Exploring the Cary Sheet

kwaw

kwaw said:
Barattino (deceiver, trickster, false/cheating gamester, keeper of a barrattiere ~ a gaming house)...

... by Andrea Vitali for Barattino, from a tarocchi apropriati sonnet in Italian, in translated text however he gives Bagattino that he describes in note as meaning a stupid man of no value,– so I am not sure that Barattino he gives in Italian text is not a typo for bagattino:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LTarot/message/2155

Kwaw

"Par che l'angel, la stella, il sol, la luna
Col mondo, et chi con lui di viver brama,
Odiano la beltà, che il cielo aduna
Nel viso altier de la signora Mama.
Forsi per esser tra le Dee queste una
Che lor spogli del ben, che 'l valor ama,
O pur, per che ne morte, o ria fortuna
Dal fermo suo voler maj la richiama:
però dee creder fermamente ognuno
Ch'un spirtito malvagio habbia costej
Supposta solamente al Barattino
Per poter dire i buoni tarocchi mej
Saran, s'avien ch'io giuochi, et questi uno
Vo trare il Matto ch'è cervel divino.

It seems that the angel, the star, the sun, the moon
With the world, and who covet to live with it,
Hate the beauty, that the heaven united
In the proud face of Mrs. Mother.
Maybe amongst these Goddesses she is stripped of the good,
whom the worthy love, for being one between them.
Or perhaps because neither death nor perditious fortune
From her own firm will can recall her:
But surely everyone firmly believes
This woman, who is above only the Baratinno,
Must possess a spirit of wickedness;
One able to say "the best tarot for myself
Shall be, to play as I please, and I draw
this one, the Matto or divine brain."

(NB: My translation probably has errors. Corrections to translation welcomed. Vitali's translation and notes are at link above.)

Kwaw
*or, a jot of heavenly conceit? or, a nothing of God’s brain?
(I am reading ch'è as nothing, jot, whit; cervel as conceit, wit or brain).

venicebard

le pendu said:
Multiple words have been used for our fellow through history..
Bateleur, Mountebank, Charlatan, Magician, Juggler, and we can probably add Jongleur to this list as well. We need to focus on the images on the cards though.. and remember that he is not storytelling, nor is he singing, or tumbling.. he is performing slight of hand tricks.

Yes, tumbling was more characteristic of the Jongleur than sleight-of-hand, I should think: this was one of the ways they captured people's attention so they might hear the verse and not simply drown it out with crowd noise.

It seems to me if we are to include the term Jongleur then it should be as a mere pun pointing to deeper associations (it being originally the term for one who recited a Troubadour's song in public when not recited by the T. himself). Indeed this trump's being numbered 1 in rank makes it correspond to alef, origin of speech (creative beginning of the Word), by both Hebrew and bardic numbering (the only letter on which the two agree).

Yet since 'Jongleur' does not appear anywhere on the card, it seems a bit of a stretch to consider it a possible title, unless I'm missing something and the title does indeed appear somewhere referring to this trump. So I'm in your camp on this, Robert, pretty much.

We've got a flamboyant street performer, who uses tricks, (and yes, even monkeys).. to, at best, entertain.. but more than likely, to trick and deceive.

Here, though, it seems to me you miss part of the point. Yes, I can see the sleight-of-hand artist as alef the doer/trickster -- the fox in Aesop, or the Trickster of Amerind myth -- but there is also the very important fact that this trickster is a force that unites a crowd of people, that gets their attention (like its tree, the majestic fir ailm [the Irish alef]). For it is the start, the beginning, numbered one in order or rank and thus signifying unity.

So I would guess that any of these words works, as long as we don't choose to use a word like Jongleur as a form of ennobling him.

Perhaps, yet I'm not so sure he is ignoble: one of the messages of this trump is certainly that he is an enterprising character, a man of skill, and indeed perhaps part of the message is that wisdom places merit or skill first, not social rank. The modern tendency to belittle private enterprise perhaps obscures this message in our day, but back then it was an innovative idea (expressed at length in a later century by Adam Smith, though too late to spare the 'Christian' conquerors of Spain the irreparable error of expelling the most productive element of their society, the Jews, thinking wealth consisted of gold rather than productivity).

kwaw

le pendu said:
As for the lack of titles, well I've stated continually that that seems natural enough, and in my opinion, indicates an old age of the design.

Generally yes, but not necessarily, cards such as the extended minchiate are nameless, and the 17th century tarocchino ("small tarot") of Mitelli for example had neither names (in fact trumps are customarily nameless in the Bolognese pattern) nor numbers printed upon them:

http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards38.htm

There is a Mitelli deck going on ebay at the moment, I don’t know if it is the 1984 Edizione del Solleone Limited Edition 300; the 1986 Edizione del Solleone Limited Edition reprint of 150; or the 1986 Il Meneghello Limited Edition 1000.

Anyone here know?

http://cgi.ebay.com/VECCHI-TAROCCHI...QQihZ013QQcategoryZ102521QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Kwaw

kwaw

quote:

“The word iocus in classical Latin means a joke or jest; an object of derision or laughing stock; or a trifle, a child’s plaything, of no importance. Ioculator is very rare in classical usage, one of the few examples being a letter to Cicero to Atticus where an old man, Scaevola, is described as a ‘joker’. In the Middle Ages, however, it is much more common and is frequently found in the vernacular as jogleor (Old French) and jogelour (Middle English), from which the Modern English ‘juggler’ is derived. The jongleur was essentially an itinerant entertainer with many skills and accomplishments. He could be a jester, clown, tumbler, dancer, actor, mimic, minstrel, singer or poet. Frequently, sleight of hand or prestidigitation formed part of his act, so jogelour often means ‘conjurer’ or ‘illusionist’. With talents such as these, it is not surprising that the jongleurs soon earned a reputation for being charlatans and con-men, and in Middle English the word is often used to mean ‘parasite, deceiver, or rascal’. Moreover, being ‘footloose and fancy free’, detached from normal society and employment, the jongleur was regarded with something like the suspicion aroused by the beatniks and hippies of the 1960s.

End quote from:
Perfect Fools: Folly for Christ’s Sake in Catholic and Orthodox Spirituality by John Saward (Oxford University Press 1980)

Quote:
”The jongleurs, a class of minstrel who accompanied those troubadours who chose to employ them. During the cruel wars against the Albigenses these knightly bards disappeared, bu the hireling jongleurs remained behind. Some of them had visited the East, and learned the art of conjuring; some had no poetry in them and lived by antics…

End quote from:
Notes and Queries , Various authors published 1872 G. Bell.

Quote:
“Every one who is at all acquainted with the literary history of the middle ages, is aware that an important part of the business of the jongleur, or minstrel, was to tell stories, often of a ludicrous, and not unfrequently of a very coarse, description. Our literary historians have fallen into the error of supposing the jongleur to be merely the descendant of the older bard : he was, on the contrary, peculiar to the age which followed the crusades, and was without doubt an importation from the East. His attributes were far more varied than those of the Saxon or German minstrel. He was alternately a story-teller, a musician, a mountebank, and a conjurer…

“…We meet with incidents, not only in the medieval romances, but in the drier pages of the chronicler, which show that it was not uncommon for Saracenic minstrels and jongleurs to follow their vocation in Christian countries. In the half historical, half legendary history of Fidke fits Warine, one of the outlaws, "who knew enough of labour, harp, viol, sitole, and jonglerie" (savoit assez de tabour, harpe, viole, sitole, e jogelerie), blackens his face and skin, and repairs to the court of king John in the disguise of a Moorish minstrel, and he is there welcomed, makes "much minstrelsy of tabour, and other instruments," and shows by his sleight-of-hand that he was a ban jogelere. The early romances furnish other instances of Moorish minstrels, or persons in that disguise, entertained at the courts of Christian barons and princes, and conversely of Christian jongleurs who visited the Saracens. “

End quote from:
Essays on subjects connected with the literature, popular superstitions, and history of England By Thomas Wright (1846)

Kwaw

Rosanne

Your posts are interesting as usual Kwaw! I just fell down a long drop and did not come up smelling roses regarding the Portuguese Joker- ah well poo happens! It came to mind while I was languishing down the Long drop

that maybe... just maybe there is a reason that this particular image of a 'maybe Jongleur' disappeared. The association of this character- to Le Fou was too close and the character of a later Bateleur was more in keeping with a difference between the two cards? The vagabond/rover/Jesting Fool= Le Fou- the Fairground trickster/Jack of all trades =Le Bateleur? This is my faint voice from down a hole.....~Rosanne

kwaw

Quote:
“It is not until the Thirteenth Century that we hear of troubadours in Italy. Then Raymond Berenger, Count of Provence, visited Emperor Frederick II. at Milan bringing troubadours and jongleurs in his train. Thus taught, Italy soon produced her own trovatori and the influence of Provencal poetry was felt in the land for many years.

"The Italian jongleurs frequently brought for the diversion of their patrons sleight-of-hand tricks and monkeys, camels and dancing bears, as well as the popular songs of the day, their performances amounting to a sort of crude vaudeville. From this we may see the evolution of the modern " juggler " from the jongleur. These itinerant mountebanks for a while enjoyed the church's favor and were allowed to take part in the passion plays and mysteries. “

End quote from:
http://www.tribalsmile.com/music/article_26.shtml

Kwaw

kwaw

Rosanne said:
... just maybe there is a reason that this particular image of a 'maybe Jongleur' disappeared. The association of this character- to Le Fou was too close and the character of a later Bateleur was more in keeping with a difference between the two cards? The vagabond/rover/Jesting Fool= Le Fou- the Fairground trickster/Jack of all trades =Le Bateleur?

One of the earliest recorded titles we have is 'bagatelle' that means both juggler (in the wider semantic sense of the period as noted in previous posts) and a trifle, small things of little value. And I think the earliest name and intent of this type of image was possibly on this sort of punning wordplay between the image on the card and the value of the card in play; and that other names for the card arose as synonyms or translations for either one of these two meanings of the original title; that basteleur for example is simply a straightforward translation of bagatelle in its sense of iugler.

The image on the early painted cards do not look like any sort of performer to me though, looks more like a clerke or banker, which would perhaps fit in with Bagatino as a small coin of little value (or baratinno that means barterer among other things as he is called in one sixteenth century sonnet, bartering or exchanging coins for tokens or chips ~ far too early for chips I think, although large numbers of round discs were also made at the mint for use on counting boards, but maybe exchanger of larger coins for smaller to be used in games? Baratinno is related to baratierre meaning a gaming house ).

Gambling has always been the target of social interference, but is somehow more acceptable if it just a small token. When I am at the club a bit later today, I shall be surrounded by several small groups of card players, all with bags of pennies (the smallest English coin denonimation). The same pennies have probably been exchanged between the card players for a long time, they don't spend them as they wouldn't buy you much anyway and they want to keep them for the sunday card game; it can take a while to build up a supply of small coins unless you go to the bank to get some.

Kwaw

kwaw

kwaw said:
or campo propinat (he on the field perhaps description of the player, gamester, campo refering to any flat gaming surface, the field of play)??(Ross can you clarify?).

Would Mitelli's use of Green (Verde) have the same sort of meaning as campo (Field) as refering to any flat playing surface? Playing perhaps also on its use to be found for example in Dante as refering to the end of things?

The Gamester / Player says:
Playing was always my delight, to pursue
The study of sport has proved well spent,
So often does gaming my purse augment
To have rent me a living without debt to a Jew.

To which death replies:
Until the very last when on the green
Fleeting fortune's Man shall play my game
The company of her cubic bones he gained
Only for she to lose his soul to oblivion.

Image is Mitelli's 'The Player' from Le Ventiquattr’Hore dell’Humana Felicit (The Twenty-Four Hours of Human Happiness) The 24 hours consist of 24 engravings in which 23 characters give their reasons for happiness, with a response from death, to whom the 24th engraving is dedicated. Mitelli was not only an engraver but also creator of several dice, board and card games.

The 'happiness' of the Player and Deaths response in English above is a very (very) rough paraphrase, rather than an exact translation, of original Italian verses. A more accurate translation welcomed.

Kwaw

Rosanne

kwaw said:
The image on the early painted cards do not look like any sort of performer to me though, looks more like a clerke or banker, which would perhaps fit in with Bagatino as a small coin of little value (or baratinno that means barterer among other things as he is called in one sixteenth century sonnet, bartering or exchanging coins for tokens or chips ~ far too early for chips I think, although large numbers of round discs were also made at the mint for use on counting boards, but maybe exchanger of larger coins for smaller to be used in games? Baratinno is related to baratierre meaning a gaming house ).
<snip>
Gambling has always been the target of social interference, but is somehow more acceptable if it just a small token.

So true that observation- and indeed it would be the 'self revelation' about cards,dice and the like that jmd mentioned when I asked why cards were not generally shown on the card image. It is funny in a way- but the Catholic church has always made prohibitions about gambling except when to raise money even these hundreds of years later. They could sell indulgences for a gamble on your soul, but a game of chance was a no-no. On the Penitent trails the showman at the Cathedral and holy sites sold indulgences too!
~Rosanne

kwaw

kwaw said:
Barattino (deceiver, trickster, false/cheating gamester, keeper of a barrattiere ~ a gaming house). Or perhaps related to the French baratin?

Il me fait du baratin - He's sweet-talking me

Assez de baratin ! - Cut the chatter!

Related: baratiner - to chat someone up, sweet-talk someone; un baratineur - smooth talker, windbag

Can also mean stable boy, and to argue (which would fit in perhaps with the meaning of taroccare as altercation).

I keep thinkiing of pinocchio povere burattinno poor marionette, in connection with the meaning of the Milanese~Italian word tarocch with wood, as tree, log, trunk but also related to a game of hazard, throw of dice (Italian synonyms in italics followed by French equivalents):

Tarocchista. Minchiatista. Joueur de tarots m.
Tarocch. Tarocco, germini, minchiate. Tarots.
Tarocch. Borra, pedale, toppo, tronco. Tranc, grosse souche de bois, f., chantier, chicot m.

Tronco: a trunk, a stock, a log, a block, a stump, a stem without boughes. Also a bodie without a head. Also a troncheon or a bat. Also a loggerheaded felow, a block-headed dunce, a heauie-nole.

Pedale: a foote, a base, a foundation, the stocke or roote of a tree or any thing else, a foote-stale, a foote-stoole, a supporter, a stake or forke to beare vp any vine, hops, or trees, a prop, or stay. Also the measure or space of a foote. Also a mans stocke, wealth, or substance. Also socks, or thin dancing pumps. Vsed also for a mans off-spring, stocke, lineage, blood, or descent.

Toppo: a counterbuffe, a counter shocke at tilt./ Related to Toppáre ~ to counter-shocke or giue a counter-buffe. Also to finde or meete withall by chance. Also to snatch or take away. Also to set, to cast at, to plaie at or hold the by or vie at any game namely at dice. Also to put to a dore and make it fast with a haspe or latch or wodden locke. / A tóppogiuócare a tóppo, to play at gresco or hazzard, and then to set at euery chance or cast, or to set and cast at the by.

Chantier: m. A Wood-mongers, or Tymber-sellers, yard; also, a Staulder, or Wood-pile; also, a Vine-supporting pole, or stake (whether it stand vpright, or lye, as a crosse barre, ouerthwart; and (hence) also, as Treillis, or a rayle for the same purpose; also, a Stoope, or Pile, vnderpropping the banke of a riuer; also, a Gauntrie, or Stilling, for Hogs heads, &c. to stand on; also, a Tresle to saw Tymber on.

Chicot. A stub, or stumpe; or as Chiquot: m. A scale in the root, or end of a nayle; also, a sprig, or shoot of a tree; also, the stumpe of a tooth

Souche: f. The stock, trunke, or bodie of a tree; a log; also, the maine stock, or direct line of a pedegree, progenie, or familie; also, as Souchet; or, the root of the wild, or English Galingale. Souche commune. The descent of many brothers or cousens, from one father, mother, grandfather, or grandmother. Tant que tige fait souche, elle ne branche iamais.

Kwaw
ref: synonyms and french equivalents:
Vocabolario milanese-italiano-francese by Eugenio Cappelletti (1848) Dalla Tipografia Boniardi-Pogliani di E Besozzi

Definitions of synonyms and translated words:
John Florio, Italian english Dictionary and Cotgroves French English.

Exploring the Cary Sheet

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