stella01904
MM ~ This is not the one R.G. is referring to, but I think the platter-like object being held up looks like a pentacle. http://www.tarothermit.com/marseilles.htm That's all that's missing from the Conver, the pentacle.BB, Stella
le pendu said:My memory says that the final conclusion was that it was probably a hat. I remember some people suggesting it might be a purse, or a cake.
As a hat, it might have been used for "hat tricks" where things appear and dissappear out of the hat.
le pendu said:As for your point, I'm pretty sure the "Mantegna Tarot" depicts the "artisan" in the same way as what you mention:
http://l-pollett.tripod.com/cards27.htm
Andy says "ARTIXAN · III - The Artisan is probably a goldsmith, due to the small working tools scattered over his table, while an assistant peeps from behind. If we covered the left half of this illustration, we would obtain a typical tarot's Magician (with the only difference that the Artisan is sitting). The assistant too recalls the extra characters appearing in "southern pattern" tarots.
le pendu said:My understanding of the word Bagatto is that it means "A Trifle" ... a detail that is considered insignificant, something unimportant or minor. In the case of the Tarot, I'm under the impression that it refers to the POSITION of the card.
Is that close to what you mean by "bargain"? Does bagatto refer to the "a seller of trival things"? A seller of bargains? Would it be safe to assume that to an Italian audience in the 15th Century they would have looked at the card and seen no "magician", no "street-performer", no "trick performer" at all... but would have seen instead a merchant selling bargains?
Oh, wouldn't that be great, to have Mr. Dummett agree with ME. Hee hee. Certainly, I am at best agreeing with him, or more likely, I learned it from him and didn't remember the source.DoctorArcanus said:Dummett agrees with you in interpreting the name of the card as a reference to its little value in the game.
That's interesting, that may come in useful someday. Bologna.. hmm.DoctorArcanus said:"Bagattino" was a small coin from Bologna (I didn't know this before reading the dictionary yesterday).
Rosanne said:Thank You Doctor Arcanus and Le Pendu, the seller of trifles and bargains makes a lot of sense to me-when I first learned I was led to believe He was a Cobbler,Juggler, then a Magician. This sounds very appropriate-'Roll up Roll up- get your necessities for life here!' There are still vendors that travel with fairs, and set up their tables to sell bits and peices; many folk songs talk about the ribbons and such that are sold for the Ladies hair.~Rosanne
And we might see an echo of that original name in the little coin Le Bateleur holds in the TdM...le pendu said:Just wild-guessing here.. I wonder if it was a "small-valued" coin? Wouldn't it be interesting to discover that the name Bagatto comes from the value of the coins his items sold for... mere trifles?