I was again looking at these cards last night and noted some peculiar features about their numbering:
The first is that, unlike four (IIII) or fourteen (XIIII) that each uses the more standard additive form, the Hermit uses the subtractive Roman (IX).
The next, and quite unusual for the time, is that the cards appear to be designed
with numbering, rather than having these as possibly added at a later date.
And the third is that the cards are obviously intended to be used with possibility of coming out in play in a reversed presentation, as each card has its numbering on each side of the card, rotated 180°.
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The Jewish emblem of dough-nut (equivalent to other symbols required to be worn by Jews at various times in European history) on the Pope's glove already being noted by kwaw, it may simply represent the first Bishop of Rome, St Peter himself.
What struck me most last night was the apparent
age of the charioteer. Perhaps because of the post I recently made in the History section on the
cardinal virtue of Wisdom/Prudence, his apparent aged look seemed more a reflection of that connection than the 'Victorious Commander' one has virtually come to expect of a character with more youthful Martian qualities.
