About the Cary Sheet, the distinguished medieval historian Franco Cardini (
http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_Cardini) has this to say, in his essay "I Tarocchi: strumenti da gioco e strumenti diviniatory fra 'cultura di corte' e 'cultura populare'", pp. 53-62 of
Il Ludus Triumphorum o Tarot: carte di gioco o alfabeto del distino, ed. Rossi and Li Vigni. He has just been talking about the Alberician tradition of the representations of the planets, in the tractate (Vatican Reginense 1290) attributed to "Alberico", aka Alexander Meckham (p. 61) :
Poche sono, nei tarocchi del Quattrocento, le rappresentazioni per così dire "dirette" degli dei: il che è del resto logico, poiché le divinità antiche, quando figurano nei mazzi, lo fanno essenzialmente in quanto pianeti (Marte, Mercurio, Giove, Venere, Saturno), a parte i luminaria Sole e Luna che possono a loro volta avere i connotati di Apollo e di Diana: un'eccezione semmai è costituita dai Tarocchi detti "del Mantenga"14. Ma forse il crescere e l'articolarsi della cultura ermetica dopo le celebri versioni fìciniane del Corpus compiute nel 1463 furono uno degli elementi che contribuiscono a mutare tale stato di cose, come sembra di capire dal celebre foglio Cary, xilografie cinquecentesche, dove la simbologia adottata risente di altri contributi, ad esempio forse di origine mithraistica o isiaca (il che beninteso meglio si vede nelle raffigurazioni, rispettivamente, del Sole e della Luna).
(In the fifteenth century tarot, there are few so-called "direct" representations of the gods: that is, furthermore, logical, seeing as the gods of the ancients, when they appear in packs, do so mainly in so far as they are planets (Mars , Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn), apart from the luminaries Sol and Luna, which may in turn have the characteristics of Apollo and Diana: an exception is the Tarot so-called of the "Mantegna" (14). But perhaps the growth and articulation of hermetic culture after the famous versions of the Corpus that Ficino made in 1463 were one of the factors that contribute to change this state of affairs, as the famous Cary sheet seems to understand, sixteenth-century woodcuts where the symbols used are affected by other contributions, for example, perhaps, of Mithraist or Isaic origin (which is best seen in the representations, respectively, of the Sun and the Moon).
Footnote 14 is a reference to Seznec and to C. Cieri Via's essay on the "Mantegna" in Berti and Vitali,
I Tarocchi 1987.
I would have like to have heard more, of course. The Mithraic influence, I take it, is from the two boys that stand underneath the Sun god in the Mithraic reliefs, one of whom has a raised torch. For the Cary Sheet, I assume Cardini is implying, a torch changes to a flag.
I am not sure what is "Isaic" about the Moon card, other than general Egyptianate scene; perhaps it is the Nile flood, with the moon and the lobster standing for the "gods above and below" described by Apuleius, the Moon representing Isis herself. I'd like to know if he, too, sees what I take to be two crocodiles next to the lake, and two ambiguously represented obelisks on either side of a temple, in the center of the card (
http://www.tarothistory.com/images/carystarmoon.jpg); in Egypt temples with obelisks were characteristically next to artificial lakes.
But I am glad someone else has recognized the Egyptianate reference. I also see such reference in the Star, Fool, and Bagat (the three-tiered hats), and possibly the Arrow (
http://www.wopc.co.uk/assets/images/sub ... -sheet.jpg).
In what immediately follows the passage I just quoted, Cardini has what I think is a good explanation for why these references are not mentioned in 16th century discussions of the cards.
Le molte edizioni delle versioni fìciniane dei testi ermetici fornirono probabilmente spunti ai disegnatori e ai pittori di tarocchi, fino al Quattrocento inoltrato, abituati a seguire la semplice tradizione albericiana, in chiave di una "sopravvivenza degli antichi dei" alla quale tuttavia l'umanesimo incipiente aveva conferito il carattere d'un "ritomo" poco gradito ai cristiani rigoristi che già, da vari punti di vista, stavano preparando quèlla stretta riformistica che nel Cinquecento avrebbe avuto la meglio in tutta Europa sotto forma di Riforma protestante e di Controriforma (termine convenzionale, quest'ultimo, al quale si deve dare altresì - non dimentichiamolo - anche il significato di "Riforma cattolica"). Nel corso del pieno Rinascimento, almeno nei paesi cattolici, le raffigurazioni degli antichi dei avevano ormai perduto di forza contestativa: erano divenirti puri vocaboli d'una cultura diffusa, convenzionale. Invece le forme iòonico-simboliche ispirate più specificatamente e propriamente alla tradizione ermetica, a sua volta battuta in breccia dal sopravvento rigorista tardo quattrocentesco e primo cinquecentesco, potevano mantenere intatti valori nonconformistici i quali però, a loro volta, difficilmente potevano venire intesi dai fruitori del gioco delle carte. Sostanzialmente fallita la proposta ficiniana d'una composizione tra platonismo e cristianesimo, l'ermetismo si sarebbe trasformato in segreto linguaggio di élite, in proposta iniziatico-eversiva, mentre la simbologia cattolica ufficiale sarebbe tornata a più convenzionali tradizioni.
(The many editions of Ficino's versions of the hermetic texts probably provided inspiration to designers and painters of tarot cards until the late fifteenth century, accustomed to following the simple Alberician tradition,in terms of a " survival of the ancient gods " to which, however, incipient humanism had given the character of a "retum " unwelcome to rigorist Christians who already from various points of view were preparing that narrow reformism that in the sixteenth century would triumph in Europe in the form of the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation (the latter a conventional term to which one must also give - lest we forget - the meaning of "Catholic Reformation "). During the Renaissance, at least in Catholic countries, the depictions of the ancient gods had now lost their dissenting strength, become merely words of a widely diffused conventional culture. Instead of iconic-symbolic forms inspired more specifically and properly by the Hermetic tradition, in turn defeated in breach of the supervening reformism of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century, they could keep intact their nonconformist values which, however, in turn, could hardly be understood by users of the playing cards. Essentially Ficino's failed proposal of an agreement between Platonism and Christianity, Hermeticism would become the secret language of an elite, in a subversive-initiatory proposal, while the official Catholic symbolism would return to more conventional traditions.
If I have understood Cardini correctly, he is very much expressing what I suspect to be the case.
Even in the 15th century, it was not safe in many cases to express ideas that the papacy found threatening, at least not in a direct way. Even so distinguished a scholar as Filelfo could be imprisoned for five months, by a duke who could not choose to oppose a papacy that felt undermined by the scholar: Filelfo had criticized another pope who, in Filelfo's eyes, had failed to honor his commitments to him (Robin
[Filelfo in Milan p. 119f):
In November 1464 the cardinals dispatched an official complaint to Francesco Sforza, urging the duke in the strongest possible terms to punish Filelfo. At the cardinals' behest, the duke incarcerated his poet and orator in the Castello for five months. (18)
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18. For the evidence on Filelfo's five-month incarceration in the Castello, see A. Luzio and R. Renier, "I Filflfo e l'umaniesimo alla corte dei Gonzaga," in Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 16 (1890): 176; see also epigrams of P. C. Decembrio in Rosmini, Vita 3.160-61, and of Antonio cornazzano in F. Gabotto, "Ricerche intorno allo storiografo quattrocenta Lodrisio Crivelli," in ASO 7 (1891), 267-96.