Researching F.M. Visconti

barth

Greetings! I've been lurking on these boards for some time. What a treasure trove the Historical Research boards have been for me. I want to say thanks to all of you historians for sharing your work and thoughts publicly.

Anyway, I'm decloaking because I'm writing a novel in which Filippo Maria Visconti appears as a character. The story takes into account his relationship with tarot and playing cards, and I feel that I have a decent handle on that part of my research (trionfi.com was a God-send - thanks, Huck!).

But I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a good biography of the duke, one that I could find through amazon.com or a local lending library. I'm interested in who he was as a person, the politics in northern Italy during his life, etc. I don't read Italian, unfortunately, so my choices seem limited.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!
 

Huck

Welcome to the group and thanks for your comment

Kaplan, Tarot Encyclopedia II is not bad.
Other sources, of which I know, are in German language

Klaus Schelle: Die Sforza
some specific dictionaries in the Library, I don't know, what you have there
 

barth

Thanks, Huck! I do have the Kaplan; that's been my primary source of info on the Duke till now. Wasn't sure if I was missing something better. Please tell me the names of some good dictionaries, if you don't mind. My wife is a librarian so she can tell me if the library system in town has them.

And thanks, Fulgour! I'm familiar with the VS deck, but it's good to have a link to those images on my computer.
 

Huck

barth said:
Thanks, Huck! I do have the Kaplan; that's been my primary source of info on the Duke till now. Wasn't sure if I was missing something better. Please tell me the names of some good dictionaries, if you don't mind. My wife is a librarian so she can tell me if the library system in town has them.

And thanks, Fulgour! I'm familiar with the VS deck, but it's good to have a link to those images on my computer.

I live in Germany, we've a University library here and they've lots, reachable by hand, not by librarian. That's somehow necessary, otherwise things are much too complicated, this needs too much time You must simply look, what's there, installing your own catalog in mind, what do you find "where". This means ... look in the books, try to find Visconti, and you learn how it works.
I can't transport the German books to America ... :)

But in the specific case of Filippo Maria Visconti ... we would like to write our own biography, of course somewhat specified on playing card interests. So you could join us at LTarot@yahoogroups.com or we can create an operation base at our new Forum http://trionfi.com/0/m , perhaps our interests do meet.
The new Forum isn't installed totally, but we'e free to use it for specific interests.
 

Cerulean

Online book: History of Florence

http://historymedren.about.com/library/text/bltxtflorencevi.htm

More detail background on F.M. Visconti's back-stage alliances with Borso of Ferarra (Leonello's right hand man) and negotiations with F.M. Visconti before death is in

Dukes and Poets of Ferarra, by Edmund Garrett Gardner.

As of 2004, I have seen this English work cited in the various histories and literary books of Ferarra in English. I have not seen revisions, although I've kept my eyes out.

I have not seen a collective work on the Viscontis or particularly F.M. readily available. I've only been able to see bits and pieces of the Viscontis from various texts.

You might want to try to search inside the following historical retelling text for the FM Visconti passages on Amazon.com or have someone copy this text for you--the index citation and book is that the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/068...181-9738402?_encoding=UTF8&p=S00D#reader-page

It probably repeats the popular gossip that you have read of FM Visconti, maybe nothing new. But perhaps knowing popular conceptions will allow for more interesting writing for your work.

Regards,

C. Mari Hoshizaki
 

Fulgour

Huck said:
Very nice, thanks
"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
 

Huck

Fulgour said:
"Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"Probier's mal mit Gemütlickeit .... tschubbidubbi-du"

Walt Disney in German
 

jmd

Thankyou Mari... that's the volume I was trying to recall:

Edmund Garrett Gardner's Dukes and Poets of Ferarra (which I have yet to see!).

Another worthwhile book to obtain, though not precisely what you seek is Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato (available from a variety of sources, including as an eBook).