above appear to you hard and rough. Do not turn up your nose, like a rhinoceros, I beg you, since the thief who may have stolen by day will soon be seized.
Here obscurity and thick fog are necessary: but if you will discern how to carefully choose the first letters of verses throughout the Chaos, eventually our intricate subject will appear clear and limpid to you.
But here I intend only to give a good piece of advice: that we are completely founded, for an appropriate reason, on the number three.
First you see that the title of the book is in three words: Chaos of Triperuno. Then the three black birds follow, or rather they are called merles, which are the ancient coat of arms of our House in Mantua.
And under their auspices follow the three women of three different ages and of three different types of kinship, from whom the three prolix arguments are derived, each one being divided into three parts.
And we are of three names: Merlino, Limerno, Fùlica.We separated the beginning of the
Chaos into three forests with their three meanings; but as to which is most authentic, we submit to the judgment of the ingenious reader.
...
Gloss: Tre parole de titolo. Tre folenghe. Tre donne. Tre etadi. Tre fogge di parentado. Tre argomenti. Tre partid’ogni argomento. Tre nomi. Tre selve. Tre allegorie. ([1]Three words of the title. [2]Three watercoots. [3]Three women. [4]Three ages. [5]Three kinds of kinship. [6]Three explanations. [7]Three parts to each explanation. [8]Three names. [9]Three forests. [10]Three allegories.)

So Fùlica promises 3x10 elements ... but natural logic tells us, that 3x3x3 = 27 and special knowledge about Tarocchi cards tells us, that it has 21 cards (to which the poet - Limerno - adds the Fool and Fame at the end of the Tarocchi poem). If one assumes a threefold Fool = 3 and a threefold Fame = 3 we reach 27 elements. Alright, there is "additional" the title Caos del Triperuno, which perhaps might be read Caos d-e-l Tri-per-uno ... but Caos is written "wrong" and it has 4 letters and this seems to say: "Dear reader, think about this".
At one passage it's explained in the text, that LAVRA (Laura) could be easily mutated to LARVA ...

"Better yet, so that the handsome laurel does not get defiled, that “v” which obtains the third position here, let it take the fourth, so that it becomes “larva.”
[... and the Glossary adds ...]
"Laura. Larva. Note: Folengo tells us that Ignatius Squarcialupi, president of the Benedictine Order called himself “laura” which as we see in the first strophe here can refer to Petrarch’s beloved ; laura in Greek meant a lane between houses and a sewer, and later was used to designate a group of cells or huts for monks who met together;
larva in Latin means evil spirit, horrific mask, ghost ... "
[... which refers partly to the sentence before the letter-exchange operation ...]
"But God does not need to maintain that rule in you who have only the name of Laura and not the deeds: you are of carbon and believe yourself to be of snow."
[... and this passage is at end of element Nr. 11 and so before, when Nr. 12 with the Tarocchi poems started.]

Well, Ignatius Squarcialupi is a foe, which seems to have been partly the reason, why Folengo left the Benedictine order in 1524 or 1525 (if I can trust the German wikipedia instead of English wikipedia, which sees Folengo wandering around long years outside of the cloisters already long before).

In the case of "Caos" this LAVRA-LARVA passage might mean, the the suspicious "Caos" might mean the "Cosa del Triperuno" or the "Caso del Triperuno" and both possibilities have a lot of possible meanings in English.

***********

In the version of 1546 there are many "side texts" in the lay out, as here ...

http://books.google.de/books?id=nyQ8AAA ... &q&f=false


The Gutenberg text version made them to footnotes and added them at the end. The English text version adds them as "Gloss."
The dialogs have not a line break between the speakers, likely with the intention to spare paper. Naturally this form lay-out creates a confused impression and difficulties in the understanding of the text.

Actually the whole seems to be arranged as a theater play, just my innocent impression ... though I would believe, that it never reached this honor.

******

About "Selva":
Mantova is a location with German influences. Folengo lived long time with Benedictines, and many of the Benedictines were Germans.
The term "Selva" (as three parts of the poem) seems to be Spanish, from Latin "silva" (forest), but the German "selbst" (English "self") is very near. Triperuno is in this work "3x himself" as Merlino, Limerno and Fulica, the whole book is about "himself" in different personalities. James Joyce used 25 languages to form his word associations, why should Folengo as a poet of similar character (as it seems he was the "star" between all the maccaronic poets) not use similar freedoms? Well, he naturally hides himself between these Spanish/Latin forests ... associating "Arcadia" and similar literature. Using words with "double meaning" was always poetical custom.

***********

The meaning of the Tarocchi poems in the mid of the book seems "isolated", but it's not really logical, that a poet of Folengo's qualities places something "accidental" at a central place.

Limerno makes the Tarocchi poems for a Queen. The "Queen", as far I get it, is the "Queen of Matotta" and this is nobody else than Venus.

"It was Venus who held the scepter on the throne of the Queen of Matotta. “Blessed be the heart of the one who comes,” they began to sing all around,“into the charming dwelling of [Venus] Amathusia.”

*
... says the translation.

The Queen is influenced by Limerno. He talks into her ears (part Nr. 11). And it is Limerno, who makes the Tarocchi poems (Nr. 12). And it is Limerno, who has the "last words" (Nr. 22, Fame"). Well, what can we read from it? Limerno writes the Tarocchi poems, so Limerno is inside the Folengo-Trio the guy who proposes the Tarocchi-structure. But Limerno is not alone, the other both sides of Folengo also desire something.

Paola: "That’s enough now. Don’t you know that he wrote it [the "Orlandino"] in just two months and no more, under the title of Limerno ?"
Corona: "And I have heard that at the very same time he was writing it, it was stolen from him by the printers"
....

This seems to say, that Limerno (possibly) got to life in the phase, when Folengo "really" had left the cloisters (1524-25 ... possibly as one of many monks, which left the cloisters as a result of the reformation). And Folengo could make his poetry very quick. If we think, that Folengo started in 1526 his Triperuno (after finishing in two months the "Orlandino") and was ready in 1527 ... that's quick, I would assume. But naturally it might have been, that he had a lot of collected material from earlier time, which he "only" composed together.
With security the dialogs might be made very quickly, but it seems difficult, that the longer poems are made in such a short time. But the Orlandino consists of much poems ... so possibly one could assume, that he wrote them also earlier.
I don't know it precisely ... but Folengo (* 1491) entered the cloister in Brescia (1507 ?) with "16 years". He had before (when ?) a teacher in Ferrara (possibly around 1505-07 ?), which might mean, that he (possibly) got something of the interesting start of the "Tarochi" cards, the new time with Alfonso d'Este as duke, the start of Ariost's Orlando and also the exiting political changes with the rebellion of the Alfonso-brothers.
Ariost published 1516, and Folengo's first part of "Baldo" was published 1517, which looks like a reaction on Ariost's work. And Ariost's publication has a natural context to the battle of Marignano in September 1515, when the Ferrarese conditions (Ferrara as an earlier ally of the French) got much better than before. The "Baldo" naturally also has a "French theme". Folengo lived on Venetian territory and Venice was allied to France.

1522 a French/Venetian army lost at Bicocca against a much smaller Milanese/Spanish army, 1524 at Sesia the French lost again and in 1525 the French army was rooted heavily at Pavia. So a series of losses for the French side and I don't know, what had been the state of the French/Venetian alliance at the battles 1524/25.
The biography of Camillo Orsini, for whom Folengo is said to have occasionally worked (he is the Ca. Ur.) maybe till c. 1530, reads itself very adventurous.

http://www.condottieridiventura.it/cond ... ontefr.htm

Orsino worked mostly for Venice, but in the battle of Pavia with Charles V against France (if I interpret this correctly).

Folengo's life in freedom outside of the cloister might have been rather adventurous, too. Perhaps his idea was similar to that, which made his writer colleague Aretino searching the nearness to the Condottiero Giovanni della bande nere.

A lot of open questions. I think, I close for today.

*******************

Some material:


http://www.stilearte.it/articolo.asp?IDart=1367
a contemporary Gonzaga picture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_del_Te

Orlandino
http://www.readme.it/libri/Letteratura% ... DINO.shtml

(Livia talking)
He was born (as you both know better than I) on the eighth day and twelfth hour of the night in the month of November, under Scorpio, it was extremely cold then: therefore, in this first forest of his, he narrates the terrible coldness in which he was born wretchedly, pretending that Nature had been more like a stepmother than a mother; and yet in his childhood -- which he calls a “golden age” -- he enjoyed something of a safe and pleasant calm.

A strange date ...

English Wikipedia:

"About the year 1516 he forsook the monastic life for the society of a well-born young woman named Girolama Dieda, with whom he wandered about the country for several years, often suffering great poverty, having no other means of support than his talent for writing."
["Girolamo" is "Hieronymo" in Latin. Hieronymo or Hieronyma appears in the text variosly as hidden figure]
His first work, under the pseudonym Merlino Coccajo, was the macaronic narrative poem Baldo (1517), which relates the adventures of a fictitious hero named Baldo ("Baldus") ...
... Though frequently censured, it soon attained a wide popularity, and within a very few years passed through several editions and was later expanded by Folengo. ...

German Wikipedia shows considerable more (and contradicting) details:

Teofilo Folengo (Pseudonyme: Merlin Cocai, Limerno Pitocco, Taufname: Girolamo Folengo; * 1491 in Mantua; † 9. Dezember 1544 in Campese bei Bassano del Grappa, Vicenza) war Benediktiner und einer der Hauptvertreter komisch-burlesker, aber auch religiöser Dichtung der italienischen Renaissance.

Folengo war der achte von neun Söhnen des Notars Federico Folengo in Mantua. Er besuchte zeitweise den Schulunterricht eines Priesters in Ferrara und trat 1508 im Konvent Sant'Eufemia in Brescia als Novize in den Orden der Benediktiner ein. 1509 legte er dort sein Gelübde ab und nahm den Ordensnamen Teofilo an. In den folgenden Jahren gehörte er verschiedenen Klöstern im Veneto an, so San Benedetto in Polirone (ab 1512), Santa Giustina in Padua, 1515, nunmehr als Diakon, der Abtei Santa Maria in Pomposa, nach der Ordinierung zum Priester dann dem Kloster Santa Maria del Monte bei Cesena (seit 1517), anschließend wieder Sant'Eufemia (1520) und dann wieder Pomposa (bis 1522). Während dieser Jahre entwickelte er nach dem Vorbild seines mantovanischen Vorgängers Tifi Odasi († 1492) sein makkaronisches Latein, eine literarische Mischsprache, die er in Anspielung auf das bäuerliche Gericht der Makkaroni als 'macaronesca ars' bezeichnet, und die ihre komischen Effekte dadurch erzielt, dass Wörter aus der italienischen Volkssprache und dem Dialekt des Veneto mit lateinischer Flexion und Prosodie ins Lateinische integriert werden.

1517 veröffentlichte er in Venedig unter dem Pseudonym Merlin Cocai und unter dem Titel Libri Macaronices die erste von vier Ausgaben seines Opus macaronicum. Diese enthielt, begleitet von zwei Eklogen, das hexametrische Poem Baldus, eine Mischung aus Heldenepos, Ritterromanze und pikarischem Roman, das in 17 Büchern die grotesk-komischen Abenteuer von Baldus, einem Enkel des französischen Königs und Abkömmling von Karls Paladin Guy de Montauban, in der dörflichen Welt von Cipada bei Mantua erzählt. Eine zweite erweiterte, wieder in Sant'Eufemia entstandene Fassung erschien 1521 in Toscolano unter dem Titel Opus Merlini Cocaii poetae mantuani Macaronicorum, in der der Baldus auf 25 Bücher erweitert war und die parodistische Liebesdichtung Zanitonella sowie die Fabeldichtung Moschaea, über den Kampf zwischen Fliegen und Ameisen, hinzukamen. Eine dritte Fassung (Macaronicorum poema) erschien ohne Datum, wohl Ende der 1530er-Jahre, mit dem fiktiven Druckort Cipada, und eine vierte postum 1552 in Venedig (Macaronicorum poemata).

Nachdem er in das Kloster San Giovanni in Parma gewechselt war (1522), kam es offenbar zu Konflikten mit seinem Abt Ignazio Squarcialupi.
[Ignatio appears in the Triperuno text]
1524 oder 1525 verließ Folengo das Kloster, ohne aber seinen geistlichen Namen und Habit abzulegen. Er ließ sich in Venedig nieder und trat als Privaterzieher von dessen Sohn in die Dienste des Hauptmanns Camillo Orsini ...
[Camillo appears in the text; ha, I got it ... "Ca. Ur.", that's "Camillo Orsini"]
... den er in den folgenden Jahren auch bei einigen seiner militärischen Kampagnen zu begleiten hatte. 1526 erschien unter dem Pseudonym Limerno Pitocco sein Orlandino, ein burleskes Rittergedicht über die Jugend Rolands in italienischen Stanzen. 1527 veröffentlichte er unter gleichen Pseudonym sein allegorisch-philosophisches Lehrgedicht Il caos di Triperuno, eines der merkwürdigsten Werke der italienischen Literaturgeschichte, in dem der Protagonist „Triperuno“ („drei für einen“) in drei Personen geteilt makkaronisches Latein, klassisches Latein und die italienische Volkssprache spricht und eine parodistisch an Dante anknüpfende Intiationsreise durch drei „Wälder“ besteht, bis er zuletzt in der Begegnung mit Christus vom „Chaos“ seiner Laster und Irrtümer erlöst wird.

Actually the German wiki offers also better information than the French and the Italian.

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Asinaria is meant as a title of a Plautus-comedy, not as an ass-dent, I would assume.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asinaria

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The "Caos el Triperuno" and the "Baldo" have gotten the rank "world literature", at least by Kindler's Literatur-Lexikon (so that's a German judgment). I don't know, if any other 15th/early 16 century document in our Trionfi/Tarocchi research got such an high evaluation. Well, and it is given as "merkwürdig", which one best translates with "not understood completely".
... :-) ... so one has to fight a little bit for it.

Baldo I
http://books.google.de/books?id=X5ms5sM ... r_versions

Baldo II
http://books.google.de/books?id=SdGP09o ... &q&f=false

Figures in Baldo:

Nice observations, Huck. And yes, the German Wikipedia bio looked the best. Google does a pretty readable translation of it, too. (I got it by putting a few words from the German--e.g. "Folengo war der achte" into a Google search, and clicking on "translate this page" on what came up.)

Given the general unreliability of the English-language Wikipedia biography, I wonder how much truth there is in their story of this "Girolama Dieda" female companion. I notice that Folengo's given name was "Girolamo"; so now I wonder if "Dieda" isn't some pun. In Polish, for example, the word "bieda" means "poverty."

Reading the translation, I was struck by how similar the bizarreness of the imagery is to that of the [i\Hypnerotomachia[/i], another work with associations, via its woodcuts, to the tarot (e.g. the Popess). That poem's hybrid language might have been a stimulus also for the "macaroni" of Folengo and others.

You posted an image from the Palazzo Te. Over on the "Tarot and Alchemy" thread a while back, Marco and I were discussing a piece of this "Room of Psyche"--the part that shows two vases with water pouring out of them, held by a naiad. In the course of the discussion, I found an article about passages in two Mantuan poems ("Two Mantuan fantasies: Lombardy in the image of a garden and an architectural vertigo. The fortunes of the Hypnerotomachia in Mantua", Word and Image 14:1, 1998, pp. 186ff). The first passage supported Marco's view of the meaning of that part of the fresco, that it depicted the geography of Mantua along with its ruler Federico (a figure off to the side). The second poem was from Baldus, for which the author gave an alchemical analysis. This particular post of mine, giving the details, is at

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=647&start=40#p10577

I'd be interested in your (and others' view of such a perspective on Folengo (it isn't by me but by Signorino, published in an academic journal). If true, there may be alchemical subtexts elsewhere.

Our discussion of the Romano fresco starts with Marco's post at

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=647&start=30#p10562

Huck wrote

The "Caos el Triperuno" and the "Baldo" have gotten the rank "world literature", at least by Kindler's Literatur-Lexikon (so that's a German judgment).

I was pretty impressed with the "Caos" myself, actually.

Huck wrote

The doubts about Renda's version and the original can only be cleared, if one gets a look at the version of 1527.

Well, taking a look at the "Indice" of the 1546 edition might help, if there is one--at least we'd know whether it was Renda. You didn't give a link for the facsimile page you showed us, and I can't find it using Google.

mikeh wrote:Huck wrote

The "Caos el Triperuno" and the "Baldo" have gotten the rank "world literature", at least by Kindler's Literatur-Lexikon (so that's a German judgment).

I was pretty impressed with the "Caos" myself, actually.

Huck wrote

The doubts about Renda's version and the original can only be cleared, if one gets a look at the version of 1527.

Well, taking a look at the "Indice" of the 1546 edition might help, if there is one--at least we'd know whether it was Renda. You didn't give a link for the facsimile page you showed us, and I can't find it using Google.

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

I see, you found the result of my Baldo expedition ..
... in short: I've still big difficulties to find the Tarocco passage in Baldo's book VI and believe in big differences between the version of 1521 and that of the electronic text, which seems to be also Mullagher's version.
But the 1521 version already has 25 chapters or books. But - at least for the moment - I believe in strong differences between the 1521 version and later versions.

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