Georgius Gemistus Plethon

MikeH

I just noticed this thread. Sorry: I get preoccupied with one or two threads and don't notice others.

My short answer to Teheuti's question is that Plethon's role in influencing the tarot is hard to determine. Any influence would have been second or third hand, through others, and depends on how you interpret a card.

Two cards that might have been influenced by him are the PMB Chariot and the d'Este Fool.

The PMB Chariot is, by my thinking, a representation of some virtue, Chastity probably, in the heights riding her chariot drawn by winged horses, as described in Plato's Phaedrus. Since Plethon played a large role in giving Plato the great importance he had later, and especially odd things like the Phaedrus (with its blatant homosexuality later in the dialogue), he would have played a part in making cards like the PMB Chariot popular and accepted, even for children, even in far off Milan. Scholars who had spent time in Florence were everywhere in the Italian city-states, e.g. Milan (Filelfo, Filarete) and Ferrara (Guarino, Alberti). They not only traveled but corresponded with one another a lot.

Regarding the d'Este Fool, we have to bear in mind that Plethon was not afraid to utilize the pagan mystery religions on their own terms. (For a particularly bigoted link, with lurid quotes from an "authority," see http://egregores.blogspot.com/2011/03/bessarion-other-roman-academy-heathen.html). His so-called "mystery school" in Greece was called "polytheistic" by many. As such he likely influenced the Roman Academy that was suppressed by Paul II, who had its members arrested and tortured.

Besides Malatesta, Plethon had influence through his pupil Bessarion, who stayed in Italy and had a unique collection of pagan Greek manuscripts. How much did Bessarion or his manuscripts influence the tarot? That is a hard subject. On THF I started a couple of threads on that issue, focusing on the Sola-Busca (see http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=613). Relevant to the d'Este Fool is the letter of Bessarion to the sons of Plethon after his death. Here is my and Google's translation off an Italian website, http://www.ritosimbolico.net/studi2/studi2_22.html. (A translation omitting the reference to Dionysus but keeping the Olympians is at http://www.scionofzion.com/codex_B.htm.)
The Cardinal Bessarion greets Andronicus and Demetrius, the children of learned Gemistus. I learned that our common father and teacher has deposited everything earthly and gone to heaven, to the site of every purity, to join the choir of the mystical dance of Jacco [id est the Dionysus of the Mysteries of Eleusis - ed] with the Olympian gods.
So the dead Plethon is happily dancing with Bacchus. (This article is mostly on Alberti. An interesting piece by the same folks focusing on Plethon is at http://www.ritosimbolico.net/studi2/studi2_10.html.) In my view, the d'Este Fool card has suggestions of Dionysian phallus-worship (without, to be sure, compromising the player's devotion to Christ). I know that some will see the card as simply showing children's curiosity. That is part of the problem in assessing Plethon's influence. Compare also the Noblet Fool.

There is also the question of influence of Plethon's "polytheism" on tarot after the 15th century, especially the "Marseille" variety. Are there Orphic or Dionysian elements there, and more Platonism? I would say Platonism for sure (i.e. the Moon card, for which see Vitali). Orphism is harder. Orphic theurgy was practiced by Ficino, influenced surely by Plethon.

So your question opens a can of worms, so to speak.

One fragmentary, fizzling attempt to assess Plethon's influence on tarot is at http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&gl=us&client=firefox-a&source=www.google.com
 

MikeH

For the Milan of Filippo Visconti, the link between Plethon and Filippo would have been Filelfo. Previously a long-time resident of Constantinople, he was in Florence for Plethon’s lectures, and in 1440 accepted Filippo’s offer to take up residence at the court of Milan. He continued as tutor and scholar under Francesco Sforza, writing an incomplete Sforziade. This information is in Wikipedia. I think I have read somewhere that he was Bianca Maria’s tutor, and of her older children.

Also, looking further at Moreno Neri's article “I Misteri di Giorgio Gemisto Pletone” (http://morenoneri.blogspot.com/2011/03/la-mia-prima-conferenza-su-giorgio.html), I see the following. I have highlighted the most relevant part in bold type. My stab at a translation follows.
Dunque - per concludere - il Tempio Malatestiano è una visione imperfetta della verità a cui tendeva il platonismo italiano del Quattrocento. Fu dallo stesso Pletone, probabilmente, che Sigismondo e la corte di artisti e letterati con l’Alberti e i suoi collaboratori tra cui alcuni maestri comacini , derivarono, direttamente o indirettamente, certi testi greci su cui alcune immagini esoteriche del Tempio sembrano basarsi. Ma questa è un’altra storia e qui bisogna essere “fratelli in Platone” perché a scriverla si corre il rischio di imbattersi in qualche reincarnazione dell’anima di Gennadio Scholarios.

Un altro tempio alle dottrine di Pletone fu dipinto a Ferrara, nei Mesi astrologicamente accordati di Palazzo Schifanoia.

La più delicata pittura del Quattrocento celebrò quel momento di abbraccio illimitato del simbolo nella Primavera del Botticelli, nel più bel mazzo di carte del mondo, i Tarocchi del Bembo. Quel Bonifacio Bembo, di cui in pochissime enciclopedie rinverrete la sua biografia, nato nella stessa città di Sigismondo, Brescia, e quasi suo coetaneo, che, dopo l’arrivo di Gemisto, per cinque anni disegnò le settantotto lamine dei suoi arcani. E ancora tutti gli artisti eredi dell’esoterismo di Pletone, solo per citarne alcuni, Piero della Francesca, Dürer, Giorgione, Leonardo, Raffaello, nelle lettere Shakespeare… In campo filosofico tra i tanti animatori e sostenitori della dottrina di Pletone, oltre ai tanti già citati , ricorderemo ancora Nicola Cusano (1401-1464), filosofo e matematico tedesco, che già ai suoi tempi vagheggiava una sorta di O.N.U., un organismo sovrannazionale, in grado di porre fine alle lotte religiose che insanguinavano l’Europa da decenni.


(Therefore - to conclude - the Temple Malatestiano is an imperfect vision of the truth aimed at by the Platonism of the Italian Quatrocento. It was from the same Plethon, probably, that Sigismund and the court of artists and literati, with Alberti and his collaborators among other teachers comacinis [?], derived, directly or indirectly, certain Greek texts on which some esoteric images of the Temple seem to based. But this is another story and here there need to be "brothers in Plato" because to write it incurs the risk of coming upon some reincarnation of the soul of Gennadio Scholarios [Plethon’s mortal enemy].

Another temple to the doctrines of Plethon was painted in Ferrara, in the Months astrologically granted to the Palazzo Schifanoia.

The Quatrocento’s most delicate painting celebrated that moment of boundless embrace of the symbol, in the Primavera of Botticelli and in the most beautiful deck of cards in the world, the Tarocchi of Bembo. That Bonifacio Bembo, of whom you will recover his biography in little encyclopedias, was born in the same city of Sigismund, Brescia, and almost his contemporary, who, after the arrival of Gemisto, for [or “in] five years drew the about seventy laminations of his arcana. And still more artists were heirs of the esotericism of Plethon; to cite only some: Piero Francesca, Dürer, Giorgione, Leonardo, Rafael, Shakespeare in the letters... In the philosophical field among the so many animators and supporters of the doctrine of Plethon, besides the many already quoted, we will recall Nicolas of Cusa (1401 -1464), the German philosopher and mathematician, who already in his time contemplated with pleasure a sort of U.N., a sovereign organism to a degree putting an end to the religious struggles that had stained Europe with blood for decades.)
I am not sure which deck Neri is referring to, the CY or the PMB; both are frequently attributed to Bonifacio. If "per" means "in," then five years after 1439 would be 1444, a frequent estimate for the date of the CY (adopted for example by Ross Caldwell in his timeline of decks).

In relation to Malatesta, there is of course the letter of Malatesta to Bianca Maria of 1452, requesting trionfi cards, probably from the Bembo workshop (http://www.trionfi.com/0/e/nof71/08.html). Perhaps Huck already mentioned it, I don't remember.
 

Huck

For the Milan of Filippo Visconti, the link between Plethon and Filippo would have been Filelfo. Previously a long-time resident of Constantinople, he was in Florence for Plethon’s lectures ...

I think, you need a rather good source for this.
I've read about accusations between Filelfo and Cosimo di Medici, that both had evidence or explained to have evidence, that the other had attempted to send an assassin to kill himself.

Not a good condition for Filelfo to visit Plethon's lectures in Florence in 1439. Filelfo had taught in Florence and had to leave, when Cosimo returned back in 1434.

Wikipedia has it in this way:
In addition to these labours of the chair, he found time to translate portions of Aristotle, Plutarch, Xenophon and Lysias from the Greek. Nor was he dead to the claims of society. At first he seems to have lived with the Florentine scholars on tolerably good terms; but his temper was so arrogant that Cosimo de' Medici's friends were not long able to put up with him. Filelfo hereupon broke out into open and violent animosity; and when Cosimo was exiled by the Albizzi party in 1433, he urged the signoria of Florence to pronounce upon him the sentence of death. On the return of Cosimo to Florence, Filelfo's position in that city was no longer tenable. His life, he asserted, had been already once attempted by a cut-throat in the pay of the Medici; and now he readily accepted an invitation from the state of Siena. In Siena, however, he was not destined to remain more than four years. His fame as a professor had grown great in Italy, and he daily received tempting offers from princes and republics. The most alluring of these, made him by the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, he decided to accept; and in 1440 he was received with honour by his new master in the capital of Lombardy.

This might be not the best source, but I guess, you'll find similar things in more serious sources.
No, I think, one can exclude this possibility.
 

MikeH

Huck: yes, you're right. I missed that part in Wikipedia about Filelfo's being in Siena for four years. However he would still have been in close contact with scholars in Florence, not that far away, including being informed about Plethon's lectures, maybe even participating in discussions, if they came to Siena (as some points might not have been safe to put in writing). He and Guarino were the best informed Italian scholars when it came to Greek sources, due to their extensive time in residence in Constantinople.
 

Huck

Huck: yes, you're right. I missed that part in Wikipedia about Filelfo's being in Siena for four years. However he would still have been in close contact with scholars in Florence, not that far away, including being informed about Plethon's lectures, maybe even participating in discussions, if they came to Siena (as some points might not have been safe to put in writing). He and Guarino were the best informed Italian scholars when it came to Greek sources, due to their extensive time in residence in Constantinople.

As far I know, there are famous fighting letters between Filelfo and Florentine humanists, likely especially Poggio. You might find some or reports with "Filelfo Poggio" ...

Filelfo had been welcome in Siena, cause Siena had not the best relationship with Florence. Filelfo was welcome in Milan, cause Milan and Florence had either war or half-war since about 40 years.
It was suspected, that Giangaleazzo was killed by Florentine poison in 1402. Giangaleazzo was Filippo Maria's father and Filippo Maria was not the kind of man, who could forget such things.
The Florentine guests likely didn't go to Siena. The Florentine paid for them ... likely they wouldn't have loved, if they took an excursion just to Siena. I would be a little surprised if you could find one, who did. Surely not a whole group.
 

MikeH

I will check on the dates of interactions between Filelfo and certain colleagues in Florence. Perhaps the interchanges were from before Cosimo or after Filippo. I wasn't paying attention to the dates 1436-1440 at the time I was reading about them.

Meanwhile, what about members of the Curia, who were in Florence for the conclave and were paid by the papacy, so not bound by Cosimo's strictures? Especially if Plethon was secretly urging people to set up academies along the lines of his "mystery school," people at the conclave not beholden to Cosimo might have wanted to do some consulting with more experienced heads. Besides the Curia, there were other people who might have been part of the discussion, not beholden to Cosimo and also not ones Cosimo would not have forbidden "his" scholars to communicate with, e.g. Guarino or Ciriaco. About Ciriaco, the Catholic Encylopedia (http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Ciriaco_D'Ancona) says:
He enjoyed the patronage of Eugenius IV, Cosmo de' Medici, and the Visconti of Milan. In 1443 he visited Mores in Greece, where he copied inscriptions mentioned in the correspondence of Filelfo, Traversari, Leonardo Aretino, and others.
The "others" whose patronage he enjoyed would also have included the Estensi in Ferrara, at least in 1449 when he visited Leonello. Ciriaco traveled a lot, not only to the Eastern Mediterranean but also to the various courts. He would have made an excellent courier.
 

MikeH

Your post about Filelfo's letters reached me after had added my last post. Surveying the list of names, I see that Ciriaco ("Kiriaco") appears at around the right time, 1440. I don't know the content, not knowing Latin, but I would expect it to be innocuous. It only shows that they were in contact then. After 1447 (Filippo's death), names that I recognize start to appear, such as Bessarion, who of course is the obvious member of the Curia to carry on Plethon's work in Italy. Later there is Malatesta. Leonello appears in 1449, around the time of Ciriaco's visit to Leonello.
 

Huck

Meanwhile, what about members of the Curia, who were in Florence for the conclave and were paid by the papacy, so not bound by Cosimo's strictures?

They're likely paid to fulfill Eugen's wishes ... :) ... and they attempted to do so. Actuall the Greek delegates were cheated and when they returned with THIS result, they got a bad and worse welcome.
Eugen got a sort of "good public relations", which helped him to overcome the interest of the council of Basel, which was also cheated, cause Eugen bought the Emperor to his side as he bought Cusanus and Enea Sylvio.

The final result in slow steps of this operation was the overkill of the council ideals of 1415, which in essence said, that the council (the community) is the highest power in the church and not the pope. This earlier success dropped down to a big money business for the pope in Rome, no unity in matters of the problems with Constantionople, and finally running in a split of the church (reformation) with a lot of following religious wars. In spite of all this Western culture developed by the grace of the book printing ... :) ... and we still profit from it in our research interests.

Well, the good side of the council was, that it had to some points the character of a book or manuscript fair, and brought the idea of more reading and more learning ... in itself the preparation for the invention of the letter printing press. The next pope became a book collector.

Especially if Plethon was secretly urging people to set up academies along the lines of his "mystery school," people at the conclave not beholden to Cosimo might have wanted to do some consulting with more experienced heads. Besides the Curia, there were other people who might have been part of the discussion, not beholden to Cosimo and also not ones Cosimo would not have forbidden "his" scholars to communicate with, e.g. Guarino or Ciriaco. About Ciriaco, the Catholic Encylopedia (http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Ciriaco_D'Ancona) says: The "others" whose patronage he enjoyed would also have included the Estensi in Ferrara, at least in 1449 when he visited Leonello. Ciriaco traveled a lot, not only to the Eastern Mediterranean but also to the various courts. He would have made an excellent courier.

I don't know, if Plethon was soooo important. And I doubt, that he had any meaning for Tarot.
Plethon ... different to Bessarion ... seems to have taken the position, that this council did run in the wrong direction. As far I know, he didn't agree with the new unity. This is quite an honor, that he had a realistic view on that, what happened.
 

samten

On Plethon again

I would like to add a few thoughts to this thread, albeit with extreme caution. After perhaps 8 years researching the question of whether Plethon influenced the emergence of the Tarot - at this point in time, and considering the mass of material I have gathered, one answer would be: there is no material evidence. But, there is circumstantial evidence - that is to say - a cluster, or constellation of facts - that suggests Plethon cannot be excluded entirely. Various scholars claim different facets of Plethon's lengthy life and work. This mosaic, so to speak, needs to be co-ordinated. There is a growing interest in Plethon, including up to date research taking place in Italy, Amsterdam and Mistra itself. So the threads need to be drawn together. Plethon has been called Neo-Zoroastrian, Platonic, Neo-Platonic, Pagan, Neo-Hellenic - and even Islamic and Sufi mystical influences have been attributed to him, not to mention a Jewish stream. Plethon himself is on record describing a New World Religion which would transcend Islam and Christianity. The re-emergence of Plethon into our present historic consciousness is timely.
Yours sincerely, Samten de Wet