Huck wrote: 05 Jul 2023, 20:05 Phaeded wrote ...

Either one of you care to offer a reason for the odd juxtaposition of singing birds and gaming boards?

Independent of your question I had reached the idea, that a man, who cared for chess game sets and table games, might easily also had been responsible for playing cards. This and the observation, that the Michelino deck had birds as suit signs and also old German decks used birds as decoration for playing cards, points to the possibility, that "singing birds" might be just another expression for playing cards in a group of players or gamblers. Well, that's only a possibility and I don't see a chance to be secure about it.

Local idioms are always tough, but the passage in question specifically speaks of feeding the birds, so literal. But the reminder that certain of the German luxury decks with birds likely influenced Marziano's choice of bird suits is a good one. I'm looking more at the general theme of "leisure" as found in Marziano - the large hunting grounds that abutted the rear of the Pavia palazzo (which would have involved fowl among other quarry), Azzone Visconti's zoo and whatever was left of it by Filippo's time, the singing birds at the Arengo (nightingales or something more exotic imported from who knows where, perhaps descendants from specimens of Azzone's zoo? [missed Ross's post on previous page - Decembrio info]), and of course Marziano's bird-themed playing cards are all part and parcel of Visconti noble leisurely pursuits. Given the strong presence of birds, the notion of "singing/playing birds" is not out of the question as slang for a noble leisure pursuit, but not for the passage in question.

Surely there were earlier pre-Marziano versions of the Stuttgart and Ambras Court hunting cards featuring birds (and hounds and deer), and the Visconti intermarried with the southern German nobility associated with these decks.

https://cards.old.no/1430-stuttgart/
https://cards.old.no/1440-hofjagdspiel/

Marziano: "And subordinated to these are four kinds of birds, being suited by similarity. Thus to the rank of virtues, the Eagle; of riches, the Phoenix; of continence, the Turtledove; of pleasure, the Dove. And each one obeys its own king...."

King of Herons in the Ambras deck

Though not mounted, there is even a King of Turtledoves/Coins in the CY


The knight of turtledoves/coins being mounted a bit closer looking to the Ambras: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... _Coins.jpg

The king of cups having a much more similar to headpiece to the Ambras king: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b8/2e/33 ... 16db70.jpg


Shared copybooks may have been at play here, as we know dei Grassi's work was copied in Germany (and whose Visconti Hours are littered with birds, especially leaves BR151 and LF34; in which case Grassi could have influenced the Germans who in turn influenced Michelino's Marziano deck, but of course that last does not survive).

Here's a great page for recreations of what the Arengo palace looked like around 1350, and probably not too different from Filippo Maria's day, except for the work on the new cathedral.

https://blog.urbanfile.org/2020/12/24/m ... -nel-1350/

Giotto's frescoes of the Gloria and Famous Men that Fiamma described were long gone, by 1353 if I remember correctly, but I haven't found the references yet to confirm my recollection.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 05 Jul 2023, 21:20 Here's a great page for recreations of what the Arengo palace looked like around 1350, and probably not too different from Filippo Maria's day, except for the work on the new cathedral.

https://blog.urbanfile.org/2020/12/24/m ... -nel-1350/

Giotto's frescoes of the Gloria and Famous Men that Fiamma described were long gone, by 1353 if I remember correctly, but I haven't found the references yet to confirm my recollection.

Nice! I think in the Caglioti article it talks of when the Giotto was likely destroyed. But there must have been numerous copied versions floating around, e.g. Frontispiece to Petrarch's De Viris Illustribus, c.1380 (BnF MS Latin 6069I). The illustration is a Triumph of Gloria (Vainglory, Fama). The image is thought to be based on 1335 fresco by Giotto in the palace of Azzone Visconti, Milan, as described in the 1342 Amorosa Visione by Boccaccio. This is one of the forerunners of the iconographic tradition illustrating Petrarch's Triumphs. The illuminated initial contains a portrait of the author, writing his book. Date: circa 1380. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... y-14th.jpg

Although the Arengo image below is 18th century, one thinks of Schopenhauer's famous complaint about carriage noise here (and in the context of my remark about the bird feeder also controlling the board games, with my surmise so as not to drown out the birds).

But to pass from genus to species, the truly infernal cracking of whips in the narrow resounding streets of a town must be denounced as the most unwarrantable and disgraceful of all noises. It deprives life of all peace and sensibility. Nothing gives me so clear a grasp of the stupidity and thoughtlessness of mankind as the tolerance of the cracking of whips. This sudden, sharp crack which paralyses the brain, destroys all meditation, and murders thought, must cause pain to any one who has anything like an idea in his head. ...Hammering, the barking of dogs, and the screaming of children are abominable; but it is only the cracking of a whip that is the true murderer of thought. Its object is to destroy every favourable moment that one now and then may have for reflection. https://biblioklept.org/2013/06/06/on-n ... openhauer/

Ross wrote ...

I can't offer a good guess as to why Socinus de Seregnio both fed his singing birds and was a good choice for overseeing the board-game players at the Aregno palace, but from Decembrio we know that he kept a lot of birds, and other animals. .... etc

Nice, that we got this point clear. "Singing birds" are NOT a slang expression for playing cards.

https://blog.urbanfile.org/2020/12/24/m ... -nel-1350/ .... showed this map of Milan in 1350
Google maps of today ....
Perspective East-South nowadays
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4637089 ... ?entry=ttu
One doesn't recognize much of the old structure.
https://www.google.com/maps/search/mail ... ?entry=ttu

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

The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965.

The Basilica of c1350 was at a different place than the cathedral of today.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Reale_(Milano)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Palace_of_Milan

Broletti Vecchio, Corte del Visconti was the old name of the Palazzo Reale.
Nowadays the Palazzo Reale is South of the cathedral.
Perspektive West of the Cathedral with the Palazzo Reale in the Southern part:
https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4640048 ... ?entry=ttu

I think, that the old Basilica still worked a longer time, and that the work at the new duomo started at an Eastern position.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_maior
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Tecla,_Milan
... right, it was broken down in 1458-1461, in Sforza's time.

The cathedral is much larger than Santa Tecla or the Basilica Vetus. I think much of the Broletto Vecchio is still recognizable, and the Chiesa di San Gottardo in Corte hasn't changed at all.

Basically they demolished the northern and western walls of the large Broletto courtyard to make room for the cathedral.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 06 Jul 2023, 08:40 ...I think much of the Broletto Vecchio is still recognizable

Keep in mind that's where the Ambrosian Republic held its auctions of Visconti appropriated goods in order to fund the provisional government. Given that the Marziano deck came from Milan to encircling Sforza/Marcello at this time in 1449 (before Venice reneged on Sforza), it was possibly procured here as well.

Welch, Evelyn S.. Shopping in the Renaissance: Consumer Cultures in Italy 1400-1600. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2005.

Before that oval windowed 18th(?) century third level was added:

That's the Broletto Nuovo, in the Piazza Mercanti, not the Broletto Vecchio that was part of Arengo, though.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 06 Jul 2023, 15:13 That's the Broletto Nuovo, in the Piazza Mercanti, not the Broletto Vecchio that was part of Arengo, though.

Ah. "The Palazzo della Ragione ("Palace of Reason") is a historic building of Milan, Italy, located in Piazza Mercanti, facing the Loggia degli Osii. It was built in the 13th century and originally served as a broletto (i.e., an administrative building) as well as a judicial seat. As it was the second broletto to be built in Milan, it is also known as the Broletto Nuovo ("new broletto")."

I guess I never thought something from the 13th century would be "nuovo". Rereading your post, "Broletti Vecchio, Corte del Visconti was the old name of the Palazzo Reale. Nowadays the Palazzo Reale is South of the cathedral." I was in the remaining part and did not realize it - lucked out and caught a great exhibit there for Giuseppe Arcimboldo on my first visit to Milan (Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy, through 22 May 2011 (I was there in early May with unseasonably warms temps in the high '80s), http://taccuinodicasabella.blogspot.com ... ights.html ). It was in both the old Palazzo Reale (very few original elements visible if I recall correctly) and new addition:

I got plenty of pictures from the New Broletto in 2008, but I didn't even know about the Old Broletto when I was there.

Ross Caldwell wrote: 06 Jul 2023, 18:50 I got plenty of pictures from the New Broletto in 2008, but I didn't even know about the Old Broletto when I was there.

Well, they don't let you in the upper floor so there's nothing really to see (the arched ground open area has nothing) besides the niche inserted equestrian statue of Oldrado da Tresseno, ca. 1228. Apparently a zealous podesta: Anno Domini 1233. To the podestà of Milan, Oldrado di Tresseno. When you pass through the regal portico of the great palace, you will always remember the merits of podestà Oldrado, citizen of Lodi, defender and sword of the faith, who built the palace and burnt, as he had to, the Cathars.

The immediate area around it is all historical, 14th through 16th century per pic above), with several of coats of arms on the medieval buildings beyond it. The portal on the short end (right side looking at the pic) of the little courtyard looks very much like a Sforza-era portal on a side street of the La Scala. I can't find my pic of the one I have in mind that has bust reliefs on either side of F. Sforza and Alexander the Great (so where those heraldic helms are below?), but I was able to use Streetview to find this similar Vimercati Palazzo portal on that same street (opposite west side of the opera house). A Vimercati of course played the central role in dissolving the Ambrosian Republic for Sforza (undoubtedly the one who built the original palazzo, all that's left being portals): Edit: that is the portal/arch in question - the reliefs are just difficult to discern with the crap resolution of streetview: FR.SF. DUX MLI [=Mediolani ?] at the apex, flanked by Divi Julius and Alexander in lion-scalp (must have been commissioned by Gaspare Vimercate, Sforza's courtier after helping him to the duchy).

From the Bembo/Filelfo article's abstract: "...famous men, commissioned by the Medici immediately after the one in the Arengo for their palace in Via de' Bossi". Presumably this was for the medici bank, whose portal is in now in the Sforza Castle Museum. The via de' Bossi is the next intersecting street just north of the Vimercati Palazzo, so quite close, and obviously an area for elites. The Vimercati portal can be seen as a truncated "famous men" - arguably the two famous (Julius and Alexander), placed by Sforza. The Medici bank too features a relief bust of Sforza, but is this case opposite his wife (perhaps as an implicit way to recognize the entire family/scions).


A similar arrangement - Sforza as one of nine military worthies, again at the "apex" (Birago, 1490); Julius in the same spot, but Alexander is missing: