Huck said:
In contrary to Kaplan's representation the card is regarded by some simply as fame ...
According to Kaplan too the female figure with her trumpet and crown is possibly a representation of Fame, he also suggests the landscape with river, ships various 'cities' is possible a representation of the region of Milan; I too would suggest Milan, and the figure as Fama, the two representing the fame and glory of Milan.
"From 1391 Uberto [decembrio] was secretary to Peter of Candia, who later became Archbishop of Milan and later Pope Alexander V. Peter of Candia was a habitue of the Visconti court during the first decade of the 15th century, and it was through him that Uberto came to act as one of Giangaleazzo's leading publicists in his propoganda wars with Florence....
"Whatever motives may have brought the first Latin
Republic into being in 1402, it is clear that by the time Uberto composed his own dialogues
De Republica libri IV around 1420 he was reading the work as justification of signorial government...
"But what counts as a healthy state for Uberto is far different from Plato's account. For Uberto, the natural commonwealth is not a city-state, but a regional state (like Milan) made up of interdependent cities and their surrounding territories; only when a state has the resources of several
urbes vel nationes can it truly be independent. Whereas for Plato, the healthy state, being simple in its desires, has no need for foreign trade, for Uberto the economy of a healthy state is highly diversified, and needs merchants, roads, inns, seaports, shipyards, and a merchant marine as well as a variety of other trades. For Plato, war is the consequence of the 'fevered' states lust for wealth and of the envy and greed it excites among its neighbours; for Uberto, every healthy state must defend itself, and so needs knights, mercenaries, and war industries such as armour manufacturing (a leading industry in Milan), and horse-breeding. Finally, Uberto's healthy state is ruled by a prince, who protects religion, safeguards the laws and public morals ..." [Hankin, James: Plato in the Italian Renaissance].
It is this image I suggest, of the region of Milan as interdependent cities and their territories, its ships and its princely ruler, that we see on the Cary-Yale world card.
Kwaw