Tarot History Forum

I attach three images that I found in the catalogue of the exhibition “Le muse e il principe” (Ferrara 1991). They are illustrations from a Ferrarese manuscript dating to 1450 ca. The manuscript contains two prophetic texts: “Liber de causis, statu, cognitione ac fine instantis scismatis et tribulationum futurarum” by Telesforo da Cosenza, and the much more famous “Vaticinia Ponificum” by Giocchino da Fiore.

I was attracted by the images that represent the devil being enclosed by an angel (as described in the Book of Revelations). They look similar to early tower cards (e.g. Charles VI). I do not think I have seen images of this kind before, but I guess they should be common in illustrations of the bible. Possibly this tower is not to be considered “exactly” as hell. A tower was an obvious place in which to enclose somebody. So this “jail of the devil” is not exactly hell. I don't know

The other interesting thing is that there are images of many “popes” and, from the title of the text by Telesforo, these popes are explicitly connected to the schism. So they could be relevant for the idea proposed by Ross that the Popess was indeed originally a second pope. In the image that I attach there is a good pope (on the left) and a bad pope on the right (the last Antichrist).

A last note is that the illustrations have been attributed to the workshop of Bonifacio Bembo. The author of the article about this manuscript is G. Mariani Canova.

Marco

marco wrote:I attach three images that I found in the catalogue of the exhibition “Le muse e il principe” (Ferrara 1991). They are illustrations from a Ferrarese manuscript dating to 1450 ca. The manuscript contains two prophetic texts: “Liber de causis, statu, cognitione ac fine instantis scismatis et tribulationum futurarum” by Telesforo da Cosenza, and the much more famous “Vaticinia Ponificum” by Giocchino da Fiore.

Fascinating Marco. Thanks for the images. I've considered getting this book - I think it's affordable - would you recommend it?

I know of the Vaticinia Pontificum of course, but I didn't know about Telesforo's text.

I was attracted by the images that represent the devil being enclosed by an angel (as described in the Book of Revelations). They look similar to early tower cards (e.g. Charles VI). I do not think I have seen images of this kind before, but I guess they should be common in illustrations of the bible. Possibly this tower is not to be considered “exactly” as hell. A tower was an obvious place in which to enclose somebody. So this “jail of the devil” is not exactly hell. I don't know

Although the card is never called "La Torre" in Italian lists of trumps (but it does occur as "Casa del diavolo"), there is always a picture of one in surviving cards, just as in the earliest, "Charles VI", so I assume it was an original feature. This seems to be a relevant cognate, associating the Devil with a burning Tower. I assume it's where they chain him up for a 1000 years.

If it IS relevant to the interpretation of this part of the trump sequence, it reinforces the impression that the latter cards are apocalyptic.

The other interesting thing is that there are images of many “popes” and, from the title of the text by Telesforo, these popes are explicitly connected to the schism. So they could be relevant for the idea proposed by Ross that the Popess was indeed originally a second pope. In the image that I attach there is a good pope (on the left) and a bad pope on the right (the last Antichrist).

Lately I am thinking that there were indeed "two popes" at the time of Tarot's invention (and two councils and a succession of uncommitted German Kings/Emperors) - this would push up the date to at least 1440 (late 1439 at the very earliest, when Amadeus VIII was elected, although he didn't get crowned until January 1440, taking the name Felix V). I place it in Bologna, where these subjects persisted.

I think the Papi reflect the political realities of the time, in a similar way to the political cartoon of Frederick III wrestling with the Pope (which was a minor squabble compared to what was going on in the 1430s and early 1440s).



This dates from around 1468 - but interestingly, if Tarot were invented after February 1440, Frederick III would be the same emperor (although technically only King of Germany; he wouldn't be crowned Emperor until 1452).

One Pope changed to a Popess, and an Emperor to an Empress, in the courtly setting of Milan (perhaps Ferrara too, but we don't have those cards from there), where female subjects seem to have been more favored (the Cary Yale being an excellent example).

(Edited for clarification - in the Bolognese pack, there were (until 1725) two popes and two emperors, who are not ranked (or numbered) relative to one another in the sequence. Collectively they were always called "Papi" (popes), and never are attested to have had individual names. They have a special rule in the game, attested at least since 1565 (so very early as far as explicit rules go) that the last one played to a trick wins - so an Emperor can beat a Pope, one Pope can beat another, an Emperor can beat a Pope and another Emperor, etc. This is what the comparison with the political cartoon is referring to).

Ross

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote:

marco wrote: Fascinating Marco. Thanks for the images. I've considered getting this book - I think it's affordable - would you recommend it?

Hello Ross, I am happy you think these images might be relevant.

About the book, I have dedicated most of my attention to the Catalogue, but there also is a collection of essays with the same title, also making part of the documentation of that exhibition. So, actually, the books are two.

The catalogue contains images of all the Sola Busca cards, but the text describing the deck was not so interesting to me (the images and the text are what I already know from Franco Maria Ricci FMR magazine n. 126).

I have browsed through the two books, mainly the Catalogue, looking at the images. I think they are well done. They give a lot of space to the "Studiolo di Belfiore" (http://www.italica.rai.it/rinascimento/ ... lfiore.htm) which I think was the main subject of the exhibition. The catalogue also presents photographs of a couple of "cassoni", one of which is decorated with carvings illustrating the Trionfi by Petrarch.

Marco

Hi, Marco,

marco wrote:I attach three images that I found in the catalogue of the exhibition “Le muse e il principe” (Ferrara 1991). They are illustrations from a Ferrarese manuscript dating to 1450 ca. The manuscript contains two prophetic texts: “Liber de causis, statu, cognitione ac fine instantis scismatis et tribulationum futurarum” by Telesforo da Cosenza, and the much more famous “Vaticinia Ponificum” by Giocchino da Fiore.

I was attracted by the images that represent the devil being enclosed by an angel (as described in the Book of Revelations). They look similar to early tower cards (e.g. Charles VI). I do not think I have seen images of this kind before, but I guess they should be common in illustrations of the bible.

The typical depiction of the Devil being chained up for the 1,000 years doesn't look like this. Here's an example from Durer:



Here's an example from an earlier Apocalypse -- look in the lower left corner.

marco wrote:Possibly this tower is not to be considered “exactly” as hell. A tower was an obvious place in which to enclose somebody. So this “jail of the devil” is not exactly hell. I don't know

The ultimate source must be from Rev. 20, where he is chained up in "the Abyss", but there are almost certainly some legendary accretions that are also involved.

After the Devil is let out, then he gathers the nations, Gog (the Ultimate Antichirist) and his followers, for the great battle. In my interpretation of the trump cycle, this is precisely the Bible passage being alluded to by the Devil and Lightning cards in Tarot de Marseille, although in a rather different fashion. Moreover, according to the story I've been telling since before The Mendicant's Tale, the reason why the Tarot de Marseille Pope and Devil are so similar in design, and why the Tower is called The House of God, are all part of this same prophetic story. Here is another snippet from that 2000 TarotL post I linked to yesterday:

Michael on TarotL wrote:God Triumphs Over Death and the Devil

The third section is straight from the Bible, and continues to be arranged in a similar triptych pattern. The images are mostly simple allegorical illustrations. But first, another digression. Why does the Devil triumph over the previous XV cards? Over the Pope?! Over all the Virtues?! What's that all about? Isn't that somehow Satanic?

Simply put, he's the ruler of this world, and without God's help, he triumphs over all. That's Christianity, not Satanism. We need Christ to effect salvation. If religious teaching and virtuous living were enough, then the sacrifice on the cross would have been a vanity, a photo op. This is a central message of Christianity, and a dramatic point in the tarot sequence. Why did Christ live and die? "The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work." 1John, 3:8. Without that, we all perish.

So, let's get with the Devil. "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth -- Gog and Magog -- to gather them for battle." Rev. 20:7-8. The Tarot de Marseille card shows the Devil having gathered Gog and Magog for the final battle. Very simple allegorical illustration.

The next verse says, "But fire came down from heaven and destroyed them." Rev. 20:9. And the next card shows fire coming down from heaven, destroying them. Very simple allegorical illustration. (Some of the details, such as blood and giant hailstones are from other passages, and are included for other reasons. Some details, such as the tower itself, suggest another whole level of meaning, as do various symbols throughout the trumps. But again, this post is long enough already.)

marco wrote:A last note is that the illustrations have been attributed to the workshop of Bonifacio Bembo. The author of the article about this manuscript is G. Mariani Canova.

This is really interesting, and suggestive. Thanks very much for finding and posting this stuff. If you find any more information on these prophetic works or sources to pass along, please do so. You've made me want to make another trip to the library.

Best regards,
Michael

P.S. The pictorial apocalyptic traditions of Joachim of Fiore and Telesphorus of Cosenza (Liber de magnis tribulationibus in proximo futuris), and even the block books and later Reformation images related to the Antichrist, are closer to the Tarot de Marseille images than are those of the more typical medieval Apocalypse. They also emphasize some of the same elements that I have claimed inform the Tarot de Marseille series. For example, consider the Tower card with fire and hail stones and also wind from the sky. Fire and hail are typical Apocalyptic elements, but the destruction caused by wind (the breath of God) is usually associated with the downfall of the Antichrist. In 2-Thessalonians the Antichrist sets himself up in the House of God (sometimes illustrated as a tower) and is overthrown by the breath of God's mouth. This was depicted in block books, as in the image below. The first scene shows the Antichrist ruling over others, while the second shows him overthrown, with his two followers lamenting outside the tower. We don't have to revise these elements too much to make sense of the Tarot de Marseille Maison Dieu as the overthrow of the Devil.

The image of the Tower changes in the second picture. It is not connected to a city wall, and the lower window has disappeared.

debra wrote:The image of the Tower changes in the second picture. It is not connected to a city wall, and the lower window has disappeared.

Marco's second picture actually occurs earlier in the manuscript - you can see the pagination at the bottom right hand corner. The second one is carta 43r, the one above, 58v.

If you click on them and increase the size, you can read that the first image (43r) depicts Revelation 20:2-3 (the binding of Satan for a 1000 years). The second (58v) depicts 20:7-9 (the loosing of Satan, the gathering of Gog and Magog, the destruction by fire from heaven (even though no fire "from heaven" seems to be shown (perhaps there is red under the Angel), that's what the text says - "et descendet ignis de celo et devorabit eos").

Chalk one up for Michael (and Marco)!

Ross

Since you find Telesforo interesting, here is some more information:

The Manuscript is in Modena, Biblioteca Estense (ms. Alpha M.5.27 = Lat.233)

The first page presents the device of Leonello d'Este and the initals L M.
The text by Telesforo da Cosenza was written in the second half of the XIV Century.

I translate the summary of the text, including references to the four images I previously attached and to two more images I attach here:

The story starts with the fatal liberation of the devil from his eternal prison, and the consequent beginning of the schism. This evokes a number of popes and antipopes, bad and good sovereigns (39v), until the “Pastor Angelicus” is freed from imprisonment (42r) [and the devil is imprisoned again (43r)]. Starting with this papacy, the Christian people go through a time of peaceful serenity (43v). But a second Antichrist will seduce the world again (47r), and the armies of the evil Gog and Magog will bring terror to the earth. Finally, the infernal powers will be defeated (58v) and at the end of the world the seventh angel of the Apocalypse will throw in the sea the false prophets, enclosing the devil forever in his prison.

The Estensi had an older copy of the same text:

The iconography perfectly follows that of the copy of the Libellus which is now in the Vatican Library (Reg. Lat. 580) which is possibly the most ancient known, and seems to have been illustrated by a Ferrarese artist, between 1417 and 1433.

Marco

Thanks for more information Marco.

The text seems to have been popular - was it ever printed? For what it's worth, Visconti's 1426 inventory also has a copy, which was still there in 1459, but it is lost (at least Pellegrin in 1955 didn't know of copy matching the description, meaning that somebody had probably "borrowed" it between 1459 and Louis XII's seizure of most of the library in 1499).

I don't see a Pope in 42r, for "Pastor Angelicus", but I guess it is the monk drowsing beside his former prison. But who is the King? I can't read the text.

Ross

Hi Marco,

Thanks for posting those interesting images.

The whole thread is fascinating!


Best,


EE

Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: I don't see a Pope in 42r, for "Pastor Angelicus", but I guess it is the monk drowsing beside his former prison. But who is the King? I can't read the text.

I am sorry, Ross. I took pictures of the book, and the text is no readable in most of the images. I think it is not very readable on the original manuscript in some cases: it seems to be faded. I agree that the Pastor Angelicus could be the monk.

I had a look on google: I don't think Telesforo was ever printed.

Marco