Fame

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Fame appears ...

1. In Petrarca's Trionfi row: Love - Chastitity - Death - FAME - Time - Eternity (1355-1374)

2. In a text of Chaucer: there it is connected to the winds of Eolus, therefore the trumpet (1380s ?).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Fame
Chaucer had some contact to Milan, where he likely was in 1368, possibly meeting Petrarca.

3. In an important theater play of Leon Battista Alberti, "Philodoxus" (1424). Fame is there as Phemia the sister of Doxia, "Glory", and Doxia is loved by the "good Hero" Philodoxus. Doxia is also desired by the "bad Hero" Fortunius(adopted son of Tychia = Fortuna), he tries to kidnap her, but he gets only Phemia. Chronus (Time ) appears and attempts to rule the case. Philodoxus gets Doxia, Fortunius gets Phemia, and Phroneus, friend of Philodoxus, gets his old wife Mnimia (= Memory) back. Mnimia cares for Alethia (Truth), daughter of Chronos, who gets nobody and nobody gets her. So maybe Alethia might have been the "true Fortune" of Fortunio, but he gets only Phemia.
http://parnaseo.uv.es/celestinesca/Nume ... umento.pdf

I think (inside the Chess Tarot theory), that Alberti's "3 pairs of men and women" in the Philodoxus influenced the love presentation in the Charles VI.

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I think, that the Charles VI was made for the young Lorenzo de Medici at his 14th birthday ...
In this period the elder Alberti had contact to the Medici and wrote an educative text for the young Lorenzo. The contact repeated later, when the meanwhile grown-up Lorenzo visited Alberti in Rome short before the death of Alberti.
The Philodoxus theater play became rather popular. Actually it was produced at the begin of Alberti's great career - when he naturally was still young, and so it was naturally a good talking object between elder Alberti and very young Lorenzo. The 3-lovers-scene appears only in the Charles VI, not in other Tarocchi.

4. In the Michelino deck (before 1425) we have at the end of the trump row following the 12 Olympian gods (1-12) the "13th god" Hercules (13), Eolus (14), Daphne (15) and Amor (16). Amor appears in the 6-elements-Petrarca-Trionfi-row as "Love" (1), Daphne appears as "Chastity" (2), Eolus seem to indicate "Fame" (4), Hercules - as the center of the astrological wheel with 12 Olympian gods) - might present "Time" (5). The 12 gods might present Eternity (6). Missing is "Death", possibly cause "Gods don't die", but Hercules is the "13th god" and possibly identified as "Death" (cause he's a human and has to die), but also "Father Time", as he reaches the Olymp.

The production of the Michelino deck very likely was after Michelino's return to Milan (1418). In this year the new elected pope Martin returned from the council of Constance and went first directly to Filippo Maria Visconti in Milan. The new pope was (naturally) accompanied with much other persons, between them Poggio, who just had detected in a German cloister the manuscript the text of the "Manilius poem" (from c. 18 AD), an astronomical poem, which used the "12 Olympian gods". In the manuscript the gods were related to months and zodiac signs. It later became of importance for the decoration of the Palazza Schifanoia in Ferrara (and was very early printed 1472/73 printed in Ferrara and in Nuremberg by Regiomontanus).

http://cura.free.fr/decem/10kengil.html
Month January. 31 days. Nones on 5th. Day 9 hours, night 14 hours. Sun in Capricorn. Patronage of Juno.
Month February. 28 days. Nones on 5th. Day 10 hours, night 13 hours. Sun in Aquarius. Patronage of Neptune. Fields are sown.
Month March. 31 days. Nones on 7th. Day 12 hours, night 12 hours. Equinox March 24th. Sun in Pisces. Patronage of Minerva.
Month April. 30 days. Nones on 5th. Day 13 hours, night 10 hours. Sun in Aries. Patronage of Venus.
Month May. 31 days. Nones on 7th. Day 14 hours, night 9 hours. sun in Taurus. Patronage of Apollo. Fields are weeded. Sheep are shorn. Wool is washed. Bullocks are tamed.
Month June. 30 days. Nones on 5th. Day 15 hours, night 9 hours. Summer solstice June 23. Sun in Gemini. Patronage of Mercury.
Month July (so named). 31 days. Nones on 7th. Day hours 14, night hours 9. Sun in Cancer. Patronage of Jupiter.
Month August (so named). 31 days. Nones on 5th. Day of 13 hours, night of 11 hours. Sun in Leo. Patronage of Ceres.
Month September. 30 days. Nones on 5th. Day 12 hours, night 12 hours. Equinox September 23. Sun in Virgo. Patronage of Vulcan. Storage jars are coated with pitch.
Month October. 31 days. Nones on 7th. Day 10 hours, night 13 hours. Sun in Libra. Patronage of Mars. Grape harvest.
Month November. 30 days. Nones on 5th. Day 9 hours, night 14 hours. Sun in Scorpio. Patronage of Diana. Sowing of wheat and barley.
Month December. 31 days. Nones on 5th. Day 9 hours, night 15 hours. Sun in Sagittarius. Patronage of Vesta. Beginning of winter. They dung the vineyards, sowing beans, etc.
In the Michelino deck the 12 Olympic gods ware not the same as the 12 Olympic gods used in the Michelino deck (it replaced Vulcan with Bacchus) and it seems, that the Manilius order wasn't used. Nonetheless it might be assumed, that the finding of the Manilius text influenced the production of the Michelino deck.

5. In the Cary-Yale as already shown, recognizable by "winged trumpet" ... possibly 1441.

6. In the Cassone motifs of Florence, starting in the 1440s and in other art connected to Petrarca's Trionfi poem. Here by "Lo Scheggia", for a birth picture of Lorenzo de Medici (1449). Lo Scheggia was also playing card painter (at least in 1447-1449). Young Lorenzo so was immediately programmed to see something in "Fame". Alberti in his much earlier theater play offered some critical words to Fame (as Phemia) ... stuff to talk about.



7. In the picture one has to observe the octagonal halo. The octagonal halo is in Florentine iconography used for virtues. It might be, that Fame was identified with Prudenia, the "missing virtue" in Tarot. In the Charles VI deck we've 4 figures with octagonal halo, Justice, Temperance, Strength (3 cardinal virtues) and World (very similar to Fame presentations, but possibly just the hidden 4th cardinal virtue Prudentia).

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8. Fame appears than in the Minchiate, which was the typical Florentine deck, but also used elsewhere (for instance as far as Sicily and Genova). It has the inscription "FAMA VOLAT" ... Fame flies.

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9. Fame appears in the Vievil Tarot (and later in the Belgian Tarot) in a "Sol Fama" or Fama Sol" inscription on that, what is usually taken as "Temperance".

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SOL FAMA

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FAMA SOL

10. The" Fama Sol" appears already at a Tarot list of Alciato in the 1540s. We discussed the case (somehow unfinished) ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=747&hilit=fama+sol
Huck
http://trionfi.com
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