tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35330732815624368592024-02-07T21:31:03.183-08:00New Material on the Sola-Busca TarotMichael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-70494071411660475032015-07-27T16:59:00.003-07:002015-07-28T02:09:51.985-07:00SB trumps vs. standard ones<div class="content">
This blog derives from my posts on THF starting at <a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988</a>. These posts in turn were stimulated by a recent exhibition
catalog put out by the Brera Gallery in Milan, concerning the Sola-Busca
tarot deck, named for the two noble Italian families that passed down
this rare heirloom, until finally it is a treasure of the Brera's
collection. Since the catalog is in Italian only, and it presents worthwhile arguments, I want to present them here, along with a few comments of my own.<br />
<br />
Although the Sola-Busca has survived intact with 78 cards including 22
numbered triumphs, it is unlike any other tarot deck known. Unusually,
it has scenes on the number-cards incorporating the necessary number of
suit objects, as well as unusual court cards. The triumphs are also
unusual, in that they seem to refer to various Roman military heroes. On
various cards, in the suits as well as the triumphs, there is also
imagery suggestive of alchemy or metallurgy. The essays in the
exhibition catalog represent substantial contributions to unraveling the
mysteries of the Sola-Busca tarot<b>. </b>I will give transcriptions
and translations of the most important passages from these essays here,
as well as discussing what they have to say.<b><br /></b><br />
<br />
<b>CORRELATING THE SOLA-BUSCA TRIUMPH SUBJECTS WITH THE STANDARD ONES </b><br />
<br />
In
her essay, "Il segreto dei I tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura
ermetico-alchenrm tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento" in the
Brera's catalog, (Milano 2013), Laura
Paola Gnaccolini has an interesting couple of paragraphs addressing the
relationship between the SB trumps and the standard ones. While agreeing
that the trump order is not that of any other trump sequence, she finds
the same subjects in them as in the rest. I will give the Italian
first, then my attempt at a translation.<br />
<br />
After first noting that the Matto is obviously present as the SB Mato, she writes (pp. 37, 39):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
...Per gli altri trionfi ci sono identificazioni sicure (le <span style="font-style: italic;">Stelle</span>: IIII. MARIO (figg. 1.3,1.127); il <span style="font-style: italic;">Carro</span>: VII. DEO TAVRO (fig. 1.84); la <span style="font-style: italic;">Giustizia</span>: Vili. NERONE; (fig. 1.116), con intento sarcastico [120]; la <span style="font-style: italic;">Fortuna</span>: X. VENTVRIO (fig. 1.8); la <span style="font-style: italic;">Luna</span>: XII. CARBONE (fig. 1.18, 1.126); la <span style="font-style: italic;">Morte</span>: XIII. CATONE [121] (figg. 1.25,1.85); il <span style="font-style: italic;">Traditore</span>: XIIII. BOCHO (figg. 1.93, 1.133); il <span style="font-style: italic;">Sole</span>: XVI. OLIVO (figg. 1.76); la [start p. 39] <span style="font-style: italic;">Sagitta</span> [122]: XX. NENBROTO (fig. 1.4); il <span style="font-style: italic;">Mondo</span>: XXI. NABVCHODENASOR; fig. 1.77), identificazioni probabili (il <span style="font-style: italic;">Bagatto</span> [123]: I. PANFILIO (fig. 1.5); la <span style="font-style: italic;">Temperanza</span>: V. CATVLO con la groma (figg. 1.10); <span style="font-style: italic;">Amore </span>[124]: VI. SESTO con la fiaccola accesa (figg. 1.24); la <span style="font-style: italic;">Fortezza</span>: XV. METELO con la colonna - figg. 1.21,1.128; il <span style="font-style: italic;">Diavolo</span> [125]: XVII. IPEO - fig. 1.9; il <span style="font-style: italic;">Tempo</span> - in seguito <span style="font-style: italic;">Eremita</span>
[126]: XVIII. LENTVLO - fig. 1.22) e trionfi che non riesco a
identificare con un sufficiente grado di sicurezza (le carte IL POSTVMIO
- fig. 1.26; III. LENPIO - fig. 1.6; VIIII. FALCO - fig. 1.7; XI. TVLIO
- fig. 1.23; XVIIII. SABINO - figg. 1.19,1.95), che dovrebbero essere,
ma non sappiamo in quale ordine, la Papessa, l’lmperatrice,
l'Imperatore, il Papa e l’Angelo (cioè il Giudizio). A questo punto, se
queste osservazioni sono valide, noi avremmo una sequenza molto
particolare, che non corrisponde a nessuno dei tre tipi italiani
individuati dagli studiosi [127], pia questa della grandissima
originalità del mazzo anche sotto questo punto di vista [128]. <br />
______________________________________________<br />
120. Si veda l'iconografia, che ricorda quella del <span style="font-style: italic;">Giudizio di Salomone</span>,
così come è raffigurato ad esempio nella tempera di Mantegna e bottega
conservata a Parigi (Musée du Louvre), cfr. S. L'Occaso, in <span style="font-style: italic;">Mantegna</span> 2008, cat. 127 pp. 314-315. <br />
121. II coloritore ha inserito nella carta la stella e il motto "TRAHOR FATIS", che non esistevano nella versione a stampa. <br />
122.
In seguito più noto come Torre, ovvero Fuoco, ovvero Casa del Diavolo.
Nei mazzi quattrocenteschi superstiti si trova solo nei "Tarocchi di
Carlo VI", cfr. Berti 2007, p. 223. Vitali 1987, pp. 145-148 e Cieri Via
1987, pp. 158-160. <br />
123. A causa della posizione della carta nella sequenza, D. Pagliai, in <span style="font-style: italic;">Le carte di corte</span> 1987, pp. 162-163. <br />
124. Immediatamente prima del Carro, Dummett 1987, pp. 80 n. 6, 136. <br />
125.
Dalla radice greca della parola potrebbe indicare "ciò che sta sotto",
quindi un essere infernale. Il diavolo è raffigurato in veste di frate
ad esempio nella vetrata neotestamentaria del duomo di Milano realizzata
su cartoni di Vincenzo Foppa: ill. in Pirina 1986, p. 181. Si tratta
invece dell'Eremita secondo Dummett 1993, pp. 80 n. 6, 136. <br />
126.
L'identificazione parrebbe confortata dal confronto della posa e della
fisionomia (anche se qui una fiamma ha sostituito la clessidra) con il
cosiddetto "Eremita" (denominazione più tarda per il "Tempo") nei due
mazzi ferraresi noti come "Tarocchi di Alessandro Sforza" e "Tarocchi di
Carlo VI", cfr. Algeri 1987, pp. 32-35 catt. 2-3; Cieri Via 1987, pp.
170-171. <br />
127. Dummett 1993. <br />
128. La sequenza sembra, almeno quanto alla posizione delle virtù, una mescolanza del tipo B, tipicamente ferrarese (con la <span style="font-style: italic;">Temperanza </span>collocata sotto il trionfo più basso del secondo segmento della sequenza, cioè 6. <span style="font-style: italic;">Amore</span>), e del tipo C, milanese. Molte sono le particolarità: si segnala l'inserimento dei "trionfi" di <span style="font-style: italic;">Stelle, Luna</span> e <span style="font-style: italic;">Sole</span>
uno per ogni segmento; il fatto che il segmento iniziale parrebbe
composto solo da quattro "trionfi" (anziché cinque) e una virtù (<span style="font-style: italic;">Temperanza</span>); le altre virtù vengono inserite separatamente nel secondo (<span style="font-style: italic;">Giustizia</span>) e nel terzo segmento (<span style="font-style: italic;">Fortezza</span>),
seguendo la posizione relativa del tipo C. La sequenza del secondo
segmento rispecchia in linea di massima l'ordine dei tarocchi di
Marsiglia (a parte l'inserimento della <span style="font-style: italic;">Luna</span>), e non è chiaramente di tipo B perché la <span style="font-style: italic;">Giustizia</span> è all'ottavo posto. Il terzo segmento è il più difficile da valutare, in quanto nelle due posizioni più alte ricorrono la <span style="font-style: italic;">Sagitta</span> (20) e il <span style="font-style: italic;">Mondo</span> (21), mentre non è chiara la posizione dell'Angelo (<span style="font-style: italic;">Giudizio</span>).
La quantità di varianti della sequenza Sola Busca rispetto ai tre tipi
individuati dal Dummett, e da lui ricondotti rispettivamente all'area
bolognese, ferrarese e milanese, conferma che ci troviamo davanti ad una
serie ideata e realizzata in una zona diversa da quelle citate, stante
il legame molto stretto tra sequenza e territorio d'origine a più
riprese ribadito dallo studioso.</div>
</blockquote>
And my Google-assisted translation, with spacing and highlighting to make her points clearer:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
There are for other triumphs <span style="font-weight: bold;">secure identifications </span>(the <span style="font-style: italic;">Stars</span>: IIII. MARIO (Figs. 1.3,1.127); the <span style="font-style: italic;">Chariot</span>: VII. DEO TAVRO (Fig. 1.84); <span style="font-style: italic;">Justice</span>: VIII. NERONE (Fig. 1.116), with sarcastic intent [120]; <span style="font-style: italic;">Fortune</span>: X. VENTVRIO (Fig. 1.8); the <span style="font-style: italic;">Moon</span>: XII. CARBONE (Fig. 1:18 , 1,126); <span style="font-style: italic;">Death</span>: XIII. CATONE [121] (Figs. 1.25,1.85), the <span style="font-style: italic;">Traitor</span>: XIIII. BOCHO (Figs. 1.93, 1.133); the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sun</span>: XVI. OLIVO (fig. 1.76); the <span style="font-style: italic;">Arrow</span>: XX. NENBROTO (Fig. 1.4); and the <span style="font-style: italic;">World</span>: XXI. NABVCHODENASOR fig. 1.77); <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">likely identifications</span> (the <span style="font-style: italic;">Bagatto</span>: I. PANFILIO (fig. 1.5); <span style="font-style: italic;">Temperance</span>: V. CATVLO with the groma (fig.1.10); <span style="font-style: italic;">Love</span> [123]: VI. SESTO with the lighted torch (Fig. 1.24);<span style="font-style: italic;"> Fortitude</span>: XV. METELO with the column - figs. 1.21,1.128), the <span style="font-style: italic;">Devil</span> [124]: XVII. IPEO - Fig. 1.9; <span style="font-style: italic;">Time</span> – later the <span style="font-style: italic;">Hermit</span> [126]: XVIII. LENTVLO - fig. 1.22); <br />
<br />
and triumphs that I <span style="font-weight: bold;">cannot identify</span>
with a sufficient degree of security (the cards II. POSTVMIO - fig.
1:26; III. LENPIO - fig. 1.6; VIIII. FALCO - fig. 1.7; XI. TVLIO - Fig.
1:23; XVIIII. SABINO - Figs. 1.19,1.95); they should be, but we do not
know in what order, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Popess</span>, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Empress</span>, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Emperor</span>, the <span style="font-style: italic;">Pope</span> and the Angel (<span style="font-style: italic;">Judgment</span>).<br />
<br />
At
this point, if these observations are valid, we should have a very
particular sequence, that does not match any of the three Italian types
identified by scholars [127], thus indicating the great originality of
the deck from this point of view [128].<br />
_______________________________________<br />
120.
See the iconography, reminiscent of the Judgment of Solomon, as is
depicted for example in the tempera of Mantegna and workshop kept in
Paris (Musée du Louvre), cf . S. L'Occaso, in <span style="font-style: italic;">Mantegna</span> 2008, cat. 127 pp. 314-315.<br />
121. The colorist introduced in the card the star and the motto "TRAHOR FATIS", which did not exist in the printed version.<br />
122.
In what followed, more commonly known as the Tower, or Fire, or House
of the Devil. In the surviving fifteenth century decks, found only in
the " Tarot of Charles VI", cf . Berti 2007, p. 223, Vitali 1987, pp.
145-148 and Cieri Via 1987, pp. 158-160.<br />
123. Because of the location of the card in the sequence, D. Pagliai in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Cards of the Court</span> 1987 pp. 162-163.<br />
124. Immediately before the Chariot, Dummett 1987, p.80 n . 6, 136.<br />
125. From the Greek root of the word, it could mean "that which is below", thus an infernal being. The devil is<br />
depicted as a monk, for example, in the New Testament window of Milan cathedral realized in cartoon by<br />
Vincenzo Foppa: ill. in Pirina 1986, p. 181. It is instead the Hermit according to Dummett 1993, pp. 80 n . 6,136.<br />
126. The identification seems confirmed by comparison with the pose and physiognomy (although here a flame<br />
has
replaced the hourglass) of the so-called " Hermit" (the later name for
"Time") in the two decks of Ferrara known as "Tarot of Alessandro
Sforza" and "Tarot of Charles VI", cf. Algeri 1987, p. 32-35 Catt. 2-3;
Cieri Via 1987, p. 170-171.<br />
127. Dummett 1993.<br />
128. The sequence seems, at least as to the location of the virtues, a mixture of type B, typically Ferrara (with <span style="font-style: italic;">Temperance</span> located below the lowest triumph of the second segment of the sequence, i.e. 6. <span style="font-style: italic;">Love</span>), and type C of Milan. There are many special features: please note the inclusion of "triumphs" <span style="font-style: italic;">Stars, Moon</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Sun</span>
one for each segment, and the fact that the initial segment would seem
to only consist of four "triumphs" (instead of five) and a virtue (<span style="font-style: italic;">Temperance</span>), the other virtues entering separately in the second (<span style="font-style: italic;">Justice</span>) and third segment (<span style="font-style: italic;"> Fortitude</span>),
following the relative position of type C. The sequence of the second
segment reflects in principle the order of the Tarot of Marseille (apart
from the inclusion of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Moon</span>), and is clearly of type B because <span style="font-style: italic;">Justice</span> is in eighth place. The third segment is the most difficult to evaluate, as in the two highest positions recur: the <span style="font-style: italic;">Arrow</span> (20) and the <span style="font-style: italic;">World</span> (21), while there is no clear position for the Angel (<span style="font-style: italic;">Judgment</span>).
The amount of sequence variants in the Sola Busca with respect to the
three types identified by Dummett, and traced respectively to Bologna,
Ferrara, and Milan, confirms that we are faced with a series designed
and built in an area other than those mentioned above, given the very
close relationship between sequence and region of origin often
repeatedly found by researchers.</div>
</blockquote>
Justice, of
course, is not in 8th place in the type B order, but rather in the C
order. That might be a misprint. But to look at the order in another way, the order of
the virtues is that of the Rosenwald and Bolognese decks, which are of Dummett's type
A, i.e. Florence and Bologna (<a class="postlink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqXxNXtmXDEWAwb5NsAdZjstMgNivROj4LfDm5uBTTDmRtOl4wU9wlyDdzmFwyjQzOcYwm7BG5tgzJBaHe9UO-RAnYpsHmfELDIOSoFpJQ-wFcPcuDLONjY9PzXWdvxSMouQM6JMKZ78g/s600/Screen+Shot+2013-11-03+at+3.47.35+PM.png">http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YlU6F53x-_E/U ... .35+PM.png</a>). Other type A decks do not have that order, however. The order of the virtues wasn't part of Dummett's characterizations of A, B, and C.<br />
<br />
To see the cards, in 2014 <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola-Busca_gallery</a> was the best place, for the comments.. In 2015 there is <a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_decks/18">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_decks/18</a>. The commentary here is historically irrelevant.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWyFx0Pj_SOfVB9vzn0WDo-McPedsucPMW-NpJ8OjzGbb-sUIeZCqd7wFHUx6l2Q__pq8IvF0L0i7eKJI03lnyPQHsjdrgp7kLONd4fX2-KPt1pzYESYKQG7dwZMUpa3XeWHggEGi3-1c/s1600/324px-T14_Sola_Busca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWyFx0Pj_SOfVB9vzn0WDo-McPedsucPMW-NpJ8OjzGbb-sUIeZCqd7wFHUx6l2Q__pq8IvF0L0i7eKJI03lnyPQHsjdrgp7kLONd4fX2-KPt1pzYESYKQG7dwZMUpa3XeWHggEGi3-1c/s320/324px-T14_Sola_Busca.jpg" width="172" /></a></div>
As
far as Gnaccolini's identifications, it is noteworthy that if correct
there are some false leads to anyone who might want to identify the
subject by an object familiar from another deck. CATON.XIII (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1218">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1218</a>) has a much more
obvious star than MARIO.IIII (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209</a>), even though IIII has five small ones. You have
to see the dead body to know that XIII is Death.<br />
<br />
Her Justice, VIII.NERON (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1213">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1213</a>), is
holding a baby upside down over a fire; one might think it was the
Hanged Man card, except for its number. The Hanged Man, however, is for her the
historical figure who betrayed the queen he was serving once he saw it
was a lost cause, XIIII.BOCHO, who kneels servilely (at left). He seems to have saved his kingship, as his son of the same name succeeded him.<br />
<br />
Also, her Wheel, X.Venturio (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1215">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1215</a>), just looks cautious , unlike V.CATULO, who actually has a wheel (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1210">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1210</a>),
Again it is the number that is determinative. (Catulo here is not, at least
not primarily, the Latin poet with poems of uncontrollable passion for a
married lady, but rather a Roman general who kept fighting and won,
despite the leg wound seen on the card.)<br />
<br />
Of the subjects Gnaccolini cannot identify,
interestingly, four are the "papi" of Bologna. However it does not seem
to me hard to say who some of them might be. The religious figures would
be II.POSTVMIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1207">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1207</a>) and III.LENPIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1208">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1208</a>), because II is looking at a skull and III
is performing a ritual involving fire (perhaps also an alchemical
operation). Also, they are together, as they are in the B order, and
where they should be, if the Emperor and Empress had not been moved. The
secular heads would seem to be VIIII.FALCO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1214">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1214</a>), who has a crown, and XVIIII.SABINO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1224">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1224</a>) also with a crown, XI.TVLIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216</a>) has no crown and
carries a torch (divine ardor?); given that he is identified with
Cicero, I would put him as Judgment (called Angel then); he was infamously judged by Lepidus and
Antony, who were judged by Augustus and history. Elsewhere in the
sequence number takes precedence over clues on the card in determining
the subject (see next paragraph); but here I am not sure.<br />
<br />
Here is
Gnaccolini's list again, with my more or less accurate additions
indicated, and also her reasons (besides the number) in parentheses. I
also consulted Zucker, who notes, when he has nothing else to say, that
the titles correspond to good Roman names.<br />
0. MATO - Fool (half naked, disheveled, typical)<br />
I.
PANFILIO - Bagatto ("Panfilio" was a Venetian game per Cigagnaro, after
its high card, the Page of Swords). It is "all-love" in Greek; and he
seems to be smiling at someone.<br />
II. POSTUMO - my guess: Popess. He's
young, looking at skull i.e. mortality, and the right number in the C (Milan) order; but II is Empress in Ferrara. De Marchi
suggests alchemical nigredo. (Per <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Postumio">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Bus ... :_Postumio</a>, Spurius Postumius suffered one of Rome's worst defeats and was enslaved. Silvius Postumus, however, was "worthy".) <br />
III.
LENPIO - My guess: Pope, because he's doing a ritual, possibly
alchemical. (Lepidus, who insisted, with Antony, on Cicero's death
against Octavian's reluctance.)<br />
IV. MARIO - Stars. Looking at 5 in
sky. (Caius Mario, Lieutenant of Metellus, the protagonist of the
Jugurthine war with Sulla and then his opponent in the civil war.)<br />
V.
CATULO - Temperance. as just below Love and above Pope in B order, even though he
has a wheel. (C. Lutatius Catulus, consul of 242 B.C. winner in the naval
battle in 241 that ended the first Punic War: "the wound in his thigh
that did not prevent him from participating in combat, as is shown in
the card, is attested by only Orosius".)<br />
VI. SESTO - Love (torch; alchemical Mercurius)<br />
VII.
DEO TAURO - Chariot (he is in one; Deiotarus, Tetrarch of Galatia in
Asia Minor and faithful ally of the Romans; also pun on Mithraic god)<br />
VIII. NERON - Justice (Roman Emperor, C position antitype). But he holds baby upside down, as in the Hanged Man.<br />
IX. FALCO - my guess for Emperor or Empress: crowned. (Orosius's name for Q. Valerius, consul 238 b.c., in only that source)<br />
X. VENTURIO - Fortune (by the number): without wheel, but looks happy; see my comment later<br />
XI. TULIO - my guess for Angel: no crown, but looking up with torch, symbol of light & ardor, as if Judgment; (Cicero).<br />
XII.
CARBONE - Moon (in sky; Ludovico Carbone, Ferrarese humanist; albedo).
There is also a Carbone who was co-leader with Marius, Zucker says.<br />
XIII.
CATONE - Death (victim on ground stabbed with his spear; Cato of
Utica). There is also a star, for Fate. This Cato has more connection
with other names on the list; but Cato the Elder was more the soldier
who didn't hesitate to kill.<br />
XIIII. BOCHO - Hanged Man (traitor King of Mauritania). (Per <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Bocho">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Bocho</a>,
he went to aid of Jugurtha against Marius; but when his army was
slaughtered, he put Jugurtha in chains and gave her to Marius.)<br />
XV.
METELO - Fortitude (warrior with column, <a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216</a>, but "many homonyms". (Q.
Metellus Creticus, or Metellus Celer, praetor in 63 BC during the
Catiline conspiracy, as suggested by initials SC on card, senatus
consultum, as he was charged by senate to make the arrests. There is
also the Mettelus Scipio who joined with Cato of Utica against Caesar and was killed).<br />
XVI. OLIVO - Sun (in sky; has basilisk, necessary
ingredient for getting gold, associated with sun). .<br />
XVII. IPIO Devil (per Zucker, Hippias tyrant of Athens; see <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippias_%28tyrant%29">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippias_%28tyrant%29</a>). Bat wings, revering an idol.<br />
XVIII.
LENTULO - Time/Hermit; bearded old man carrying lamp, crown and helmet
on floor; (many homonyms, but "This gesture of the old man who pulls out
his beard is a sign of defeat", so possibly P. Cornelius Lentulus Sura,
Cateline follower who was put to death.) However I notice on Wikipedia (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentulus">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lentulus</a>)
that three other Lentuluses were also executed by one or another ruler;
one of them was with Cato. Another Lentulus suffered an ignominious
defeat from Spartacus in a valley called Lentula.<br />
XVIIII. SABINO -
my guess for Emperor or Empress, crowned. (Pietro
Sabino, late 15th century Roman humanist, circle of Leto). <br />
XX.
NENBROTTO - Arrow (lightning, broken tower; "a mighty hunter in the
sight of God" (Genesis 10, 8-10 ), but "was read by Dante (Inferno XXXI ,
46-81 ; Purg. XII, 34-36 ; Par. XXVI, 126) as a giant who instigated
the people to the building of the tower of Babel and was punished by God
for this"). <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Nenbroto">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Bus ... :_Nenbroto</a> gives other references to the same character. <br />
XXI.
NABACHUODENASOR - World, sphere behind him with dragon and stars =
cosmos, crown off, scepter held ambiguously ("King of Babylon,
responsible for the ruin of Judah and Jerusalem (who conquered it in
586). The dragon can be read as a symbol of evil, the new Babylon
mentioned in the Book of Revelation (chapters 17-18)"; also <span style="font-style: italic;">mercurius soldificato</span> in alchemy. At <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Nabuchodenasor">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Bus ... chodenasor</a>
are other hermetic and biblical references, i.e. Daniel 1:1-2 and
4:25-34, Judith 2:1-7. To me the way he holds his scepter above a table
is reminiscent of the Bagatto.<br />
<br />
As far as their historical antecedents, three are not identified by
anyone: Sesto, Venturio, and Olivo. My thought (and Zucker's) is that
"Sesto" is simply for Six. "Venturio" seems to me so-called for <span style="font-style: italic;">adventura</span>, happening, and <span style="font-style: italic;">advent, </span>what is coming. And Olivo for oliva, olive, symbolically the oil of purification, whose branch symbolizes peace and life.<br />
<br />
Even
if the false leads are not false, and the order is eccentric, it is
clear enough that the subjects are intended to be the conventional ones,
adapted to an "illustrious men" theme. Whether the four "papi" or the
two secular and two spiritual heads of society are being used is
unclear. The order of the virtues is that of
the Bolognese (which has the four "papi") and the Rosenwald (which
doesn't have the four "papi").</div>
Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-65123130693225263112015-07-23T16:40:00.008-07:002015-07-27T19:59:55.772-07:00Lazzarelli as designer of the SB?<b>THE SOLA-BUSCA'S ARTIST, OWNER, DESIGNER </b>
<br />
<br />
Now I want to comment more broadly, on both essays in the
Brera catalog on the Sola-Busca, to the extent
that I am able, plus the commentaries on the two alchemical texts that
were part of the exhibition. <br />
<br />
The essay by Andrea De Marchi,
which identifies the artist as Nicola di maestro Antonio da Ancona
(Firenze, 1448-Ancona, 1511), I found quite persuasive; but then I don't
know a lot about these more obscure artists of the Padua/Ferrara school
(with some influence from Florence, from which the artist's father,
also an artist, had emigrated). <br />
<br />
In Gnaccolini's essay, the
identification of the owner of the actual colored deck, as opposed to
engravings of odd cards now in various museums, as the well known
Venetian diarist Marino Sanudo il Giovane (1466-1536), the "M.S." on the
Aces of Batons and Swords, was attractive. The stemma of the Sanudo
family (silver with blue stripe), is apparently on the Aces of Coins and
Cups, and that of the Lezier [note added Feb. 3 2015: the correct name
is Vanier] family, his mother's, on the Aces of Swords and Batons and
trumps I, IIII, XIIII, and XV (banded silver and red). Zucker had
noticed these stemmi but didn't know what to make of them. Sanudo is
documented as commissioning work by Marco Zoppo, whose style is similar
to that of the cards, and had hermetic interests as well as in fostering
the printing trade. (Another possibility she mentions is Marco Sanudo,
his cousin.) Also, the identification of the two persons on the 2 of
Coins as Ercole d'Este and Michele Savonarola fits that family. His
father represented Venice in Ferrara at the right time, 1457-59, to have
known this physician and pioneer in the use of metallic salts to treat
illness (and so an "alchemist" broadly defined). Ercole, born 1431,
would have known Savonarola (grandfather of the more famous one) both
before his training in Naples (1145-1460)and at the end of Savonarola's
life, d. 1468. But the portrait appears modeled on a Roman coin of
Caligula. <br />
<br />
But I was disappointed by Gnaccolini's argument for
identifying the designer of the SB as Ludovico Lazzarelli. The principal
reasons for the identification are (a) Lazzarelli had a demonstrated
interest in alchemy; and (b) his hometown of San Severino, where he
returned for a short visit in 1486 after a severe illness, is about 100
km. from Ancona, where the artist lived, in the same rather
undistinguished part of the Marches. <br />
<br />
On (a), Gnaccolini says (Catalog p. 50; the quotes from Lazzarelli are from <span style="font-style: italic;">Ludovico Lazzarlli, Testi scelti</span>, ed. Brini, 1955; the Crisciani essay is ""Hermeticism and Alchemy: the Case of Ludovico Lazzarelli", in <span style="font-style: italic;">Alchemy and Hereticism</span>, 2000, pp. 145-159; this is in fact a special issue of <span style="font-style: italic;">Early Science and Early Medicine</span>, readily available on Jstor):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
A testimonianza di un diretto interesse alchemico del Lazzarelli resta poi il <span style="font-style: italic;">Vade mecum</span>
('Firenze, Biblioteca Riccardia.na, Ms. 984), una raccolta di ricette
di Raimondo Lullo e altri, probabilmente trascritte per uso personale
dall'umanista, che nell'introduzione presenta l'alchimia come "magia
naturale", "congiunzione del corpo nel corpo" da cui deriva "la pietra
dei filosofi" 202, in relazione con il testo del Picatrix, traduzione
medievale di un famoso testo islamico sulla magia 203. Recentemente la
Crisciani ha individuato anche una sua trascrizione del trattato <span style="font-style: italic;">Preziosa Margarita Novella</span>
di Pietro Bono, alchimista nel solco di Geber latino (Modena,
Biblioteca Estense, Lat. 299) 204. Gli studiosi tendono a far coincidere
la nascita dei suoi studi in campo alchemico con la notizia che suo
maestro in questa disciplina sia stato, intorno al 1494, il borgognone
Jean Rigaud de Branchiis 205, ma in realtà si trattò probabilmente
dell'approfondimento di interessi precedenti già presenti, in parallel
con lo studio delle tematiche ermetiche. <br />
<br />
(As evidence of a direct alchemical interest by Lazzarelli is the <span style="font-style: italic;">Vade Mecum</span>
(Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 984), a collection of recipes of
Ramond Lull and others, probably transcribed for the personal use of
the humanist, to which his introduction presents alchemy as "natural
magic", "conjunction of the body in the body", from which is derived
"the stone of the philosophers" [202], in relation to the text of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Picatrix</span>,
the translation of a famous medieval Islamic text on Magic [203].
Recently Crisciani identified also a transcription of the Treatise <span style="font-style: italic;">New Pearl of Great Price</span>
by Pietro Bono, an alchemist in the tradition of the Latin Geber
(Modena, Estense Library , Lat. 299) [204]. Scholars tend to confuse the
birth of his studies in alchemy with the news that his master in this
discipline was, around 1494, the Burgundian Jean Rigaud de Branchiis
[205]; but in reality it probably deepened previous interest already
present, in parallel with the study of hermetic issues.)</div>
</blockquote>
In
the introduction to the pseudo-Lullian texts he transcribes, Lazzarelli
says that he learned the secret of elixir from his master in 1495.
Therefore this introduction, at least, was written after 1495. It is
possible that the epigram to the other transcribed work was written
earlier, but if so not by much. In any case, Gnaccolini offers nothing
to tie Lazzarelli's manuscript in particular to the cards.
Pseudo-Lullian texts and Pietro Bono's "Pearl of Great Price" were
widely read. Likewise, the terms she quotes from Lazzarelli's
introduction--"natural magic'', "quintessence", "philosopher's stone"
etc.--are very general. Except for the obscure "conjunction of the body
in the body" ("congiunzione del corpo nel corpo"), the terms are just
what would come to anyone's mind in relation to alchemy. Any special
relationship to the Sola-Busca cards is not apparent.<br />
<br />
That
Lazzarelli was interested--in a general way--in alchemy before 1495,
including the late 1480s, may well be correct, even though there is no
direct evidence of such interest in his writings before 1495. Moshe Idel
has argued that a quotation in Lazzarelli's "Crater Hermetis" points to
Yohanan Alemanno's manuscript collection of Kabbalist writings, and
that since they were both in Padua in the 1460s they probably knew each
other (Hanegraaff, <span style="font-style: italic;">Ludovico Lazzarelli: The Hermetic Writings and Related Documents</span>, p. 86ff). Checking superficially on the Internet (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00704.html">http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jso ... 00704.html</a>), I see that Allemano's <span style="font-style: italic;">Collecteania</span>
in fact also discusses Jewish alchemy approvingly. Given the similarity
of Alemanno's Kabbalah and Lazzarelli's hermeticism, it is likely that
Lazzarelli would have been at least interested in alchemy, if only out
of curiosity. Many humanists looked favorably on alchemy. Any could
have inserted the alchemical imagery, such as it is, into the
Sola-Busca. It shows no great profundity of understanding, as I will
show in another post. In any case, Gnaccolini makes no effort to
connect it to Lazzarelli in particular.<br />
<br />
As for the Picatrix,
Lazzarelli only mentions "Piccatrix" as the author of the text he is
citing,"The Key of Wisdom". That is a text usually attributed to
Artifeus; he does cite it correctly according to Hanegraaff (p. 275 n.
5), as his source for his view that alchemy is concerned with "the
conjunction of the body in the body" (or "a body with a body", in
Hanegraaff's translation of "corporis in corpore"). If this doctrine, on
top of the pseudo-Lullian ideas, were expressed visually in the cards,
that would be of interest. Gnaccolini makes no such claims. <br />
<br />
Another
text Lazzarelli mentions, for its quotation of a variant on the Emerald
Tablet's "as above so below", is pseudo-Aristotle's "Secret of Secrets
to Alexander". A treatise by that name, translated from Arabic, wass
"one of the most widely read books of the High Middle Ages", according
to <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretum_Secretorum">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretum_Secretorum</a>. The 13th century enlarged version did contain a version of the Emerald Tablet, Wikipedia says.<br />
<br />
Gnaccolini
does attempt to connect the illustrations in the two 15th century
alchemical texts exhibited at the Brera exhibition with the cards. But
she makes no claims that they have anything to do with Lazzarelli. One,
an "alchemical miscellany", was done for a Benedictine monastery near
Florence, c. 1467-1470, Gnaccolini says. That is interesting in itself,
given that one of two monasteries she suggests for that honor is a
Comaldolesan one under the jurisdiction of the Monasterio dell'Angeli
where Ficino lectured, as early as 1469 according to Lackner ("The
Camaldolese Academy", in <span style="font-style: italic;">Marsilio Ficino: His theology his philosophy, his legacy</span>,
p. 31). That might suggest a connection between the cards and Florence;
but it is a long way from a relationship to Lazzarelli.<br />
<br />
Might
Lazzarelli have used this manuscript for his transcriptions? Gnaccolini
offers nothing to indicate that he did. What relation did he have to
Florence? His humanists were in Rome, being favored over the Florentines
for jobs by the Pope. (On the other hand, Crisciani says that
Lazzarelli's connection with Pico and Ficino is "documented" (p. 158);
frustratingly, she says nothing else.) Is there anything that can tie
Lazzarelli to Florence, or his version of pseudo-Lull with the
Florentine one? That is an issue Gnaccolini did not pursue. <br />
<br />
The
illustrations are in fact quite unlike the cards; all Gnaccolini points
to is an "agricultural" theme in both. That is simply too general: the
metaphor of the alchemist's "seeding" and "growing" the metals was a
common one.<br />
<br />
The illustrations of the second manuscript, called
"Secreta secretorum philosophorum", may relate better to the cards; at
least Gnaccolini does attempt to relate a few to the cards. Their style,
she says, is Paduan-Venetian of the 1460s, but also corresponds to the
watercolors in an illuminated printed Petrarch <span style="font-style: italic;">Trionfi/Canzioniere</span>
of Venice 1488. If Lazzarelli had this manuscript in his possession,
acquired in the 1460s, that would mean something. But Gnaccolini makes
no such suggestion. It is difficult to imagine Lazzarelli having the
wherewithal in the 1460s for such a purchase. Probably the manuscript
was in Venice in the 1480s, available to the designer as a source of
illustrations. Lazzarelli, as I will explain shortly, was probably
nowhere near Venice at that time. <br />
<br />
Apart from the illustrations,
it is possible that the "Secreta secretorum" text mentioned by
Lazzarelli is the same as the "Secreta secretorum" exhibited in the
Brera. But Wikipedia mentions that there was another book by the same
name, with the same title, giving alchemical recipes and a description
of the alchemical laboratory. Gnaccolini makes no mention of Alexander,
or the Emerald Tablet, in the book that the Brera exhibited; so more
likely it is a different book by the same name. She neither affirms nor
denies that they are the same book.<br />
<br />
Another way of clarifying
whether Lazzarelli was the designer of at least the trumps would be by
ascertaining his relationship to the very specific Latin sources about
Roman history that scholars have identified for the names of Roman
heroes on the cards. She assumes that Lazzarelli would have known them,
since he was associated with Leto's "academy" in Rome in the 1470s and
early 80s. If so, why are none of them mentioned in his writings? He
appears to have had no interest in Roman history. Many of the heroes are
rather obscure.To be sure, that this part could have been done by
someone else. But that person likely would have had enough familiarity
with alchemical imagery to be able to insert it into the cards at
appropriate places. <br />
<br />
There is also the question of the
contemporary humanists that Gnaccolini says are being referred to on the
cards: Carbone, Sandino, Sarafino (on the Knight of Coins) etc.
Lazzarelli does mention fellow Academy members in his <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>?
Hanegraaff gives a list: "Bartolmeo Platina, Sulpizio de Veroli, Paolo
Marsi, Publio Astre, and Aurelio Brandolini". Yet none of these are on
the cards; nor are the ones that are on the cards mentioned by
Lazzarelli. That is not surprising, because in Gnaccolini's account of
these figures, none is documented where Lazzarelli was at the times in
question. <br />
<br />
There is also the question of the humor in the cards
as compared to the writings of Lazarelli. His writings are humorless, in
the style of hymns or devotional writings. The cards, however, are
irreverent to the point of being grotesque. Related to this, there is
the homoerotic content of the cards. Lazzarelli seems to have been
heterosexual, given that he fell in love with a certain Arianna in the
1460s, as Hanegraaff concludes based on a passage in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>
(Hanegraaff p. 10f). After that, his relationships seem to have been
confined to his Muses. They, of course, are infallibly female. <br />
<br />
And
how, or why, would Lazzarelli have known the artist? That San Severino
is close to Ancona is the second reason why Gnaccolini associates
Lazzarelli with the cards. But betwen 1473 and 1495 he was rarely
anywhere near. His brother Filippo reports a visit home once, in 1486
after an illness (Hanegraaff p. 48), and when he was in between Rome and
Naples. Yes, San Severino is only about 100 km. from Ancona, but it is
the other way from Rome or Naples. He does not seem to have spent much
time there, because he was soon in Naples tutoring Angelo Colocci, then
around 12 years old (Hanegraaff p. 52). In a Vatican codex that once
belonged to Angelo, Maria Paolo Sacri recently discovered an autograph
manuscript by Lazarelli (Hanegraaff p. 50). In it is a passage in which
he alludes to meeting Ferrante and complains of no further attention
from him:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Twice the moon has been full and twice she has been gone<br />
since I offered my Fasti to the King.<br />
And since then I could neither come into the King's presence,<br />
nor speak with many--my modesty is well known.</div>
</blockquote>
This
lament must also be put in the context of another occurrence in 1486.
Ferrante invited Lazzarelli's hero and master Giovanni "Mercurio" da
Correggio to come to Naples. On the way, at Easter, Correggio preaches
his Hermetic gospel in Florence, where he is imprisoned on order of
Lorenzo de' Medici and investigated for heresy. Ferrante then writes
Lorenzo asking for his release, which is granted. Hanegraaff observes:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Based
on what we know of Correggio's experiences in Florence, Lazzarelli's
first meeting with Ferrante must have taken place briefly after his
arrival in Naples; otherwise it would be hard to explain the king's
interest in calling for Correggio, in the same year of 1486, and
intervening on the prophet's behalf after he had been imprisoned by the
order of Lorenzo il Magnifico.</div>
</blockquote>
Lazzarelli's job
tutoring Angelo Colocci appears to have lasted until the boy moved to
live with his uncle in Rome in 1490. At the time Lazzarelli was
finishing his poem <span style="font-style: italic;">De Bombyce</span>
(the Silkworm), which he dedicated to the boy in language suggesting a
tutor-pupil relationship. (See the end of this post for more on this
dating.)<br />
<br />
This is precisely the time period when Lazzarelli is
supposed to be designing an innovative tarot, which is fairly securely
dated, in its colorized version, to 1491! How would that have been
possible? Unfortunately, Gnaccolini hasn't done the chronology
carefully. She simply does not address the time between his visit home
in 1486 and his writing of hte "Crater Hermetis" in Naples 1492-1494,
except for saying that he was engaged in the "rearrangement of his
Fasti" in Naples;<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Dopo la morte di
papa Sisto IV nel 1484, mutando il clima romano per l'ascesa al soglio
pontificio di Innocenzo Vili, Lazzarelli pensò dapprima di cercare
protezione presso Mattia Corvino poi, alla morte del re ungherese e dopo
un certo periodo in patria intorno al 1486 per una grave malattia, alla
corte aragonese (a questo periodo risale il rimaneggiamento dei Fasti).
A Napoli dovette dimorare con certezza, come dimostra la dimestichezza
con il vecchio re Ferrante, ritratto insieme al Pontano nella posizione
di discepolo del Lazzarelli nel Crater Hermetis del 1493-1494...<br />
<br />
(After
the death of Pope Sixtus IV in 1484, the Roman climate changing with
the ascent to the papacy of Innocent VIII, Lazzarelli thought at first
to seek protection from Matthias Corvinus, and then, upon the death of
the Hungarian king and after some time at home around 1486 with a
serious illness, the Aragonese court (in this period was the
rearrangement of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>). He
must certainly have lived In Naples, as he demonstrates familiarity with
old King Ferrante, portrayed along with Pontano in the position of
disciple of Lazzarelli in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Crater Hermetis</span> of 1493-1494...)</div>
</blockquote>
Since
the Fasti was mainly finished in Rome, it would not take much time to
"rearrange" it. That would give ample time for the Sola-Busca,
especially if he is in San Severino recuperating for part of this
period. But it is unlikely that it went that way, as Hanegraaf's
careful study shows. (I notice that his book, which came out in 2005, is
not in Gnaccolini's bibliography.) The information about the illness
comes from his brother Filippo and a fragment from the lost <span style="font-style: italic;">Vita</span>
by Fabrizio Lazzarelli. What Filippo says is that Lazzarelli "fell sick
in the City"--meaning Rome--and "moved back to his home town"
(Hanegraaff p. 297). The fragment from Fabrizio says that the poet
returned to San Severino in 1486, in the wake of a grave illness.
Hanegraaff concludes:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
But rather
than having stayed there for the rest of his life, as one would coclude
from Filippo's accouunt, it appears that he eventually moved on to
Naples.</div>
</blockquote>
However "eventually" must have been rather
soon, because Hanegraaff also has him talking to Ferrante about
Correggio before Correggio's arrest in Florence at Easter. This makes
sense. Lazzarelli merely returned to San Severino briefly in between
Rome and Naples. He would not have traveled while suffering a "grave
illness"; but he might have done so after he had sufficiently recovered.
And then his relatives, in recounting his life, simply omitted the
embarrassing parts about Correggio and Hermeticism. Filippo does not
even mention Lazzarelli's "Crater Hermetis".<br />
<br />
So at least until
1490, Lazzarelli was finishing a major poem and serving the Colocci
household; generally tutors had more to do than just give a pupil
lessons. Also, if his mind was primarily on alchemy then, it is strange
that none of the apparent revisions of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>,
alluding to Hermeticism, allude to alchemy. Nor does the 1492-94
"Crater Hermetis" make the least reference to alchemy, although it would
have been easy enough to do so.<br />
<br />
Since the chronology of
Lazzarelli's life is quite confusing, given the discrepancies among
sources, I have put a summary of Hanegraeff's reconstruction of his life
at the end of this post. <br />
<br />
There is also the issue of the cards'
patron in Venice. Gnaccolini supposes that Sanudo merely bought the
engravings after they were made. I find it hard to imagine that someone
would expend that much effort without a buyer secured. And the Ercole
d'Este/Michele Savonarola portraits, which relate to his family, are
engraved, not painted. Gnaccolini suggests it would have been from
contacts developed in Rome, or secured by the artist himself. It is
possible. But Venice and Ancona (and from there to Venice's colonies in
Dalmatia) had many connections, in trade and art, without Lazzarelli. <br />
<br />
Then
there are the ancient coins that the artist used as models for the
faces on the cards. These were valuable and must have come from a
collector, I would guess traced by another artist in Venice or Ferrara
and the tracings sent to the Ancona artist. This at least shows the
involvement of others besides a humanist in Naples.<br />
<br />
I conclude that any association between the cards and Lazzarelli is quite dubious.<br />
<br />
<b>TIME-LINE FOR THE LIFE OF LAZZARRELLI (based on Hanegraaff)</b><br />
<br />
1447 February. Born in San Severino.<br />
1448 or a little later. Father dies, family moves to Campli, his mother's hometown.<br />
1450s. Tutored by Christoforo de Montone in Campli.<br />
1460.
Writes heroic poem celebrating battle of San Flaviano, Ferrante's
victory. Poem allegedly presented to Alessandro Sforza, also comes to
notice of Roman poet Luca Torzoli.<br />
1462-1464, some portion. Tutoring Bernardino di Capua in Atri.<br />
1464-66.
Tutor in Teramo to family of humanist bishop Giovanni Antonio Campano,
friend and correspondent of Ficino, who had finished his Hermetica
translation 1463.<br />
1460s. Falls in love with a certain Arianna, as recounted later in his <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>, leading nowhere.<br />
1468.
Attends tournament in Padua, writes a heroic poem commemorating it,
amply rewarded, according to Filippo's memoir, by its dedicatee John
Chetworth, rector of the University of Padua.<br />
1468. Writes <span style="font-style: italic;">Hymn to Prometheus</span> dedicated to the Venetian ambassador. <br />
1468.
Living in Sacile with his brother Gerolamo, he recites an oration to
the Emperor in nearby Pordenone and is awarded a laureatte. An oration
at the ceremony, Nov. 30, praises Lazzarelli's skills. <br />
1468-1469. In Venice writing his <span style="font-style: italic;">De gentilium deorum imaginibus</span>. Originally dedicated to Borso d'Este, who died 1471. <br />
After
1469. Moves to Camerino, year unknown, tutors the Duke Giulio Cesare da
Varano's son Fabrizio. At some point family moves to Pioraca to escape
the plague. (These places are both inland from San Saverino.) He begins
his <span style="font-style: italic;">Fasti</span>. Meets Lorenzo Zane in Pioraca.<br />
1473. Moves to Rome in service to Zane. Deserted by Zane. Joins reformed Roman Academy.<br />
1480. Still in Rome, finishes first version of Fasti.<br />
1481. Meets Giovanni da Corregio at his first appearance in Rome, then returning home in Bologna.<br />
1482. Gives Correggio a translation of all the known Hermetica, including the <span style="font-style: italic;">Differentia Asclepii</span> translated by himself and not part of Ficino's edition.<br />
1483. Giovanni calls himself "Mercurio" da Correggio.<br />
1484. Correggio's 2nd appearance in Rome, as documented by Lazzarelli.<br />
1484.
Pope Sixtus IV dies, succeeded by Innocent VIII, known for his bull
against witchcraft and condemnation of Pico in early 1487.<br />
1486. Correggio invited by King Ferrante to come to Naples.<br />
1486.
Easter. Correggio preaches in Florence, probably on his way to Naples;
imprisoned on order of Lorenzo de' Medici, investigated for heresy.<br />
1486. Ferrante writes Lorenzo to request release of Correggio, which is granted.<br />
1486. Lazzarelli in San Severino after a serious illness.<br />
1486.
Lazzarelli apparently in Naples, probably invited there by Francesco
Colocci, to tutor his younger cousin Angelo, then 12. Lazzarelli's
former employer Campano, now King Ferrante's secretary of state, is also
friends with Colocci. Lazzarelli probably has an audience with
Ferrante, prompting letter to Lorenzo on Correggio's behalf. Lazzarelli
dedicates <span style="font-style: italic;">De Bombyx</span> to his pupil Angelo Colocci. <br />
1490. Angelo moves to Rome. Various brief poems and notes by Lazzarrelli, e.g. Latin riddles, are kept by Angelo.<br />
1492-94. Still in Naples, writing "Crater Hermetis". <br />
1494. Jan., death of King Ferrante.<br />
1494.
Bergundian alchemist John Rigaud de Branchiis in Siena practicing
alchemy in collaboration with a master Albertus, physician from Perugia.<br />
1495. Feb., Charles VII of France enters Naples.<br />
1495, after Feb. Lazzarelli in Rome visiting Angelo. <span style="font-style: italic;">Bombyce</span> printed on Angelo's orders in Rome 1495-98. <br />
1495.
Lazzarelli probably proceeds to Bologna, giving his transcription of
"Pearl of Great Price" to Correggio, with its epigram to his "teacher".
That would explain why the manuscript ended up in Modena. (It might have
been Rigaud that he gave it to.)<br />
1495. Year Lazzarelli says Rigaud imparted the "secret of the elixir" to him.<br />
1495 or later. Return of Lazzarelli to San Severino.<br />
1500. Lazzarelli dies in San Severino.<br />
<br />
Gnaccolini says that Lazzarelli first knew Francesco Colocci in
the 1460s, during the time he was tutoring an "Andria Bernardino
Acquaviva" in "the Kingdom of Naples", the son of a city's ruler. <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
La
sua vita ci è stata tramandata dalla biografia latina manoscritta stésa
dal fratello Filippo [177] e da quella tarda posta da Francesco
Lancinoti a introduzione dell'edizione del Bombyx, uscito a Jesi presso
Pietro Paolo Bonelli nel 1765 [178], con alcune aggiunte che si ricavano
da citazioni di autori contemporanei. Da queste fonti risulta che il
Lazzarelli, terminati gli studi (durante i quali già si distinse per una
produzione poetica), fu per un certo periodo nel Regno di Napoli
presso Francesco Colocci, quindi istitutore ad Andria di Bernardino
Acquaviva, figlio di Matteo signore della città. <br />
<br />
(His life has
been handed down in the Latin biography manuscript drawn up by his
brother Filippo, and [177] what was put down later by Francesco
Lancilloti in introduction to his edition of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Bombyx</span>,
published at Jesi by Peter Paul Bonelli in 1765 [178], with some
additions that are derived from quotations by contemporary authors. From
these sources it is seen that Lazzarelli, having completed his studies
(during which he already distinguished himself by a poetic production),
was for a time in the Kingdom of Naples with Francesco Colocci, then
tutor of Andria Bernardino Acquaviva, son of Matteo lord of the city.)</div>
</blockquote>
That Lazzarelli tutored an "Andria Bernardino Acquaviva" is a confusion foisted by Lancilotti, the 18th century editor of <span style="font-style: italic;">De Bombyx</span>,
according to Hanegraaff. Matteo Acquaviva took over rulership of Atri
(near Pesaro) from di Capua in 1464; Lazzarelli had been tutor to
Bernardino di Capua and did not go into Acquaviva's service. There is
also the erroneous notion that <span style="font-style: italic;">De Bombyce</span>
was dedicated to Angelo Colocci at his birth in 1467; hence Lazzarelli
was working for Francesco Colocci then or before. In fact, Hanegraaff
says, Angelo was born in 1474 according to family records, and "the
reference to Angelo's pleasant demeanor does not seem to fit a newborn
baby" (p. 52, which has a long discussion of this point, using among
other sources Federico Ubaldini, <span style="font-style: italic;">Vita di Mons. Angelo Colocci, Edizione del testo originale italiano</span>, Vatican 1969).
<br />
<br />
<b>LAZZARELLI'S WRITINGS ON ALCHEMY </b><br />
<br />
Now I want to comment more thoroughly on what Lazzarelli's writings on
alchemy might tell us about the tarot sequence, either the Sola-Busca or
more generally. My point of departure is Gnaccolini's comments about
his <span style="font-style: italic;">Vade Mecum</span> (Florence,
Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 984), his transcription of pseudo-Lullian
works, for which his introduction presents alchemy as "natural magic",
"conjunction of the body in the body", from which is derived "the stone
of the philosophers"; and his transcription of the <span style="font-style: italic;">New Pearl of Great Price</span>
by Pietro Bono, an alchemist in the tradition of the Latin Geber
(Modena, Estense Library, Lat. 299), for which he wrote a short
introductory twelve line poem entitled "The poet Lodovico Lazzarelli of
Sanseverino to his teacher Johannes". eWhether this "teacher" is
Giovanni da Correggio or Jean Rigaud de Branchiis is unclear. Since it
ended up in Modena, Hanegraaff thinks it was to Correggio. <br />
<br />
Hanegraaff has translated the first two sections of Lazzarelli's <span style="font-style: italic;">Tractatus de Alchimia</span>, his introduction to the pseudo-Lullian alchemical writings that he transcribed. Here is what Lazzarelli says:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
HERMES,
the father of theologians, magi, and alchemists, has revealed the
secrets of theology and magic and alchemy in one brief statement to his
children, when he said: What is above i like what is below, and what is
below is like what is above, to accomplish the miracles of the one
thing. Its father is the Sun, its mother is the Moon etc. A dictum which
was quoted by Aristotle in the Secret of Secrets to Alexander, where he
says: And oru father Hermogenes, who is Threefold in philosophy, gave
an excellent prophecy and said: THE TRUTH is as follows, and it is
beyond doubt, that the lower things respond to the higher, and the
higher to the lower, etc. These three mysteries are none other than what
Piccatrix says in his book that is called the Key of Wisdom, namely the
conjunction of a body with a body [corporis in corpore], the
conjunction of a soul [spiritus] with a body [spiritus in corpore], or
the conjunction of a soul with a soul [spiritus in spiritu]. <br />
<br />
The
conjunction of a body with a body is the conjunction of the heavenly
flesh, namely the quintessence, with the body of a virginal and purified
earth: the result is the philosophers' stone, and this is the natural
magic about which all the alchemists speak.</div>
</blockquote>
He then goes on to say that "conjunction of spirit with body" means
bringing down the spirits of the planets into corporal images, the
celestial magic of Zoroaster, "disapproved of by the holy fathers; and
the "conjunction of spirit with a spirit" is the unity of the Spirit of
God with the spirit of man, a doctrine he finds in St. Paul's First
Corinthians. I want to focus on the first, body with body, which is what
pertains to Lazzarelli's conception of alchemy.<br />
<br />
Hanegraaff does
not translate or even transcribe the actual pseudo-Lullian works that
Lazzarelli included. All he says is (p. 98):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
...even
more strongly than in the Crater we find the concept of Nature as a
subtly graded "stairway to heaven"; her manifestations reflect her Maker
on every level, and thus by exploring Nature's forces and secrets, we
will gradually be led to the "sanctuaries of the Word-begotten God."</div>
</blockquote>
The
idea of a "stairway" is also suggested in alchemical imagery of the
time, in which the various stages of the work are represented as
planets, with the top being either the Sun and the Moon or those two
plus a star. One example is from the "Heilege Dreifaeltigkeit" in a
manuscript of the third quarter of the 15th century: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chemheritage/10596346554/in/photostream/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/chemherita ... otostream/</a>. There are also these, from later on, 1625 and 1588: <a class="postlink" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/6127/4006/400/75688/010abmerc%282im%29.jpg.jpg">http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/61 ... 29.jpg.jpg</a><br />
<br />
However the alchemist (and sometimes also the Hermeticist) is not engaged in a vertical ascent. <br />
<br />
The
"Crater Hermetis" is Lazzarelli's hermetic/kabbalist version of the
ascent to God. But in it there is no ascent to heaven, and no bringing
of heaven to earth. Rather, there is "soul-making", the creation of
invisible helpful spirits.<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
... just as the Lord or God the begetter (genitor)<br />
generates the celestials and procreates the angels<br />
who are the forms of things, the heads (206) (qui rerum species, qui capita omnium) <br />
and first examples of all,<br />
<br />
Just so the true man creates divine souls (divas sic animas verus homo facit)<br />
which the ancient host used to call gods of the earth,<br />
who are glad to live close to human beings<br />
and rejoice at the welfare of man.<br />
<br />
They give prophetic dreams, they offer help<br />
to man's need, they punish the godless,<br />
and splendidly reward the pious,<br />
Thus they fulfill the command of God the Father.<br />
<br />
They overcome the trials of fate<br />
and chase away destructive illness, <br />
thereby fulfilling the words of the prophets.<br />
They create the Word of God. (207) (Hi verbum faciunt Dei.)<br />
<br />
That is why the Begetter has given man <br />
a mind like his own, and speech, [208]<br />
that he, like the gods, may bring forth gods,<br />
fulfilling the decrees of the Father.<br />
<br />
Most happy is he that knows the gifts of fate;<br />
he will gladly fulfill it,<br />
for he is to be reckoned among the gods,<br />
he is not inferior to the gods above.<br />
____________________<br />
206.
Cf. Asclepius 23: 'deorum genus omnium confessione manifestum est de
mundissima parte naturae esse prognatum signaque eorum sola quasi capita
pro omnibus esse' (Nock & Festugière [ 1946] comment that 'signa'
means "astral forms", which are like heads without body, while the
statues of gods (species deorum) fabricated by man depict the whole
body)<br />
207. A less daring translation would be "They speak the Word of
God," but the context (cf. next couplet) suggests that Lazarelli has
something stronger in mind.<br />
208. Cr. <span style="font-style: italic;">Crater Hemetis</span> 25.3 with n. 188.</div>
</blockquote>
So
now I have to give 25.3 and n. 188. This part is in prose, Lazzarelli
addressing King Ferrante (Ferdinandus) (Hanegraaff p. 145, 147):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Because
the human mind is the image of the first mind, it has received from the
latter not only fertility, but also immortality: these two main gifts
are given by that mind itself to its image, that is to say, to the word.
That is why Hermes says that the mind and the word are as precious as
immortality and why he admonishes us that whoever uses these gifts the
way he should is in no way different from the immortals--he even says
that through them he is finally brought into the choirs of the blessed.
(188) These two things combined, Your Majesty, bring forth a divine
offspring.<br />
________________<br />
188. C.H. XII.12 indeed states that
God has granted to mankind (but not to any other mortal animal) two
things, i.e. "mind and reasoned speech, which are worth as much as
immortality" (Cop. 45), and continues by saying that the man who uses
these gifts as he should will not be distinguished in anything from the
immortals. Ficino's translation is faithful to the meaning of the
original [I omit Ficino's Latin translation.] But notice how Lazzarelli
manipulates his audience by suggesting that the "two main gifts" are
fertility and immortality. This statement is not at all supported by the
hermetic reference, but the way Lazzarelli presents his case suggests
that it does.</div>
</blockquote>
So the created souls are much like
the spirits which exist between humanity and the gods of which Socrates
had spoken in the Symposium, and which the Asclepius had said could be
persuaded to descend into statues. But Lazzarelli is saying something
different: they are actually created by man, just as God had created
man, through speech. He perhaps has in mind something like Abulafia's
permutations of the letters of the alphabet, or Ficino's hymns to
Orpheus sung accompanied by his lyre. It is more than what an author
does in creating his characters: something real, in some sense, is
created. In creating by his word, he is thus like his creator. From
these verses it is a very short step to soul-creation by alchemy, which
combines conscious thought and prayer with the manipulation of minerals.<br />
<br />
For
more details it might be helpful to go to the actual pseudo-Lullian
texts that Lazarelli has transcribed. Since these are not available, I
go to Chiara Crisciana, in "Hermeticism and Alchemy: The Case of
Ludovico Lazzarelli" (<span style="font-style: italic;">Early Science and Medicine</span>,
2000). She has several pages of paraphrase from these texts, rather
difficult to summarize, and I am not always clear when she is talking
about pseudo-Lull and when she is talking about Lazzarelli. I will
focus on her discussion of the idea of uniting body with body:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Pseudo-Lull
thus proposes a general project for the transformation and restoration
of both man and the cosmos which ranges from transmutation to a
universal therapy. The models and aims of perfection to which the <span style="font-style: italic;">Testamentum</span>
refers are, on one hand, the image of the perfect body of man as
represented by Adam and, on the other hand, the image of the earth taken
back, through a positive apocalypse, in the pure and immobile
perfection of the crystal.</div>
</blockquote>
This description seems
to be the same thing that Lazzarelli is talking about in his
introductory comments, with a few details more. It is a return to the
original state. But how is this a "stairway"? And what kind of
"apocalypse"?<br />
<br />
It seems that the alchemists thought of the stages
of the work in terms of the seven days of creation, and also a
corresponding seven ages of the world. We are now living in the sixth
age, on the sixth day, in which androgynous Adam was created in the
image of God. The sixth age was inaugurated by Jesus's birth from Mary,
and the seventh age will be inaugurated by Jesus in his second coming. <br />
<br />
Moreover,
the alchemist in his laboratory can duplicate these days and ages, with
the help of God. They are the seven stages of the opus, at the end of
which is the conjunction of the "heavenly flesh" of Adam with the
"virginal earth" with the "pure and immobile perfection of the crystal",
resulting in the philosopher's stone.<br />
<br />
It seems likely to me that
Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" (with which Hanagraaff
starts his essay "Sympathy and the Devil", at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/Sympdevil.html">http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/Sympdevil.html</a>)
is meant to represent the state of the new earth where people are
rejuvenated by the philosopher's stone. The exterior doors to this
painting show a strange vegetative earth enclosed in crystal (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hieronymus_Bosch_-_The_Garden_of_Earthly_Delights_-_The_exterior_%28shutters%29.jpg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hiero ... ers%29.jpg</a>). Laurinda Dixon argues for this alchemical interpretation in her book <span style="font-style: italic;">Bosch</span>, p. 273f:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Bosch's
monochromatic image of the transparent globe containing clouds of
vapour, water, and earth represents God's creation of the earth, which
alchemists imitated, and recalls the egg in its common laboratory form, a
spherical or ovoid glass vessel. The image of a drowned and soggy
earth, encased in a glass container, corresponds to the alchemical
vision of the stage of 'ablution', also called the 'flood of Noah', when
the ingredients were washed, cleansed and resurrected. In the
laboratory, alchemists noted that the heavy parts of earth remained in
the bottom of the flask and the subtle vapours rose upwards. Bosch
expertly reproduces the reflective properties of glass and the steamy
vapour clouds as they appeared at this time.</div>
</blockquote>
On
the surface of this earth are odd vegetable-like parts of pods and
stems. They resemble pieces of gourds, such as we see carried in the
Sola-Busca 5 of Batons (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/images/thumb/c/ce/B05_Sola_Busca.jpg/324px-B05_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/images/t ... _Busca.jpg</a>).
On the surface of Bosch's earth, shoots are sprouting here and there,
sometimes inside the shells, e.g. a couple on the lower right of the
left door. These are the new beings. At the top Bosch has put (along
with a little God), in Latin, "For he spoke, and it was" and "By his
command, they were created". But what new beings? And who is their
creator I would think they are the beginnings of same souls that earlier
Lazzarelli proposed were created by speech, created by art rather than
nature or God, or rather by God in the art, as my next long quote will
make explicit. <br />
<br />
Another work that Lazzarelli includes in his
transcriptions from alchemy is the "New Pearl of Great Price" by the
Ferrarese alchemist and physician Pietro Bono, from the 1330s. In
relation to Lazzarelli's comments about the "conjunction of a body with a
body", we find the following, in an 1894 translation (<a class="postlink" href="http://archive.org/stream/newpearlofgreatp00laciiala/newpearlofgreatp00laciiala_djvu.txt">http://archive.org/stream/newpearlofgre ... a_djvu.txt</a>)
that compares reasonably with another translation I found, by C. G.
Jung, except at the end. I highlight the most relevant part:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
...It
is God alone that perfects our Stone, and Nature has no hand in it. It
is on account of this fact that the ancient Sages were able to prophecy:
the influence of the supernatural Stone exalted them above the ordinary
level of human nature. The prophecies which they uttered were
frequently of a special and most important character. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Though
heathens, they knew that there would come for this world a day of
judgment and consummation; and of the resurrection of the dead, when
every soul shall be reunited to its body, not to be severed from it
thenceforward forever.</span> Then they said that every glorified body
would be incorruptible, and perfectly penetrated in all its parts by the
spirit, because the nature of the body would then resemble that of the
spirit. Bonellus, in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Turba</span>
says: All things live and die at the beck of God, and there is a nature
which on becoming moist, and being mingled with moisture for some
nights, resembles a dead thing; thereafter it needs fire, till the
spirit of that body is extracted, and the body becomes dust. Then God
restores to it its soul and spirit. Its weakness is removed, and it is
raised incorruptible and glorious. Our substance conceives by itself,
and is impregnated by itself and brings forth itself, and this, the
conception of a virgin, is possible only by Divine grace.</div>
</blockquote>
Jung has a different translation of the last part (<span style="font-style: italic;">Psychology and Alchemy</span>, p. 374f):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">The
old philosophers discerned the Last Judgment in this art, namely in the
germination and birth of this stone, for in it the soul to be beatified
unites with its original body, to eternal glory.</span> So also the
ancients knew that a virgin must conceive and bring forth, for in their
art the stone begets, conceives, and brings itself forth.</div>
</blockquote>
This
last is the famous lapis/Christ parallel of alchemy, in the imagery of
the Last Days. All of this is in the alchemist's retort, the "crystal"
in which the "new earth" is generated. It reproduces the sequence of the
body's death, the soul's ascent, the perfection of the body, and its
uniting with the purified spirit.<br />
<br />
Dixon (p. 274f) goes on, in her exposition of the outer panel of Bosch's <span style="font-style: italic;">Garden</span>, to cite the 15th century alchemist George Ripley to a similar point:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Ripley,
who was court alchemist for King Edward IV of England, spoke of
paradise lost and paradise regained after the "flood', reflecting the
belief that success would result in a return to Eden for the human race.
Likewise Bosch's triptych would have connected the luscious garden of
delights with the rewards of a life devoted to earnest study and
Christian devotion.</div>
</blockquote>
It seems to me that the last
two cards of the Sola-Busca are one way of approaching the idea of the
re-creation of Eden (not on earth, but in the retort). Nembroto is the
evil dross that the fire of God separates from the body and the spirit.
Then the last card has a dragon in the background, in a crystal-like
sphere. The dragon, in alchemy, is the symbol both of the chaos at the
beginning of the work (, and of the end of the work, when it flies
upward, transcending the world, but also remains in the retort. Adam
McLean, discussing animal symbols of the Nigredo, talks first about the
Crow or Raven, then the Toad, and finally the Dragon (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html">http://www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
The
Toad was a better symbol of the Putrefaction [than the Crow or Raven],
the decaying mass slowly pulsating and shifting as gasses were given
off, while the substance rotted down to a black mass. Another symbol of
this stage was the dragon, a familiar inhabitant of the alchemists
flasks. The dragon is however a more complex symbol and is also used
when winged as a symbol for the spiritualising of the earthly substance.
Thus to the alchemists the dragon appeared at the beginning and at the
end of the work.</div>
</blockquote>
The dragon on card XXII of the Sola-Busca is not only winged but flying (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:T21_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:T21_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>). This is a contrast not just to dragons at the beginning of the alchemical work, but also to the basilisk of card XVI (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/images/thumb/5/55/T16_Sola_Busca.jpg/324px-T16_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/images/t ... _Busca.jpg</a>).
Gnaccolini reasonably suggests, basing herself on the 12th century
writer Tholopholus, that the basilisk represents a powder that was added
to the work to facilitate the transmutation to gold, as symbolized by
the sun on the card. If so, it was probably a poisonous substance, it
seems to me, since the basilisk was also an animal notorious for killing
people by its breath. The flying dragon, even as it represents the
transcendence of material conditions, is confined to its hermetically
sealed flask lest it create death instead of length of days.<br />
<br />
I am
not proposing that Lazzarelli is the designer of these cards. Others
read the same material; the ambiguity of the dragon would have been well
known and is not an image I have even found in Lazarelli. I think
rather that these cards are part of a shared perspective on the
"stairway" of ascent as expressed in various symbol-systems, all leading
to a Last Judgment and transfiguration of human souls. Others were
interested as well: for example, the same Camaldolese (with others) in
Florence who read their General Trevarsari's translation of
pseudo-Dionysius and listened to Ficino also--they or other Benedctine
brothers then--in the late 1460s copied and had illustrated the
pseudo-Lullian codex on exhibit at the Brera. As such, especially given
its reference to the Last Days, this perspective may well apply to other
tarot sequences besides the Sola-Busca, even without overt alchemical
imagery. In this way the Sola-Busca again may not be as eccentric as it
looks.<br />
<br />
<b>BASIS IN SCRIPTURE </b><br />
<br />
<div class="content">
This is a continuation of the post before last, <a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/posting.php?mode=reply&f=11&t=988#pr14772">posting.php?mode=reply&f=11&t=988#pr14772</a>.
I want to suggest a scriptural basis for Lazzarelli's alchemical
interpretation of "conjunction of a body with a body", which produces
the philosopher's stone and which in the texts he transcribes is the
alchemical equivalent of the Last Judgment. I have in mind an
allegorical interpretation of 1st Corinthians 15 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015&version=VULGATE">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?se ... on=VULGATE</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Corinthians%2015&version=DRA">http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?se ... ersion=DRA</a>):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
51 ecce mysterium vobis dico omnes quidem resurgemus sed non omnes inmutabimur<br />
52 in momento in ictu oculi in novissima tuba canet enim et mortui resurgent incorrupti et nos inmutabimur<br />
53 oportet enim corruptibile hoc induere incorruptelam et mortale hoc induere inmortalitatem<br />
54 cum autem mortale hoc induerit inmortalitatem tunc fiet sermo qui scriptus est absorta est mors in victoria<br />
<br />
51. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed.<br />
52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: for the
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incorruptible: and we
shall be changed.<br />
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality.<br />
54
And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass
the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.</div>
</blockquote>
St.
Paul has been discussing the resurrection of the body. There are two
parts, the corruptible body and the mortal something else, which I think
is the soul. The purified body unites with the purified soul. The soul
itself has a body, in Hermeticism, a "subtle" body. It is the "virgin
earth" with the original Adam, purified through the grace of God.<br />
<br />
Might
it be possible to have the Last Judgment in the present, through art
and God's grace? There is an earlier passage which the alchemists would
have found meaningful:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
36 insipiens tu quod seminas non vivificatur nisi prius moriatur<br />
37 et quod seminas non corpus quod futurum est seminas sed nudum granum ut puta tritici aut alicuius ceterorum<br />
38 Deus autem dat illi corpus sicut voluit et unicuique seminum proprium corpus<br />
39 non omnis caro eadem caro sed alia hominum alia pecorum alia caro volucrum alia autem piscium<br />
40 et corpora caelestia et corpora terrestria sed alia quidem caelestium gloria alia autem terrestrium<br />
41 alia claritas solis alia claritas lunae et alia claritas stellarum stella enim ab stella differt in claritate<br />
42 sic et resurrectio mortuorum seminatur in corruptione surgit in incorruptione<br />
<br />
36 Senseless man, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die first.<br />
37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be; but bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest.<br />
38 But God giveth it a body as he will: and to every seed its proper body.<br />
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but one is the flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds, another of fishes.<br />
40
And there are bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial: but, one is the
glory of the celestial, and another of the terrestrial.<br />
41 One is
the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, and another the
glory of the stars. For star differeth from star in glory.<br />
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption.</div>
</blockquote>
Why
does St. Paul go on about all these types of body, not just of the
animals in water, air, and earth, but of the fiery bodies of sun, moon,
and stars? This is the same St. Paul who in 2nd Corinthians talks about
the man who ascended to the third heaven, whether in the body or out he
did not know, and heard things it is not permissible to utter. <br />
<br />
The
soul's purification is reflected in an allegorical ascent through the
heavens; but the body is perhaps left behind. I think the alchemists'
idea is that the body, too, can be purified, by God's grace, in the
present, by passage through the regimens of the various lesser metals,
corresponding to the lesser planets, up to that of gold, the rubedo,
corresponding to the sun. The Star, Moon, and Sun cards would represent
these stages of the Work, the seven ages of the world in one brief span
of time. Then by the parallel of the philosopher's stone to Christ,
contact with the stone would give long life in the flesh to one whose
soul is also purified. So the "conjunction of a body with a body" (or in
a body) might be that of the stone with the mortal body of a human, or
it might be the conjunction of the purified body with the purified soul.<br />
<br />
Well, that would likely have been one interpretation, it seems to me. I have read somewhere, I think in Humfrey and Lucco's <span style="font-style: italic;">Dosso Dossi,</span>
that Ercole d'Este was given gold mixed with liquid the evening before
his death. That would have been on order of his physician, who was not
by then Michele Savonarola but also alchemically inclined. Gold is not
the stone, evidently.</div>
Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-78666872846093343962015-07-23T16:40:00.006-07:002015-07-27T21:12:54.082-07:00The SB and Two Alchemical Mss.<br />
<div class="content">
Gnaccolini's essay describes
two alchemical treatises that were part of the exhibition. In this post I
am going to ddiscuss how she relates them to the cards. Be advised that
in this post I will not talk about Lazzarelli at all. His writings, in
so far as they have been translated, I have not been able to relate to
the deck, except very generally to the last two trumps, as I explained
in my previous post.<br />
<br />
One of the manuscripts is a pseudo-Lullian
miscellany, loaned by the Nazionale Centrale di Firenze (Banco Rari 52).
One illustration (Gnaccolini only describes it) shows Lull giving his
book to a cleric dressed in white, obviously a Benedictine. Gnaccolini
even identifies the place (p. 88): <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
...il monastero camaldolese di San Benedetto fuori Porta Pinti ovvero il monastero olivetano di San Miniato al Monte.<br />
<br />
(the Camaldolese St. Benedict monastery outside the Porta Pinti or the Olivetano monastery of San Miniato at Monte.) </div>
</blockquote>
This
Camaldolese monastery was under the jurisdiction of the same Monasterio
of Maria dell'Angeli where Ficino occasionally gave lectures, as early
as 1469, I see by Googling it. She dates the illustrations to between
1468 and 1471.<br />
<br />
If nothing else, the dating of the manuscript, a
transcription of 14th century texts, shows an interest in alchemy among
the Benedictines and their friends in Florence in the 1460s. It is a
logical extension of Traversari's translations of pseudo-Dionysius and
so on, about the ascent to God. If the tarot in general at that time
(beyond the Sola-Busca) has anything to do with an ascent to God, this
manuscript is relevant. It would be of interest to know the origin of
the manuscript that this one was copied from. Was it one already owned
by the Benedictines there but deteriorating? Or did it come from some
other source? One possibility is Barbara of Brandenburg, Marquesa of
Mantua. The miniaturist, Giralomo da Cremona (by resemblances to his
known work), had illustrated a missal for her, Gnaccolini says.
Barbara's father was famous for his sponsorship of texts in spiritual
alchemy, notably the <span style="font-style: italic;">Heilege Dreifaeltigkeit</span>. <br />
<br />
I found 6 images from this work online: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo2.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo2.jpg</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo3.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo3.jpg</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo4.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo4.jpg</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo5.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo5.jpg</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo6.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo6.jpg</a>, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo7.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo7.jpg</a>. (I got one of these from <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Nabuchodenasor">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Bus ... chodenasor</a>, which has a short description of the manuscript.) <br />
<br />
One illumination, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo2.jpg">http://www.pcosta.net/ima/lullo2.jpg</a>, shows a man sowing seeds. Here is the detail:<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTL5Zcjcv4ufFkEsZZGeBnT0Og-d2zC0q5rV8fH5WI5cXBIAj9-P_WtcxAwUO0rsyHsTWcKsaVR57g04MO7GG9E_xpRrrPiswcTnC5SRdmg3V04O-4kOHAL0seeAgAOC6cFGU2KvOmWg8/s300/PsLullSeed.JPG" /><br />
<br />
Another one, with a plow (not part of the previous six), is below. <br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ_CCP9KBUIQE5Xrrkjut15vHNJGIpY3yO00wEtQ0-d-eUJC0-OYQz4Z6kjC9uw4HJ0DgLPU4D1aVXonuU1YkjXY0kDsGRFEQFa4npaN6Z4Ulk2Bu7dvEhJ17eZanv6Wtax97zhIqjQuc/s400/PsLullPlow.JPG" /><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">THE FIRST MANUSCRIPT AND BATONS</span><br />
<br />
Gnaccolini
relates them to the cards as "agricultural" imagery. Here is what she
says about the suit of Batons. I have added links to Tarotpedia's scans
of the cards: <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
In fact, in addition to the avowedly rural setting (2 of Batons ; fig. 1.66) [<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B02_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B02_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>], there is located in card 3 (Fig. 1.67) [<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B03_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B03_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>]
a clear allusion to secrecy in the transmission of alchemical knowledge
(recommended for a long time by pseudo-Lull), of which he became the
emblem, his head pierced by three sticks (gold, silver, and mercury?)
with his mouth sealed by a garland and the presence of the usual wings
of an eagle (the mercury of the philosophers).<br />
<br />
To the rural world alludes the gourd of the five of Batons(fig. 1.69 [<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>],
frequently used to transport water, but to an astute reader is
immediately reminiscent of the the "cucurbit" (Pereira 2001, p. 59),
that is, the alchemical vessel where he realizes the opus, a real gourd
used by the alchemist, as appears for example from illustrations of the
aforementioned superb Veneto manuscript (Florence, Library Medici
Laurentian, Ms. Ashburnam 1166 f. 5r); it appears to govern the sowing
of the youth on card 7 (Fig. 1.74 [<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B07_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B07_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>]), which now have blossomed as sheaves of grain on the background of the Page (Fig. 1.75 [<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B11_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B11_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>]), who carries gold coins in his bag, the result of the opus. </div>
</blockquote>
She
does not in fact show us f. 5r, to compare the "gourd used by the
alchemist" to the gourd on the card. However presumably it is much like
the one on f. 4v, which appears next to the card in question:<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK4iZrwAFLuMP8nIsW4XE3oleEMrBdQmDJbQiJOMo0ljW5BPa3a36zypMT-ygRJfTX94mmN6db7YCNHJDwUl4BoCwxCD8n5sxIlprDBFJebUpWCUgGDzJPr_2Rci4kvbLGIghyJKg4y3A/s350/SecretaGourd.JPG" /><br />
<br />
Here are my questions for Gnaccolini:<br />
<br />
In the 2, that it is a rural setting conveys what about the alchemical meaning of the card? <br />
<br />
On
the 3, what examples are there of a boy with wings on his head as
representing an eagle? I might agree that it was alchemical Mercury, but
only because Mercury was frequently depicted with wings on his cap,
looking as though they were coming out of his head. And what is the
alchemical meaning? Is it just to introduce the substance?<br />
<br />
On the
5, in alchemy the various processes are produced by heating and
cooling, either of solids or liquids. The gourd of the 5 would not work
very well; the gourd-shaped vessels in alchemical illustrations are most
likely glass. That does not stop the similarly shaped gourd that the
youth on card the 5 of batons from being such a vessel. But again, what
is the alchemical meaning? What operation? Where is the heat, liquid or
smoke? <br />
<br />
And is the youth on the 7 bent low because he is sowing
or because of his burden? The horizontal lines somewhat suggest furrows,
but they are on the 3, too, where they apparently do not. <br />
<br />
And what role do the Ace, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 play in this interpretation? <br />
<br />
There is much missing. Perhaps I can help. The Ace of Batons (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B01_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B01_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) might represent the peace of Eden before the Fall, since it has a suit of armor without its warrior. The 2 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B02_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B02_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) would then be Adam outside Eden looking at what he has lost. The 3 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B03_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B03_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) has secrecy and the suffering of life in this world, as well as the important transformative element Mercury. In the 4 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B04_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B04_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) we have the guardian of the secret operations, a silent warrior. In the 5 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>), we have the apparatus needed (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B05_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>); in 6, the fire (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B06_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B06_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>); in 7, the insertion of a crucial ingredient, or perhaps a cooling (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B07_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B07_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>); in 8 the heating (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B08_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B08_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>), in 9 the desired transmutation--crossing a stream as symbolic of transformation--or washing and cooling (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B09_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B09_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>), in 10, waiting for it to mature (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B10_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B10_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>).
Well, I am guessing. They correspond to no alchemical images that I
know of, but could represent an alchemical process all the same. <br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">THE SECOND MANUSCRIPT</span><br />
<br />
In
the suit of Coins/Disc, the images in the second manuscript, an
anonymous "Secreta secretorum", Laurenziana Ashburnam 1166, become
relevant. As I have said, Gnaccolini situates the artistic style of the
illustrations to Padua or Venice in the 1460s, and also one manuscript
in the 1480s. <br />
<br />
First we need to notice the agricultural motif (from the first manuscript), present also in this suit of Discs. <br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
La donna pingue della carta 4 potrebbe infatti raffigurare la Terra
madre dei metalli, che viene ingravidata grazie all'azione
dell'alchimista e produce un frutto di perfezione...<br />
<br />
(The fat lady of card 4 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D04_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D04_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>)
could in fact be seen as the Earth, mother of metals, who is
impregnated by the action of the alchemist and produces a fruit of
perfection...)</div>
</blockquote>
It seems to me that the lady's four
discs would most naturally be taken as the four elements, not metals;
they did not come in fours.<br />
<br />
Perhaps this card should be seen in
the context of one of the alchemical illustrations that she shows from
the second manuscript, that of a woman with a tree growing out of her
head.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicScur258fnD2AyaQzfTp0bQ_-6wXTjOBC5WLxZH-KDsP8ZsMPbdLeyILCH87fR0MFhbm5xu9W2_MMqXsBkuGdsTNZogdKJuYSEm8z0lKgJH-TM0dE5s0gWNhL7dE_4zy8g3yKRZimnaE/s350/SecretaSkull.JPG" /><br />
<br />
I
think that this in fact does represent "producing a fruit of
perfection". But since the tree with the fruit grows out of the woman's
head, it would appear to be an intellectual impregnation. <br />
<br />
I
found a discussion of this image in the works of C. G. Jung, who cites a
text that seems to relate to the skull. He thinks it is quite old, in
its Arabic version no later than the 10th century. What was to be
extracted from matter was called the "cogitatio". He continues (<span style="font-style: italic;">Psychology and Alchemy</span> p. 269, paragraphs 375-377):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
The "Liber Platonis quartorium" accordingly recommends the use of the <span style="font-style: italic;">occiput</span>
(Fig. 135) as the vessel of transformation, because it is the container
of thought and intellect. For we need the brain as the seat of the
"divine part." </div>
</blockquote>
The reason is, as Jung quotes the treatise, that:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
the operator must himself participate in the work ("oportet operatorem
interesse operi"), "for if the investigator does not remotely possess
the likeness [i.e. to the work] he will not climb the height I have
described, nor reach the road that leads to the goal."</div>
</blockquote>
It
is the "causative effect of analogy", Jung explains (p. 270). As in the
skull matter is transformed, so by means of his own head the operator
is likewise transformed.<br />
<br />
However, the lady on the 4, because of
her corpulousness, to me does not suggest intellect. I think a better
parallel to the alchemical illustration is to trump II POSTUMIO (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:T02_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:T02_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>). He/she is at least looking at the skull. The tree is perhaps on the shield.<br />
<br />
On
the next card in Discs, the 5, Gnaccolini finds confirmation of her
sexual interpretation of the 4 (impregnation of the fat lady);<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Una
conferma dell'uso della metafora sessuale come allusione al
procedimento alchemico del quattro di denari (fig. 1.44) si esplicita
nel cinque di denari (fig. 1.45), dove il ragazzo travestito da uccello
(chiaro simbolo sessuale) 85, con un fallo disegnato sullo scudo,
rappresenta il compimento dell'opus alchemicum, che si realizza tramite
l'azione del calore 86 (il fuoco che gli lambisce un piede). <br />
<br />
(A
confirmation of the use of the sexual metaphor as allusion to alchemical
procedure in the four of Coins (fig. 1.44) is explicit in the five of
Coins (fig. 1.45), where the boy disguised as a bird (a clear sexual
symbol) (85), with a phallus drawn on the shield, represents the
fulfillment of the opus alchemicum, which is realized by the action of
heat (86) (the fire that licks his foot).</div>
</blockquote>
The card is at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D05_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D05_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>.
I would suggest that this card be seen in relation to another
illustration from the second manuscript (not shown by Gnaccolini), of a
man lying on the ground, similar to the woman (Jung, fig. 131). I expect
that they are meant to be Adam and Eve.<br />
<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3H95GfFJl1nZsADzJrbEh8DRz-4Kh70LCw2wTMX_JNcFzkuncVTl5nYx0eMgtmuIZ5l_90ApC8BIEBhnrBJIUxUx9l4dETzqgaZjJN1eBdB4IVUipj-f7YhmittXZ0p4uF9CVrE5-gn4/s400/SecretaPhallus.JPG" /><br />
<br />
Both
the card and this illustration have rather conspicuous phallic
symbolism. But seeing either man as "fulfillment of the opus
alchemicum" is for me a stretch. If it's the fulfillment, what is it
doing as number 5 out of 10? To me it might suggest the impregnation
that will eventually result in the fulfillment of the work, but it is
not yet there.<br />
<br />
The 7 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D08_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D08_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>)
shows seven discs in a vase "which symbolizes the seven metals and the
seven stages of the work", she says. But 7 has multiple significances,
not just in alchemy. Moreover, there is a specific action being
depicted. It looks to me like the boy is regulating the heat. It could
well be one of the stages in alchemy, that of applying gentle heat.<br />
<br />
I would have thought that the 8 of Discs (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D08_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D08_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) was clearly parallel to the image in the manuscript with the skull and tree. But she skips over it without comment.<br />
<br />
In 9, the boy in the fire (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D09_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:D09_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>)
represents the nigredo, she says, the first step of the process. So is
this the beginning of the work? Then what does the 10 represent, which
shows a putto putting the last coin into a box that holds 10 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B10_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:B10_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>)? That would seem to be some sort of completion!<br />
<br />
She
has nothing alchemical to say about the Ace, Two, or Three of Discs.
That is probably just as well. Everything is mixed up as it is. But the
Ace does show two of the four humors, the melancholy and the sanguine,
corresponding to nigredo and rubedo stages of alchemy, making the third
putto stand for the third major stage, the Albedo. See Tarotpedia at <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Ace_of_Coins_Sola-Busca</a>).
The 2 might show the cooperation between the ruler and the alchemist
(Ercole and Michele). The 3 could show the bringing of metallic ore. But
again I am guessing; really, the sequence in this suit makes no
alchemical sense to me. <br />
<br />
Tarotpedia sees a possible allusion in the 3 to the "triple sun" of Ripley's "Scrowle" (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of_Coins_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of ... Sola-Busca</a>), at the bottom of the "Scrowle" and hence at the beginning of the work. <br />
<br />
Gnaccolini
finds the Cups mostly decorative, although admitting there might be a
deeper meaning in some. But she does get an interpretation of the 10 of
Cups (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:C10_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:C10_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>) by comparing it to one of the alchemical illustrations:<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYYtY9twFd8aN5PR96hy6U8QMJsJGehTQ6A3myqRXk7hOmYA9wc0kOx6P1l0wCAS7_f92NYGGoj9qoX_QfOoVstMOh5XjiY1u9A8CBFdzeDyfHrtMiO1M1l_N5UHm6JKrqrlC-GKAG2KE/s400/SecretaHermes.JPG" /><br />
In
fact she goes so far as to call the man on the card "Hermes
Trismegistus". Another from the same manuscript, supposedly the Muslim
alchemist "Geber", with a somewhat similar face and beard, is at <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jabir_ibn_Hayyan.jpg">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jabir_ibn_Hayyan.jpg</a>.<br />
<br />
She also has a wild idea for the 9 of Cups, so wild it's in a footnote, number 96:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
se
così fosse il tritone della carta 9 potrebbe essere il cuoco Andrea che
beve l'acqua dalla fonte miracolosa e si trasforma in un demone marino,
conservando un po' di acqua "per comperare con l'immortalità l'amore di
Kalè-Bella figlia di Alessandro che diverrà Nereide-Acqueterna,
anch'essa immortale divinità del mare", cfr. Centanni 1992, p. 198<br />
<br />
(The
triton of card 9 could be the cook Andrea who drinks the water of the
miraculous spring and is transformed into a water-demon, saving a little
water "in order to buy with immortality the love of Kalè-Bella,
daughter of Alexander, who will become the nereid Acqueterna, also an
immortal divinity of the sea"; see Centanni 1992, p. 198.)</div>
</blockquote>
In
Swords, she says that the swords on the 3 are gold, silver, and
mercury, or (in footnote 81), sulfur, mercury, and salt. I see nothing
to suggest such a thing except the number 3 (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:S03_Sola_Busca.jpg">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Image:S03_Sola_Busca.jpg</a>).
I would have thought it was the Trinity, comparing it to paintings of
Augustine's vision of the trinity, especially the one by Fra Lippo
Lippi, Florence 1437 (<a class="postlink" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVAvn1lWX50oAOXYjnhdKccNhbt2KOQNTvOXdW8LVrevWmEzMa-LwwsYX16vnJLWjbZcivgo1HFUAGSm1qA0a0nv3Jqhiazkbs6TNaV0yt4QjN_0fcv_Rvp6dOfAQuRhHXDA4vreNzjqde/s1600/LippoLippiCaptioned.jpg">http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-88GjAe5xY3o/T ... tioned.jpg</a>, in color <a class="postlink" href="http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-32096.ht">http://www.fineart-china.com/htmlimg/image-32096.ht</a>).
The heart, she says, is an alchemical symbol for fire, which presumably
melts them down. While the heart is a common religious image, I myself
have not seen a heart pictured in alchemy until Jacob Boehme, 1689,
where indeed it is associated with fire, probably meaning "burning
desire". She cites a 1612 Frankfurt alchemical dictionary,by M. Rulando.
She also thinks that the heart has the connotation of a "vital process"
and so makes of the alchemical process something alive. <br />
<br />
Tarotpedia
has found the heart mentioned in Ripley's "Scrowle", in a long passage
where "parting in three" is mentioned 18 lines later, referring to the
philosopher's stone, which is then "knitted" as a "Trinity": <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of_Swords_Sola-Busca">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Three_of ... Sola-Busca</a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">ALCHEMICAL ALLUSIONS IN THE TRUMPS</span><br />
<br />
In the trumps, Gnaccolini sees alchemical allusions in several cards.<br />
<br />
II POSTUMIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1207">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1207</a>): he looks at a skull, a symbol of the nigredo. (Yes, it might be that, among other things, e.g. thought and the putrefactio.)<br />
<br />
VI SESTO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1211">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1211</a>)
is Mercury, she says. Presumably that is because there are wings on his
shoes. If so, she should identify VENTURIO with Mercury, too; he has
wings in the same place. <br />
<br />
XVI OLIVO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1221">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1221</a>) has the sun, alchemical gold.
She also relates the basilisk at his feet to gold, saying that it
represented a substance which in powder form could bring out the gold, a
doctrine she finds in the 12th century writer Theolopholus. The
basilisk has a negative side as well, which she does not mention. It
could kill with its fiery breath, like a dragon. <br />
<br />
0. MATO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1205">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1205</a>). The crow symbolizes the beginning of the work. This is confirmed by Adam McLean<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
The
phase of Blackening which usually marked the beginning of the work, was
brought about either by heating the prima materia in the process of
Calcination (the 'dry way' of the alchemists), or by the process of
Putrefaction, a slow rotting or digestion over a period of weeks or
months (the so-called 'wet way'). The Black Crow or Raven was often
associated with this Calcination, for on vigorous heating the calcined
material would usually carbonise and layers would flake off and move
like a crow's wings in the flask.</div>
</blockquote>
The bagpipes,
she says, signify music, which works in a way parallel to alchemy. This
use of music would seem to be illustrated in the plowing scene of the
first manuscript, where a man playing a horn stands on the plow. <br />
<br />
She has no comment on the other trumps.<br />
<br />
I would add: <br />
<br />
0
MATO. The tree is just beginning to grow leaves, again signifying the
beginning . The bagpipe might also allude to alchemical vessel.<br />
<br />
III. LENPIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1208">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1208</a>) might be the lighting or stoking of the fire, preparatory to the work.<br />
<br />
IV MARIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209</a>).
The tree with leaves symbolizes growth and life.But the wings on his
helmet and the red clothing suggest Mars. I do not know what that would
mean alchemically, except some kind of strengthening.<br />
<br />
XI TULIO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1216</a>), again shows fire.<br />
<br />
XIII CATONE (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1218">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1218</a>). The severed head is an alchemical symbol in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Splendor Solis</span>,
where the one severing it holds it up as a trophy. I suspect that it
has to do with thought, cogitation. But Catone is not holding the head
but pinning it to the ground.<br />
<br />
XVII. IPEO (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1222">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1222</a>). Tarotpedia (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Ipeo">http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sola_Busca_Cards:_Ipeo</a>) notes that the wings are similar to those on the hermaphrodite of the Rosarium Philosophorum.<a class="postlink" href="http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rosary5.html">http://www.levity.com/alchemy/rosary5.html</a>.<br />
<br />
XX NENBROTO, XXI NEBUCHODENAZOR. I have discussed their symbolism in my previous post.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">CONCLUSION</span><br />
<br />
I
see no systematic progression of alchemical stages in the suits, except
possibly for Batons, or in the trump sequence, although a few are in
the right place to be in an alchemical sequence--0 MATO, II POSTUMIO,
III LENPIO, XVI OLIVO, XX NENBROTO, XXI NEBUCHODENAZOR. In contrast, the
"Marseille" trumps seem to me abundantly interpretable in terms of
alchemy, as I have explained in the "Tarot and Alchemy" thread, even
though they have no inherently alchemical imagery whatever. It seems to
me that the few clear alchemical allusions in the Sola-Busca there are
have probably been put in to create the illusion of a hidden alchemical
meaning to the sequences when in fact there is none. However I could
well be missing something.<br />
<br />
Gnaccolini has one amusing tidbit
(footnote 98) that I cannot resist passing on: the man on the 2 of
Batons might have been a caricature of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, she
suggests (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1164">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1164</a>). Compare to his portraits: <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosimo_de%27_Medici">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosimo_de%27_Medici</a>. It is believable. <br />
<br />
That
to me is another sign that the inspiration for the Sola-Busca might
have come from Florence. The other signs are the Fra Lippo Lippi
inspiration of the 3 of Swords, a Lullian manuscript in the right social
context from the late 1460s, the required knowledge of Roman history
(Poliziano was the expert), and the off-color playfulness that is
characteristic of Florentine carnival songs in the time of Lorenzo. But
it could also be a product of one of the Academies in other cities, i.e.
Rome or Naples, or humanists in Bologna, Ferrara, or Venice.<br />
<br />
<b>MORE ON THE MANUSCRIPTS </b><br />
<br />
On a visit to Italy in October 2014, I saw in Florence the book "Secret of
Secrets" that was in the Brera's exhibition. It was in the Academia
Gallery (in Florence), open to two pages near the beginning. One of them
was the same as a page repreoduced in the Brera's exhibition catalog,
so it is clearly the same book (as the manuscript number also
indicates). The other page was also an illumination, and it was not
reproduced in the Brera catalog. So I give you both pages below:<br />
<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoc438rL3s7P353Y0LxZPAjrwv2yXdgJ-3uCByVvNgcoc3uOZmD3cVqwYSsnT5BMnKtcUC7GfCglJWRXnjS_tvUma3Vaqv6fKbTJnmZ7eesdhAhkxuBjSpxsTynBUqtLoWHNdrdYiEZSQ/s1600/IMG_4087a.jpg" width="650" /><br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsWybdKo6TmBD4FUF_b_9kzxIZvzlP4jr0ZHn4ZqWMsos8W-TeIIDLBQn0kHdItX80Mmy-MnkWxV4PJ-u8wDbvYuY0ls6hyphenhyphenFcpvubr_fW3UtC0StLd37BsdE2_5FLYl0RrivVn-xFItAY/s1600/mercury.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsWybdKo6TmBD4FUF_b_9kzxIZvzlP4jr0ZHn4ZqWMsos8W-TeIIDLBQn0kHdItX80Mmy-MnkWxV4PJ-u8wDbvYuY0ls6hyphenhyphenFcpvubr_fW3UtC0StLd37BsdE2_5FLYl0RrivVn-xFItAY/s200/mercury.jpg" width="99" /></a>I
have discussed the image on the left already at length. The image on
the right is new to me. On the one hand, the stylized horns and round middle suggest the sign for Mercury. the figure resembles the astrological
sign for the planet. Horns and hooves suggest the Devil--Mercury's destructive side, in other words--as well as the god Pan, for undifferentiated nature, as "Phaeded" suggested in a comment on THF (<a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988#p1590">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988#p1590</a>6). Pan also had a bagpipes, as he shows by a link to the <i>Hypnerotomania</i> of 1499 Venice. So the flask of transformation is configured like a
bagpipes. In the Sola-Busca, the <i>massa confusa</i> corresponds to the Mato, card 0. He, too, holds a bagpipes, i.e. the flask by which he will be purified and raised up--or if nothing else, contained, as is shown in the last card (http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1226). The circle containing the starry sky is also the hermetically sealed container of the terrible dragon of chaos.<br />
<br />
So we have a bagpipe player at the beginning of the Work, and at the end
a dragon, among the stars but also confined there, behind bars, at
least temporarily. Here is Jung on Mercury (<a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_and_Alchemy">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_and_Alchemy</a>)<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsE2J6I4zhPkEAEBsaW4G9mmC7_hwiomsGW3engNqlmlHkHnxwP_cQBkPk1DR7VsRqX2v8H_G_Sp_7noxL7lZuxL1N37Ud1u-pYnx6bwME9c9-als7zzmF-l8lMRb8ukayPKuECdVBYrE/s1600/pan.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> Mercurius stands at the beginning and end of the work: he is the prima
materia, the caput corvi, the nigredo; as dragon he devours himself and
as dragon he dies, to rise again in the lapis. He is the play of colours
in the cauda pavonis and the division into the four elements. He is the
hermaphrodite that was in the beginning, that splits into the classical
brother-sister duality and is reunited in the coniunctio, to appear
once again at the end in the radiant form of the lumen novum, the stone.
He is metallic yet liquid, matter yet spirit, cold yet fiery, poison
and yet healing draught - a symbol uniting all the opposites." (Part 3,
Chapter 3.1).</div>
</blockquote>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsE2J6I4zhPkEAEBsaW4G9mmC7_hwiomsGW3engNqlmlHkHnxwP_cQBkPk1DR7VsRqX2v8H_G_Sp_7noxL7lZuxL1N37Ud1u-pYnx6bwME9c9-als7zzmF-l8lMRb8ukayPKuECdVBYrE/s1600/pan.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsE2J6I4zhPkEAEBsaW4G9mmC7_hwiomsGW3engNqlmlHkHnxwP_cQBkPk1DR7VsRqX2v8H_G_Sp_7noxL7lZuxL1N37Ud1u-pYnx6bwME9c9-als7zzmF-l8lMRb8ukayPKuECdVBYrE/s320/pan.jpg" width="320" /></a>I did not know Pan as an image
employed by the alchemists early on. Yet it is right there on the page, as "Huck" points out, the word "Pan". .The image also combines three other basic symbols, he points out: Star, Moon, and Sun. I would add that Moon and Sun are also female and male; their combination is the hermaphrodite Mercury, the Devil of the tarot.<br />
<br />
"SteveM", in further discussion, posted some quite a propos alchemical quotes amplifying this theme of Mercury, Sun, Moon, and Pan, from<br />
what appears to be a version of the same alchemical work as the image appears. These quotes are well worth looking at, at <a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=10#p15927">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=10#p15927</a><br />
and his posts immediately following.<br />
<br />
In addition, Phaeded amplifies the SB Mato card's imagery by comparing it with imagery associated with Marsyas, the satyr who challenged Apollo to a music contest. at <a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=10#p15964">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=10#p15964</a> and his post following.<br />
<br />
Of interest also is the artist to whom these illuminations are given, a Venetian.<br />
<br />
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbvwW3ex-s2xzl0xUcqxE61z3aYU92wN-T7_1AWU0aUHo6A1DQwhc2mhKf-V9e9j8i-kdwHvaXeo-eQNATcEWyiLZmP0qbIfilkn9ZFZLig6NXdBIv47d6pkI_scDoJCH0EEuQOw9SjE/s1600/IMG_4084a.jpg" width="650" /><br />
<br />
This
information is consistent with what I reported earlier, that according
to Gnaccolini the style is Paduan-Venetian of the 1460s, but also
corresponds to the watercolors in an illuminated printed Petrarch <span style="font-style: italic;">Trionfi/Canzioniere</span> of Venice 1488. But she didn't go so far as to name a specific artist (<a class="postlink-local" href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&p=15884#p14771">viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&p=15884#p14771</a>).<br />
<br />
But if
the artist is Venetian, what is it doing in the Laurenziana? It is
possible that the manuscript was produced in Florence, with the artist
coming there at the time. Also, the text might have been done in
Florence and the illuminations in Venice: it was a common practice to do
the two parts in different places. Most likely, however, both parts
were done in Venice, and the book acquired later. Since one of the 16th
century Medici "grand dukes" was a practicing alchemist (see <a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_I_de%27_Medici,_Grand_Duke_of_Tuscany">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_ ... of_Tuscany</a>),
that is the likeliest alternative. That of course puts it very much in
the ambit of the Sola-Busca and Leber decks, as well as of the interests
shown in Lazzarelli's later works. </div>
<br />
<span class="corners-bottom"></span>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-53095362374307847142015-07-23T16:40:00.004-07:002015-07-27T19:45:25.246-07:00The SB's ownerIn
Gnaccolini's essay, the identification of the owner of the actual
colored deck, as opposed to engravings of odd cards now in various
museums, as the well known Venetian diarist Marino Sanudo il Giovane
(1466-1536), the "M.S." on the Aces of Batons (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1163">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1163</a>) and Swords (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1177">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1177</a>), is
attractive. The stemma of the Sanudo family (silver with blue stripe), she says,
is on the Aces of Coins (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1149">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1149</a> and Cups (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1191">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1191</a>). Actually, the diagonal stripes look gold to me; on Swords there is a red or purple horizontal stripe; on Cups there seems to be a gold cross behind the gold stripe.<br />
<br />
Sanudo's mother was of the Vanier family, and her stemma, banded silver and red, is on the Aces of Swords (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1177">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1177</a>) and Batons (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1163">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1163</a>) and trumps I (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1206">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1206</a>), IIII (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1209</a>), XIIII (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1219">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1219</a>,
and XV (<a href="http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1220">http://queenoftarot.com/tarot_cards/1220</a>). I see gold diagonals, as in the other Aces, as well as the same red horizontal on Coins. Zucker had noticed these stemmi but
didn't know what to make of them.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7aBG_l616kbBT3yfvcKtW9H10mbIYI6OnjMZ1ESoKfIhhC7_fq_2S3TCicO9shx1MlfogOOgDoMI8HvzrRqNTV3y5WKGq7KyagIOPA1ZFO5yY6kR75vwB-sDeXmVXVFDgzGavASCcyM/s1600/1-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7aBG_l616kbBT3yfvcKtW9H10mbIYI6OnjMZ1ESoKfIhhC7_fq_2S3TCicO9shx1MlfogOOgDoMI8HvzrRqNTV3y5WKGq7KyagIOPA1ZFO5yY6kR75vwB-sDeXmVXVFDgzGavASCcyM/s320/1-2.jpg" width="172" /></a></div>
Sanudo is documented as commissioning
work by Marco Zoppo, whose style is similar to that of the cards, and
had hermetic interests as well as in fostering the printing trade. Another possibility she mentions is Marco Sanudo, his cousin. Also,
the identification of the two persons on the 2 of Coins ( as Ercole d'Este
and Michele Savonarola fits that family. His father represented Venice
in Ferrara at the right time, 1457-59, to have known this physician and
pioneer in the use of metallic salts to treat illness (and so an
"alchemist" broadly defined). Ercole, born 1431, would have known
Savonarola (grandfather of the more famous one) both before his training
in Naples (1145-1460) and at the end of Savonarola's life, d. 1468. But
the portrait appears modeled on a Roman coin of Caligula that she shows. <br />
<br />
Michele
Savonarola, to be sure, was not a merchant, but a physician. On the Venier family, to whom one of the coats of arms is to be attributed, here is Gnaccolini p. 50f, including the footnotes, p. 58f::<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<span style="font-style: italic;">Iscrizioni e stemmi degli antichi possessori</span>.
Grazie all'identificazione dei due stemmi nobiliari presenti in varie
carte, effettuata per la prima volta in occasione di questo studio, con
quelli relativi alle importanti famiglie veneziane dei Venier (fasciato
d'argento e di rosso)215 e dei Sanudo (d'argento alla banda azzurra) 216
e alla presenza delle iniziali "M.S." ai lati dello stemma. Sanudo 217
ritengo che il possessore del mazzo Sola Busca possa essere con buona
probabilità identificato in Marin Sanudo il Giovane (Venezia, 1466-1536)
218. Storico e politico veneziano, egli attese fin dalla giovinezza a
studi classici ed eruditi, che si concretizzarono nella stesura dei
famosi Diari, vivace cronaca degli avvenimenti veneziani redatta tra il
1° gennaio 1496 e il settembre 1533. Egli nacque nel 1466 da Leonardo
Sanudo, senatore della Serenissima morto precocemente nel 1474 219, e
Letizia Venier di Pellegrino, che una volta vedova lo allevò con l'aiuto
degli zìi nel castello della famiglia materna di Sanguinetto (presso
Verona) 220. Questo fatto, e un legame particolare con la famiglia della
madre 221, potrebbero forse spiegare l'insistenza sullo stemma Venier,
riproposto nelle carte anche in abbinamento con le iniziali "M.S." (che
però non lo affiancano mai: asso di spade [fig. 1.129] e asso di
bastoni [fig. 1.104, 1.132]), e il perché nelle carte nessuna iniziale
alluda direttamente alla famiglia Venier 222. Al suo personale interesse
di storico potrebbe rimandare anche la data riportata dal trionfo
XIIII, calcolata a partire dall'anno mitico di fondazione di Venezia,
così come risulta riportata proprio nell'introduzione al suo studio De
origine, sita et magistratibus. Se si indaga nella storia della
famiglia, già la figura del padre Leonardo appare con dei tratti che
risultano particolarmente significativi se dobbiamo pensare a un legame
dei Sanudo con le nostre carte. Egli infatti, nato nel terzo decennio
del XV secolo da una delle più antiche famiglie della Serenissima 223,
pur non essendo laureato aveva ricevuto una buona educazione umanistica
(secondo Ludovico Carbone era addirittura allievo di Guarino
Veronese)224 e faceva parte della ristretta cerchia di patrizi veneziani
umanisti, così ben ricostruita dal Lowry 225 e dalla King 226, della
seconda generazione: un ristretto gruppo di personaggi molto influenti,
che ricoprivano spesso incarichi pubblici di rilievo e mantenevano tra
loro stretti rapporti sia di tipo professionale sia di studio, e
sostanzialmente utilizzavano l'umanesimo come strumentò per giustificare
le azioni di governo, che decise in prima persona. Erano fortemente
coinvolti nel recupero dei testi classici e nell'impresa tipografica
veneziana impiantata da Nicolas Jenson. In particolare dalle annotazioni
contenute nel Libro dei conti del Sanudo il Lowry ha ricostruito una
trama di rapporti 227, tra i quali spiccano i nomi di diversi scrittori e
collezionisti veneziani e, tra i familiari, il nipote Marco, figlio del
fratello Francesco 228. Nel 1457 Leonardo Sanudo incaricò Leonardo
Bellini, che "era senz'altro il più moderno miniatore a Venezia" 229, di
miniare il suo codice con le opere di Lattanzio. Venne quindi inviato
come visdomino a Ferrara, per difendere gli interessi dei cittadini
veneziani, tra il dicembre 1457 e la primavera del 1459, anni in cui a
Ferrara insegnava Guarino Veronese ed era medico di corte Michele
Savonarola. Il patrizio veneto in quel torno di tempo ebbe modo di
incaricare due tra i più importanti miniatori che lavoravano per il duca
Borso, Guglielmo Giraldi e Giorgio d'Alemagna, di miniare una copia di
Virgilio da lui stesso trascritta (oggi Parigi, Bibliothèque nationale
de France, Lat. 7939A) 230. Tornato a Venezia Leonardo si fece esemplare
un altro codice di Virgilio dall'atelier di Bartolomeo Sanvito (Parigi,
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Lat. 11309), che venne miniato da
Marco Zoppo, "a sua volta di ritorno da un soggiorno emiliano" poco
oltre la metà degli anni sessanta 231. Per completare il quadro bisogna
ricordare ancora come gli interessi ermetici di Marin Sanudo siano stati
recente- [page 51 starts here] mente sostanziati dal Kristeller 232,
che ne ha riconosciuto una nota di possesso su un codice cabalistico ed
ermetico proveniente da un monastero veneziano oggi alla biblioteca del
Trinity College di Dublino (Q.3.12, ff. 138v-l74v). Direttamente dalle
pagine dei Diarii possiamo poi avere testimonianza del suo personale
interesse per la figura di Giovanni "Mercurio" da Correggio, sul cui
arrivo a Lione lo informa nel 1501 con due lettere Pietro Aleandro 233. <br />
___________________<br />
215 Crollalanza 1890, p. 76; Libro d'Oro 1965-1968, pp. 1603-1604; Spreti 1981, pp. 848-51; Sturdza 1999, p. 445. Lo stemma Venier ricorre negli scudi miniati nei "trionfi" I, IIII, XIIII, XV, nell'asso di spade (fig. 1.129) e nell'asso di
bastoni (figg. 1.104,1.132); in queste ultime due carte ricorrono anche
le iniziali in capitale romana "M.S". La presenza sopra lo stemma di
una banda d'oro tra due teste di leone, se l'identificazione della famiglia è corretta, potrebbe forse alludere al ramo dei Venier di san Marco, che allo stemma fasciato comune a tutta la famiglia associarono il leone di san Marco al naturale (cfr. Sturdza 1999, p. 445). <br />
216, Lo stemma Sanudo, con ai lati le iniziali "M.S.", molto più abraso e di difficile lettura (è uno stemma interzato d'argento alla banda azzurra, di cui si conservano solo poche tracce) ricorre negli scudi miniati nell'asso di denari (fig.
1.130) e nell'asso di coppe (fig. 1.131). Nell'asso di denari lo stemma
S circondato da un cartiglio con l'iscrizione in capitale romana
"SERVIR CHI PERSEVERA INFIN OTIENE"; in basso a sinistra è una stella
accompagnata dal cartiglio "TRAHOR FATIS", che si trova anche nei
trionfi II e XIII. Purtroppo non ho trovato riscontri a questo motto. <br />
217 E in parte quando c'è lo stemma Venier. <br />
218 Le due famiglie Venier e Sanudo si incrociano solo ancora, per quanto ho potuto appurare, con Elena Sanudo (sorella di Marino, nata nel 1451), che sposa nel 1469 Francesco Venier, podestà di Padova: sono loro i genitori dell'amato
nipote Marcantonio Venier, ambasciatore, 1483-1566. Un'altra ipotesi
potrebbe portare a sciogliere le iniziali "M.S." in Marco Sanudo, cugino
di Marino, figlio di Francesco (fratello di Leonardo), noto astronomo e
matematico allievo di Luca Pacioli, morto nel 1505, cfr. Bettinelli 1786, p. 231 n.b.; Quadri 1826, p. 398; Veratti 1860, p. 90 n. 167; I
Diarii 1879-1902, nota d. Sui libri in possesso di Marco, nipote di
Leonardo Sanudo, Lowry 2002, pp. 61-62, 306. In questo caso tuttavia non mi spiegherei la presenza dello stemma Venier. <br />
Sulla
figura di Marino Sanudo, uomo di ampia cultura, con una biblioteca di
6500 volumi, "stimato come figura di non comune rilievo" nel panorama
della Venezia umanistico-rinascimentale si rimanda a A. Caracciolo
Aricò,Introduzione, in Sanudo 1980, pp. X-XVII. <br />
219. A. Caracciolo Aricò, Introduzione, in Sanudo 1980, pp. XLIII, 310 nota 91. <br />
220. I Diarii 1879-1902, pp. 12-13 n. 14, parte 6, nota j. <br />
221.
Per cui nel testamento del 1533 viene citato Marco Antonio Venier
"signor di Sanguenè, mio nepote, qual sempre ho computa per fiol, et li
ho infinite obligation", sito web Wikisource. <br />
222. Purtroppo non
trovo a conforto alcun fatto significativo nella biografia di Marino
Sanudo relativo all'anno 1491 se non che compie i venticinque anni e
viene quindi presentato al Gran Consigno, Lowry 2002,p. 59. <br />
223. King 1989, II, pp. 635-637; Sanudo 1989, p. 6 nota 10. <br />
224. Mariani Canova 1995, p. 57. <br />
225. Lowry 2002, pp. 14-15 <br />
226 King 1989, <i>passim</i> (e in particolare pp. 61, 309-316); King 1989, II, pp. 390-396, 635-637. <br />
227 Lowry 2002, p. 364. <br />
228 Sanudo 1989, p. 296 n. 360, con bibliografia e supra nota 213. <br />
229 Mariani Canova 1995, p. 60. <br />
230
G. Mariani Canova, in <i>The Painted Page</i> 1994, p. 109 cat. 42; Toniolo
1994, p. 236; Mariani Canova 1995, pp. 40-45 tavv. 8-13, 57-71; F.
Tonìolo, in Mariani Canova 1995, pp. 160-164, cat. 4; Mariani Canova
1998, pp. 27,137-141 cat. 17; F. Toniolo, ad voces Giorgio d'Alemagna e
Giraldi, Guglielmo, in DBMI 2004 pp 268- 270, 307. <br />
231 L. Armstrong,
in <i>The Painted Page</i> 1994, cat. 72 pp. 154-155 (1466-1468 circa);
Mariani Canova 1993, pp. 121-135 (1463-1464 o poco più tardi); Mariani
Canova 1995, pp. 63-64; A. De Nicolò Salmazo, in <i>La miniatura a Padova
</i>1999, pp. 247-249 cat. 95 (settimo decennio); S. Marcon, ad vocem
Ruggieri, Marco dì Antonio, in DBMI 2004, pp. 922-924 (1466-1467). Zoppo
dovette essere a Bologna forse anche prima del giugno 1461 e
trattenersi almeno fino al 1467, Benati Maino 1993, pp. 65-67. <br />
232. Kristeller 1983, p. 196. <br />
233. Vecce 1988, pp.16-17; Sacri 1999, p. 71; Saci 2000, pp. 47-48. </div>
</blockquote>
The
complete bibliographical references are in the book's bibliography. I can try translating some of
this, but Google Translate isn't bad with modern Italian.<br />
<br />
I ran across something of interest about Sanudo in Farmer's <span style="font-style: italic;">Syncretism in the West</span>.
Farmer is discussing the role of Pico's secretary Cristoforo da
Casalmaggiore in Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's death, namely, his
reported confession under torture that he, Cristoforo, had poisoned
Pico. Sanudo's <span style="font-style: italic;">Diarii</span> is the
source of that confession, from his secretary in Bologna. Sanudo also
suggests that Cristoforo was part of the conspiracy to wrest power from
Savonarola in 1497. Of interest is Sanudo's ties with the Picos and
Poliziano. Farmer says that Sanudo "had close contacts with
Gianfrancesco and the <span style="font-style: italic;">piagnoni</span>" (p. 177)and adds:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
In
the edtiion of Poliziano's collected works published the following
year--interestingly enough, underwritten by Sanudo himself--flattering
references to Cristoforo and his brother Martin, another of Pico's
longtime retainers, were clumsily removed by an unknown hand. 124<br />
_________________<br />
124.
See the evidence first uncovered by Dorez ["La Mort de Pic de la
Mirandole et l'edition Aldine des oeuvres d'Ange Politien (1494-1497)," <span style="font-style: italic;">Giornale storico della letteratura italiana</span> 33, 180] (1899), augmented and reinterpreted by Cotton ["Alessandro setti e il Politiziano", <span style="font-style: italic;">La Bibliofilia</span> 64, 225-46] (1962)].</div>
</blockquote>
Farmer
then cites Cotton as arguing that "this hand belonged to none other
than Gianfrancesco Pico, who, assisted again by Giovanni Mainardi, was
that time busily preparing Poliziano's collected works for the press".<br />
<br />
Poliziano
of course was the leading expert on Roman history, which is the subject
of the SB trumps. It seems likely to me that Sanudo's contact with
Poliziano went back at least as far as Giovanni Pico's and his visit to
Venice. If Poliziano lectured there on Osiris in the early 1480s, it
might have been then; Sanudo was 3 years younger than Pico. Poliziano
would have reason to cultivate contacts in Venice, as a center for
manuscripts (e.g. Bessarion's library) and publishing. Poliziano and
Pico both died in 1494, most likely, according to the recent exhumation
of their bodies, from arsenic. Poliziano was also homosexual, as
convincingly argued in Wikipedia's article on him; that is also
something not inconsistent with the SB designs.<br />
<span class="corners-bottom"></span>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-8611360627186754032015-07-23T16:40:00.002-07:002015-07-28T02:22:02.790-07:00The "Coins" cardsOn the issue of who is in the 2 of Coins, there is an interesting
discussion in Gnaccolini that I skipped over. Also, some of the faces on
other cards seem to be modeled on coins with portraits of Roman
emperors. It is not a question of the artist actually having the coins
to copy from; probably there was some sort of imprint on paper or
sculpture ("una mediazione grafica o scultorea", footnote 105). But it
does raise the question of who we know that collected Roman coins. I
read somewhere that Ercole d'Este did and that he sent Boiardo out
places to get them for him on occasion. Probably many people did. But there is a better case for Bernabo Bembo, which "Phaeded" made on THF, related to a "Nero" coin which seems to have been the model for the SB 7 of Swords. I will get to it in a moment. <br />
<br />
In
the case of the 2 of Coins, a Baldassare d'Este medallion seems to be
the closest match: the hat goes on the bottom figure and the face on the
top figure. The medallion is of Ercole I d'Este. The significance of
the top medallion, of Augustus, is that the headpiece shows the
classical style which is exemplified in the laurel leaves on the card.
For the other, she proposes Michele Savonarola, as I've said. She says,
with references, that he experimented with alchemy in hopes of finding a
cure for the plague.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUWWLOcTsDNNGITE-ei8bpM9cQzyYJZ9qXiKW6h6DxUdZsmY-7jvGDAZ_Gf2NDlNWA1XRfGv4UTaeTvcQsgcQPO9S8sLQVQcRcAATKZ9cEoHThMvsw4k6aziak7nxyaQp85hQCeYwPqNE/s400/Image-23.JPG" /><br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwouxFPLP7W5lOIwgiToyRXfnvF0iT_p7VjzKQdRH-WVxq4Frgpw7yGmhYFunvYmXBAbRifkIk3XR7qgySRWzvVAcW-GojwqjIn8JlH-DzmzUCZInBuZttGBr10t4X6mEZBcHfkzyvpTY/s400/Image-35.JPG" /><br />
<br />
Then
there are three more coins, which she puts next to the respective
cards. Tiberius goes with Deo Tauro VII. It seems to me that the face on
that coin (Tiberius) also matches the lower face on the 2 of Coins. She
assigns Claudius to Catone XIII.<br />
<img alt="Image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7BrruugjQiXGOVMLEOA_OlN87Np7YfSF1IX4ZbmUgcY_nysQQrcESB1XRlUXppxRzmkcv3wQcwxD9rf-3YANkfrqxIk_t0bi0h009msy8YsIVAWKXojYBt5mhpNKJsoKQaHCcnTWIEBc/s800/Image-25.JPG" /><br />
And Nero to the Seven of Swords. It seems to me that Nero also matches the Mato. <br />
<img alt="Image" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXN5LGWEJaPfpCObHUH6vllsBOwM6N4U87QP5VYbWmuZ6Vdv0vWiPrJYR-ypXjY81LICoxdsGdBWQ01qr2z5IJ99x1XgMVBiSdlivkUuMyYr6y1XvBbcn-IE8GDFacnIVJdB6AnXKKYw/s640/Image-38.JPG" width="640" /><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhww1D2x8eQ4T36v8zPiaVh79D1G0kKi7GSJEHEc99-6MUe08Amqbiat9V8kDP1gboiK0J4s8tEt_4JVPsZuxfwrvP1HEI8pqPuLGOaF07_9eRrsIdnctXJlXfGX3rVkRwk_npEOg15nXs/s1600/portrait-of-a-man-holding-a-coin-of-the-emperor-nero-1474DET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhww1D2x8eQ4T36v8zPiaVh79D1G0kKi7GSJEHEc99-6MUe08Amqbiat9V8kDP1gboiK0J4s8tEt_4JVPsZuxfwrvP1HEI8pqPuLGOaF07_9eRrsIdnctXJlXfGX3rVkRwk_npEOg15nXs/s200/portrait-of-a-man-holding-a-coin-of-the-emperor-nero-1474DET.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
There is a portrait by Hans Memling of a young man holding what appears to be an exact replica of the coin above, but looking in the opposite direction, as on the card. "Phaeded" posted it at <a href="http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=40#p16034">http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=988&start=40#p16034</a>. The man in the portrait is evidently Barnarbo Bembo, who served as ambassador to Emperor Charles V in Flanders in 1471-74.<br />
<br />
Here is Gnaccolini on these cards and their numismatic models (pp. 35-36 and 55):<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Il
particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di
denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro
ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig.
1.79). I due ritratti costituiscono per qualche verso il trait d'union
tra il recupero del mondo classico (di cui testimoniano i "trionfi"),
esemplificato dal profilo laureato dell'imperatore Augusto 105 nel
medaglione superiore (fig. 1.80), e l'epoca contemporanea, cui allude
evidentemente il naturalistico profilo di sapiente con berretta del
medaglione inferiore. Quest'ultimo è certamente un ritratto, condotto
con lo spirito un po' caustico, di accentuazione dei tratti fisionomici, che caratterizza lo stile dell'artista un po' in tutte le carte (e si legge anche nella trasposizione del modello monetale in termini di
accentuazione quasi caricaturale). Già Arthur Hind nel 1938 aveva
intravisto nella figura dell'imperatore laureato del medaglione
superiore una possibile allusione, sep [end of p. 35] pure nei tratti
fisionomici un po' caricati, al duca di Ferrara Ercole I 106. Se
confrontiamo il profilo con quello di Ercole come ci è stato
tramandato dai medaglioni realizzati da Baldassarre d'Este nel 1472 107
(tolta la berretta quattrocentesca) sorprenderà ritrovarvi le stesse
curve per il naso e per il mento, come se anche il medaglista estense
avesse letto il profilo ducale con il filtro di un modello augusteo (fig. 1.81). <br />
<br />
Il ricorso a modelli numismatici da parte dell'autore del mazzo, probabilmente mediati da miniature
o bassorilievi, viene confermato dalla possibilità di riconoscere il
profilo dell'imperatore Tiberio, da un denaro d'argento 108 (fig. 1.82),
sotteso a quello di Deiotaro (trionfo VII; fig. 1.84), quello riprodotto dall'aureo di Claudio (una moneta realizzata sulla fine della Repubblica; fig. 1.83) 109 nel volto di Catone (trionfo XIII; figg. 1.25, 1.85), e il profilo
di Nerone, così come viene riprodotto nell'aureo coniato (fig. 1.86)
dopo la morte di Seneca 110, nell'uomo ritratto nel sette di spade (fig.
1.87). <br />
<br />
Più difficile arrivare a una proposta precisa per
l'identificazione del personaggio contemporaneo. Il carattere arcaico
dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande
studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la
coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato
111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più famoso'
Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina,
si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico
personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso).
Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di
affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi
contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua
vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir
dell'immortalità rimedio contro molti malanni. <br />
_____________________________<br />
105
Martini 1990, pp. 248-249, Ca 1 e qui cat. 9a. La derivazione, in
questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente
dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.
Devo l'identificazione di' questo e dei successivi profili imperiali alla gentilezza di Rodolfo Martini, che desidero sentitamente ringraziare. <br />
106 Hind 1938,1, p. 242. <br />
107 Hill 1967, p. 13 fig. 37; Hill 1984, p. 23 n. 100, p. 28; Johnson, Martini 1986, pp. 6-7 nn. 24-26. <br />
108 Martini 1990, I, pp. 158-159, Ti 11, tav. L e qui cat. 9b. <br />
109 Martini 1990, pp. 360-363, CI 422, tav. CXXIII e qui cat. 9c. <br />
110 Martini 1990, pp. 458-459, Ne 280, tav. CLII e qui cat. 9d. <br />
111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr. Carbonelli 1925, p. 10 fig. 5. <br />
112
Segarizzi 1900; Carbonelli 1925, pp. 10, 154-157; Samaritani 1976, pp.
1-95 (in particolare la bibl. pp. 21-22 in nota 46); Jacquart 1993, pp.
109-122; F. Tomolo, in La <br />
miniatura a Ferrara 1998, pp. 99-101 cat.
12; Pereira 2001, p. 171; Crisciani 2005, pp. 53-68; Crisciani, Zuccolin
2011. Sul rapporto tra alchimia e medicina Crisciani, Pereira 1998, pp.
7-39; Pereira 2003a, pp. 77-108; Crisciani 2003, pp. 217-245. <br />
113
Hind, 1938,1, p. 242 aveva proposto l'identificazione del ritrattato in
Gerolamo Savonarola, pur consapevole dei problemi di questa ipotesi,
anche per quanto concerneva la cronologia. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<div id="gt-input-tool" style="display: inline-block;">
<div>
<span class="ita-kd-inputtools-div"></span></div>
</div>
<div class="g-unit" id="gt-src-c">
<div id="gt-src-p">
</div>
</div>
<div class="almost_half_cell" id="gt-res-content">
<div dir="ltr" style="zoom: 1;">
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="l particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig. 1.79).">(The
particular meaning</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="l particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig. 1.79).">, among the pip cards, given to the suit of coins, emphasizes the presence of two portraits in profile, in garlands
linked by a ring, </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="l particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig. 1.79)."><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="l particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig. 1.79)."><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="l particolare significato attribuito, tra le carte numerali, al seme di denari pone in rilievo la presenza di due ritratti in profilo, entro ghirlande legate da un anello, scelti a illustrare il numero, due (fig. 1.79).">chosen to illustrate the number two </span></span></span></span>(fig. 1.79). </span><span title="I due ritratti costituiscono per qualche verso il trait d'union tra il recupero del mondo classico (di cui testimoniano i "trionfi"), esemplificato dal profilo laureato dell'imperatore Augusto 105 nel medaglione superiore (fig. 1.80), e l'epoca">The
two portraits are in some ways the link between the recovery of the
classical world (to which </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="I due ritratti costituiscono per qualche verso il trait d'union tra il recupero del mondo classico (di cui testimoniano i "trionfi"), esemplificato dal profilo laureato dell'imperatore Augusto 105 nel medaglione superiore (fig. 1.80), e l'epoca">the "triumphs"</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="I due ritratti costituiscono per qualche verso il trait d'union tra il recupero del mondo classico (di cui testimoniano i "trionfi"), esemplificato dal profilo laureato dell'imperatore Augusto 105 nel medaglione superiore (fig. 1.80), e l'epoca"> bear witness), exemplified by
the laureate profile of Emperor Augustus in 105 the upper medallion (Fig.
1.80), and the</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="contemporanea, cui allude evidentemente il naturalistico profilo di sapiente con berretta del medaglione inferiore."> contemporary</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="I due ritratti costituiscono per qualche verso il trait d'union tra il recupero del mondo classico (di cui testimoniano i "trionfi"), esemplificato dal profilo laureato dell'imperatore Augusto 105 nel medaglione superiore (fig. 1.80), e l'epoca"> epoch</span><span title="contemporanea, cui allude evidentemente il naturalistico profilo di sapiente con berretta del medaglione inferiore.">, to which the naturalistic profile with a cap of the lower medallion e</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="contemporanea, cui allude evidentemente il naturalistico profilo di sapiente con berretta del medaglione inferiore.">vidently alludes</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="contemporanea, cui allude evidentemente il naturalistico profilo di sapiente con berretta del medaglione inferiore.">. </span><span title="Quest'ultimo è certamente un ritratto, condotto con lo spirito un po' caustico, di accentuazione dei tratti fisionomici, che caratterizza lo stile dell'artista un po' in tutte le carte (e si legge anche nella trasposizione del modello monetale in termini di">The
latter is certainly a portrait, conducted with a slightly caustic</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Quest'ultimo è certamente un ritratto, condotto con lo spirito un po' caustico, di accentuazione dei tratti fisionomici, che caratterizza lo stile dell'artista un po' in tutte le carte (e si legge anche nella trasposizione del modello monetale in termini di"> spirit</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Quest'ultimo è certamente un ritratto, condotto con lo spirito un po' caustico, di accentuazione dei tratti fisionomici, che caratterizza lo stile dell'artista un po' in tutte le carte (e si legge anche nella trasposizione del modello monetale in termini di">, with the accentuation of facial features that characterize the style of
the artist a bit in all the cards (and also is read in the transposition
of the monetary model in terms of </span><span title="accentuazione quasi caricaturale).">an accentuation that is almost caricature). </span><span title="Già Arthur Hind nel 1938 aveva intravisto nella figura dell'imperatore laureato del medaglione superiore una possibile allusione, sep [end of p.">Arthur
Hind already in 1938 had seen the figure of the laureated emperor at the top
of the medallion a possible allusion, se [end of p. </span><span title="35] pure nei tratti fisionomici un po' caricati, al duca di Ferrara Ercole I 106. Se confrontiamo il profilo con quello di Ercole come ci è stato tramandato dai medaglioni realizzati da Baldassarre d'Este nel 1472 107 (tolta la berretta quattrocentesca) sorprenderà">35]
also in the slightly caricatured facial features, the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole
106. If we compare the profile with that of Ercole that have come down to us in medallions made by Baldassare d'Este in 1472 107 (removing his 15th century cap) we will be surprised to </span><span title="ritrovarvi le stesse curve per il naso e per il mento, come se anche il medaglista estense avesse letto il profilo ducale con il filtro di un modello augusteo (fig. 1.81).
">find the same curves of the nose and the chin, as if the Este medalist had
read the ducal profile through the filter of an Augustan
model (Fig. 1.81).</span><span title="Il ricorso a modelli numismatici da parte dell'autore del mazzo, probabilmente mediati da
">The use of </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il ricorso a modelli numismatici da parte dell'autore del mazzo, probabilmente mediati da
">numismatic </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il ricorso a modelli numismatici da parte dell'autore del mazzo, probabilmente mediati da
">models by the author of the pack, probably mediated by</span><span title="miniature o bassorilievi, viene confermato dalla possibilità di riconoscere il profilo dell'imperatore Tiberio, da un denaro d'argento 108 (fig. 1.82), sotteso a quello di Deiotaro (trionfo VII; fig. 1.84), quello riprodotto dall'aureo di"> miniatures or bas-reliefs, is confirmed by our ability to recognize the profile of
Emperor Tiberius in a silver coin 108 (Fig. 1.82), underlying that of
Deiotarus (triumph VII; Fig. 1.84), one reproduced in gold of </span><span title="Claudio (una moneta realizzata sulla fine della Repubblica; fig. 1.83) 109 nel volto di Catone (trionfo XIII; figg. 1.25, 1.85), e il profilo di Nerone, così come viene riprodotto nell'aureo coniato (fig. 1.86) dopo">Claudius
(a coin made at the end of the Republic; Fig. 1.83) 109 in the face of
Caton (</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Claudio (una moneta realizzata sulla fine della Repubblica; fig. 1.83) 109 nel volto di Catone (trionfo XIII; figg. 1.25, 1.85), e il profilo di Nerone, così come viene riprodotto nell'aureo coniato (fig. 1.86) dopo">triumph </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Claudio (una moneta realizzata sulla fine della Repubblica; fig. 1.83) 109 nel volto di Catone (trionfo XIII; figg. 1.25, 1.85), e il profilo di Nerone, così come viene riprodotto nell'aureo coniato (fig. 1.86) dopo">XIII; figs. 1.25, 1.85), and the profile of Nero as well reproduced in a gold coin (Fig. 1.86) after the </span><span title="la morte di Seneca 110, nell'uomo ritratto nel sette di spade (fig. 1.87).
">death of Seneca 110, in the man portrayed in the seven of swords (Fig. 1.87).</span></span> </div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
<div class="almost_half_cell" id="gt-res-content">
<div dir="ltr" style="zoom: 1;">
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Più difficile arrivare a una proposta precisa per l'identificazione del personaggio contemporaneo.">It is more difficult to get a precise proposal for the identification of the contemporary personage. </span><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">The
archaic character of the clothing might suggest a posthumous tribute to a
great scholar and alchemist, who could then perhaps be seen, given the </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">coincidence of facial features of an </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più">extant illuminated</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Il carattere arcaico dell'abbigliamento potrebbe far pensare a un tributo postumo a un grande studioso e alchimista, che potrebbe allora forse essere, vista la coincidenza con i tratti fisionomici tramandati da un ritratto miniato 111, il medico padovano Michele Savonarola 112, nonno del più"> portrait 111 of the Paduan doctor Michele Savonarola 112, grandfather
of the more </span><span title="famoso' Girolamo 113 che, dopo aver a lungo insegnato all'Università patavina, si era trasferito nel 1450 a lavorare alla corte di Ferrara come medico personale di Niccolò III d'Este (e dopo di lui di Leonello e Borso).">famous Girolomo 113, after teaching a long time at the University of Padua, moved in
1450 to work at the court of Ferrara as the personal physician of Niccolo
III d'Este (and after him of Leonello and Borso). </span><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir">A renowned
researcher, devoted to alchemical research in an attempt to hone his
medical science especially on the side of remedies against plague, came to distill the elixir of long life, aqua vitae in the
etymological sense of the term, if not the elixir of immortality, then the remedies for many ailments.
<br />_____________________________ <br />
<span title="105 Martini 1990, pp.">105 Martini 1990, pp. </span><span title="248-249, Ca 1 e qui cat.">248-249, Cat, 1 and </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="248-249, Ca 1 e qui cat.">here. </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="248-249, Ca 1 e qui cat.">cat. </span><span title="9a.">9a. </span><span title="La derivazione, in questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.">The derivation, in this as in the following cases, probably did not happen directly
from the </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="La derivazione, in questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.">numismatic </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="La derivazione, in questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.">model, but through graphic or
sculptural </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="La derivazione, in questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.">mediation</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="La derivazione, in questo come nei casi seguenti, probabilmente non avvenne direttamente dal modello numismatico, ma tramite una mediazione grafica o scultorea.">. </span><span title="Devo l'identificazione di' questo e dei successivi profili imperiali alla gentilezza di Rodolfo Martini, che desidero sentitamente ringraziare.
">I owe the identification of this and subsequent </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="Devo l'identificazione di' questo e dei successivi profili imperiali alla gentilezza di Rodolfo Martini, che desidero sentitamente ringraziare.
">imperial </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="Devo l'identificazione di' questo e dei successivi profili imperiali alla gentilezza di Rodolfo Martini, che desidero sentitamente ringraziare.
">profiles to the kindness of Rodolfo Martini, whom I want to sincerely thank.</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="106 Hind 1938,1, p."><br />106 Hind 1938.1, p. </span><span title="242.
">242.</span><span title="107 Hill 1967, p."><br />107 Hill 1967, p. </span><span title="13 fig.">13 fig. </span><span title="37;">37; </span><span title="Hill 1984, p.">Hill 1984, p. </span><span title="23 n.">23 n. </span><span title="100, p.">100, p. </span><span title="28;">28; </span><span title="Johnson, Martini 1986, pp.">Johnson, Martini 1986, pp. </span><span title="6-7 nn.">Nos. 6-7, </span><span title="24-26.
">24-26.</span><span title="108 Martini 1990, I,pp."><br />108 Martini 1990, I, pp. </span><span title="158-159, Ti 11, tav.">158-159, Ti 11, pl. </span><span title="L e qui cat.">Cat. L and </span><span title="9b.
">9b</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="L e qui cat."> here.</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="9b.
">.</span><span title="109 Martini 1990, pp."><br />109 Martini 1990, pp. </span><span title="360-363, CI 422, tav.">360-363, CI 422, pl. </span><span title="CXXIII e qui cat.">CXXIII and cat. </span><span title="9c.
">9c </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="CXXIII e qui cat.">here</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="9c.
">.</span><span title="110 Martini 1990, pp."><br />110 Martini 1990, pp. </span><span title="458-459, Ne 280, tav.">458 to 459, I 280, pl. </span><span title="CLII e qui cat.">CLII and cat here. </span><span title="9d.
">9d.</span><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr."><br />111 See in </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr.">Bologna</span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr."> Codex of 1450 Archiginnasio Library, </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr."> Bologna, </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="111 Si veda nel codice bolognese del 1450 Bologna, Biblioteca dell'Archiginnasio, A,125: cfr.">A, 125: see. </span><span title="Carbonelli 1925, p.">Carbonelli 1925, p. </span><span title="10 fig.">10 fig. </span><span title="5.
">5.</span><span title="112 Segarizzi 1900;"><br />112 Segarizzi 1900; </span><span title="Carbonelli 1925, pp.">Carbonelli 1925, pp. </span><span title="10, 154-157;">10, 154-157; </span><span title="Samaritani 1976, pp.">Samaritans 1976 pp. </span><span title="1-95 (in particolare la bibl. pp. 21-22 in nota 46);">1-95 (in particular bibl. Pp. 21-22 in footnote 46); </span><span title="Jacquart 1993, pp.">Jacquart 1993, pp. </span><span title="109-122;">109-122; </span><span title="F. Tomolo, in La
">F. Tomolo, in La</span><span title="miniatura a Ferrara 1998, pp.">Miniature Ferrara 1998, pp. </span><span title="99-101 cat.">99-101 cat. </span><span title="12;">12; </span><span title="Pereira 2001, p.">Pereira 2001, p. </span><span title="171;">171; </span><span title="Crisciani 2005, pp.">Crisciani 2005, pp. </span><span title="53-68;">53-68; </span><span title="Crisciani, Zuccolin 2011. Sul rapporto tra alchimia e medicina Crisciani, Pereira 1998, pp.">Crisciani, Zuccolin 2011. On the relationship between alchemy and medicine Crisciani, Pereira 1998, pp. </span><span title="7-39;">7-39; </span><span title="Pereira 2003a, pp.">Pereira 2003a, pp. </span><span title="77-108;">77-108; </span><span title="Crisciani 2003, pp.">Crisciani 2003, pp. </span><span title="217-245.
">217-245.</span><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p."><br /></span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p.">113 </span></span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Studioso di chiara fama, dedito a ricerche alchemiche nel tentativo di affinare la sua scienza medica soprattutto sul versante dei rimedi contro la peste, arrivò a distillare l'elixir di lunga vita, l'acqua vìtae nel senso etimologico del termine, se non proprio elisir"><span title="113 Hind, 1938,1, p.">Hind, 1938.1, p. </span><span title="242 aveva proposto l'identificazione del ritrattato in Gerolamo Savonarola, pur consapevole dei problemi di questa ipotesi, anche per quanto concerneva
">242, proposed the identification of the sitter sd Girolamo Savonarola,
although aware of the problems of this hypothesis, even concerning the </span><span title="la cronologia.">chronology.
</span></span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
I admire particularly here Gnaccolini's readiness to affirm a double signification of the portraits in the 2 of Coins, expressing both a union of the past with the present and also the commemoration of two friends. One explanation is often not enough.<br />
<br />
This completes my discussion of Gnaccolini's essay. The other major essay in the exhibition catalog, written by Andrea Marchi, is devoted to the identification of the artist. Marchi's thesis, strongly endorsed by Gnoccolini and also by Sandra Bandera in her introduction (as opposed to Gnoccolini's ideas, which are more "hypotheses"), is that the Sola-Busca engravings were done by a painter called Nicola di maestro Antonio, in the port town of Ancona.. The essay reproduces many of the painter's works alongside cards that he says betray the same hand. I am not dealing with this essay, mostly because it would be a lot of work for me to summarize, and I am not sure that I am competent to do it justice. Also, I have nothing to say about it. It looks good to me.<br />
<br />
I have left out many interesting ideas presented on both THF thread by "Huck" and "Phaeded", which I have mostly left out. And I have left out completely anything from a later thread on THF in which "Huck" presents an alternative interpretation of the SB triumph cards, http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1041. I encourage people to read this material.<br />
<br />
The final post of this blog has to do with a completely different thesis about the Sola-Busca, that it was done for a different family on a different coast a hundred years later than usually supposed. The argument is one up to now presented only in Italian, first in a book, second in a summary of the book on the Associazione LeTarot website.<br />
<br />
<b>To continue reading, click on "older posts". </b>Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-60958883988321397042015-07-23T16:39:00.002-07:002015-07-28T02:26:46.757-07:00Chiappini's anagam hypothesisAndrea Vitali has recently drawn my attention to a new essay in his
"hosted essays" section, "I Tarocchi Sola-Busca, Il segreto dei segreti:
una possibile verità", by Mauro Chiappini, <a class="postlink" href="http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=523">http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=523</a>. It is a condensation of a book Chiappini published recently by the same name (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=524">http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=524</a>). I have several questions about the essay, which I will raise for discussion.<br />
<br />
His
contention is that the inscriptions painted on the Sola-Busca deck (the
actual SB, as opposed to the unpainted individual cards that are in
various collections) are anagrams that show the true circumstances of
its production, while the engraved inscriptions give clues regarding
the family for whom the engravings were done. <br />
<br />
As an example of
this idea of messages encoding anagrams, he gives the example of
Galileo's communications to Kepler. I do not know about them, but the <span style="font-style: italic;">Hypnerotomachia</span>
of 1499 Venice has them, if memory serves. However it seems to me that
in that case the originals were nonsense words, thus begging to be
deciphered. I do not know about Galileo's.<br />
<br />
In the book, he says,
he has shown rigorously that the trumps are of the C order, i.e.
Lombardy, and that therefore the deck, both engraved and painted, was
done for families in that region. And since numbers were not put on
cards in general in Lombardy until after 1500 (as shown by the Cary
Sheet and a card in the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, which lack
numbers), they must have been done after that date. This would apply to
the engraved deck in all its versions, as well as the painted version,
since the numbers are engraved. <br />
<br />
Gnaccolini, if I remember
correctly, said the order did not correspond to any of Dummett's three
types, but (in a footnote) she adds that it does have some elements that
seem to draw from both B (Ferrara and Venice) and C (Milan and France). In my view (as, I think, in
Gnoccolini's) there is no reason to insist the order be one of the
three, because the order is clearly given by the numbers. Given the
general creativity of the deck, creativity in the order can be expected
as well. At least we agree that the subjects are the usual ones,
just represented in an unusual way, and in more or less the usual
progression!<br />
<br />
Chiappini's argument for the C order, unfortunately,
does not appear in his essay, except a brief argument for why the cards
are not of the B order. There he says only: (a) the B order has the 8th
trump as Love, and Nero cannot correspond to that trump; and (b) the B
order has its 20th trump as Justice, and Nembroto, with the lightning
bolt through him and the broken tower behind, cannot be Justice. Neither
of these arguments seem to me persuasive. Divine Justice can easily be
associated with a lightning bolt and a broken tower. But yes, it more easily corresponds to Sagitta, the Arrow, i.e. the Tower card. In
the C order, the 8th card is Justice; Gnaccolini argued that Nero was
associated to that virtue "sarcastically". It seems to me that the same
could be said about Love, that Nero might represent the opposite of
Love. Or it could be some other card, such as the Hanged Man (since he
is holding an infant upside down over a fire). To be persuaded that the
sequence was of type C and thus of Lombardy, I would have to see the
argument in more detail. <br />
<br />
As for the painted inscriptions, they are the following:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
- S.P.Q.V. on the shield of the triumph Metelo (XV). Also on the same card, the base of the column, the inscription VF<br />
- D.P. on the Queen of Batons.<br />
- M.S. on the Aces, except that of Coins.<br />
- SERVIR CHI PERSERVERA INFIN OTIENE on the Ace of Coins. On the same card TRAHOR FATIS that we find on the Ace of Cups.<br />
- ORFATIS on the triumphs POSTUMIO (II) and CATONE (XIII).<br />
- SENATUS VENETUS on the shield of the triumph MARIO (IIII).<br />
- ANNO AB URBE CODITA MLXX on the shield of the triumph BOCHO (XIIII).</div>
</blockquote>
The
longest one, on the Ace of Coins, is the most informative. He notes the
misspelling of "OTTIENNE" (and likewise of "CONDITA" on another
inscription) and says it is likely not accidental, because it allows the
following decoding:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
“HO TRIST’A FAR PER SERVIRE RINO FIESCHI VENETIAN”</div>
</blockquote>
In
other words, the anonymous Venetian artist assigned to paint the cards
is sad to have to serve the Rino Fieschi. "Rino" is short for "Etore",
Chiappini says, and there were indeed many of that name, of a noble
Genoese family; . It might be that "Venetian" is an adjective applying
to him rather than to the artist. It was not unusual for a family to be
part of the nobility of both places, as for example the Cibo family
earlier:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Che i Fieschi fossero
aggregati alla nobiltà veneta non è un fatto eccezionale, in quanto, già
in precedenza, altre famiglie genovesi, tra cui quella dei Cibo,
avevano ottenuto lo stesso beneficio.<br />
<br />
(That the Fieschi were
added to the Venetian nobility is not an exceptional fact, in as much,
already previously, other Genoese families, among them that of the Cibo,
had obtained the same benefit.)</div>
</blockquote>
I do not know how
unusual it was. I know that Venice and Genoa were maritime rivals. I
would think that if the Fieschi were ennobled by Venice, that could be
verified. However it may be that it is only the painter who is Venetian,
giving his origin at the end. Chiappini does say that the painter is
Venetian. <br />
<br />
I wonder at the spelling "VENETIAN". Is that really in
good Venetian? Wouldn't it be "Veneziano" or "Venetiano" (given that
the Latin has a T, and the word "Veneto" for the region controled by
Venice)? But perhaps the "o" could be dropped. <br />
<br />
Another problem
is that the "solution" has two more letters than the original, an extra V
and N. So instead of "VENETIAN" we have "EETIAN". But that still
doesn't look much like "Venetiano". <br />
<br />
I continue. In one case, a
Rino Fieschi married a Genoese noblewoman named Tommasina Spinola, or
Masina Spinola for short. Hence the "M S" painted on several of the
cards. The two crests on the cards, Chiappini says, match those of the
two families:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
Lo stemma degli
Spinola è d’oro con riquadri mediani in rosso e argento, gli stessi
colori che ritroviamo sulle carte, con la variazione della fascia
attraversante che appartiene allo stemma dei Fieschi.<br />
<br />
The crest
of the Spinola is golden with median squares in red and silver, the same
colors that are found on the cards, with the variation of the band
across belonging to the crest of the Fieschi.</div>
</blockquote>
This
marriage was in 1584, which fits the late date Chiappini estimates for
the deck. But what to make of the "ANNO AB URBE CODITA MLXX" on the
BOCHO card. Well, it is decoded as:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
XX ABBIAM DE L’ANNO TURCO.</div>
</blockquote>
In
other words, 20 years after the year of the Turks. That would be the
battle of Lepanto of 1571, in which the alliance of Genoa, Venice, and
Spain defeated the Turks. So the deck is not 1491, as others think, but
actually 1591, exactly 100 years later.<br />
<br />
He has no comments on the
other painted inscriptions. Instead he moves on to the engraved
inscriptions, shared by other engraved examples of individual cards.
What anagrams may reveal information there?<br />
<br />
First, he notes that
in the suit of Cups, there are the inscriptions NATANABO on the Knight,
POLISENA on the Queen and LUCIO CECILIO R. on the King. If these are
combined we have an anagram for:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
L’OCIO LUCICA PIANTO A L’INSANO BERE</div>
</blockquote>
which
is a warning to observe moderation in drinking as in the rest of life, a
moral instruction related to the suit object. He notes that a Fool card
described by Cicognara, in a deck now lost, had him drinking from a jug
labeled "MUSCATELLO". That label could be an anagram for "“Mescolal
tu”, comparing the craziness of the game to the loss of reasoning
ability from wine. (The word "mescola" means "mixed"; I cannot find a
comparable word with an "l" added.) I would think that the implication
was there even without supposing an anagram. Chiappini does not have any
comparable examples for the other suits. One is apparently enough to
demonstrate the point.<br />
<br />
In addition, there are two engraved inscriptions on the trumps:<br />
<blockquote class="uncited">
<div>
- "SC" on the chariot of the Triumph DEO TAURO (VII) and the flag on top of the pole on the Triumph METELO (XV).<br />
- "SPQR" (Senatus Populusque Romanus) on the quiver of the Triumph CARBONE (XII)</div>
</blockquote>
He
says that the second of these is related to the historical figure
represented on the card, something he explains in the book. As to the
other, SC, he disagrees with the usual interpretation, proposed by Hind,
that it means "Senatus Consultus", because it does not explain the
inverted ivy leaf that surrounds the letters on the chariot of DEO
TAURO. He proposes instead that they denote "BUSCA", which of course is
the name of one of the two families associated with the deck. The Busca
in mid-16th century were located in Pavia and Milan. He suggests that
the upside down ivy leaf was an old crest of that family. The reasoning
is that the Busca were originally, from the 12th century, lords of
Cossano Belbo in Piedmont, and even today the crest of that town is an
inverted ivy leaf, with the letters "CB" rather than "SC". So likely in
the mid-16th century the ivy leaf with "SC" was still a crest of that
family. That family commissioned the engravings and later got possession
of the painted deck.<br />
<br />
I hope I have represented Chiappini's short essay correctly. It is certainly an ingenious set of ideas.Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-49067760223601711122015-07-23T16:39:00.000-07:002015-07-23T16:39:12.019-07:00part 9Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3533073281562436859.post-475246174513967292015-07-23T16:38:00.004-07:002015-07-23T16:38:33.271-07:00Part 10Michael S Howardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06488567669455421279noreply@blogger.com0