Re: origin of the word "Bagat"
Posted: 23 Jan 2012, 16:24
Hi, Marco,
I don't really have much to say about the thread except to echo Steve -- the translations are fantastic. Thank you very much.
These are exactly the kind of meanings that should be expected in association with Tarot's Deceiver, so in that sense it is not news. However, it is great to see them used in such contexts. I had previously encountered Jacopone da Todi in relation to the Fool (specifically the archetypal Wise Fool or fool-for-Christ notion) and in connection with the ordering of the virtues in Tarot de Marseille. Both were interesting but extremely weak associations with an aspect of Tarot not really requiring any elucidation. However, this contemptu mundi passage is extraordinarily revealing.
The subject matter of this early poem is precisely the theme of the Tarot trump cycle, and the Deceiver is named in a prominent fashion, and directly identified with "wicked Fortune". This character, with his now-you-see-it-now-you-don't persona, his fraudulent appearance and personification of changeableness, is the exemplar par excellence of false and fickle Fortune.
As social low-lifes, as exemplars of mundane frivolity, and as personifications of Folly and Deception, the Matto and Bagatto are perfectly understandable as the lowest of the Tarot allegories. They are appropriate subjects when viewed playfully, in the manner that one might enjoy the travesties of Carnival, and also when seen more soberly as one might view those vanities from the subsequent (triumphant) Lenten observance. They are both playful and damned for their playfulness.
To put the figure in a Christian-societal context, there are assorted devotional prints which use a tripartite division of Mankind. The images typically include 1) a pope and ranked representatives of Sacerdotum near the bottom on one side, 2) an emperor and ranked representatives of Imperium near the bottom on the other side, and 3) sinners burning in Hell, centered at the very bottom of the page. If one were to make an allegorical cycle from these images, to serve as the lowest cards in a game, one could not do better than to personify the leaders and their subjects as sponsa and sponsus, creating an empress and popess for the brides, and using a fool and deceiver to symbolize the enticing folly and deception of this world which lead to damnation.
Sponsa and Sponsus
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=340
Best regards,
Michael
I don't really have much to say about the thread except to echo Steve -- the translations are fantastic. Thank you very much.
These are exactly the kind of meanings that should be expected in association with Tarot's Deceiver, so in that sense it is not news. However, it is great to see them used in such contexts. I had previously encountered Jacopone da Todi in relation to the Fool (specifically the archetypal Wise Fool or fool-for-Christ notion) and in connection with the ordering of the virtues in Tarot de Marseille. Both were interesting but extremely weak associations with an aspect of Tarot not really requiring any elucidation. However, this contemptu mundi passage is extraordinarily revealing.
The subject matter of this early poem is precisely the theme of the Tarot trump cycle, and the Deceiver is named in a prominent fashion, and directly identified with "wicked Fortune". This character, with his now-you-see-it-now-you-don't persona, his fraudulent appearance and personification of changeableness, is the exemplar par excellence of false and fickle Fortune.
As social low-lifes, as exemplars of mundane frivolity, and as personifications of Folly and Deception, the Matto and Bagatto are perfectly understandable as the lowest of the Tarot allegories. They are appropriate subjects when viewed playfully, in the manner that one might enjoy the travesties of Carnival, and also when seen more soberly as one might view those vanities from the subsequent (triumphant) Lenten observance. They are both playful and damned for their playfulness.
To put the figure in a Christian-societal context, there are assorted devotional prints which use a tripartite division of Mankind. The images typically include 1) a pope and ranked representatives of Sacerdotum near the bottom on one side, 2) an emperor and ranked representatives of Imperium near the bottom on the other side, and 3) sinners burning in Hell, centered at the very bottom of the page. If one were to make an allegorical cycle from these images, to serve as the lowest cards in a game, one could not do better than to personify the leaders and their subjects as sponsa and sponsus, creating an empress and popess for the brides, and using a fool and deceiver to symbolize the enticing folly and deception of this world which lead to damnation.
Sponsa and Sponsus
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=340
Best regards,
Michael