Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

91
The Rosenwald sheet as a transition to the “Papi”?

I noticed something odd when looking at the Rosenwald sheet – the otherwise standard Angel/Judgement has what appears to be an abbreviated Visconti-Sforza impresa on the face of what should be a sepulcher from which the dead are rising – the "capitergium." This version of the capitergium especially matches the version captured as part of the spoils by the Swiss in their 1478 victory over Gian Galeazzo Sforza’s 6,000 troops by 500 Swiss at the Battle of Giornico to shut off the Gotthard pass; this particular capitergium is now in Lucene’s history museum. Filippo, by contrast, usually showed a dove within the knotted cloth, but here the same cartoonish face surrounded by the same Sforza nebuly pattern shown on both:

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What does this mean if anything? If already explained away, I’m all ears.

I’m not sure of what arguments have been made for the Rosenwald sheet as somehow attesting to the Papi, but the odd details on the pope there can be related to the capitergium on the Judgement trump, where the two longing flowing ends or “nocks” have been cut off – likewise the pope does not have these, usually part of his vestments and papal crown. Capitergium is supposedly derived from "caput tergere", perhaps originally indicating a band used to protect the face from sweat. In Milan it is commonly called "gassa". It is the serto or infula of the ancient rulers; conferred in royal and episcopal investitures, it is a confirmation of sovereign powers, their priestly status and their universality. In the case of Giangaleazzo’s coronation, the imperial lieutenant placed the cloak and ducal cap as well as a capitergium sprinkled with gems worth 200,000 gold florins. I’ve also seen the term “diviax imperatoris” associated with the Milan version, but I’ve no good primary sources for any of this (just online Sforza stemmi articles).

As for the pope – why is he not wearing the papal version of the capitergium? Like on a bishop's mitre, these are lappets (in Latin are called caudae or infulae), when on a papal tiara the two lappets are attached to the back, a pair of streamers attached at the rear of the tiara. Compare a later tarot pope with the lappets versus the Rosenwald "Papi", the pope being the first in the papi sequence:

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Moreover, the Pope seemingly holds no attributes, just folded hands (not clear, it is badly printed or somewhat abraded off here) – instead the long-haired “Popess” unusually holds the Keys of St. Peters along with her normal attribute of the book.

The date of the sheet is unknown – anywhere from the late 15th to early 16th century. Is there a historical incident that would explain a reference to both the Sforza impresa and the pope in a less than positive light within that time period?

Why was the Sforza shield brought into battle at all events? Was it associated with divine power being present, like the French oriflamme (a red banner carried into battle in which no quarter was supposed to be given)? The blessing of the oriflamme at King Charles V of Frances investiture, showing such symbols meant a great deal to the French monarchy:
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It must have meant something to whomever designed this card to place it on the grave in the Judgement card. The question is whether Sforza is being judged.

Interestingly, early on in the Italian Wars there are a series of battles between the French and Maximilian/Massimiliano Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1512–1515 between the occupations of Louis XII of France (1500–1512), and Francis I of France in 1515. The Papal role of providing the Swiss mercenaries that retook Milan is made clear by this heraldic engraving made for Pope Julius II (d. 1513) in 1511, showing standard bearers with the blessed rapier, and papal cap called the berrettone (with Holy Ghost dove embroidered onto it), that were papal gifts to the Swiss Confederation in that year. Following the French removal from Milan, Swiss mercenaries installed Maximilian Sforza as Duke of Milan on 29 December 1512 (and then sold him out in 1515).

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(from: http://www.armigeridelpiave.it/SELEZIONI/Stocco.pdf )


After the French victory at the Battle of Marignano, Maximilian was imprisoned by the returning French troops. Maximilian was Holy Roman Emperor Charles V’s imperial puppet, with his main power being the Swiss along with allied Papal contingents. So if a Milanese or Swiss production it would seem to celebrate securing Milan against the French, but that begs the question as to why the Pope is not shown in all his papal regalia with complete tiara. If a French production, the pope might be seen as inferior in light of lost papal prerogatives, France always considering herself the most religious of all European countries (see Pizan's ravings on this point, for instance) and especially embodied in 'Our Lady' - Notre Dame (lending itself to Ecclesia) The religious ramifications of the early Italian Wars in this period might explain all of this:

The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by King Charles VII of France, on 7 July 1438, required a General Church Council, with authority superior to that of the papacy, to be held every ten years, required election rather than appointment to ecclesiastical offices, prohibited the pope from bestowing and profiting from benefices, and forbade appeals to the Roman Curia from places further than two days' journey from Rome. The Pragmatic Sanction further stipulated that interdict could not be placed on cities unless the entire community was culpable.[1] The king accepted many of the decrees of the Council of Basel without endorsing its efforts to coerce Pope Eugene IV.

The Gallican church, in the eyes of some, declared administrative independence from the church in Rome, suppressed the payment of annates to Rome and forbade papal intervention in the appointment of French prelates. While this resulted in a loss of papal power in France, the movement of conciliarists itself was divided. In 1449, the Council of Basel was dissolved, and the Concilliar Movement suffered a nearly fatal blow.

The popes, especially Pius II, lobbied for the repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction, and the French crown used promises of repeal as an inducement to the papacy to embrace policies favoring its interests, especially its military campaigns in the Italian peninsula.[2] The Pragmatic Sanction was eventually superseded by agreements made between the French crown and Rome, especially the 1516 Concordat of Bologna.

In 1515, Francis met with Pope Leo X in Bologna.[11] This Concordat resulted in the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges being repealed, and Francis gained the power to select French bishops.[11]


If the Sforzan capitergium was carried into battle – and it quite obviously was in some capacity in 1478 – its truncated appearance on the Judgement card following the ouster of the Sforza from Milan in 1515 must mean “you’ve been judged”, negatively of course. The transference of the papal keys to the Ecclesia figure in celebration of the French king's confirmed right to appoint French prelates, and the judgement of the defeated Maximilian the triumph being what was primarily celebrated.

Thoughts?
Phaeded

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

92
For the Rosenwald cards we have, that the figures 2-3-4-5 together with the 1 Fool-Pagat make good logical "5 Papi group" ... in contrast to the later Minchiate standard with 5 Love and 4-3-2 rulers and 1 Pagat, which looks like a later corruption of the basic idea.

In the PMB of the first artist we have the same 5 figures (2-3-4-5 plus Pagat). The Pagat in this case has small symbols of the 4 suits on his table ...
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A cup for cups, a stick for batons, coins for coins and a knife for swords. It would be natural, if these 4 suits were correlated to the 4 numbers 2-3-4-5. And these numbers were also correlated to Kings (5 points), Queens (4 points), Knights (3 points) and Pages (2 points).
Well, old stuff. Already present at http://trionfi.com/0/f/11/
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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mikeh wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 04:27 Phaeded wrote
The date of the sheet is unknown – anywhere from the late 15th to early 16th century.
On the Rosenwald Sheet, see Pratesi at http://www.naibi.net/A/516-ROSEN3-Z.pdf, which I have translated at https://pratesitranslations.blogspot.co ... rugia.html.

Pratesi doesn't rule out my date of 1515:

In conclusion, having found 1501 as the date of origin in practice corresponds roughly to the date of use. The same goes for the location; not it is conceivable that these sheets rejected by a typography have traveled remotely before being used; this would have been possible for pages of a finished book, but not for processing residues; so the sheets were glued to the third Rosenwald sheet close to time and al 14 place of production, Perugia 1501. Based on what we have known on the fate of this edition, we can also assume that these processing leftovers had been kept in store for the production of further copies of the book that did not come due to the legal issues then ultimate; in this case, the relative dating could extend up to to 1515; what is certain is that the date could not precede 1501 if not possibly a few months, necessary for completion of the book layout. (13-14 - Google translation)

No thoughts on what I've identified as the Visconti-Sforza capitergium impresa on the Judgement trump tomb?

Phaeded

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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There were in the discussions also the 48 Assissi cards and considerations, that a Rosenwald deck was already produced c. 1465, based on the observation, that the type Magician-Fool (with Magician table and Fool's cap) in the Rosenwald appeared as a motif c. early 1460s. Also considerations, that the Rosenwald printing blocks were used for decks with 48 - 69/72 - 96 cards. Generally the observation, that dating the deck is difficult, cause the deck type appeared at different locations and different times.
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http://trionfi.com/rosenwald-tarocchi-sheet
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1105&p=18118&hilit=assissi#p17049
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1105&p=18118&hilit=assissi#p18118
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1105&hilit=assissi&start=20#p18369
... and other places
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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Phaeded wrote,
Pratesi doesn't rule out my date of 1515:
I was only responding to your suggestion that it might be before 1500. But now that you mention it, 1515 was the furthest Pratesi would go. To suppose that somebody in Perugia was doing a common woodcut deck to reflect something in Milan that same year, the defeat of the Emperor's puppet, is pushing it. That the French would be sponsoring an A order deck probably made in Perugia (see again Pratesi) is also pushing it. That was in the Imperial/Papal ambit, I thought.

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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mikeh wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 04:27 Phaeded wrote
The date of the sheet is unknown – anywhere from the late 15th to early 16th century.
On the Rosenwald Sheet, see Pratesi at http://www.naibi.net/A/516-ROSEN3-Z.pdf, which I have translated at https://pratesitranslations.blogspot.co ... rugia.html.
These don't appear to be the same articles (but related subjects), however the second one in your translation makes me question Pratesi's terminus ante quem of 1515 which is when Cartolari's printing shop closed (the printer of the filler used to make the Rosenwald cards). Cartolari does not seem to be definitely identified as a card maker and any other printer could have acquired the misprints for that purpose. Pratesi does identify Bianchino "dal Leone" Bernardi as a Perugian card-maker, opening shop in 1508 or 1513 (both dates are given) and thus in a position to buy out the remainder stock (inclusive of misprints) from Cartolari when he closed shop in 1515. Moreover, Pratesi cites a source mentioned by DePaulis that indicates card-printing didn't even exist in the years prior to 1508 (although I'll clear up an apparent temporal inconsistency below):

(p. 12) From [Bianchino's] house, coming in 1513, was seen hanging the sign of a lion, putting its right front leg armed with a sword above a mound of books. The guardian of the beast had become a typographer, and his printed volumes, including some in which certain literary curiosities take first place, on religious or erotic subjects, with said embossed at the lion. To the craft of printing books was mated another, of binding them, and because he sold well-painted cards, the art of the painters taxed him five soldi each semester. ... It is only around 1525 that the work fades until after 27 there is nothing. (17)
(p. 13) ....but at the fair in Foligno he plausibly sold his playing cards. That these really were the products is demonstrated from another source, reported to me by Depaulis in a comment recalled:
Again according to Toaff, but in his book Il vino e la carne: una comunità ebraica nel Medioevo [Wine and meat: a medieval Jewish community], Bologna, 1989, p. 108 and 259), in 1508 a Jewish tavern-keeper, Vitale di Mosè, formed a company for the manufacture of playing cards (fecerunt societatem simul ad artem cartarum ad ludendum) with a (Christian) card maker from Verona, Bianchino Bernardi. This could mean that there was not, at that time, card production in Perugia ...

As for your response to me:

To suppose that somebody in Perugia was doing a common woodcut deck to reflect something in Milan that same year, the defeat of the Emperor's puppet, is pushing it. That the French would be sponsoring an A order deck probably made in Perugia (see again Pratesi) is also pushing it. That was in the Imperial/Papal ambit, I thought. That was in the Imperial/Papal ambit, I thought.
Papal. Problematically so (the town was eventually militarily reduced in 1540 with a fortress dominating it, courtesy Pope Paul III, but previously the Baglioni were always a problem and before them Piccinino) .

I merely see the Visconti-Sforza capitergium impresa on the Judgement trump tomb and wonder why that is there in this time period. I've provided the 1511 engraved source of the Pope gifting his cap and sword to the Swiss (thus advertising this connection) who put Sforza back on the ducal throne in Milan in 1513 (the pope contributed that condotte of Swiss soldiers to the effort). So if Sforza is thrown out of Milan in 1515 it is possible that a Sforza device on the Judgment trump is an anti-papal sentiment, since Sforza is the Papal/Imperial alliance's man. The Pope's machinations in returning Sforza to Milan (similar to his constant meddling in Perugia) can then be seen as a failure celebrated via playing cards by the unruly Perugians. And why would cards be especially appropriate in Perugia?

There were card makers in Perugia already in about 1485! In 1486, after Bernardino da Feltre had passed through, the municipal authorities decided to prohibit the production of cards and dice, demanding that all the instruments intended for their manufacture be handed over to them - "forme de fare carte et omni altro instrumento de Far li carti " [forms for making cards and any other instrument for making cards].

One reasonable inference from all of this is that there is a cessation of card-making in 1486 that resumed in 1508 when the Jewish tavern owner Vitale di Mosè forms a company for the manufacture of playing cards with the Christian Bianchino Bernardi. But the main point here is that a religious zealot passing through a papal town means the papal legate enacted that regulation. So the cards were doubly "anti-papal", striking back at the earlier card-making prohibition as well as celebrating the "judgement of Milan" in 1515 (said cards to be consumed in Vitale di Mosè's taverns no doubt). So replace the French I earlier proposed with rebellious Perugia (the French were merely the agents of God's wrath in this instance).

As for the impresa you keep ignoring, the very similar faces found on the version of the shield captured in battle to that of the Judgement trump is a comparison reinforced by the checkered pattern surrounding the card's face, that to me clearly looks like an attempt to replicate the Sforza nebuly pattern one finds on the shield. If you disagree with this identification of the impresa on this pivotal card (moved to the highest trump along with the emergence of the papi), then what is it?

Phaeded

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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Phaeded wrote: 16 Jul 2020, 05:38 If you disagree with this identification of the impresa on this pivotal card (moved to the highest trump along with the emergence of the papi), then what is it?
I'd say it's just a wreath, the same as that around the World in the card next door. It's typical tomb-art.

The face in the circle is like the faces in the Moon and Sun. And faces occur in wreaths on the sides of sarcophagi too.
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Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 16 Jul 2020, 07:40
Phaeded wrote: 16 Jul 2020, 05:38 If you disagree with this identification of the impresa on this pivotal card (moved to the highest trump along with the emergence of the papi), then what is it?
I'd say it's just a wreath, the same as that around the World in the card next door. It's typical tomb-art.

The face in the circle is like the faces in the Moon and Sun. And faces occur in wreaths on the sides of sarcophagi too.

You have a c. 1500-1515 example of a wreathed sun on a tomb? Its not like there is a dearth of engravings showing such subjects (e.g., the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili).

The Visconti derived their prime impresa from the sun, increasingly so with with Filippo (e.g., the sol chariot in 1430). And again, I've argued the sun trump in the PMB is connected to Filippo's own belated "apotheosis", which you seemed to not object when juxtaposed with the Filelfo Ode.

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Even his father is in a solar nimbus:

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At all events the "wreathed" sun on the tomb bears an explanation - that is hardly standard (even for the Visconti-Sforza Judgement trumps).

Re: Problems with positing the Papi in the ur-Tarot

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Phaeded wrote: 16 Jul 2020, 21:47
The Visconti derived their prime impresa from the sun, increasingly so with with Filippo (e.g., the sol chariot in 1430). And again, I've argued the sun trump in the PMB is connected to Filippo's own belated "apotheosis", which you seemed to not object when juxtaposed with the Filelfo Ode.
Those are Visconti-Sforza cards - the interpretation, while subtle, is unobjectionable in context. I like it because it is sophisticated.

The preponderance of evidence for the Rosenwald sheet trumps is that they are from Tuscany, or central Italy in any case. And the wreath pattern is the same as on the world card. There is no indication it is a "sun," and I never said it was. The moon has a face too.

I'm pretty sure I can find an exact analogue to what you are demanding - I found a few close ones, but you demand perfection - just as you could with a few hours or days of research.

Don't neglect your weakest point - a special plea for the otherwise unattested "truncated" capitergium. The best interpretation is a head inside a wreath on a marble sarcophagus. It's not even controversial.
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