Langustl wrote:Hi, I read this thread and I had a thought I wanna share. In my eyes the animal of the Tarot de Marseille fool must be a cat. In the middle ages the cat got a similar character as the fool, Evel, death and devil, they thought about banning it for 300 years. Could it be that the fool and the cat as a pair should symbolize Adam and Eve Ieaving the paradise? And Eve as the evel woman that ate the apple is going on with eating and stealing the power of Adam by trying to eat his testicals? Both lost in unconsciousness.
The older Fools in Trionfi card context have not always an accompanying animal. The Mantegna Tarocchi has for its figures occasionally animals, the beggar (picture I) has clearly dogs.
There's some suspicion, that the Mantegna Tarocchi beggar was influenced by the figure Momus, to which Leon Battista Alberti made a work of mockery (Momus), based on the satirical antique writer Lucian. Momus (according Alberti's version, 1447-50) declared the role of the beggar as the best on earth.
The philosopher Diogenes played a role in the early Trionfi motifs (the card of the Sun in the Este Tarot c. 1475). According an older story he was connected to dogs, and perhaps one could bring him together also with the lantern of the hermit (according another Diogenes story).
The monkey played a role, but in connection to the Bagatello (Magician). The Cary Sheet is dated to c. 1500 and it's seen as a forerunner of the Marseille Tarot. On the Fool fragment we cannot identify any animal.
However, some researchers detected on the back of the Bagatello the face of monkey.
There was a long discussion about this point ...
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p= ... ost1146156
We've only later pictures of the Marseille Tarot (since 1650) itself. We can't call them "medieval" with such a date.
The Marseille dog - indeed - occasionally looks like a cat.
The Etteilla Tarot (1788) has a Fool with a sort of tiger.
In the French revolutionary divination deck of 1790 the Tiger stands alone ...
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1083
The number 22 likely points to the role of the Fool in the Tarot decks.
In the Petit Oracle des Dames (1796/97) ...
... the Fool (above) appears mixed with Bateleur (below) and the card number is 21. The animal of the Fool is a tiger again.
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The cat or Tiger seems to be a French idea. In the Tarot de Paris (c. 1559 according my interpretation) the Fool has no animal. The Bateleur has dog and monkey ... my own suspicion says, that two young Italian noble men in French military service were responsible for this deck. Charles Gonzaga, one of them, came from the Mantova-Gonzaga, which had a lot of relations to Tarocchi production in 16th century.
In this half-Italian deck the cat or Tiger is missing.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=783&p=11183&hilit= ... mes#p11183
In the Catelyn Geofroy deck (1557), also French, the Bagatello has no animal ... the Fool is missing.
http://cards.old.no/1557-geofroy/
In the Minchiate Francesi (c. 1658) the Fool is presented as "Momus" (no animal).
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=782&p=11174&hilit=francesi#p11174
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Adam and Eve appear in the Minchiate decks on the Tower card.
... this likely goes back to a picture of the Florentine painter Masaccio in a Florentine church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion ... en_of_Eden
A brother of Masaccio, Lo Scheggia, is suspected to have had influence on the card deck called "Charles IV". It's possible, that Scheggia also influenced the very early Minchiate.
http://trionfi.com/evx-lo-scheggia
... variously discussed here at the Forum.
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Adam and Eve appeared also in Etteilla Tarot ... indirectly, as the theme "seven days of creation" dominates the deck. Card 1 = Chaos and the "Consultant" presents Adam and Eve = card 8 = "Consultante" or "Questionnante" is added to it.