Bernardo Rucellai and the Orti Oricellari: A Study on the Origin of Modern Political Thought
Felix Gilbert
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 12, (1949), pp. 101-131
Published by: The Warburg Institute
http://www.jstor.org/stable/750259
The article is of interest regarding Bernardo Rucellai, Florentine banker, who - probably - participated as friend of Lorenzo Medici's youth and later brother-in-law at Lorenzo Medici's escapades, to which belonged - Trionfi.com hypothesis - the production of a Trionfi deck called "Charles VI" in 1463. The special focus of the article is at the later time, after Lorenzo's death in 1492.
The Rucellai garden, located at an edge of the city of Florence near the river, became a meeting for Florentian intellectuals ... it generally is regarded as a prolongation of the platonic academy of Florence and with that it might be the most probable place, where the game of Minchiate found to a form.
Bernardo Rucellai took opposition to the Savonarolian movement in 1495, after a Naples journey.
He opposed also the following Soderini reign, spending much time outside of Florence (1506-1511).
He worked for a reinstallment of the Medici.
When the Medici came back after 1412, he was not satisfied with the new young rulers.
1506 he spend the summer in Avignon, the place, where 1505 the first production of French Tarots is recorded.
After this he went to Milan, Bologna, Venice.
The article claims, that the activities in the Rucellai garden, which are mainly seen to have happened in the second decade of 15th century, already had an earlier phase in 1502-1506, when Rucellai had started the major work of his late life "De Bello Italico" - the story, what happened after Charles VIII came to Italy. In his last will Rucellai ordered, that the text should be buried with him, but ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=W2IVAA ... navlinks_s
... has 60 pages only .. (?) ... so possibly not complete.
some wiki wrote:Rucellai family
While prominent in communal government and wealthy as cloth manufacturers from the late 13th century, the Rucellai did not play a part of real importance in Florentine politics, preferring, especially in the 15th century, to devote increasing time to study and the cultivated pleasures of private life. Giovanni (1403-81) built the Rucellai Palace from 1446. This was from a design by Alberti, as was another of Giovanni's commissions, the marble faƧade of S. Maria Novella. He was also a more perceptive patron of artists than either Cosimo or Lorenzo de' Medici. His Zibaldone (commonplace book) gives valuable insight into the reading and manner of life of the lettered merchants of the Quattrocento.
His son Bernardo (1448-1514), a trusted supporter of Lorenzo the Magnificent, wrote a history of Charles VIII's invasion of 1494-95, De bello italico, which makes precocious use of the term 'balance of power', and his grandson Giovanni (1475-1525), who entered the Church, has some reputation as a literary pioneer; he wrote free imitations of classical poems in the vernacular and one of the earliest classicizing tragedies, Rosamunda. It was Bernardo who laid out the gardens off the Via della Scala which became known as the Orti Oricellari (Rucellai Gardens). After his death his grandson Cosimo acted as host to discussions held there on philosophical, literary and political topics. Machiavelli took part in these and his Discourses were dedicated to Cosimo and to another habituƩ of the Orti, Zanobi Buondelmonti. Machiavelli set his dialogues in 'The art of war' there, with Cosimo as one of the protagonists.
Entry to Rucellai's garden
Palazzo Venturi Ginori ... Rucellai's garden Palazzo, had been build 1498.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Firenze,+ ... 8&t=h&z=18
The intelectuals at Rucellai garden were a mix of Savonarolians and a progressive party, with some critical distance to Soderini, who between 1502-1513 presented the "chosen establishment" and had been "gonfaloniere for life".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_Soderini
In 1513 some members of the Rucellai garden community became arrested cause rebellion, but soon Soderini had to give way and the Medici returned by a not bloody revolt. Soderini had to leave to an honored exile. Soderini's political tendencies are summarized as "pro-French".
*********
The major point about Bernardo ...
... if really the youth scene around Lorenzo made the "Minchiate of 1466" (which might quite well had been very different from the later version) and the Charles VI deck of 1463, then Bernardo and his circle with 4 Bernardo sons should stand in first row of the "possible authors of the later Minchiate". Pietro di Bernardo Rucellai (author of the Dovizia carnival's song 1507) is given as a son, who died early.
The article explains also something about the Rucellai heraldic, the ship with sails, which looks like a Moon ... compare ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=365&start=121
From the text of the mentioned article:
The debate about Fortune and Virtues ... that's somehow similar to Tarot. And especially also for the Minchiate, where 7 virtues are presented.
A specific difference between Tarot and Minchiate might be of interest. The triumphal chariot is commonly ranked in Tarot as number 10, but in Minchiate it is ranked Nr. 9, below the triumphal chariot. So the Minchiate promises victory about destiny (or luck) with help of the virtues spes, prudentia, fides, caritas (trumps 16-19 in Minchiate), but luck reigns about temperance, Fortitudo and Justice (6-8).