LE SPADE (Swords)
It is apparent that the suit of Swords heralds the Triumph of Eternity in which Justice shines, but as do all the suits it also points to the preceding Triumph of Death, of which the sword is the instrument.
In this suit even the Queen wears armor, and the King is the only one of the four suit Kings to have his shield beside him. It is no mere jousting shield either, but a shield to be used in war, for which he is ready at any moment.
The Knight and the Page wear great hats of peacock feathers. Though Justice is sometimes represented as blindfolded, she is also Argus-eyed like the peacock in her efforts to hunt out injustices.
The device of the shield, party per pale, on the caparison of the Knight's horse, shows that the suits of Swords and Coins echo each other, for we find this same shield on the Ace of Coins.
The King's shield has the device of a lion, haloed and bearing a book, which is doubtless the Judgment Day book,
as the hymn Dies Irae says.exactly worded,
Wherein all hath been recorded.
Thence shall judgment be awarded,
NOTES LE SPADE
Swords is a masculine suit; the Ten is highest of the common cards.
Note that the Three of Swords is lost.
[start p. 106]
The wicked having been safely isolated in Hell, the remaining good and godly people can enjoy the triumph of Eternity. It is appropriate that the Star comes immediately after Hell. Those who know their Dante will remember that at the end of the Inferno he and Virgil emerged from the depths of Hell to see the stars in the upper air, and that the last line of each of the three books of the Divina Commedia ends with the word "stelle."
In a manuscript called De Sphaera, illuminated for Francesco Sforza at about the same time as these cards, the influences of the planets are described in these verses:
Venus, according to legend, was an ancestress of the Visconti family through her marriage to Anchises, the father of Aeneas, who was believed to be the original ancestor of the Visconti.)Saturn produces sluggish and wicked men,
Robbers, liars, and assassins,
Peasant boors with no light,
Shepherds, limpers, and wretches of that sort.
Benign is Jupiter, and a planet of power,
He produces mathematicians and doctors,
Theologians and great scholars, and he does not prevent
Any gentle affair nor great honors.
Warlike Mars always inflames the mind,
He turns men to war and violence,
Now to this, now to that, and his raging is never sated,
When he gets something, he only wants More.
Gracious Venus by her ardor
Kindles gentle hearts, wherefore in singing
And dancing and beautiful festivals for love,
She leads them on with her delightful glances.
[start p. 107]
Mercury, star of clear reason
Produces a great fountain of eloquence,
Subtle craftsmanship and every fine art,
And he is enemy of every vain affair.
The other two planets, the Moon and the Sun, are also described in De Sphaera, and their verses will be found in connection with the description of the two trumps of the same names.
NOTES LA STELLA
The De Sphaera (listed in my bibliography under "Reale Biblioteca Estense, Modena," the institution which owns the original manuscript) reflects the astronomy of Sforza's day, as it had prevailed since the time of Aristotle. These theories were just about to yield to the work done by Regiomontanus, who lived at this time. He and other astronomers revived the practice of actually observing the heavens instead of merely theorizing about them.
The astrological ideas of the De Sphaera were still taken quite seriously by most people, though the astronomers themselves were beginning to be skeptical. Astrology was taught at universities. When Lorenzo de' Medici reestablished the University of Pisa in 1472-73, astrology was at first omitted from the curriculum, but had to be added because of student demand (Thorndike, History IV 435)
Venus is shown being married to Anchises by Jupiter in a manuscript listing the fabulous Visconti genealogy. A footnote to Filelfo's "La Vita del Sanctissimo Johanni Battista" addressed "al gloriosissimo Prencepe Filippo Maria Anglo" (Filelfo, Prose, p 46), explains that this title was given to Filippo Maria Visconti because Anglo, the supposed son of Aeneas and founder of Angera [sic] (Latin: Angleria) was believed to be the original ancestor of the Courts of Angleria, and then of the Visconti. The first Duke of Milan, Gian Galeazzo Visconti, assumed the title of Duke of Agleria in 1392, and bequeathed it to his sons, and thenceforth the title was always born by the eldest son of the reigning house.
The supposed planetary influences in the De Sphaera are based on the idea that each planet was associated with one or two signs of the Zodiac, known as its “houses." For Saturn these were Aquarius in the daytime and Capricorn at night. For Jupiter they were Sagittarius in the daytime and Pisces at night. Mars's houses were Arises and Scorpio; Venus Libra and Taurus (that is why she is sometimes shown with a balance; cf Seznec, Survival, p 204-205, fig 85 and 87); Mercury's Gemini and Virgo. The Sun had only one house, Leo, for the twenty-four hours, and the Moon also had only one, Cancer. The original text of the planetary verses is as follows:
The translation is mine.Satumo huomini tar& et rei produce
Rubbaduri et buxiardi et assasini
Villani et vili at senza alcuna lute
Pastori et zoppi simili meschini.
Benegno a love et de virtu planeta
Produce mathematici et doctori
Theologi et gran savij, ne divieta
Alcuna gentil cosa o gran& honori.
II bellicose Marte sempre inflame
Li animi alteri al guerreggiare et sforza
Hor questo hor quello, ne satia.sua brama
In l'acquistar, ma piix sempre rinforza.
II Sole ad honor l'uhomo et gloria sprona
Et d'ogni leggiadria si dilecta,
Di .sapienza Porta la corona
Et di religion produce secta.
La graziosa Vener del suo ardore
Accende i cuor gentili onde in eantare
Et danze et vaghe feste per amore
L'induce col suave vagheggiare.
Mercurio di ragion lucida stella
Produce deloquenza gran fontana
Subtili ingiegno et ciaschunarte bella
Et e nimico dogni cosa vana.
La Luna al navigar molto conforta
Et in peschare at ucellare et caccia,
A tuti i suoi figIiuoli apre la porta
Et anche al solazzare the ad altri piaccia.
[start p. 108]
The Moon triumphs over the Star because she is bigger and brighter. Sforza's De Sphaera manuscript says of her:
Here it is the goddess Diana who holds up the crescent moon in one hand, while in the other she carries a broken bow in her characterization as huntress. The broken bow is a sign of her defeat, for she, like the Star and the Sun, is a captive in the triumph of Eternity. In the timelessness of eternity, the heavenly bodies are no longer needed as the measurers of time. That is why, in the illustrations of Petrarch's Triumph of Eternity, the sun and moon often appear in the sky as sad faces.The Moon greatly cheers the sailor,
And in fishing, fowling, and the chase
To all her children she opens the door,
Also to entertainment and other pleasures.
The Triumph of Time, in Petrarch's poem, immediately precedes the Triumph of Eternity, so the triumph of Eternity over Time is represented by the sadness of these servants of Time. The Moon was called Luna when she shines in heaven, and Proserpina when she is below. The poets say she was the daughter of Hyperion and sister of the Sun. According to Ovid her car had two wheels and was drawn by two horses, one black and one white.
NOTES LA LUNA
The disconsolate faces of the sun and moon appear in illustrations of Petrarch's Triumph of Eternity. See Massena (Petrarque), passim, also Bulletin of The New York Public Library, Lx (Feb 1956), whose frontispiece reproduces two miniatures from the Library's fifteenth-century ms copy of Petrarch's Rime, showing the Triumph of Cupid and the Triumph of. Eternity.
The names, ancestry, etc of the Moon are taken from Ambrogio Calepino's dictionary, art. "Luna." Calepino was born at Bergamo in 1435. The New York Public Library has a Latin-Japanese dictionary based on one compiled originally by him. In the light of the recent interest in Zen the following definition in that dictionary is of interest: "Meditatio, -onis. Consideratio Xian, cufti ." "Xian" probably approximates the sixteenth-century pronunciation of "Zen."
XVIII IL SOLE (The Sun)
The Sun, in the form of a ruddy human head, is held aloft by a winged putto. He triumphs over the Moon, yet he too is one of the captives who repre-sent the triumph of Eternity over Time. The De Sphaera says of him:
The sun was one of the favorite heraldic devices of the Visconti and the Sforza families. In illuminated manuscripts its rays often shine out from the borders of miniatures, and the sun itself is repeated again and again as a device. In allusion to this, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza later adopted the eclipse of the sun as one of his devices, This occurred when Pope Alexander VI proved ungrateful for Ascanio's help and became his greatest enemy. As an accompanying motto Ascanio chose: Totum adimit quo ingrata refulget (It takes all away from him by whom, ungrateful, it shines).The Sun spurs man on to honor and glory,
And delights in all comeliness,
Wears the crown of wisdom,
And produces sects in religion.
The sun, like the other planets, was important in astrology. In 1434 Martin of Lausanne predicted that there would be a great catastrophe in the near future, because he had just seen three suns at once. When Constantinople fell in 1458 he considered his prediction fulfilled.
NOTES IL SOLE
For the original text of the verses from De Sphaera, see the note for trump XVI, La Stella. For Ascanio Sforza's device of the eclipse see Palliser (Historic), p 195.1 have translated the motto a little differently. For Marlin's prediction see Thorndike (History) xv 98-99.
[start p. 110]
XIX L'AGNOLO (The Angel, The Judgment)Here is the central figure in the triumph of Eternity. It is the Judgment Day; God appears in the clouds of Heaven, heralded by trumpeting angels. Francesco Sforza—and his wife Bianca Maria rise joyfully from their graves, as Heaven is their destination.
There is an insouciance about the Judgment that is commonly expressed in Italian painting of the time. In one instance, the members of the whole Colonna family,.:Including three or four past generations, are shown rising from their graves with the same cheerful alacrity. The newly dead appear in their burial clothes. The others are shown stark naked. In another painting most of the characters rise up in their bones, except. That the newly dead, in the foreground, are rising fully fleshed.
A contemporary of Sforza, Tommaso Portinari, is shown in Hans Memling's painting, "The Last Judgment." Portinari was according to some a descendant of the brother of Dante's Beatrice, and manager of a branch of the far-flung Medici Bank. In this painting he is kneeling in one pan of St Michael's scales, while his wife is beginning to sit up on the ground below, with one hand lifted to fix her hair. The happily great number of the saved is indicated by what seems to be the rather bored, but polite greetings of the angels who are ushering them into Heaven. The angels are handing out new clothes to each naked entrant, and appear to be saying "Step lively, please!" On the other side of the painting fireproof devils are goading the damned into Hell. Of course, we may be sure those people are nobody with whom we would care to associate.
NOTES L'AGNOLO
The first of the paintings described in the second paragraph is reproduced in Litta (Famiglie) m pt 2, fasc (37?] (Colonna family). The painter was Pietro cla Cortona. The tombs from which the family are rising each bears its occupant's name, and the tomb of Christ is shown among them. Christ Himself floats joyfully in the air, while an angel points to a scroll on His tomb which says: "He is risen; He is not here."
The second painting {the dead rising in their bones) is reproduced in Enci ital near the article "Ciudizio universale."
Portinari is identified as the occupant of St Michael's
[start p. 111]
scales in De Roover (Medici), pl facing p 3o; and as a descendant of Beatrice's brother, [/i]ibid[/i] p 13 note 33.
XX LA JUSTICIA (Justice)Justice is the third of the four cardinal virtues to appear as one of the trumps. Since Prudence, the fourth virtue, does not appear at all, we are presumably meant to assume that Justice is the highest and most important of the four. Certainly she is the appropriate virtue to appear at the Last Judgment.
The Sforza family, when they looked at this card, might well have remembered what Filelfo had said about Justice: "Euripides ... writes in one of his tragedies, about Justice among the other virtues, being no less marvelous than the morning star or than Diana." On another occasion this same Filelfo, whose patrons had been the Visconti, the Medici, and the Sforza, had also apostrophized Justice in these words:
NOTES LA JUSTICIAArise, Justice, may Astraea now arise,
Who with her rays fostereth every virtue
And maketh every wrong to fail.
Let her thwart the plottings .of the guilty throng.
She is that royal and great goddess
By whom cities and empires are preserved in pride;
Without her no kingdom can long endure.
This is she who makes them all secure.
Filelfo's citation of Euripides is in his Prose, p 40-44: "Euripide ... scrive in una sua tragedia, di giustizia, intra le altre vista, non essere meno meravighosa che sia la stella mattutina ovvero diana." The verses are in p 7-12:
This is from his "Canzone morale" dated at Florence, Nov 13 1431. The translations are mine.Surgi, Giustizia, surga quella Astrea,
c'avanza ogni virtu colli suo' caggi,
e faccia c'ogni ingiuxia presto caggi,
rompa la trama d'esta turba rea.
Questa a quella reale e magna dea
per cui cita e iraperi si conservano alteri;
e senza questa niuno regno dura:
questa a colei che ciascun asicura.
[start p. 112]
XXI IL MONDO (The World) Two putti hold up an image of the World. It is the "new heaven and new earth" in the midst of which is the Heavenly Jerusalem, where Francesco and Bianca Sforza are literally to live happily for ever after, with all the redeemed.
In the excitement of viewing the participants we have almost lost sight of the main purpose of this procession, which was to take King Carnival to his execution. We find now that somehow or other his death has quietly been accomplished — perhaps he is hinted at in the down-and-outer of the Fortune card or in the old man who is rising from the grave along with Francesco and Bianca at the Last Judgment.
In any event, the World remained a favorite subject for triumphal processions, even quite late in the Renaissance. In 1672, in a great open court near the Este Castle in Ferrara, a Triumph of the World was performed in carrousel style. Rows of men on foot alternated with rows of horsemen preceding the triumphal car at the end of the procession, on which there was a great globe with an allegorical figure mounted on top.
In the tarocchi the World is the climax of the whole procession. In an actual procession it would be accompanied by a gorgeous display of fireworks, begun with the appearance of the Star and becoming increasingly more splendid. In later times a balloon might be sent up, as a grand finale to represent the ascent of Carnival's soul into Heaven. One can imagine a cry of mixed rejoicing and regret as the spectators started home, perhaps to dream of next year's Carnival.
NOTES IL MONDO
The Triumph of the World performed at Ferrara in 1672 may be seen in Enci spett art "Ferrara," tav XXIV. It was managed by Borso Bonacossi, the verses were by Francesco Berni, and the scenery and "machines" were by Carlo Pasetti.
The balloon representing Carnival's soul was used in a Carnival at Rome in 1891. See the description of the last day of Carnival in Carnival of Rome (Rome? 1891?). (Balloons are an 18th-century invention.)
[start p. 113]
IL MATTO
(The Fool) The Fool is never numbered. He is not one of the trumps but rather, their worst enemy. During the entire time the procession has been moving he has been threatening it with the club he carries. In fact, one can see him running alongside the great cars and brandishing his club at the gayest of the riders The seven feathers in his hair, and the ragged penitential garments which he wears, show that he is the personification of Lent, which puts an end to the Carnival season. According to custom, one of his feathers will be pulled out at the end of each week in Lent. The figure of Lent himself will be destroyed in effigy on Holy Saturday when the fast ends. But now he is on the point of claiming his seven-week kingship. "Just wait until tomorrow!" he has been saying to the gay knights and ladies of the tarocchi. Into the fire with all of you cards then!" And so it would be. A good Ash Wednesday sermon would send people enthusiastically home to bring out cards, gaming boards, and false hair to be burned in the "bonfire of the vanities."
It only added to the fun and fascination of Carnival to have Lent threatening it, and people enjoyed the antics of the Fool so much that in time they forgot he was the spirit of Lent. Then the Popess became Lady Lent, as we see in Breughel's famous painting, "The Battle Between Carnival and Lent," and the Fool was looked upon as the Carnival King himself. In later versions of the tarocchi we can see how he became now the double of the oId Carnival King, and then his supplanter. In some packs the first of the trumps and the Fool are both shown as Harlequins. In others the second of the trumps, instead of representing the Popess, shows the Spanish Captain Fracasse. The Captain is dressed rather like the old King, our Bagatino, and he is the special enemy of the first trump, though people have long since forgotten the reason. It is still a Carnival tradition that the Carnival King who wears the white clothes typical of the clown, is the special enemy of some character dressed in red such as the Spanish Captain or Bagatino. This happens too in the commedia dell’arte which, we believe, grew out of the Carnival buffooneries. The Fool also is the forerunner of the Joker in today's bridge cards.
[start p. 114]
The Joker or Fool fascinates most of us even more than the prince and princess. He is the successful outsider, the man who has escaped from the demands of society, and no longer attempts to dress or act to please it. He is the prince above all princes, who dares to do as he pleases. Tramps and bums in general fascinate us for this reason. The child in us who would like to defy convention and avoid responsibility envies these men who dare to go about with dirty faces and ragged, dirty clothes. So the Fool, who has no place in the pack, in a sense reigns above it as its ruler.
NOTES IL MATTO
In modern tarocchi and tarot packs the Fool is sometimes assigned the number zero. The minchiate have several unnumbered cards (the Fool and those representing the triumph of eternity), the thought apparently being that it is Lent plus eternity which is to put to flight the procession of triumphs.
There is an Italian saying, "Esser come it Matto ne' tarocchi," "To be like the Fool in the tarocchi," that is, to be welcome everywhere (cf Alfred Hoare, An Italian Dictionary (Cambridge, University Press 1915) art "Matto"). This, and the fact that the Fool has no special rank among the trumps, inspires my idea that he is to be imagined as running about here and there through the whole procession. The rules for the play of the game point to this, too. Together with the first and last of the trumps, the Fool counts as one of the special "Tarot trumps" in calculating the value of one's hand. But in actual play he can take nothing, and his only value is that he may be played at any time instead of following suit, so as to save a valuable card. If he is taken in a trick, he counts for nothing. As soon as I saw the Fool at the Morgan Library, I noticed the feathers in his hair, and remembered having read that in parts of Italy Lent is represented by a figure with seven feathers attached like legs, which are pulled out one by one as the weeks of Lent pass. I knew it was either in Frazer's Golden Bough or in Frances Toor's Festivals and Folkways of Italy that I had seen this, so I went home and searched through both books without finding it. Surely I had not invented the story! But I almost thought I did until it occurred to me to look in the unabridged Golden Bough, and there it was: pt III "The Dying God" (London 1952) p 244-245). [This is online at https://books.google.com/books?id=dQdph ... rs&f=false]
In Milan Carnival actually lasted through the first Sunday in Lent.
For tarocchi sets in which the Fool has become the Carnival King see the British Museum catalogs of playing cards, especially the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Flemish, German, and Austrian tarocchi.
Clowns became more and more a feature of the Carnival in from 1461 to 1607 (cf Molmenti I pt 2, p 76). One type was called the Mattacino, Mattello, or Matterello. A very common dress for the clown has always been the plain white or ragged dress which is the special mark of the penitent (it is odd that the writers on these clowns have not noticed this), as we see him in the "De Sphaera" ms. made for Francesco Sforza about the same time as our tarocchi, in the part devoted to the influence of the planet Saturn. Here the penitent is a condemned criminal being prepared for death by a hooded brotherhood. He wears a white shirt and drawers (one remembers how often in the Middle Ages and renaissance public penance was performed in shirt and drawers, carrying a candle). It is for this reason that the month of March is often represented by a ragged or white-clad penitent, as in the Schifanoia "Months" at Ferrara (Ancona's suggestion that this figure represents Perseus seems too far-fetched to me). In a mosaic shown in Ancona (Uomo) tav. XXXVII, representing the year and the months at San Michele, Pavia, March has the feathers and blows two horns to represent the winds of that month. An engraving which is probably Ferrarese, about 1470-80, is shown in Hind (Early) iv pl 426. Here March has ragged stockings and a bare toe sticking out of one shoe. A legend has him saying:
which apparently means something like this; "I am March who has no mouthful of meat to eat; I can't be a good fellow, living on morona (whatever that is — but not good), spinach, and cress. . . ."Io som Mazzo che carne no mazo bocone
p no psso esser compagnone
Vivado de morona, spinaze e gabareli
Cauiaro tonina port e burateli.
The association of Lent & March is also in Rabelais, bk. 5; beginning of ch. 29. In Hind's Early Italian Engraving there are several early tarocchi Fools: the tarocchi doubtfully ascribed to Nicoletto da Modena (v 139ff) have a Matto who is drunk, lying on the ground with his legs in the air and supporting a jug inscribed "Muscatello." The Sola-Busca tarocchi (iv pl 370 ff) have a Matto playing a bagpipe, and with feathers in his hat. Plate 573 is "El mato" by Zoan Andrea — a naked man, kneeling, with a wreath in his hand.
[start p. 315]
The association of feathers with folly goes back at least to Giotto's time, for we find in the Cappella dell'Arena at Padua, which Giotto began to decorate about 1306, the vice of Folly depicted as a woman with a feather headdress a little like an American Indian's, but with the feathers more widely spaced. She is bare-legged, and her dress has a scalloped or ragged hem which is above her knees in front and trails down to the floor in back. She appears to be pregnant, and has a braided girdle. This figure is reproduced in Ancona (Uomo), tav XXI, b.
There is a suggestion that Carnival clowns known as Matto or Mattello were especially connected with the mockery of religion, in Malaguzzi-Valeri (Corte 563) who says that the buffoni Diodato, Galasso, Fritella, and Mattello, were highly esteemed at Mantua, and that Mattello was disguised as a friar and burlesqued religious ceremonies.
Even today in Italy there persists the tradition that the white-clad clown-penitent is the natural enemy of a man dressed in red like our Bagatino or the Spanish Captain. In L'Italia dei poveri, by Giovanni Russo (Milano, Longanesi 1958) p. 141-143, the author tells of seeing in Rome, during Carnival time, the impromptu dance of a Pulcinella in white and a young man dressed in a red uniform and visored cap and brandishing a club.
[Scan of Moakley pp. 106-107 (Stelle and notes): https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V-6BKqdzzps/ ... ge-004.jpg
Scan of Moakley pp. 108-109 (Luna, Sole with notes): https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i6THRGiukU8/ ... ge-005.jpg
Scan of Moakley pp. 110-111 (Agnolo and Justicia, with notes): https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3TbxW1daLvs/ ... ge-006.jpg
Scan of Moakley pp. 112-113 (Mondo and notes, Matto): https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i1o_DasNQME/ ... ge-007.jpg]
Scan of pp. 114-115 (Matto Notes): https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rfcEIMimKfY/ ... ge-008.jpg
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