Tarot History Forum

Huck wrote: 24 Jul 2022, 04:52 Beside that, Capella is too early to help really in the problem of the 12-Olympians in 14th century Italy.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 24 Jul 2022, 09:28

Huck wrote: 24 Jul 2022, 04:52 When Franco wrote his articles (1989) he suggested 1414, cause a title mentioned in the text of the Marziano text. Filippo Maria got this in 1414.

We raised that to 1418, cause there was outside knowledge, that Michelino wasn't in Milan before 1418.

....
In other words, Michelino did not have be in Milan for Filippo Maria to have commissioned a deck of cards from him.

And to point out the obvious, this is not an in situ fresco project, but cards. Was Bembo in Pavia/Milan or in his studio in Cremona for the PMB? Most would say the latter. It simply wouldn't have mattered where Michelino painted the deck.

Speaking of frescoes, one will duly note that in one of the most famous cases where Manilius was used for an art program, Il Salone dei Mesi in the Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara, each of the 12 Olympian gods are portrayed with their respective constellation; yet Marziano mentions not one single zodiacal constellation. Naturally Huck has studiously avoided mentioning this inconvenient fact; to reiterate: An art program based on Manilius without reference to the zodiac is inconceivable.

All this planetary/astrological nonsense is what really takes the cake - unable to make any textual links between Manilius and Marziano, especially regarding the constellations, Huck starts wildly grasping at other straws, now throwing out the names of other astrologers as if Marziano even acknowledged them. Marziano is concerned with Ovidian mythology (however repackaged in Boccaccio), which he explicitly moralizes like everyone else, into four suits in his case. He evinces no deep interest in astrology in the Tractactus, besides the obvious sun, moon and brightest "star" in the sky of Venus (which any writer about mythology would touch on for those three). Beyond that? For example, the one place Marziano might have linked Mercury to his planetary aspect, namely its swiftness, Marziano instead links it to the speed by which any messenger on an embassy must necessarily travel: "Winged sandals are tied on his feet, and he is described as unencumbered on the journey, insofar as the speakers of peace are required to be swift." Nothing about the planet's swift revolution about the sun. And where is the slowest and highest planet in Marziano, Saturn??? I'm too embarrassed to address this completely unfounded idea of the planets in Marziano any further.

Moving on...

Astrology and its ideas had developed.

Zodiac ... ... Manilius Dorotheos Ptelomaios
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Aries ......... Minerva ..... Saturn ........ Mars
Taurus....... Venus >>> Venus >>>> Venus
Gemini ...... Apollo ........ Mercury >> Mercury
Cancer ...... Mercury...... Moon >>>> Moon
Leo ............ Jupiter ........ Sun >>>>>> Sun
Virgo ......... Vesta .......... Moon ......... Mercury
Libra ......... Vulcanus..... Saturn ........ Venus
Scorpio ..... Mars >>>> Mars >>>>> Mars
Capricorn.. Ceres ........ Jupiter >>>> Jupiter
Aquarius ... Juno .......... Mars ............ Saturn
Pisces ........ Neptun ..... Jupiter ......... Saturn

Phaeded wrote ...

Nothing about the planet's swift revolution about the sun. And where is the slowest and highest planet in Marziano, Saturn??? I'm too embarrassed to address this completely unfounded idea of the planets in Marziano any further.

Reclamations directly to the authors or via Jupiter. It's a pity that the world isn't that, what you expected.

I'd researched that 35 years ago, I don't remember the source.

Sortes' 16 kings in Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Cod. 2352 and Marziano's 16 Deorum

This is highly speculative but thought I'd repost this here from the 'affirmative action' thread.

What is somewhat limiting in the consideration of Marziano - especially if Ross's early date of 1412 is used (just 10 years after Giangaleazzo's death) - is focusing on Decembrio's late comments about Filippo Visconti and not on what his father was already into in Pavia. Marziano would have been more closer to the father's culture than the son's at that point, the father likely influenced by relations with King Wencelaus from whom he purchased the duchy's imperial title.

So here is the background on sortes and the specific MS associated with Wencelaus:

The Latin term sortes is used in modern academia to refer to a textual genre which the Western European vernacular languages call “lot book” (German: “Losbuch”; Dutch: “lot boek”) or “book of sorts” (French: “livre de sorts”; Spanish: “libro de (las) suertes”; Italian: “libro delle sorti”); in English, this type of texts is also called “a book of fate” or “a book of fortune”. In medieval times, the terms sortes and sortilegium could be used in this narrow sense, but were also used to refer to all kinds of sortition and cleromancy. In fact, sortes texts are, in their general structure, comparable to other texts on sortileges, like Mantic Alphabets and geomantic tables but, although they share common features, the sortes form a separate genre and belong to a different tradition (Heiles 2018, 89–126; Lemaitre-Provost 2010, 49–56).There are two types of sortes texts: sortes without questions or “colecciones libres”, as Montero Cartelle (Montero Cartelle and Alsonso Guardo 2004, 20–31) calls them, and sortes with questions or “collectiones dirigidas” (Heiles 2018, 39–68; Luijendijk and Klingshirn 2019, 27). Both types provide a number of independent sayings and possess a special layout structure that makes it possible to read only one of these sayings selected through a random process. In its simplest form, a sortes without questions text is divided into 56 paragraphs and the reader is guided by a dice roll. The reader of the Sortes Sanctorum, a Latin sortes text written in late-antique Gaul and transmitted until the fifteenth century, for example, requires the reader to roll three dice and sort them by number. He then needs to look for a paragraph marked with his combination, e. g. 6–6–4. In this lucky case, he would be informed: “C.C.IIII. Deus te adiuvabit de quo cupis. Deum roga, cito perveniens ad quod desid-eras” (Sortes Sanctorum, eds. Montero Cartelle and Alsonso Guardo, 70) / 6–6–4 “God will help you regarding what you desire. Ask God, soon you will achieve what you wish.” While these texts make only unspecific declarations, the sortes with questions provide detailed answers to a given set of questions. The Prenostica Socratis Basilei, a twelfth-century Latin translation of Arabic sortes, for example, give a list of 16 questions. These sortes can tell the reader, inter alia, if it is a good idea to take a wife or not, if a captive will escape, if a pregnant woman will give birth to a boy or a girl, or if lost property will be recovered. Here, the reader must randomly select a number between two and ten (or between one and nine in older versions of the text), by creating a line of points without counting them, by turning a wheel, which will point to a number, or by throwing two dice (if the figure obtained exceeds number nine, this amount is subtracted). The result determines the answer. A table and set of diagrams lead the reader to his answer spoken by one of twelve kings. If the reader wishes to know, whether he should marry, and if his number is 10, the king of the Tatars would give him a clear answer: Caveas tibi ab uxore (Prenostica Socratis Basilei, eds. Montero Car-telle and Alonso Guardo, 234) – “Beware of the wife.” (Heiles, Marco. "Sortes". Prognostication in the Medieval World: A Handbook, edited by Matthias Heiduk, Klaus Herbers and Hans-Christian Lehner, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2020: 978-983, 978).

What is intriguing are the numbers noted above - 56 questions could be related to a 56 card deck. More intriguing, is the 16 questions answered by 16 kings (not the 12 kings noted above, unless 4 of the kings are depicted twice to answer two questions each) in the Prenostica Socratis Basilei, in Wencelaus's MS 2352 noted in more detail below, and its potential relationship of that to Marziano's work.

What has not been adequately explored, certainly not by M. Azzolini whose work focuses on the Sforza (mainly the latter ones in her The Duke and the Stars, 2013), is the cultural borrowing, especially astrological and related "sciences", between the Visconti and German royal houses. Bernabo Visconti's children intermarriage with Germans is somewhat staggering:
Taddea Visconti (1351 – 28 September 1381), married on 13 October 1364 Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had three children including Isabeau of Bavaria, Queen consort of King Charles VI of France
Verde Visconti (1352 – bef. 11 March 1414), married on 23 February 1365 Leopold III, Duke of Inner Austria, by whom she had six children.
Marco Visconti (November 1353 – 3 January 1382), Lord of Parma in 1364; married in 1367 Elisabeth of Bavaria, by whom he had one daughter.
Antonia Visconti (ca. 1354 – 26 March 1405), engaged in 1366 to King Frederick III of Sicily, but he died before the wedding took place; married 27 October 1380 Eberhard III, Count of Württemberg, by whom she had three sons.
Maddalena Visconti (ca. 1366 – 17 July 1404), married 9 April 1382 Frederick, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had five children including Henry XVI of Bavaria.
Elisabetta Visconti (1374 – 2 February 1432), married on 26 January 1395 Ernest, Duke of Bavaria, by whom she had five children including Albert III, Duke of Bavaria.
Lucia Visconti (ca. 1380 – 14 April 1424), married firstly on 28 June 1399 Frederick of Thuringia (future Elector of Saxony) but the union was dissolved on grounds of non-consummation shortly after; married secondly on 24 January 1407 Edmund Holland, 4th Earl of Kent. No issue.

That's 7 marriages to German princes/princesses, not to mention their ensuing children who had Visconti blood and ongoing relations.

Duke Giangaleazzo Visconti (1351 - 1402) was himself married to one of these siblings/offspring of Bernabo, Caterina. What is intriguing about him is his alliance with Wenceslaus (1361 –1419), King of the Romans, Germany and of Bohemia (deposed 1400) and as king assumed the government of the Holy Roman Empire, but never crowned as such, from whom Visconti received the title of Duke of Milan from in 1395 for 100,000 florins. They attempted to help each other with their respective goals of King of Lombardy (Italy even?) and Holy Roman Emperor.

An intriguing illuminated book made in Prague for Wencelaus is Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Cod. 2352, dated to 1392 (just 3 years before the Duchy of Milan is granted to Visconti), which features the Sortes version Prenostica Socratric Baslilei and also features a symbolic Rota Fortuna (with the “regno” terms found in tarot) and the additional astrological material of Michael Scot's Liber introductorius, shifting the focus on fate to things astrological. The Prenostica Socratis Basilei,to reiterate,, is the Latin translation of Arabic sortes, with the list of 16 questions, which begs the question as to whether Giangaleazzo had a version of this in his Pavia library via his ally...and again, did this influence Marziano in any way with his 16 heroum?

Just as the practice of divination by sortes was seemingly contextualized by astrology in the dedication MS for King Wencelaus IV. (both the Michael Scot section and the sortes sectione both feature an astronomer in their respective title pages), so did Giangaleazzo's own practices via eclipse tables.The imperial duchy title must have involved additional gift-giving from both sides, and indeed an imperial legate, Benesio Cumsinich, was in Milan with a 200,000 florin crown for the ceremony. Perhaps astrological practices were shared as well, deemed so essential to ruling as it was. Giangaleazzo was himself into a certain form of 'sortes' tables for predicting the future himself - the Easter computational tables of Lat. 757 features solar and lunar conjunctions and oppositions beginning in 1395, the year of his coronation; to which Kirsch adds: "Contemporary accounts document Giangaleazzo's dread of solar eclipses (especially understandable in view of the sun's role as one of his principal emblems), and he very probably would have regarded tables indicating the possibility of such events as aids in promoting an auspicious ducal reign" (Edith Kirsch, Five Illuminated Manuscripts of Giangaleazzo Visconti, 1991: 28).

Wencelaus's MS 2352 can be viewed on-line here: https://digital.onb.ac.at/RepViewer/vie ... iew=SINGLE

A few images from it:
The title page for the opening Michael Scots section features an astronomer, but this leaf, featuring the motto of Wencelaus and impresa (Visconti also used the knot), precedes the sortes section as a second title page within the codex:


Sol and Luna remain little changed from the earlier use in the Visconti castle frescoes at Angera, right, and this MS - Michael Scot's Liber provided a fairly stable copybook of astrological images:


Above, Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Cod. 2352 f. 175 Rota Fortuna; below, the badly damaged Visconti Angera wheel of fortune


The 16th king, followed by the alphabet wheel with lot numbers cast (the preceding folios feature 3 kings per sheet):


All 16 kings:
Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (ÖNB), Cod. 2352 - 16 Kings

While Marziano does not seem to engage in any kind of divination and is simply a game, the circular nature of the sortes would remind one of the
Etruscan 16 divisions of the sky for divination - and from both Marziano might have borrowed in inventing his game.

Phaeded

Phaeded wrote: 04 Jun 2022, 22:40 I'm not proposing him for the ur-tarot (for which I suggest Bruni)

The 3 January 1444 arrest and fining of two men for playing charte a trionfi in the San Simone district suggests that the game did not have such high origins as with the (still living) Chancellor of Florence. Rather, it had obscure origins and its legal status was apparently not settled until 1450.

I don't find your theory on the Ur-Tarot persuasive at all, but it just occurred to me that this was a way to argue for the improbability of some of your premises, such as it having been civic propaganda or conceived by the most prominent official in the city.

For the text, see pages 5-7 of Franco Pratesi's article here http://naibi.net/A/424-GIGLIO444-Z.pdf

Ross Caldwell wrote: 07 Jan 2023, 10:18 The 3 January 1444 arrest and fining of two men for playing charte a trionfi in the San Simone district suggests that the game did not have such high origins as with the (still living) Chancellor of Florence. Rather, it had obscure origins and its legal status was apparently not settled until 1450.

Recently Michael and me attempted to find out, if the biographies of Bruni (about Dante and Petrarca in 1434-36) and of Manetti (about Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio in 1440) contain a hint on the work "Trionfi" by Petrarca. The research had a negative result, we were not able to find something.
What does it tell us?

In October 1441 we have in Florence a literary contest. Latin texts win, vernacular texts lose. Leon Battista Alberti is very disappointed. The "Trionfi" of Petrarca is a vernacular text.
What does it tell us? And so on

For San Bernardino, preacher against the use of playing cards, I've read, that he had a specific engagement by pope Eugen in Florence during the council. Franciscan Vice-General 1438-1442. This occupation shall had been finished in 1442, I've read recently.

In 1438 St. Bernardine was appointed vicar-general for the Strict Observance (one of the two branches of the Franciscans). Himself and St. John Capistran (who succeeded him as vicar) were the two olive trees of the Reform which repaired the falling house of St. Francis. At the time of Bernardine’s admission to the Order there were only 130 Observant friars in Italy; at his death they numbered over 4000. He also founded, or reformed, at least three hundred convents.
After five years he obtained a discharge from his office, and returned to preaching in northern and central Italy.
http://www.traditionalcatholic.co/st-be ... -of-italy/

Since 1442 we can observe, that playing card sales go down till c1447, observable by the records of the 2 silk dealers. The Trionfi prohibitions in 1444 fill the picture.
San Bernardino died in 1444, but this was followed by a quick public engagement to make him a saint in 1450, right in the Jubilee year.

The Medici made a lot of money in the year 1439, thanks to the condition, that Florence had a lot of visitors during the council. Tourism and playing card prohibitions are not in harmony with each other. It might well be, that the prohibition of card playing had a pause in this time. Possibly cause San Bernardino was under direct control from the side of the pope.

In 1447 the sale of playing card increased again, in time this was correlated with the death of Filippo Maria Visconti in the same year. The death of Filippo Maria
had consequences on the council of Basel, which stopped to exist some time later.
In 1450 was a Jubilee year of the church. The year was finished with the allowance of te Trinfi game.

In January 1441 there was a letter exchange between Piero di Medici ....
( then 25 years old, not married ; since the death of Lorenzo di Medici il Vecchio, brother of Cosimo, in September 1440 Piero was his follower in the cultural functions, which earlier was filled by the mentioned Lorenzo)
.... with Matteo de Pasti in Venice.
29th of June 1440: Battle of Anghiari
16th of September 1440: Sigismondo Malatesta gets Trionfi cards from Giusto Giusti
20th of September 1440: sudden death Lorenzo di Medici il Vecchio
23th of September 1440: burial date, Pope Eugen is present with cardinals, Poggia has the funeral speach.
(dates according an older German text)
https://books.google.de/books?id=DoLuDb ... 40&f=false
24th of January 1441: Matteo de Pasti writes his answering letter from Venice,
viewtopic.php?p=13334#p13334

Piero married Lucrezia in 1444. Lucrezia Tornabuoni was 19 then, Piero 28. The Trionfi motifs (especially the first 2, Love and Chastity) were motifs for wedding objects, especially cassone.
It's plausible, that the Petrarca Trionfi motifs developed first in Venice, cause Petrarca was near to Padova at the end of his life. Cosimo and Lorenzo were in Venice in exile, possbly also Piero (?). The Trionfi cards, which were given to Malatesta, might have been different, possibly focussed on military objects.

Malatesta had the elephant in his heraldic, that's an interesting detail, cause Fama was often painted with elephants.

30 pictures
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cate ... a_elephant

Huck wrote: 09 Jan 2023, 21:19 Recently Michael and me attempted to find out, if the biographies of Bruni (about Dante and Petrarca in 1434-36) and of Manetti (about Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio in 1440) contain a hint on the work "Trionfi" by Petrarca. The research had a negative result, we were not able to find something.
What does it tell us?

In October 1441 we have in Florence a literary contest. Latin texts win, vernacular texts lose. Leon Battista Alberti is very disappointed. The "Trionfi" of Petrarca is a vernacular text.
What does it tell us? And so on

I'm not sure of your point, or how it addresses what I've said to Phaeded, which is part of a longer discussion between us.

But the part of your statement I have put in bold is wrong: there were no Latin texts recited at the Certame coronario, whose entire purpose was to elevate vernacular verse. No texts at all "won," either; the silver laurel crown was laid on the altar of Santa Maria del Fiore, as if "crowning" the cathedral itself.

In connection with Alberti and the Certame coronario, which has recently become relevant to me, I just read this paper by Brian Maxson, "The Certame coronario as Performative Ritual." https://www.academia.edu/26020071/The_C ... ive_Ritual

Maxson interprets the event, held on 22 October 1441, in the light of the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza, which occurred two days later. It's quite an astonishing insight. His argument is that the Florentines hoped that the wedding was a herald of lasting peace, finally, between Milan and Florence, while the Certame coronario itself, whose theme was "true friendship," reflected the hope of civic reconciliation within the city.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 10 Jan 2023, 14:36 I'm not sure of your point, or how it addresses what I've said to Phaeded, which is part of a longer discussion between us.

But the part of your statement I have put in bold is wrong: there were no Latin texts recited at the Certame coronario, whose entire purpose was to elevate vernacular verse. No texts at all "won," either; the silver laurel crown was laid on the altar of Santa Maria del Fiore, as if "crowning" the cathedral itself.

In connection with Alberti and the Certame coronario, which has recently become relevant to me, I just read this paper by Brian Maxson, "The Certame coronario as Performative Ritual." https://www.academia.edu/26020071/The_C ... ive_Ritual

Maxson interprets the event, held on 22 October 1441, in the light of the marriage of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza, which occurred two days later. It's quite an astonishing insight. His argument is that the Florentines hoped that the wedding was a herald of lasting peace, finally, between Milan and Florence, while the Certame coronario itself, whose theme was "true friendship," reflected the hope of civic reconciliation within the city.

It was a prearranged victory for the conservative party, and Alberti, who had shown his engagement, wasn't happy about it.
Italian wiki (translated)

The Certame coronario was a vernacular poetry competition conceived in 1441 in Florence by Leon Battista Alberti, with the patronage of Piero di Medici.
...
An anonymous protest was addressed to the jury , probably attributable to Alberti himself, in which he criticized the conservative position of traditional humanistic culture, notoriously adverse to the vernacular. The fact that the crown had not been assigned to any of the competing poets, in fact, testifies that the rehabilitation of the vernacular was not yet fully mature; however the coronary Certame is an indication of an irreversible trend now underway.

Piero was 25 and Alberti with his rebellious spirit was 37. Alberti likely worked already on his Momus or on his Interceniales, both written in a satirical spirit.
automatic translation of a German source .... https://biblioscout.net/book/99.140005/9783515128100

With his fifty Intercenales, the Italian humanist Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) created a Neo-Latin masterpiece of short prose pieces that were very varied in theme and style. Classified according to one's point of view as 'dramatic' dialogues, miniature comedies, fables, short stories, novellas, letters, satires, invectives, etc., Alberti probably compiled them into 'prose poetry books' in 1443. The authors show how Alberti's Latin 'Table Talks' combine a high level of linguistic virtuosity, conceptual precision and psychological insight (which sometimes takes on the auto-psychoanalytic traits of a traumatized outsider) with sophisticated layers of the reception of antiquity, which kaleidoscopically generate ever new dimensions of meaning. A disillusioned and unsparing, often astonishingly up-to-date worldview that is nevertheless rooted in the Italian early Renaissance speaks from these often symbolically and allegorically encoded gems, which question traditional ethical and aesthetic value hierarchies with the verve of an Angry Young Man.

Alberti had accompanied Pope Eugen from Rome to Florence in 1434 and left with him in 1443

automatic translation of a treccani biography of Alberti
https://www-treccani-it.translate.goog/ ... r_pto=wapp

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

Generally the expectations for the marriage and peace were high after the last battle between Milan and Venice at Cignano and Pontevico in June 1441.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Pontevi ... 762451!3e2
https://condottieridiventura.it/1440/
automatic translation from German source, original from Niccolo Machiavelli

At the beginning of spring, the Piccinino was the first to enter the field. He attacked Cignano, a castle twelve miles from Brescia, which the Sforza came to his aid, whereupon the two captains waged war against each other in the usual manner. As the Count was concerned about Bergamo, he moved before Martinengo, which castle was in such a position that after its capture he could easily give help to that city hard pressed by Niccolò. Niccolò Piccinino, who realized that the enemy could only attack him from this side, had fortified the castle in every way, so that the Sforza found it necessary to use all his might to besiege it. Then Niccolò took up a position with his army where he cut off the enemy's supply and secured himself with ditches and bastions in such a way that he could only attack him with obvious danger. Now the besiegers were in a worse position than the besieged. For the count could not continue the encirclement because of the lack of provisions, and just as little could he break camp because of the danger threatening the enemy, so that decisive victory was imminent for the duke, and complete ruin for the Venetians and the Sforza.
Fortune, however, which has no lack of means of favoring friends and harming enemies, caused Piccinino's ambition and arrogance to increase in anticipation of this victory to such an extent that he lost sight of all consideration for the duke as well as for himself sat. He informed the Visconti that, having served so long under his banners, he had not yet acquired enough land to bury himself in, so he now wanted to know what reward awaited him for his efforts. For it was in his power to subject the whole of Lombardy to him and to hand over all his enemies, and since he thought he could expect sure reward for a certain victory, he demanded the cession of the city of Piacenza, so that after so long he could tired of campaigns, could rest at times. In the end he did not hesitate to threaten the duke that he would give up the enterprise if he did not agree to his request. This insulting and high-spirited manner so wounded and angered the Visconti that he decided to give up the expected advantages rather than to do Piccinino his will. He, whom so many dangers and threats from the enemies did not bring to a change of heart, did so because of the arrogance of his friends. Deciding to be on good terms with the Count, he sent Antonio Guidobuono of Tortona to him and offered him his daughter's hand and terms of peace, which he and his allies gladly accepted.
This being secretly concluded, the duke sent word to Piccinino that he should make a truce with the count for a year, pretending that the expenses of the war weighed so heavily on him that he could not give up a secure peace for the sake of a doubtful victory. Niccolò was amazed at this decision, since he did not understand what made the duke renounce such a glorious victory and it did not occur to him that, in order not to reward his friends, he wanted to save his enemies . He therefore opposed this plan as much as he could, until, in order to put him to rest, the duke was compelled to threaten him that, if he resisted, he would give him as booty to his soldiers and to the enemy. Then the Piccinino, in the same mood as one who is forced to leave home and friends, obeyed, and bemoaned his adverse fate, in which sometimes luck, sometimes the duke, snatched victory from him. After the armistice was concluded, Francesco Sforza married Madonna Bianca and the city of Cremona was given to him as a dowry. Peace was then concluded in November 1441, for the Venetians by Francesco Barbarigo and Paolo Trono, for the Florentines by Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli. The Venetians acquired Peschiera, Asola and Leonato, castles belonging to the Marquis of Mantua.

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

Added:
I gathered this from an artist dictionary.

Pasti, Matteo de’
(b Verona, c. 1420; d Rimini, after 15 May 1467). Italian medallist, architect, painter and illuminator. He came from a good Veronese family (his father was a doctor, two of his brothers were in the church and three others were merchants). He is first documented in 1441, when he was working in Venice as painter to Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici illustrating Petrarch’s Trionfi (untraced). Subsequently (1444–6), he worked as an illuminator for the Este court, under the direction of Giorgio d’Alemagna.

https://www.wga.hu/bio_m/g/giorgio/biograph.html

GIORGIO D'ALEMAGNA
(b. ca. 1415, Modena, d. 1479, Modena)
Italian illuminator, probably of German descent. He is documented from 1441 to 1462 in the Este court at Ferrara, working first under Lionello d'Este, Marchese of Ferrara, and then Borso d'Este. He was granted citizenship of Ferrara in 1462. His earliest documented works were executed in Ferrara, where in 1445-48 he participated in the decoration of a Breviary for Lionello d'Este (dismembered, private collection). His illuminations for a Missal for Borso d'Este (Ms. lat. 239, Biblioteca Estense, Modena) were executed between 1449 and 1457.
In 1453 he decorated the Spagna in Rima (Ms. Cl.II 132, Biblioteca Comunale Ariostea, Ferrara). The stylistic relationship between this work, the Missal and the Breviary is problematic. Some scholars attribute only the Spagna in Rima to Giorgio, assigning the other works to an anonymous Master of the Missal of Borso d'Este. In Lionello's Breviary, Giorgio worked in a Late Gothic Emilian style similar to that of the anonymous frescoes at Vignola painted for Niccolò III d'Este.
After 1450 his style took on Renaissance characteristics. In the Missal, Giorgio showed familiarity with the art of Francesco Squarcione and Donatello as transmitted through the work of Michele Pannonio, then active in Ferrara. He also knew the work of Piero della Francesca, who in 1451 was in Rimini and later in Ferrara. Giorgio's stylistic vocabulary recalls that of his contemporary Taddeo Crivelli and also the early works of Cosimo Tura.
Giorgio's illuminations are of remarkably high quality; the drawing is clear and lively, with Late Gothic rhythms that give a dynamic quality to the figures and an intense expressiveness to the faces. The landscapes are characteristically fantastic: full of pointed rocks, hills and coloured stones, within a fine, carefully worked out colour scheme.
His son, Martino di Giorgio d'Alemagna (Martino da Modena), was also illuminator.

Here is a book about Matteo De' Pasti, by Filippo Dompieri, 2012
https://www.academia.edu/26739522/Matte ... architetto

The Regesto on pages 191-206 contains all of the primary documentation of his life, including on pages 198-199 the letter from Leon Battista Alberti (then in Rome) to Matteo in Rimini, 18 November 1454 (a photograph of the original, autograph letter is on page 177). The redesigned San Francesco - "Tempio Malatestiano" - is Alberti's first known architectural project, although he is not known to have ever visited the site, instead directing Matteo from Rome. Alberti and Sigismondo met at least as early as the 1430s in Florence. Possibly Filippo Brunelleschi recommended his friend Alberti to Sigismondo, since Sigismondo consulted with Brunelleschi from 1436 onward when constructing the Castelsismondo in Rimini.

As far we know it, Matteo is the first Trionfi motifs painter. The age of Matteo is of importance. Somewhere I saw a c1420 for his birth, your text has at page 14/15 the suggestion of c1412 (with doubts), based on a testament of his father in 1437.
According this suspicion Matteo would have been c29 years in 1441, 4 years older than Piero de Medici. As far I remember, there was somehow the suspicion, that Piero and Matteo knew each other from earlier opportunities.
Either from Florence or possibly from the stay of Cosimo/Lorenzo in Venice 1433/1434. I don't know, where Piero was during this years.

From somewhere (lost in memory) I have 24th January for the letter of Matteo, here we find in the Regesten "24
mese non specificato." Which means, that it is not clear from the document which month it is. Is there also a doubt about the year 1441?

Page 192 in your document

Spetabilis ac maior honorande. Per questa mia vi fo noto come io ho inparato da’ poi ch’io son a Vinisia cossa che al vostro lavoro non poria essere cossa più singulare, come saranoν e questa cossa è oro masinato, ch’io lo dipigno come ogni altro colore, e ivi cominciato ad ornare questi che son fatti per modo che non vedesti mai sì fatta cossaέ Quelle verdure son tutte tochate d’oromasinato ch’è fatto mille ricamuci a quelle damiselle. Si che caramente vi priegho, che vui mi vogliate mandare la fantasia degli altri, a ciò ch’io ve li conpischaν e s’elvi piace ch’io vi mandi nquesti, io velli manderòν si che comandatime quello vi piace ch’io facia, ch’i o son pronto a ubedirvi in qualunque cossa a vui sia grata. E caramente vi priegho, che vui mi vogliate perdonare di quello ch’io ho fatto, perché vui sapete che mi fu forzia a fare quello ch’io feciέ Si che terminate come piaze avui, s’el vi piaze, mandatime ch’io facia quello della fama, perch’io ho la fantasia, salvo non so, se quella dona che sede, la volete in camora (gamurra) di piciolato, o pur di manto, come a me piacesseμ el resto so tutto quello v’à andare, cioè el caro tira 4 liofanti: e si non so se vui volete scudieri e damiselle driedo, o pur omeni famosi vechiμ si che avisatime di tutto, perch’io farò una bella cossa, per modo chesarete contentoέ E perdonateme tutto, e valerà più un di questi ch’io farò hora, che non valle tutti queste che son fatti. Si che fatime tanta gratia: dignative di farmi risposta, e de essere contento ch’io vi conpischa, a ciò che vui vediate una cossa che mai a questo modo non la vidisti fornita di hora (sic, leggi: oro) masinato, comesarà questa. A vui mi ricomando. Data in Vinesa a di 24, 1441. Per lo vostrominimo servitore Matteo di Pasti – S. (scrisse). A vui se ari comand.

Source: G. MILANESI, Lettere di artisti italiani del secolo XIV e XV, in «Il Buonarroti», II, IV, Roma 1869, pp. 78

What is the calendar system in Venice in this period? Is this "1441" really 1441 or actually 1442 ? Or is this just a modernized version of the letter?

Continuing the ancient Roman custom, the Venetian year began on 1 March, which was celebrated as the New Year's Day festival (Capodanno).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_veneto

MikeH once quoted a translation of this letter ...
viewtopic.php?p=13334#p13334