Stupid as it is ...
The emperor has the theme/question: "Will a prisoner be released ...". He has Position 21 ... which in Tarot might be Nr. 20:
I see "released prisoners"
At the distant horizon appears a sort of relationship between the observed lot book and the Tarot system ...
Alright,
let's check it.
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"Haymlichkeit" appears twice, once as the "Haymlichkeit" of the man (6) and once the "Haymlichkeit" of the woman (4) ... I've checked the Grimm Wörterbuch and it's clear that "Haymlichkeit" could relate to sexuality (as "hidden sexuality"; "heimlich generally assiciates "mysteries" and things, which aren't public). In the common public opinion the Pope naturally would be very "heimlich" and the Popess also.
Nr. 4 in the lot book = 3 in Tarot, and 3 is a possible position for Popess, and 6-1=5 and 5 is the standard position for the Pope.
So best I sort all questions/themes together:
0=1. Ob ains an Wirdigkeit mag komen - If one gets honors
1=2. Ob ains gedancken vollend mugen werden - If one's ideas reach their goal
2=3. Ob es gut sey wider feynd kriegen - If it is good to fight against an enemy
3=4. Von frawen haymlichkeit - About "Hamlichkeit" of the woman ... POPESS
4=5. Von gottes huld und gnaden - About god's grace ... EMPEROR, good fitting
5=6. Von manne haymlickeit - About "Haymlichkeit" of the man ... POPE
6=7. Von gtrewn Lewten - About loyal persons
7=8. Von vil frawen - About many women
8=9. Von reichtum - about richness
9=10. Von langem leben - About long life ... HERMIT, perfect
10=11. Von deinem frewnde - About a male friend
11=12. Von deiner Frewndin - About a female friend
12=13. Ob es gut sej wallen - If it good to "wallen" (? to wander or to make a pilgrim's journey ?)
13=14. Ob es gut sey zu Ee greffen - If it good to marry
14=15. Ob eins sein schuld vergelten mag - If something is paid back
15=16. Von weisheit und thorheit - About wisdom and stupidity
16=17. Von herren lone - About salary of a master
17=18. Von sorgen - About sorrows
18=19. Ob eins verloren ding wider finde - If a lost object is found again
19=20. Von hoffnung - About hope
20=21. Ob ein gefangener erlöst mug werden - If a prisoner will be released ... JUDGMENT, seems suggestive
21=22. Von der libe - About love ... WORLD, seems possible
Two additional I find very suggestive:
4=5 Emperor has as animal Leo, the usual king of the animals, "von Gottes Huld und Gnaden" is a common formula for reigning heads.
9=10 Hermit, "About long life", that meets his theme in a perfect manner.
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I found 2=3 very disturbing: "Ob es gut sey wider feynd kriegen - If it is good to fight against an enemy", but then I considered the version of Trier, which starts with "wild man, then noble man, then "ritter"="knight" ... that's actually ...
0=1 something like a Fool (wild man, but also Fool in the Hofämterspiel)
1=2 the Unter, in the Italian version the page "without horse"
2=3 The Ober, in the Italian version with horse, so a "Ritter"
...
under the idea "Ritter" the consideration, if a war should take place or not, seems logical.
So I would think, that from 0=1 till 5=6...
0=1. Ob ains an Wirdigkeit mag komen - If one gets honors
-- Fool is correct, see Hofämterspel, a "person without Wirdigkeit, that means "without any merits for the moment"
1=2. Ob ains gedancken vollend mugen werden - If one's ideas reach their goal
-- Magician, low noble man with ambitions, at the start of his career
2=3. Ob es gut sey wider feynd kriegen - If it is good to fight against an enemy
-- Ritter naturally interested in fights
3=4. Von frawen haymlichkeit - About "Hamlichkeit" of the woman
-- the POPESS is likely wrong, it's just the queen position
4=5. Von gottes huld und gnaden - About god's grace
-- EMPEROR, good fitting, but as the Emperor appears at 21=20, just the king's position
5=6. Von manne haymlickeit - About "Haymlichkeit" of the man
-- POPE --- for the pope one has to see, that the animal is the "crow", that means, the figure, which isn't part of the zodiac, but splits the zodiac ... the Pope is at highest position 21=22, so we have to place here another "man in black", which should be "from the clergy", but "lower than the pope"
So far this seems logical and somehow "playing-card-deck compatible"
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Observing the upper part (18=19 - 19=20 - 20-21 - 21-22), I see ...
18=19. Ob eins verloren ding wider finde - If a lost object is found again
19=20. Von hoffnung - About hope
20=21. Ob ein gefangener erlöst mug werden - If a prisoner will be released ... JUDGMENT, seems suggestive
21=22. Von der libe - About love ... WORLD, seems possible
... Liebe and Hoffnung, that is "Hope and Love" and this are suits in the Boiardo Tarot and Boiardo made this system according the
4 stoic passions - likely also unknown in Germany. Boiardo's other suits are Fear and Jealousy, the ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoic_Passions
... independent report of Wikipedia comes to the expressions
Delight (= likely Love for Boiardo)
Lust (= likely Hope for Boiardo)
Distress (= likely Jealousy for Boiardo)
Fear (= likely Fear for Boiardo)
It seems, that we have to assume
21=22 Pope = Love
20=21 Emperor = Fear (a prisoner surely has reason for fear)
19=20 = Hope ("About hope")
18=19 = "If a lost object might be found again ... which might be presented, if it refers to a 'lost lover', as jealousy
In this context "Hope" might be seen as "sun", and an occasionally "lost object" might refer to the moon, which occasionally is present and occasionally is lost.
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So also this final group "somehow " fits with the values, which are known from Tarot.
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But the rest? We've one lucky meeting with the hermit ... but for the moment that's all.
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I've expressed earlier in the analyzes of Karnöffel the opinion, that the first cards of Tarot have developed from Karnöffel ... I guess, this was here in the Meisner-thread
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=416&hilit=meisner
In Karnöffel the analogy to the Trionfi cards went till "7 card devil" = "6 card love " in Tarot. This astonishing analogy refers to the difference of card interpretation in Germany (Karnöffel) and Italy (Trionfi cards)
In this lot book version we have somehow only a parallel till 5:6 "crow" as a Pope replacement and then follows in the system ...
6=7 About loyal persons
... which could hardly serve as analogy either for Karnöffel-Devil or Trionfi-Love
7=8 About many women
... which could serve as analogy to the Karnöffel-Devil in Germany ... as we see Meister Ingold mostly engaged to attack the devil in the form of nice women in playing card context.
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But this follows "not immediately" at 6=7 and so also isn't really suggestive as a parallel development.
Generally one has to draw the line, that there are some similarities between this lot book system and the later Tarot, but this goes not too far, that one could make up too much of it.
A hierarchical system 1 (low) - 21 (high) +0, as it is assumed for Tarot (well, it isn't 100% clear neither, but at least well believable), is more given by the (later) Trier version than by the system of the other 3 lot books, which definitely is rather old and for this under suspicion to have influenced the Trionfi card development.
As I mixed in the above argumentation the Trier versions with the others, the actual parallel between the system sfor the first parts is weaker than it looks.
More interesting (and somehow more believable) is the analogy to the stoic passions and for the "finish of the systems" ... (Pope-World-Love) - (Emperor-Judgment-Fear) - (Sun-Hope) - (Lost things-Moon)
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A further view at the lot book system ...
1-13 is used for the "zodiac + crow"
14-18 is momentary not clear,
5 places
19 "Lost things"- Moon
20 "Hope" - Sun
21 Emperor
22 Pope
5 undefined places, and after them follows moon and sun: Shouldn't one conclude, that these 5 places are used for the other "5 planets"?
For this observation we should take a look at another "more famous" German production (Augsburg c. 1530), the Splendor Solis, also constructed with 22 elements. Adam McLean analyzed this structure:
1. The Arms of the art
2. Philosopher with flask
3. The Knight on the double fountain
4. Solar King and Lunar Queen meet
The Seven Parables:
5. Miners excavating hill
6. Philosophers beside tree
7. Drowning King
8. Resurrection out of the swamp
9. Hermaphrodite with egg
10. Severing the head of the King
11. Boiling the body in the vessel
The Seven Flasks:
12. Saturn - Dragon and child
13. Jupiter - Three birds
14. Mars - Triple-headed bird
15. Sun - Triple-headed dragon
16. Venus - Peacock's Tail
17. Mercury - The White Queen
18. Moon - The Red King
19. The dark sun
20. Children at play
21. Women washing clothes
22. Sun rising over the city
The planets row takes the somehow strange positions 12-18, a place for the zodiac is not recognizable.
The planet-relation is clear, the gods are given with chariot in the upper part at the pictures:
So the basic construction is "somehow similar curious". We have again "4 at the top" ... as in the Trier version, where we have
22 Pope
21 Emperor
20 Cardinal
19 King
---
18-12 ... then followed by 7 Kurfürsten (electors)
... well in Splendor Solis we have there the 7 planets
This indeed is rather striking and a "strong argument" - ...
... I don't know, for what, but it's definitely a real "evolution context".
1. The Trier version definitely evolves in context of the other 3 more or less identical texts.
2. Splendor Solis uses the same ... (11-18) (19-22) - number pattern as the Trier version
Well, Splendor Solis is seen as an "alchemistical text" and the archbishops of Trier were strong men in the development of German alchemy (though I would assume, that the Trierer lot book text was made by Mainz interests mainly - but Mainz and Trier, that's very near)
A further look at the 4 last chapters of Splendor Solis ...
19. The dark sun ... as an equivalent to the Trionfi-Moon ("lost things, jealousy")
20. Children at play ... as an equivalent to the Trionfi-Sun ("Hope")
21. Women washing clothes ... as an equivalent to the Trionfi-Judgment (" the clothes are reborn by washing" "prisoners are released")
22. Sun rising over the city ... as an equivalent to World (The Sforza world also showed a city)
Again the 4 last symbols are "acceptable" ... this is the part, where all related systems are most similar.
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I'm not ready with this ... but I think, this is stuff to think about.
... .-) ... Somehow I'm amused, that me at a complete different way find Mike's momentary major topic Alchemy ... communication indeed often has curious effects.