Jacques Vieville Tarot

[Cerulean]

This probably means nothing, other than I was playing
with the Vieville poem and dividing the order of the
named trumps into different pictorial sequences. The
pairing below is the order that the trumps are named
in the 'poem-story'. I just noticed the alternation of
male and female can be looked as more than a few
male/female pairings:

Justice / Old Man (Hermit or Time)
(7) Female / (11) Male

Fool / Juggler
(No Number)-Male (1) /Male

Lovers / Temperance(*)
(6) 2 Male, 1 Female / (14) 1 Female


Judgment / World (*)
(20) 2 Male, 1 Female / (21) 1 Female


Pope / Popess
(5) Male / (2) Female


Emperor / Empress
(4)Male / (3) Female

Sun / Moon
(20) Male / (18) Female

Star / Lightning
(17)Male / (16) Male

Force / Hanged Man
(9)Male / (12)Male

Chariot / Devil
(8) Male / (15) Male

(*) The female card completes female/male sequence.

There are twenty cards named. Maybe Fortuna of the Wheel of Fortune and the un-named Death trump
are a pairing outside the human life possibilities, being
allegories of supernatural significance.

The goddess Fortuna at the Wheel or Fate is usually
considered a 'wild' card in terms of allegorical
destiny: Fortuna is outside of sequence. I suppose
Death is also in it's own way an allegory outside of
predictability. Note this is suggestion, but it may be totally off-base and you are welcome to correct my silly suggestions.


It's not
startling, just a fun possibility of gaming or perhaps
inspiration for stories...you could vaguely suggest
there's opposites between passionate lovers and softer
temperance. In one example of a story, I could say things like "Holy Elijah of the heavenly chariot was an
opposite of Judas the Traitor (although he seems to be an acrobat in the Vieville...maybe this a creative take on the vice-virtue contrast." In this deck, perhaps it was an experimental and innovative fancy combination of different regional deck images for the young, made more cheerful and different with all the flipped images.

I like seeing the pariting of the old man in the star for this deck verses the young man in the funny Lightning design (which replaces the Tower in this alternative design).

I looked at the loose translation of the written text on the cards provided by Kaplan. Maybe echoing allegorical stories, maybe an attempt to
amuse small children or teach a memory game...has the
feel of a nursery rhyme.

Kaplan writes: "D'Allemagne read the word Trannay as
'tyranny' rather than trainer, "to drag," but also
matched it with the Chariot."

Kaplan's loose translation from Volume II of the
Encyclopedia of the Tarot, text on the Ace of the
Pentacles:

Holy Father, render me Justice (VII) by this Old Man
(XI Hermit), The Fool and The Juggler (I), The Lovers
(VI), of this lady (XIIII Temperance) who would shout
at the sound of the trumpet (XX Judgment) for all the
World (XXI) in the name of the Pope (V), The Popess
(II), The Emporer (IV), The Empress (III), The Sun
(XIX), (continuing on Two of Cups) The Moon (XVIII),
The Star (XVII) and Lightning (XVI) to take by Force
(IX) The Hanged Man (XII) to drag him (VIII The
Chariot?) to the Devil (XV).

I mean to have fun with this in a fiction writing
class. I'm titling the sequence "The Cavern of Tossed
Tuscanies" as a play on the "Tavern of Crossed
Destinies" in satirical tribute to Italo Calvino.

I'm certain others have noticed such things...but I
don't recall coming across this lately.

Mari Hoshizaki

[Ross G Caldwell]

Here's my translation of the same riddle -

Literal translation (emphasizing names of atouts and cognates between English and French):

HOLY FATHER DO
ME JUSTICE OF THIS
OLDSTER MA[T] AND BAGA[T]
AMOROUS OF
THIS LADY LET
IT BE CRIED BY SOUND OF
TRUMPET ALL
THE WORLD ON PART OF
THE POPE THE POPESS
THE EMPEROR THE EMPR-
ESS THE SUN
THE MOON THE STARS
THE LIGHTNING TAKEN
AT FORCE LET HIM BE
HANGED & DRAGGED
TO THE DEVIL

Idiomatic:

HOLY FATHER,
RID ME OF THIS
OLD MAN, FOOL AND CHEAT,
AMOROUS OF
THIS LADY -
LET IT BE ANNOUNCED BY THE SOUND OF
THE TRUMPET BY ALL
THE WORLD, BY
THE POPE, THE POPESS,
THE EMPEROR, THE EMPRESS
THE SUN,
THE MOON, THE STARS,
THE LIGHTNING! TAKEN
AT FORCE, LET HIM BE
HANGED AND DRAGGED
TO THE DEVIL!

(note: BAGA(T) is hard to translate - it should probably be left as is)

Ross

[Cerulean]

like the theme of a nightgown farce, shades of Boccaccio?

If I look at the sweet face of the young man in Lightning...sigh. So this is not a child's song, but a tale of young lovers with amorous intentions? Oh well, let it be a romantic or kiddy tale spun out of our imagination and added to this twisty pattern of old...

Mari H.

P.S. But one could have fun, via the shades of Crossed-Destinies (My Tossed Tuscanies) with a poem-'curse'-tale and non-standard majors. Thanks for your wonderful translation.

[Cerulean]

http://www.tarot-history.com/Jacques-Vieville/

Jacques Vieville psudonym:
http://www.tarot-history.com/Jacques...seudonyms.html

Really interesting printing summary. Thanks for the revivied discussions on this deck, all, it's a lovely variation.

Cerulean