Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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The Duke of Milan entered Milan on the 25th March 1450- the day of The Annunciation. He decided to dedicate a charitable institution to Annunciata a municipality of the Provence of Brescia. This new foundation was 'Spedale della Nunciata' and in 1456 the 'Magna Domus Hospitalis' or Ca'Granda went into operation. The Magna Domus was the largest undertaking of the 15th century and the 'Ospedale Maggiore' was born. It is said he did this to gain the affection of it's people (Brescia) who were followers of the Visconti, even though he was already married to Bianca Visconti at the time.
If you look at the card- a maiden (because of untied hair) with Crown and Blue dress the idea of Mary of the Annunciation comes to mind. No babies at breast or lap so it is not the usual Charity of Hospitals Mary depiction.
I know it is thought that the Cary -Yale was a Visconti deck. I propose it was a Bianca deck of 1450?
The foundation to Brescia is interesting. 1416 it was Sigismundo Malatesta who was it's Lord- He sold it to Maria Fillipo Visconti- who sold it in 1426 to Venice and Sforza won it back in in 1439. The area has it that it was founded by Hercules and the area has the pet name of the Lioness of Lombardy. One of the relics held in Brescia is a depiction on a banner of the Carroccio or sacred Ox cart which served as asymbol for the medeival Lega Lombarda. In Giotto's depictions this Ox cart (pulled by Horses) is the Depiction of Industry or Man's achievments/Trade. I know it is supposed to have the devices of Savoy on the Lovers card but there is also a case for the white cross been of Pavia along with the Visconti Viper, rather than Savoy Arms.
~Lorredan
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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Lorredan wrote:The Duke of Milan entered Milan on the 25th March 1450- the day of The Annunciation. He decided to dedicate a charitable institution to Annunciata a municipality of the Provence of Brescia. This new foundation was 'Spedale della Nunciata' and in 1456 the 'Magna Domus Hospitalis' or Ca'Granda went into operation. The Magna Domus was the largest undertaking of the 15th century and the 'Ospedale Maggiore' was born. It is said he did this to gain the affection of it's people (Brescia) who were followers of the Visconti, even though he was already married to Bianca Visconti at the time.
??? Something might contain an error, though I don't know, which. Brescia was Venetian territory, as I have it. Sforza freed Brescia, but from the siege of Visconti and for the favor of Venice in 1439. Ospedale Maggiore is in Milan, as far I know.
Sigismondo Malatesta couldn't have sold Brescia in 1416, cause he wasn't born then. Pandolfo Malatesta, the father, likely was active. He lost Brescia in 1421 ... usually, but there were some fights already earlier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ospedale_Maggiore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandolfo_III_Malatesta
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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You are right- it was Pandolfo Malatesta- bad mistake sorry!- He had Brescia in 1406 - Bartered it to Visconti in 1416- who bartered it in 1426 to Venice. Yes, Sforza won it for Venice in 1439.
Yes the Hospital was in Milan, but the foundation was made in Annuciata's name -a municipality of Brescia.
I think the name was more important rather than alligence to the Visconti name. If he (Sforza) had entered Milan on the feast of Saint John the Baptist he would have had to find a town called Giovanni Baptista to name his foundation for. :p He entered Milan on the Feast of the Annunciation.
Also The pet name Lioness of Italy was a much later monniker- but there is a much earlier association with a Lion due to Saint Mark and even further back to the area been a sort defacto Rome in Lombardy.
I do not like the earliest Tarot we have at 1450, I would much rather have some sort of Ur Tarot some fifty years earlier. Maybe there was but it had not yet become a game.
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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Lorredan wrote: He entered Milan on the Feast of the Annunciation.
Likely chosen with some political intention and with a possible association to the "Lady day", cause Bianca Maria was the justified heir of Milan and not Sforza himself (he would have been a conqueror and a robber). I wouldn't assume a strong involvement of Brescia. The emperor was not willing to accept hm as a legal ruler, this was a practical problem. Sforza attempted to curve around this difficulty, but it didn't work. The emperor didn't accept him. Lodovico got the acceptance very much later from Maximilian ... Fredrick III (I would assume) never accepted the Sforza rule.

Added: I remember, that Annunciation day (25th March), as Giovanni the baptist day (24th of June), and Christmas and a date in September (St Michael's day ? 29th of September) were of importance for taxing and taxes for a quarter of a year). So the choice of just this day might have had a very practical background.
From fairly early on, Michaelmas was an important holiday, the religious or Christian equivalent of the autumn equinox. In England, it was considered the start of a new quarter. It marked the start of a new business year, a time for electing officials, making contracts, paying rent, hiring servants, holding court and starting school. Obviously we still see the remnants of this in the timing of our elections and school year.
http://www.feastofstmichael.com/
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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Well everything I have read about Sforza has said he named his charitable foundation or institution after the town of Annuciato- and yes I think there was political intention because of the no longer Lombard League- the idea of self rule. Imagine waiting outside a town where the inhabitants were starving until the appropriate feast day came along.
If you look at the Chariot you can see the carriccho or Altar on Wheels with a possible Mary of Mercy and her Dove of the Holy Spirit.
The organisation’s insignia used to bear the scene of the Annunciation and the Latin motto "ave gratia plena" ("hail, full of grace"). Later it was simplified to a picture of the dove of the Holy Spirit.
I think we jump to the conclusion it is Bianca on her way home from a wedding.
No matter the truth of the cards- The foundation Magna Domas was a Magnificent gesture in the ideal of Aristotle as the 4th Virtue. So too the canals that might be on the World card. A smart politician was Sforza. His cards seem to be a great propaganda as well.
~Lorredan
Yes I believe that Sforza did raise a lot of money through taxes and I believe gave exemptions to eat luxury foods in Lent at a great cost. I used to think that indulgences were the province of the Church alone- apparently not.
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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I start to understand, what you mean ...

http://www.conventodellannunciata.it/

.... this is near Brescia, and it was founded 1455. Not a town, but a convent. Sforza is not mentioned (what not means, that there wasn't something).

http://www.terredilombardia.it/abbiateg ... nziata.php
Here Galeazzo Maria in 1472 became active to sponsor of a convento annunziata near Abbiategrass, where Bianca Maria had spend their youth (and likely Galeazzo Maria's grandmother once had her place). The convent seems to have been already founded 1466 as a thanks, that Galeazzo Maria was freed from prison in the year short after the death of his father.

In web I find more this latter noted.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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The Chapel that Galeazzo Maria decorated was in the Church of Santa Chiara- it is now an Institute.
Inside the Golgi Institute there are still some traces of the church and the women's convent of Santa Chiara, which took the place of the original monastery of San Martino in the 1400's. Going up to the first floor of the building on the east side, you can see the wing of the cloister with 15 serizzo granite columns and part of the cross vault of the church. On the inside there is a canvas by Camillo Procaccini and an interesting fragment (a Madonna with Child) originating from the chapel of the Annunciation which was decorated in 1470 by Galeazzo Maria Sforza
This Church was the home of the Poor Clares in Bianca's youth, and the reason I believe The papesse of the Visconti PMB is not Pope Joan or that other Order that is offered. It is a depiction of a Poor Claire with four knots on her belt. The cross staff she carries is on the outer wall of the Church- still today I believe(well I know- I saw it). The Church of Santa Chiara was right next door to where Bianca was raised and where her mother was housed (Visconti's mistress Agnes Del Maino) just a hop away from the Castle. Sforza paid for the upkeep of the Church/convent.
~Lorredan
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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In speaking of Magnificence there was a project that was equal to that of the Foundation I spoke about above.
It was The Naviglio Martesena or what is The Piccolo Canal into Milan From the River Adda.
The history of the canal begins on June 3, 1443, date of a document by Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, approving an ambitious project put forward by a group of illustrious Milanese citizens led by Catellano Cotta, the duke's administrator for the salt monopoly. The project aims to deviate the River Adda and thus build a canal for irrigation and to feed up to 16 mill wheels. The design included a water intake positioned just below the castle of Trezzo sull'Adda, where the natural course of the river narrows, therefore producing a current sufficient to guarantee a constant flow of water. The canal was to run alongside the river until Cassano d'Adda, where it would curve away in a south-westerly direction towards Milan. Because of the political situation of the time, nothing happened until 1457, when Francesco Sforza's edict, underwritten by Cicco Simonetta, marked the start of design work. The project was seen as being of great public benefit: since the war between Milan and Venice, Sforza had realised the military and economic potential of a navigable canal in an area that, at the time, was considered to be of strategic importance to the dukedom. So he modified the original project, to put it into a wider context giving the city of Milan a water connection to the Rivers Adda and Ticino.
Italian Wikipedia
The River Adda rises in lake Como exiting at Lecco draining down to the Po, thence out to Adriatic. Where the the canal starts at Trezzo is the Visconti castle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trezzo_sull'Adda
The next stop is Cassano del Adda- The Borromeo Castle that Sforza had renovated at great expense.
http://www.twip.org/image-europe-italy- ... 8867-27479
The home of cheese Gorgonzola is next, then Inzago,past the golf park Mollinello, under two highways, disappearing under housing now, popping up and finishing at Cascina dei pomi- 38 k's from start to finish. Where was the ending in 1450? Right at the gate of the Ospedale Maggiore- built by the Sforza's foundation of Annunciata.
The canal was opened by Bianca with great ceremoney in 1465.
Was this the Visconti dream depicted on the Cary Yale World card?
http://prolocogorgonzola.wpevery.com/about/story/
the map on this site shows the canal to Pavia....the supposed castle on the PMB.
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Re: Toastmasters For The Signore

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It was in may 2009 Robert asked this question...
Is the question, rather, whether the particular combination of themes we would recognise as "tarot" existed before they were placed on cards in the early 1400s?
Of course Robert may have answered this, it is now 2012.

On a statue in Florence of Judith and Holofernes is the Latin Quote
Regna cadut luxa, surgunt virtutibus urbes. Cesa vides humili colla superba manu.
Kingdoms fall through opulence, cities rise through Virtue,
Behold the proud neck severed by a modest hand.
Now Civic pride needed patrons, and Patrons had plans, and one of those plans was propaganda.
Italian cities had immense trouble with violent party struggles as well as the overthrow and then reinstatement of governing bodies or signori. They also needed to attract people- merchants, artists, etc. and the Universties needed students. In Siena a secular work in a public place for propaganda is the Lorenzetti work that apparently was originally called War and Peace (It is in the hall of peace)is now known as Good Government/Bad Government. It is considered an emblamatic allegory.
One of the things about it I did not realise was the chanels for water and the water mill and the importance of this.
I always thought that Northern Italy landscape was filled with water- but in reality the countryside was always in search for water- frosts, floods, droughts, and an army camped outside. Armies carried their own hand grinders- to assist in seige. So to show a chanel and Mill shows the staability of the countryside under good government- let alone the idea of safe transport or the idea that you had wheat for milling in safety. No starving in this place.
That is just one aspect of this particular piece of propaganda.
To answer Robert's question of 2009- yes there is.
~Lorredan
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts