Tarot History Forum

Edited to note: According to Viti the trump cards were numbered, so the following is redundant , and also Viti did not, as I misunderstood, treat the fool as lowest trump, so please ignore that too.

So, Lucretia's purged Fama, as indicated by its triumph over Oblivion, is immortal Fama, like that of Laura's.

Lucretia’s Fama is purged (by virtue, by death) and therefore immortal, like Petrarch’s Laura whose Fama transcends death and time and is glorified in Eternity.

It's not clear to me how to determine the hierarchy of the Trumps in play? How does a player know which trump is higher than another? It is clearly stated that the Fool occupies the lowest {bases, vilest] position beneath them all: Viti seems to treat it simply as the first and lowest of the Trumps, but Boiardo it seems to me does not count it as a trump-perhaps for Boiardo it had a different role to that of trump (such as a null card or excuse?). The Steele sermon also seems to treat it as 21+ Fool, so perhaps this was a difference in game-play between Ferrara/Venice & Urbino? Also, Boiado's poem does not seem to give any indication to the reversal of ordering in two of the suits, as we have with Viti in Urbino and earlier Marziano di Tortino in Milan.

It seems obvious, and could clearly be inferred that Oblivion must triumph over Time and that these must be the final or penultimate trumps, the which could only be triumphed by Eternity. How would the player know that this card 'Strength' trump with Lucretia with her purged Fama is akin to the eternal fama of Laura, whose immortal beauty and eternal fama is restored from oblivion to be glorified in Eternity in the final stanza's of Petrarch's Triumph of Eternity? Does our author expect the players of the game to be making these inter-textual comparisons, perhaps so, given the popularity of Petrarch's Trionfi at the time. However,there is a limit to how an inter-textual understanding could help us, in fact it might rather confuse us, for Fama may take us to Petrarch's Triumph of Fama, which is triumphed by Time & Oblivion, by which reference we would sure place Strength/Lucretia below Time and Oblivion?

It's clear how a virtue may trump a vice among some of the pairings, like Toil over Laziness, but how does a player know where the pairs rank in the hierarchal ladder of Trumps? Is there some code we are missing? Such as find for the numeration of the pips., or were the Trump cards meant to be numbered?

Trump 5 - Secreto (Secrecy)

Italian text
Secreto Anthioco fo, tanto che corse
Per Strathonica quasi fino a morte;
Ma il phisico gentil ben lo soccorse.

English translation
Antiochus was so secret, that he almost
Died for his love for Stratonica;
But the kind physician helped him effectively.

Notes to Language Problems
I think "fo" (I do) is a spelling error for "fu" (he was)

External Links to Content Problems
http://www.abcgallery.com/liter/plutarch.html

Plutarch
Antiochus and Stratonica are the heroes of a story from Plutarch (43:38). Antiochus, son of the King Seleucus, fell in love with his stepmother, Stratonica. As his love was hopeless, he got sick and wanted to starve himself to death. The court physician soon found out the reason of the young man illness and reported it to the king. Seleucus abdicated the throne in favor of his son and also handed over to him his wife Stratonica.

Other sources (wikipedia):
Seleukus .... Father, 58 years old in 300 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucus_I_Nicator
Antiochus .... Son, sick, 24 years old in 300 BC, 29 in 294 BC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_I_Soter
Stratonica .... Wife, 17 years old in 300 BC, 23 in 1294 .... one daughter from Seleukus, 5 children from Antiochus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratonice_of_Syria

In 294 BC, prior to the death of his father Seleucus I, Antiochus married his stepmother, Stratonice, daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes. The ancient sources report that his elderly father reportedly instigated the marriage after discovering that his son was in danger of dying of lovesickness. Stratonice bore five children to Antiochus: Seleucus (later executed for rebellion), Laodice, Apama II, Stratonice II and Antiochus II Theos, who succeeded his father as king.

The old Seleukus was killed in 1281 BC

Seleucus now [1281] held the whole of Alexander's conquests except Egypt and moved to take possession of Macedonia and Thrace. He intended to leave Asia to Antiochus and content himself for the remainder of his days with the Macedonian kingdom in its old limits. He had, however, hardly crossed into the Thracian Chersonese when he was assassinated by Ptolemy Keraunos near Lysimachia in September 281 BC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemy_Ceraunus
The Empire of the Seleukiden was rather big ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_ ... edited.jpg
.... and Stratonica was a big empress.

Germany and the city Hamburg in early 18th century found the story rather funny ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_und_Stratonica
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiochus_und_Stratonica

SteveM wrote,

It's clear how a virtue may trump a vice among some of the pairings, like Toil over Laziness, but how does a player know where the pairs rank in the hierarchal ladder of Trumps? Is there some code we are missing? Such as find for the numeration of the pips., or were the Trump cards meant to be numbered?

I don't see why there has to be a code. Either the order, as given by the sequence of tercets, has to be memorized, or else the cards have to be numbered. I see no problem either way. The Sola-Busca was numbered, after all, and when the regular sequence did not have numbers on the cards, the order had to be memorized. People routinely memorized poems of that length or more, and here all that have to be memorized, as far as being quickly recalled in the course of the game, are the first words. No recourse to Petrarch is required for the last tercet, because Lucretia's fama, being eternal, is not that of Petrarch's Triumph of Fame, but that of the Triumph of Eternity, where that fama is mentioned. In classical terms, the first is Fama after a hero's death but before Nike transports him to the Isles of the Blessed (if she chooses to); the second is after such transport.

Trump 6 - Gratia (Grace)

Italian text
Gratia a secreti e savii non va a sorte,
Ma con ragion, ché con amore ha il vanto
Colui che asconde le passion piu forte.

English translation
Grace does not go by chance, but with reason,
To the discreet and wise, for in love can be proud
He that hides his strongest passion.

Gratitude to secrets and wisdom does not come by lot,
But with reason, because with love he has the boast
Who hides the passions more strongly.

Notes to Content
Huck 09:10, 30 January 2006 (PST) Astonishingly NO focussed person. Most trumps seem to focus on "lovers". So Boiardo perhaps left position Nr. 6 (traditional position of the Lovers card) free, without person. Perhaps he identified himself with the lover of this card, and wished to reassure, that he's dicreet and wise and doesn't tell any names.
So that's possible the place, where the author in "discreet" manner signed his work ... when the work was, as suspected, made for a loved girl ... this as of course "very elegant" chosen by the author.

Huck 2025 isn't so sure about "without person" for Trump 6 Gratia.

Eurynome, mother of the 3 Charites, in Roman mythology these are "Gratiae"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurynome_(Oceanid)
Charites (Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charites
A page with many variants
https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Kharites.html

The smith god Hephaistos (Vulcanus in Roman mythology) had a love relation to Aglaea (also Aglaia), after the wife of Hephaistos, Aphrodite-Venus, was captured by a metallic net together with Ares-Mars in a bed (according Hesiod).
Aglaea ("Splendor"), Euphrosyne ("Joy"), and Thalia ("Good Cheer") is the English translation of the three Charites names. Aglaia in German means "glänzend" and this has the assocation of "metallic", which might have attracted the association "smith god Hephaistos loved Aglaia".
Otherwise it is claimed, that Eurynome and Thetis ...

"Homer's account
The earliest known reference to the Oceanid is a passage in the Iliad relating what happened to Hephaestus after his mother, Hera, threw him from Olympos. Thetis and Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus, offered him refuge. He stayed with them for nine years in their cave at the edge of the ocean making splendiferous artifacts."

Eurynome (or another godess with the same name) appears also in the mythology of Ophion, another ruler of the world. Both were overcome by Kronos and Rhea later and somehow mutated to the known Eurynome and the ocean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophion.

Boiardo (or Viti) had three lines of text to create a riddle. And the probable answer is, that Aglaia was a good wife for Hephaistos, who hadn't much fun with Venus-Aphrodite and her lover Ares-Mars. Just a strong woman, better then men.

Summary of the court figures:

LOVE:
softened Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant, who fell in love with the sea-nymph Galatea;
emboldened Paris of Troy to seize Helen, sparking the Trojan war ;
pierced Venus herself with her son’s arrow, making her burn for the mortal Adonis;
compelled Jupiter to descend in many forms—a bull, a swan, a shower of gold coins, and an eagle to carry off Ganymede.

HOPE:
turned Horatius Cocles into a lionlike defender of Rome, standing alone upon the Sublician bridge against the Etruscans;
led Jason and the Argonauts to the Golden Fleece through many dangers and perilous paths;
empowered Judith, against all odds, to behead Holofernes;
guided Aeneas beyond the Trojan borders to Italy and the founding of Alba Longa and Rome for the Latin peoples.

JEALOUSY:
kept Argus Panoptes, the many-eyed sentinel, vigilant over Io;
provoked Turnus, the intended suitor of Lavinia, to wage a fatal war against Aeneas;
consumed Juno, queen of the gods, driving her to constant interference in mortal affairs in response to Jupiter’s many infidelities;
drove Vulcan to lay a trap of bronze netting to expose his wife Venus in the arms of her lover, Mars.

FEAR:
left Phineus 'petrifed', turned into stone by Medusa's gaze;—
led King Ptolemy to betray Pompey, lest Caesar strip him of his crown;
drove Andromache to hide her son in Hector’s tomb when she glimpsed Ulysses, afraid for the boy’s life;
caused the tyrant Dionysius, so afraid of the assassin’s blade, to have his daughters singe his beard with hot coals rather than trust a barber—yet in the end, he could not escape death.

Here is a table of Boiardo's court figures:

Steve: Nice. It reminds me of Marziano.

Huck wrote,

The smith god Hephaistos (Vulcanus in Roman mythology) had a love relation to Aglaea (also Aglaia), after the wife of Hephaistos, Aphrodite-Venus, was captured by a metallic net together with Ares-Mars in a bed (according Hesiod).

According to Wiktionary, Aglaia " has the same Indo-European root of γελάω (geláō, “to laugh”). A- in Greek means "not", but I don't know what the "a" comes to here. Wikipedia says that the word is literally "festive radiance." I don't see anything about metal here; you may still be right and these others wrong, but more needs to be said.

Looking for a relationship between the Graces and something in the poem, however, I find these, at https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Kharites.html

Encyclopedia entry: They are mostly described as being in the service or attendance of other divinities, as real joy exists only in circles where the individual gives up his own self and makes it his main object to afford pleasure to others.

Pindar: . . . hear now my prayer, you Kharites (Charites, Graces) three. For in your gift are all our mortal joys, and every sweet thing, be it wisdom, beauty, or glory, that makes rich the soul of man.

Diodorus: To the Kharites was given [i.e. assigned the role by Zeus] the adornment of personal appearance and the beautifying of each part of the body with an eye to making it more comely and pleasing to the gaze, and the further privilege of being the first to bestow benefaction and, on the other hand, of requiting with appropriate favours (kharites) such men as have performed good acts.

All these accounts suggest a suppression of self-centered goals in devotion to others. In addition, Pindar's reference to wisdom may be echoed in the tercet. Haephestos, too, as the crafter of beautiful objects that glorify the perfections of gods and humans but who is himself laughed at and scorned, may fit that description. It is he, in self-effacement, who "with love has the merit (or advantage)", as I read "con amore ha il vanto".

Gratia a secreti e savii non va a sorte,
Ma con ragion, ché con amore ha il vanto
Colui che asconde le passion piu forte.

English translation
Grace does not go by chance, but with reason,
To the discreet and wise, for in love can be proud
He that hides his strongest passion.

Gratitude to secrets and wisdom does not come by lot,
But with reason, because with love he has the boast
Who hides the passions more strongly.

So I am inclined to say the Graces in general as the personages being referred to, and Haephestos at the end. Thanks for pursuing this, Huck.

Added next day: On the other hand, praise for a beautiful sculpture goes as much or more to the sculptor as to the sculpted, so a sculptor in that case is not very self-effacing. Aglaea as an uncredited divine inspirer or helper makes more sense. Similarly, the Graces help Athena defeat Arachne in the weaving contest, although they are not credited with the victory, nor often even mentioned.
However, the "Colui" of the last line is masculine: "he who": it is possible that Boiardo has someone else in mind, such as himself toward a dedicee of the poem (e.g. a bride), as Huck suggested originally. (So: "for in love, the merit lies with him..."). But since "Charis" was also used to designate Aglaea by herself, she still could be the referent of the first word of the tercet.

Trump 7 Sdegno (Anger)

Italian text
Sdegno Herode Re occupo tanto
Che fatta occider Marianna, poi
La chiama, e con amor si duol col pianto.

English translation
Anger filled king Herod so much
That he ordered to kill Mariamne than
He calls her, and crying suffers with love.

Notes
Herod the Great (74BC - 4 BC)
Josephus writes that Herod had great passion and also great jealousy concerning his wife Mariamne. She learns of Herod's plans to murder her, and stops sleeping with him. Herod puts her on trial on a trumped-up charge of adultery. His sister Salome (not Herodias's daughter Salomé) was chief witness against her.

External Links to Content Problems http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great http://www.publicbookshelf.com/public_h ... od_cc.html

Judas Maccabeus, one of the 9 heroes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_Maccabeus .... became active as political leader 167 BC, died 160
Hasmonean dynasty

The Hasmonean dynasty .... was a ruling dynasty of Judea and surrounding regions during the Hellenistic times of the Second Temple period (part of classical antiquity), from c. 140 BC to 37 BC. Between c. 140 and c. 116 BC the dynasty ruled Judea semi-autonomously within the Seleucid Empire, and from roughly 110 BC, with the empire disintegrating, gained further autonomy and expanded into the neighboring regions of Perea, Samaria, Idumea, Galilee, and Iturea. The Hasmonean rulers took the Greek title basileus ("king") and the kingdom attained regional power status for several decades. Forces of the Roman Republic intervened in the Hasmonean Civil War in 63 BC, turning the kingdom into a client state and marking an irreversible decline of Hasmonean power; Herod the Great displaced the last reigning Hasmonean client-ruler in 37 BC.
Simon Thassi established the dynasty in 141 BC, two decades after his brother Judas Maccabeus ... had defeated the Seleucid army during the Maccabean Revolt of 167 to 141 BC

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

The expansion of the Hasmonean dynasty .... see the map:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasmonean ... ingdom.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great .... (c. 72 – c. 4 BCE) .... had good relations to Julius Caesar and got the Roman commission to attack the regions of the Hasmonean kingdom.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariamne_I .... she belonged to the Hasmonean dynasty and became the second wife of Herod the Great.

Her mother, Alexandra, arranged for her betrothal to Herod in 41 BCE after Herod agreed to a Ketubah with Mariamne's parents. The two were wed four years later (37 BCE) in Samaria. Mariamne bore Herod four children: two sons, two daughters

Herod killed the members of her family. She either was killed by her husband or she committed suicide as Lucrezia, Portia and Hasdrubal's wife ... 29 BC. ,,,, "Herod grieved for her for many months" ..... and had three other wives.

So again: a horrible man and a rather good woman.

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

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariamne_I

She is remembered in De Mulieribus Claris, a collection of biographies of historical and mythological women by the Florentine author Giovanni Boccaccio, composed in 1361–62. It is notable as the first collection devoted exclusively to biographies of women in Western literature. From the Renaissance to contemporary times, there has been a long tradition of works of art (dramas, operas, novels, etc.) devoted to Mariamne and her relationship with Herod the Great.[9] The list includes:

I count 31 entries on the list from "Marianna (1565), an Italian drama by Lodovico Dolce" to "Mariamne (1967), a Swedish novel by Pär Lagerkvist"

Huck wrote: 06 Jul 2025, 06:04 Perhaps he identified himself with the lover of this card, and wished to reassure, that he's dicreet and wise and doesn't tell any names.
So that's possible the place, where the author in "discreet" manner signed his work ... when the work was, as suspected, made for a loved girl ... this as of course "very elegant" chosen by the author.....

Huck 2025 isn't so sure about "without person" for Trump 6 Gratia....


The smith god Hephaistos (Vulcanus in Roman mythology) had a love relation to Aglaea (also Aglaia)....

... And the probable answer is, that Aglaia was a good wife for Hephaistos, who hadn't much fun with Venus-Aphrodite and her lover Ares-Mars. Just a strong woman, better then men.

I think your first instinct is by far the more probable. The second interpretation isn’t supported grammatically, and in none of the other tercets in this chapter does Boiardo place the exemplar as the first word. The subject here is clearly a male, singular lover. To me, reading it as a reference to the myth of Hephaestus and Aglaea is an allegorical stretch. Hephaestus is hardly an obvious exemplar of someone who “hides his strongest passions.” The relationship between Aglaia and Hephaestus was neither secret nor markedly passionate, but rather one of domestic serenity. Also, Boiardo has already used him (specifically his Roman counterpart Vulcan) as the much more fitting and straightforward exemplar of Jealousy, under the King of Eyes. If Boiardo wanted to invoke a mythological figure here, I think he would do so clearly. It makes far more sense that he would keep secret a personal relationship (as per your first instinct) than encode a mythological one as an act of concealment.

It seems true that Boiardo is unlikely to repeat a god in his poem. But he is also unlikely to have written a tercet with no allusion to an ancient text whatever. Hence Charis. Here Haephestos might enter in obliquely as the archetype of the artist, of whom Boiardo is an instance: as the archetypal "lui" of "colui," Haephestos's "great passion" is then not Aglaea but rather Venus, about whom, once married to Aglaea, he keeps quiet, sublimating that passion in his creations, e.g. Pandora. Aglaea, as his wife, helps him, both to be wisely discreet and in his works. For such a narrative, it would help if someone had already explicitly expounded on that aspect of his myth. I don't know of anyone, but it might be worth exploring further.

mikeh wrote: 07 Jul 2025, 23:56 It seems true that Boiardo is unlikely to repeat a god in his poem. But he is also unlikely to have written a tercet with no allusion to an ancient text whatever. Hence Charis. Here Haephestos might enter in obliquely as the archetype of the artist, of whom Boiardo is an instance: as the archetypal "lui" of "colui," Haephestos's "great passion" is then not Aglaea but rather Venus, about whom, once married to Aglaea, he keeps quiet, sublimating that passion in his creations, e.g. Pandora. Aglaea, as his wife, helps him, both to be wisely discreet and in his works. For such a narrative, it would help if someone had already explicitly expounded on that aspect of his myth. I don't know of anyone, but it might be worth exploring further.

I don't think there's any need to bring Vulcan into it. But for the Graces, we have the commentary & card description by Viti.

Viti describes the sixth trump as depicting the Three Graces, nude but modestly veiled, gazing at one another in apparent conversation, in a scene of harmony and poise. At their feet stands a phoenix, which somehow symbolizes their unity within a single subject: the Divine Lady. Perhaps Viti is referring to his own Most Illustrious Lady and patroness here?

Could this Divine Lady, in whom the Three Graces are united, be intended as the mirror image of the ideal lover, he who has mastered his passions? Or perhaps Viti is simply flattering his patroness, “in whom all three are embodied”?


Gratia a secreti e savii non va a sorte,
Ma con ragion, ché con amore ha il vanto
Colui che asconde le passion più forte.

Grace does not go by chance to the discreet and wise,
But by reason, for in love, the glory belongs
To him who hides the strongest passions.

Viti's description of the sixth Triumph


Grace is depicted in the sixth Triumph by three women, who are the Three Graces, shown nude, with golden hair falling over their shoulders. Their less modest parts are veiled with white, delicate cloth, though not truly concealed; rather, they appear to be holding the veil lightly with their arms, so that to the viewer, they seem only partly covered. One gazes at another, as if they were engaged in conversation.

At their feet stands a phoenix, turning its beak toward itself, wings spread, inside a pyre. The Graces have the phoenix as their symbol, for they are found, at a single age, united in one subject, as is now clearly seen in the divine lady, in whom all three appear together.

Nor do I believe, Most Illustrious Lady, that I have withheld any judgment here, agreeing in this with all those whose spirits, adorned with the rarest virtues, are able to recognize such things easily with both the eye of the body and the eye of the soul. Above the Graces are three verses, most fittingly placed.