mikeh wrote: 03 Apr 2023, 09:56 It might be possible to locate the appropriati's origin by the terms used, which sometimes vary from the standard. Instead of the usual "Sagitta" or "Saetta" for the Tower card, we see "Sagieta." In the stanza itself the spelling is "Saetta," typical for Bologna and Florence but not Ferrara. We have "Demonio" as the title of the Devil stanza, but "Diavolo" in the stanza itself; neither is helpful in locating the place. The "Vecchio" (Old Man) is "Tempo" in the stanza, a practice seen in Bologna but also elsewhere. "Rota" is "Ruota" in the stanza, neither of much help. Instead of "Fortezza" we have "Forza," as is usual in Bologna for that subject. The other virtues are "Iusticia" and "Temperanza," not the usual names in Bologna, but they do occur. Finally, "Bagattin" is typical of Bologna but is also seen in Ferrara. In the stanza itself, the poet has the verb "bagatelar," suggesting a familiarity with the Ferrarese "bagatella."

From a brief google books search I found the abbreviated form of "Mōdo" quite ubiquitous, but "ch’il Mōdo" gave only 5 hits, most of which with authors with some connections to the Ferrarese court of the d'Este. A search on the spelling "spenachiar" gave me only two hits, one a 17th-century Canzoni by a Venetian author, the other in the poem I translated in the previous post* by Paride da Ceresara from the court of Isabella d'Este, but one can hardly make a judgment of what may have been a simple spelling error rather than a regional variation.

*To which I have edited to add translations for the related verses on the World, Angel, Lightning, Traitor, Temperance, Love & the Juggler.

mikeh wrote: 03 Apr 2023, 09:56
Another difficulty is that the order of the virtues in this new appropriati is that invariably reported in Florence, with Justice high, Fortitude middle, and Temperance low, whereas that of Bologna has Fortitude high and Justice middle. We might recall here that the Rosenwald has Fortitude and Justice with precisely the same number, although the order on the page suggests Fortitude high.

The virtues are together in the sequence Temperance, Fortitude & Justice in the Sicilian Tarot [although they vary in position in relation to Love and The Chariot in this case], and the 14th trump in that is "The Ship": an interesting coincidence with the reference to the Ship in the 14th Trump Demonio:

Trump 14 DEMONIO

SECOND PART:

Contra di voi, lo ſpirito malegno,
Non ſumerſſe la Naue, eſſendo importo
Però l’honor’, non e da voi diuiſo,
Che a longo andar haurete il paradiſo.

[lit., trans]
Against you, the evil spirit,
Submerges not the Ship, an amount
Since of honour, it is not by you divided,
That in the long go[ing] you will have paradise.

In the case of our poet of course, the unsunken Ship is simply a metaphor for the Triumph of Virtue over Vice, more specifically, the unflooded vessel is a euphemistic idiom for Chastity [and its Triumph over Eros] : the evil-minded fail to 'flood her vessel', for she has set her course to heaven and is not willing to 'share her honour' with anyone, or at least, this portion of it.

DEMONIO

The devil, with art and wit,
Has not the strength to do you an outrage or wrong,
But you break his designs with deeds,
By living honestly, speaking well and knowingly,
Against you, no evil spirit
Can flood the Vessel, as this portion
Of honour, you do not share,
So that in the long run, you will get to paradise.