But, the tree cards can put too in relationship with a marriage. We have this importan marriages in Sforza family beetwen 1465 / 1500
1468 - Galeazzo Maria with Bona di Savoia
1490 - Gian Galeazzo whit Isabella d'Aragona
1491 - Ludovico whit Beatrice d'Este
I think, if the cards are related whit a marriage (I am not sure whit this), then are this:
1468 - Galeazzo Maria with Bona di Savoia
...
... do you forget Ippolita in 1465 ...
If one accepts the 5x14 theory, then you've 6 cards left, which were added "after 1457" (assuming, that "before" the trump set had either 14 or 16 cards).
14 cards set ... tradition 5x14:
1.1.1441 (Ferrara / "young" Milan) -
14 Bembo cards ca. 1452 (Milan)
70 cards 1457 (Ferrara)
16 cards set ... tradition "chess-associated":
Michelino deck ca. 1425 ("old" Milan)
Cary-Yale ca. 1441 ("old" Milan)
but then happens:
Florence - Medici ("young" Florence) 1463
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In 1463 the "Trionfi" allowance is repeated (earlier note had been 1450): The object is called "Trionfi"
In 1466 Pulci writes to Lorenzo about the Minchiate game. The object is called "Minchiate".
A name change signals "change", especially in the case of Minchiate, cause later the Minchiate has much more trumps than the usual Tarot. So the change should have happened between 1463 and 1466.
The 5x14 theory demands, that "once" the idea entered to change the number of the cards ... after 1457. From the given situation the change from" Trionfi" to "Minchiate" signals "a change" ... there are not much arguments or situations, which could compete.
When a change happened in Florence, the Medici would be the first, who are under suspicion.
The 5x14-theory is rather old, from a month May in 1989. Already then ... although a lot of later facts were not known and developed later ... it seemed clear, that it (likely) happened in 1465 and from the side of the Medici. 21 years of research and discussion didn't change that.
Why? Cause there were six cards and they looked like a model: 3 Cardinal virtues and the trio Star-Moon-Sun and the Medici made a heraldic exchange around the focused time (that it precisely happened in May 1465 was not known in May 1989) ... 7 palle became 6 palle and the design was somehow related to 3 virtues and Justice was missing.
This correspondence was too much for an accidental result. So it should have happened in May 1465. The whole 5x14 - theory developed from things, which looked only "not accidental".
The Minchiate detail was not known, the document of 1.1.1441 was not known, the 70 cards note was not known, the use of ludus triumphorum by Marcello was not known, it was not known, that the Michelino deck played a major role, but it was sure in the calculation, that the two artists production indicated the earlier existence of a 5x14-deck ... the calculation stated, with more than 99 % security.
All this other material had only the role of "further confirmation".
So ... it should be Ippolita's wedding and Lorenzo brought the cards.
It was a later identification, that the trio "Star - Moon - Sun" likely formed under the impression of the Benito Gozzoli paintings in the Medici chapel with 3 holy kings.
The 16 cards of Charles VI didn't include a star, so this choice happened later.
We see from the cards, that they likely were made in a haste and are not extremely worthwhile art. They were made in a sort of ad hoc decision ... it looks worthless to interpret too much in them. Lorenzo was a young man ...
The news about the new contracts between Louis XI and the Medici, which included the heraldic change with a reducement from 7 to 6 palle and with the inclusion of the French Lille, likely weren't known to Lorenzo, when he started his journey to Milan.
He stayed too long in Ferrara ... father Pietro wrote an embarrassed letter, that he lost time. In Ferrara it was known, how Milanese cards were made. Perhaps Lorenzo stayed too long, cause the cards were made.
Well, it were only cards, actually not "SOOOO IMPORTANT". Just a funny idea of a young man.
The meeting in Milan got its importance, and the resulting friendship Galeazzo and Lorenzo became important, as soon after 1465 both became the leaders of two states ... but if Pietro di Medici or Francesco Sforza both had reigned a little longer or some other activity had hindered one of both to become the regent ... I doubt, that this six cards would have gotten the role, that they got.
And if, for instance, mankind wouldn't have become a little bit crazy about the Tarot, they were ... if they still would exist ... just a little bit curious ...
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Anyway, I observed these days an interesting detail.
Hercules had been Medici topic ... before 1465. Young Lorenzo loved adventure stories, "Hercules" is an adventure story.
So he transformed the virtue Fortitudo in a Hercules, a not impossible, but some unusual idea ... is it really Hercules?
Actually it's the baton, which makes Heracles as explanation plausible, less the lion.
The following is named "Commodus as Heracles". It's the baton, which makes it to Heracles, the lion skin, difficult to present for an artist and difficult to identify, is only second attribute.
In the next picture the baton hangs senseless in the air - just very similar to suit symbols on playing cards. It signifies: this is Heracles.
The story tells, that Heracles wrestles with the lion ... so most pictures show a wrestling fight, older antique pictures often don't show the baton.
But in this case, 17th century, Heracles beats with the baton.
Mostly Heracles is nude ... but here at the next picture and that's from ca. 1410-1420, we see, that Heracles is dressed and also we see, that the imagination of his baton is quite different.
It seems, that nudity created problems around 1410-1420 and it seems, that these problems still weren't overcome in ca. 1465, when the playing card was painted. At the playing card the form of the baton had been restaurated to the old form ... likely thanks to some archeological findings or other better informed art.
Very interesting in this context is the star picture ceiling at the salla della mappamondo in Caprarola. That's the building, an early "Pentagon":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Farnese
The ceiling in total looks like this:
I hope, you can identify the Herakles, which is nude and kneeling demonstrates his raised baton.
I hope you can also identify the lion in some distance ... and I hope, you can identify, that it is painted similar stupid as the lion on the card, so as if the artist of the ceiling had been followed "somehow" the earlier Trionfi card.
The ceiling was painted around 1570.
This is a large photo ..
http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com ... 027425.jpg
... but the view is not much better.
Ah, here is one ...
Well, here we have a sort of starting point for the development of star picture catalogs, the printed Hyginus from 1482. Later star pictures shows seem to have depenent on this production:
http://hsci.ou.edu/galleries//02LateAnc ... inus/1482/
Other edition
http://win.xiulong.it/astronomia/Poetic ... /index.htm
You can identify Hercules, who is nude with baton and lion skin - as in the Villa Farnese.
The picture of the lion is better and less stupid, but if you compare the other animals ... for instance Canis minor ...
... then you see, that there seems to be the trend to present the animals in a "jumping position" (which actually makes the lion of the Farnese villa look similar stupid as the lion on the Tarot card).
Well, we don't know (or at least I don't know), if the Hyginus edition followed an older source with his pictures. Wiki says, there was an older edition of Ferrara 1475, but likely this had no pictures, I would assume, as the combination of woodcut pictures and printed books started later.
The explanation says, that Ratdolt, the printer, ordered the woodcuts. It isn't really "great art". The artist might have taken his ideas from "everywhere", just stealing a little bit here and there.
We have a "star pictures as ceiling" attempt in the Villa Roccabianca 1464, but the lion there definitely is different.
See "Leone" at the upper right ... at least the pictures have no fear cause some nudity.
The text of the Hyginus edition is translated ...
http://www.theoi.com/Text/HyginusAstronomica.html
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Well, we have six added pictures in the Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo-Tarocchi .... according the expanded 5x14-theory the 6 pictures were (likely) added in 1465.
The Roccabianca ceiling was made 1464, the wife of the commissioner was an earlier girlfriend of Bianca Maria Visconti (who - very likely - commissioned the 5x14 Bembo cards).
The girl-friend was a lady-in-waiting for Bianca Maria, who became involved in a scandalous love story with the man ...
http://www.storiadimilano.it/Personaggi ... ia%20Rossi
The Roccabianca also knows a fresco with a playing card scene, published by Kaplan.
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Regiomontanus had come to Italy in 1461 ... this collided with a causal connected increasing general interest in astronomical topics, especially in Ferrara, where it escalated to the Manilius frescoes in the Palazzo Schifanoia (the painting work started 1469). The Sforza ordered the De Sfera manuscript around 1470. In Florence there are engravings of the children of the planets, which are - with doubts - given to 1462.
If one assumes, that the motif Herakles + Lion jumped from an earlier lost (really lost ?) star picture catalog in the playing card construction with the background idea, that "Herakles made the star pictures and the whole system", then the composition ...
Herakles as astronom
Sun
Moon
Star
... makes sense in itself. Then the question is there, what the other cards Temperance and "two putti with city picture" (interpreted as "world" nowadays) shall mean in this context?
Well, Temperance would make the idea of the "milky way". Actually in myth Heracles is involved in the production of the milky way ... read Hyginus.
II.43 MILKY WAY
There is a certain circular figure among the constellations, white in color, which some have called the Milky Way. Eratosthenes says that Juno, without realizing it, gave milk to the infant Mercury, but when she learned that he was the son of Maia, she thrust him away, and the whiteness of the flowing milk appears among the constellations.
Others have said that Hercules was given to Juno to nurse when she slept. When she awoke, it happened as described above. Others, again, say that Hercules was so greedy that he couldn’t hold in his mouth all the milk he had sucked, and the Milky Way spilled over from his mouth.
Still others say that at the time Ops brought to Saturn the stone, pretending it was a child, he bade her offer milk to it; when she pressed her breast, the milk that was caused to flow formed the circle which we mentioned above.
Then there are two putti left, who carry a shield ... the holy Jerusalem or perhaps Sforzinda, whatever.
Nobody can say, that this was a great idea, if it was the idea ... .-) ... but somehow it has written history ...
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... .-) ... I didn't found anybody, who identified Temperance earlier with milky way, but if I consider a young man with some erotic ideas, that's not impossible.
Herakles as astronom
Temperance as milky way
star as star
moon as moon
sun as sun
world with two putti angels showing the city Jerusalem in heaven
... could make a concept of heaven, but this Temperance looks so boring, that it seems really a strange idea.
But ... actually there's an earlier star picture heaven painted (possibly) by Alberti (this story appears in the speculations around the "Man of China" 1433 in Florence)
http://www.gavinmenzies.net/pages/evide ... denceID=11
A picture is here, but I've seen better in the web.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt ... 29,r:2,s:0
The picture is in "San Lorenzo" in Florence, that's the church with Medici chapels and a lot of family members are buried there.
It's natural, that "San
Lorenzo" played a big role for somebody, whose name was "
Lorenzo de Medici". He saw these pictures likely since his youth.
Lorenzo knew Albert already as boy and naturally similar he knew Toscanelli, who worked for the Medici. And naturally he could ask them about the star pictures.
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Perhaps Temperantia looks so boring, cause somebody loved the double-interpretation effect.