Mails (autorbis), Part I
Lothar ( autorbis) wrote the following mails during a discussion at TarotL - they are only roughly edited. I got permission to post them here:
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Lothar
The mails are taken out of context, cause of interfering or earlier discussions, but perhaps somebody has some win of them. .... there are breaks in it etc.
At the end of the mails I know something better as at begin. Something, which made me rather satisfied with the day.
Mail 1: About the Lazzarelli manuskript
Well, it's more, what I think, that it is.
The text is not too long, around 100.000 signs including spaces, 27
Illustrations. More or less, beside some words at the beginning and
some words at the end and some words between, the text talks about
the themes which are given by the pictures. When the first picture
comes and it's "First Cause", he talks of "First cause" - rather
generally.
As a lot of pictures are planet-gods, he mostly talks about the
mythological gods (with not much astrology in it). These are the
longer texts. Rather short he becomes with the Muses - naturally,
nobody knows much of them, so he can't play the mythological
dictionary. And he also becomes short with the 5 added gods, although
these have some mythology, what could have talked about - it seems,
that he lost some faith or fun ... or he has other difficulties.
In an added manuscript, which is said not be part of all extant
editions he claims, that the sponsor is sick and ill. Lazzarelli
fears for his patron, and perhaps a little bit also about, what might
become of himself, when his sponsor died. So perhaps, that the
reason, why he starts thick and ends thin. But ... let's see.
The way he describes the gods should be at least a little similar in
concept, as the original Martiano da Tortona text might have been. Somehow
a mythology dictionary in 15th century style with a picture to each
described element or figure and the whole is literarely embedded in a
meta-story, in which the poet is visited by Muses and Gods, who talk
occasionally to him and help his inspiration.
At the end he is in trouble about the health of the sponsor, he
prayed for him and as it seems, he recovered, as Lazzarelli tells us.
Ross - two years ago - interpreted this as "magical act" and I
protested. We'd a different interpretation about that. In my opinion
Lazzarelli's "magical phase" started 1484 and not earlier. In the
time of this Tarot-related manuscript he appears to me as a poet,
which is inspirated by Greek mythology - not more. And with some
practical difficulties.
I forgot in my representation of the 10+2+10+5 - structure, that
Lazzarelli parts the whole in 2 different books and a specific detail
about HOPE:
FIRST BOOK
M 50 = Mantegna Nr. 50
M 49
HOPE - actually Lazzarelli speaks about the correct M 48
M 47
M 46
M 45
M 44
M 43
M 42
M 41
M 26 = MUSIC
Here the first book ends, as Lazzarelli himself declares (as it seems)
SECOND BOOK
M 27 = POETRY
M 20
M 19
M 18
M 17
M 16
M 15
M 14
M 13
M 12
M 11
M PALLAS -- is described as M 28 = Philosophia looks like
At this stage of his representation Lazzarelli declares the following:
"An end and a goal were granted to our labors. My skiff had touched
its ports. I had sung of the gods that had been commanded and the
forms of the gods. An end was owed by the orders of the Aonides. Or
could they divert the completion of this work? I ceased to write
about their forms in our songs.
And I, Federico, was preparing to seal a closed book when a new voice
resounded in our ears. I would not have recognized Juno, who spoke in
composed measure, if the voice had not revealed the one speaking
these words."
That could be poetical intention, already old in plan, but it seems,
that Lazzarelli is really surprized ... considering the chaos, in
which the concept of the text developed and that it finally seems to
be somehow unfinished. In my opinion something had entered from
reality, either from inner reality or from outside reality.
Lazzarelli couldn't act else and had to make some words to it.
He tries to save the situation by letting Juno enter and explain the
following:
"You have sung of Venus and Pallas with the sweet plectra. You have
forsaken me alone. I am one of the three. Without me you shall not be
permitted to pass through the desired gates. Without me the sand
shall not touch your curved boat. It is not fitting that Jove is
without twin brothers and me who am said to be the wife and sister of
Jove. There are twin brothers and with me there is Victory who was
suitable for Jove in the Gigantean war. Behold! May it be permitted
to you, as it has always been permitted to poets, to be able to look
with mortal eyes upon the gods. Look and mindfully impress these
forms of ours in your heart. Thence let your poem proceed again in
due form. So far, you have sung many things by order of the Aonides.
May it be permitted to speak these few things at my command."
What had happened? I try to interprete the poet, who had a similar
problem, as poets always have, that is, "make, that it looks round."
Lazzarelli as already in another email suggested, had the idea of
Boiardo, that is 22 pictures, with one great pair "POETRY - MUSIC"
and 2 groups with 10 elements, Spheres and Muses. Then he started
with enthusiasm, and, as he had much knowledge of the spheres and
planets and gods, the first part become nice and perhaps a little
more than he had in plan. The enthusiasm endured till card Nr. 13 of
his concept and this is Clio. For Clio he had enough stuff and the
right inspiration, but already then he should have noted, that
something went totally wrong: There was simply not enough stuff
available about the Muses - he could do what he want, more than a few
lines about each Muses he couldn't get of them.
His whole text would look like, as if he promised very much at the
beginning, but couldn't fulfill it in the end. The story was not
round ... well, he didn't write an email or such stuff, he made
poetry, and this was much work, not a matter of an evening. Petrarca
did need 18 years for his Trionfi ... let's assume, that Lazzarelli
invested a half year. And then he ended in bullshit, or realised,
that he made something deadly wrong.
I assume, his first security measurement was to let Pallas appear at
the end of the concept as a sort of Prudentia-incarnation, which
finished the both rows that he had in mind. When finishing Pallas,
which also became not too long, because it was born out of need and
he hadn't collected material to her or the poetical inspiration was
missing ... something like this happens ... he jumped to the
invention of Juno, letting her protest, and he found reason to make
the text longer with some additional figures.
He - in poetical problems - decided for the 27, giving Juno the words
in her mouth, that the she and her brothers should also be part of
the story. Damn bullshit again, he gorgot about the two missing
sisters, Vesta and Ceres.
The texts to the 2 brothers became too short, the ispiration was
lost - such things happen.
JUNO
NEPTUNE
PLUTO
VICTORY
He tries to save himself with a longer text about VICTORY, alright,
but it's so, that one can feel the interruption.
"My anchor has been cast and I have touched the desired ports. Now
lift up this skiff stuck under your rocks. This ship is your
Federico. The helmsman himself is yours, and whatever the ship
carries is all yours. These goods which I have sought in the midst of
the waters I do not lend to you with interest. Your love of the goods
is interest enough for me. So long as you protect it from the enemy,
may my gift always gratify you. This sturdy little boat carries
eternal wealth. I have long desired to stroke the Castalian lyre with
this small song, most renowned Prince. Soon I shall try other
approaches and you rightly take pride in your triumphal processions,
and I will sing of you with greatest praise."
He's a poet and he needs the next job.
Pythagoreanism ... do you think, that's the only problem of the world?
About HOPE, which is inside my text given instead of "OCTAVA SPHERA"
(and my text doesn't have pictures): Lazzarelli starts this passage
with:
"And now the circle of the EIGTH SPHERE prompts me to sing at
length." and then talks about this EIGTH sphere. I cannot say, how
this HOPE entered the text, perrhaps somebody exchanged pictures.
Lazzarelli speaks from the object, that is "normal" in the Mantegna
Tarocchi.
Some final word - in the case I'd really a reading and somehow
understanding reader to my recent posts, he/she might come to the
conclusion, that I interpreted the Lazzarelli-composition, as if
the Mantegna Tarocchi wouldn't exist at the time, when Lazzarelli
wrote his composition. If such a reader exist - then I congratulate
him now for his/her wise and careful reading.
The translated Lazzarelli texts are from the English edition of
De Gentilium Deorum Imaginibus -Ludovico Lazzarelli
trans. William J. O'Neal
Next Mail: Franchino Gaffurio
A picture
http://www.italica.rai.it/rinascimento/iconografia/prot_964.pdf
from Franchino Gaffurio, 1469, front of De praticae musicae
the theme is a meeting of Muses and Spheres, it's not precisely that,
what Lazzarelli realised with his first 22 figures, but the
similarity is so obvious, that one might bet, that Lazzarelli knew
this or something similar, when he constructed the first 22 pictures.
It should be observed, that Franchino Gaffurio is of similar "young"
age as Lazzarelli (*1450, another source claims 1447)- so naturally,
these both - if they met - could have spoken on an easy level with
each other.
However, this young man is reported to have been in Lodi and in
Mantua, so the question is there, how the different life strings
did meet each other (not a real problem, as Lazzarelli just might
have seen Gaffurio's manuscript, but ...)
Lazzarelli is reported by Hanegraaf to have had a spiritual master,
Giovanni da Corregio alias "Mercurio". This - and as it seems to me
with my own critical eyes - might lead back to informations, which
are only given by Lazzarelli himself, but Hanegraaff interprets them
as sure in his article "Sympathy to the devil", I don't know his
reasons, and I would like to hear more about reality of
this "Giovanni da Correggio", it would make me free to abandon the
following strange impression and idea.
I assume this "Giovanni da Correggio" as not real, or, better, it's
just a name for somebody else.
Lazzarelli let this Giovanni act in a curious action, Hanegraaff
reports:
"Little is known about the author [29]. Lazzarelli (1450-1500) was
one of the many minor Italian humanists of the period, part of whose
works are still accessible only in manuscript. He seems to have
studied mathematics and astrology, and Greek as well as Hebrew. We
are told that Lazzarelli exorcized impure spirits by the sign of the
cross, predicted the future, and at one time fell under the suspicion
of magical practice (Kristeller 1938, 226). Especially interesting is
his connection with the strange figure of Giovanni "Mercurio" da
Correggio (?1451-?), a wandering prophet who made a spectacular
appearance in Rome on palm sunday 1485. The episode has been
described in detail in an anonymous Epistola Enoch, attributed to
Lazzarelli [30]. Correggio rode to the Vatican on a black horse, then
left the city, to return riding a donkey, clothed in a blood-stained
linen robe, and carrying a crown of thorns on his head. Correggio
presented himself to the people as Jesus of Nazareth's chosen servant
and son, and referred to himself as Pimander. This, as well as his
added name Mercurio, demonstrate his self-identification as the
hermetic Christ [31]. Lazzarelli appears to have seen in Giovanni da
Correggio his spiritual master, who had effected his "spiritual
regeneration" [32]. It is in this context that the Crater Hermetis
must be understood."
http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeII/SympdevilRev.html
I've tried to localise this Giovanni da Correggio, but I couldn't.
But there are two persons:
Niccolo da Correggio
Giovanni Pico da Mirandola
Niccolo da Correggio is born around the time, which is given for the
birth of this mysterious Mercurio alias Giovanni da Correggio. He is
born as the child of Beatrice d'Este and his father died, before he
was born. Beatrice d'Este married then Tristano Sforza, so in person
connected the courts of Milan and Ferrara, that is the two places, at
which Tarot development took place.
In the situation of 1.1.1441, which we do suspect as a "birth-hour of
the 5x14-Trionfi-deck", Beatrice, a little younger than the guest
Bianca Maria Visconti, was present. Together with another daughter of
Niccolo, Isotta, Beatrice and Bianca Maria builded during the half-
years-stay of Bianca in Ferrara a young girls trio, which, humorously
expressed, could terrrorise the humble d'Este court with exclusive
wishes.
Later at the d'Este court Beatrice is said to have been the
queen of the feasts, that is, she showed all aspects of a very
creative woman with some very personal character, as far we can get
it.
Naturally her son, Niccolo, educated by this mother, also was
dedicated to become "creative". He advanced to become a poet and
influenced the early theatre. And he had one foot in Milan, by his
father Francesco Sforza, and another in Ferrara, by his mother, and,
as far I see it in this time, there is no other who could compete in
this very specific role.
This Niccolo should have known Franchino Gaffurio from his contacts
to Milan and of course also Lazzarelli.
Niccolo was by his better social situation a "natural master" to
Lazzarelli, the poor poet, who had to give words and words to impress
Federico Montefeltro to get some money (if you doubt, read his text),
so we shouldn't be surprized, that he talked in this way from him.
And there is another person, Giovanni Pico da Mirandola. Another
young man, but with much more money than Niccolo da Correggio and
also Lazzarelli. The fantastic action, that is decribed by
Lazzarelli, actually took place in Rome, but in another way, as
Lazzarelli describes it (this seems to be just "poetic language", not
more), and it is well known to us as the activities of Pico de
Mirandola to establish some Kabbala in the renaissance world, just
happening around the time, that Lazzarelli indicates.
What's the reason to use a "wrong name" and speak through the flower?
Well, very simple, Giovanni Pico da Mirandola was persecuted for his
activities, the theme was dangerous.
Well, only my assumption, and I wished to know the base of
Hanegraaffs article, perhaps then it will turn out, if I hit on the
black or only think nonsense in this matter.
(see next text)
Somehow Hebrew Alphabet scheme with 22 + 5 letters. Not Pythagoras.