Begin of Cartomancy

[Huck]

... for the current moment ...

http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/at/losbuch_c1485.pdf

shows a German Losbuch from Martin Flach 1485 (Flach was at the end of his life active at Strassburg).

The same used text (not the animal pictures) is said to have reappeared in slightly modified form in a Kartenlosbuch (then connected to playing card motifs and the animals names were replaced in the text by card names) produced by the Strassburger printer Schürer in the time of 1506 - 1520; so likely of no date in the text, but Schürer is said at other place to have produced in his name from 1508 till his death 1519 ... however was active from ca. 1500 on in the printing business.
There was a familiary relationship between Schürer and Martin Flach, who died ca. 1500. The printer Knobloch (also Strassburg), uncle to Schürer, married the widow of Flach.

This second text we haven't seen.

It shouldn't be confused with another text called Mainzer Kartenlosbuch, given at different places with the production date of 1505 or 1510, often called the oldest Kartenlosbuch.

Another 3rd text (Kartenlosbuch) is mentioned for ca. 1520, a shorter text (6-12 pages ?) from the printer Jacob Köbel, also with card pictures.

###
One should see, that this is a primitive form of divination. There are 51 or 52 poems at the end.

Having a view on the Boiardo Tarocchi poem: There is also a connection between picture and text and it has 78 terzine at the end.
In a description how they used this text Viti described "as they used it" ... in a amusing form".

#####
“E da questo dar di carte che tocar deve a chi per sorte ha la migliore, nascie il primo piacere: perciò che ognuno lege li versi che nelle carte sue sono e mostranli a li compagni. Et in ciò si vedono a le volte a donne et omini venire terzetti che sono grandemente al proposito loro, e di gran riso de chi gli ascoltano” (Tarocchi (a cura di Simona Foà) Roma 1993, p.60). The first pleasure came from the distribution of the cards, made by the one who has the better: every one read the verses in his cards and show’em to the companions. And sometimes the tercets are so appropriate that the friends laugh heartily.
####

Just as these Losbuch texts announce, that they are for "Kurzweil".

So what makes the Losbuch-constructions to a sign of cartomancy and what makes the Tarocchi poem not to a sign of cartomancy? As in the Boiardo case the text is already on the cards, actually the Boiardo production is nearer to cartomancy, it doesn't need the book.

The Boiardo poem is in any case earlier than the Strassburger and Mainzer production. Boiardo lived till 1494, Viti till ca. 1500.

http://trionfi.com/0/h/00/

 

[Huck]

Correction: Internal research did lead to the insight, that both editions - that, which was given as Mainzer Kartenlosbuch and that, which was printed at Strassburg follow - at least in parts - follow the Martin Flach Losbuch of ca. 1485.

We've only spurious informations, just trying to find out the best, that we could get.
If anybody has the complete text or more solid information, please correct.

 

[Teheuti]

Huck -

Thank you for this information. Is there any place that we can see pictures of a 16th c. kartenlosbuch?

Mary

 

[Huck]

We're on the work for a page about Losorakel with special regard, how and if Losorakel might have influenced the Tarot development. Mostly something for people, which can read in German.
Currently we've one picture with 8 figures and 8 texts, altogether not very remarkable. Probably we will publish it or parts of the work soon.

Currently it was debated at the LTarot-yahoogroups (letter of autorbis, answer to an earlier of Ross Caldwell):


#########
[Title]
Lorenzo Spirito 1473 ... closing the gap to an earlier point (Ross)



An earlier exchange was:

Ross Gregory Ronald Caldwell <belmurru@hotmail.com> schrieb:
--- In LTarot@yahoogroups.com, Lothar <autorbis@...> wrote:
>
> What interests me: Ross writes on his page to Wibold ...
>
> http://www.angelfire.com/space/tarot/wibold.html
>
> "This games deserves great attention because the procedure
anticipates the "Book of the Pastime of the Fortune of the Dice" by
Laurent L'Esprit (1474). It appears as an ancient example of betting
games with three dice and utilizes a numeric structure – 21 and 56 –
later present in tarots. Moreover, we find in it a forerunner of the
joker, when a privileged consonant can replace all the others."
>
> ... the year 1474 for the otherwise 1482 given as dating for the
book of Laurent d'Esprit (Lorenzo Spirito).
>
> Is this just a writing error or cause a specific reason, from
which I don't know of?
>

This is the date Lhôte gives on page 577. I can't find any earlier
edition (in the Italian libraries online) than 1482. The earliest
French translation I can find is 1526... so, it is a sort of
mystery, whether the first Italian edition was 1474, or it was a
mistake of Lhôte.

For Lorenzo Spirito, we'll have to keep looking for more
information. I don't have much.

Ross
####

Lothar:
Now I add: There is an earlier work about "Loosbücher", written in 1850, in a
sort of newspaper for libraries called Serapeum. The articler jumps over various
editions and is quite long, it ends in 1851 (1851 is not reachable in the
moment).

http://books.google.com/books?id=vLMEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA65&dq=loosbuch+serapeum&ei=C6\
TvRsb9Oo_g6wKTk9TSDg#PPA49,M1

this is the year 1850, and at page 50 starts the article about Spirito. Inside
the article the following is said:

########
Nach einer von Morelli in
der Marciana gefundenen autographischen Handschrift ist das
Libro delle Sorte 1482 geschrieben. In dem unzuverlässigen
und lückenhaften Vol IV. von Hains Repert. bibliogr. werden
davon unter N. 14957 bis 59 zwei italienische Folioansgaben
ond eine französische Uebersetzung in 4. aus dem 15. .Jahrhundert
angeführt. Die erste von jenen ist ohne Jahr und hat
auf der Rückseite des ersten Blattes ein Sonett, dessen letzte
Zeilen sind:

El vero compositore ••••
Di Basilea fu maestro Leonardo
Qual di farla in uicenza non fu tardo.

Hier ist der Drucker Leonh. Achates aus Basel, nicht der
Verfasser gemeint, denn in drei ändern Versen heisst es:

Chi avesse disio di voler sentire
Chi fu di queslo sorte lo inventore
Lorenzo Spirito fu senza fallire.

Diese höchst seltene Ausgabe, die das erste in Vincenza, vielleicht
schon 1473 gedruckte Buch zu sein scheint, hat nach
einer sehr dürftigen in Federici Memorie Trevigiaue sulla Tipografia del secolo
XV. Venet 1805. 4. S. 205 davon gegebenen
Nachricht, durchgängig abwechselnd eine Seite von
typographischem Druck und die andre mit Figuren und Schrift
in xylographischeiu Tafeldruck und wird deshalb den ältesten
xylographischen Büchern, wie der Biblia paupernm, Ars me-
morandi und Apocalypse des Evangelisten Johannes gleichgestellt,
zu denen man es, wie gesagt wird, zählen würde, wäre
der Druckort und der Drucker nicht namentlich angegeben.
Jene xylographischen Bücher, welche Deutschland und den
Niederlanden ausschliesslich angehören, sind aber, was einen
grossen Unterschied macht, ganz mit Holztafeln gedruckt, sowohl
Figuren als Text und es ist darin keine Spar von beweglichen
Lettern zu finden, geschweige denn, das eine Seite
und die andre abwechselnd typographisch und xylographisch
gedrückt wäre. Ueberhaupt hat Italien im 15. Jahrhundert,
mit Ausnahme der von dem Kardinal Capronica schon 1452
veranstalteten italienischen Uebersetznng der ars moriendi,
durchaus nichts aufzuweisen, was den deutschen nnd niederländischen
xylographischen Büchern nach Inhalt nnd Form,
Zeichnung oder Holzschnitt verwandt wäre. Sehr zu wünschen
ist es indes, dass ein sachkundiger Bibliograph, dem jene
erste Ausgabe von Spirito's Loosbuch zugänglich ist, uns mit
derselben, besonders mit ihren jedenfalls merkwürdigen Holzschnitten,
näher bekannt machen möge.
##########


I try to make it understandable. The author (Solzmann) has a list, which he
regards not as totally trustable. On this list are 3 works noted for Lorenzo
Spirito in 15th century. This is the list:

"Vol IV. von Hains Repert. bibliogr. werden
davon unter N. 14957 bis 59 zwei italienische Folioansgaben
und eine französische Uebersetzung"

2x in Italian
1 French translation

The French work is not talked about.
One Italian work is given with 1484, but should be according Solzmann from 1489.
The other Italian is not dated and that one is a curious one.

By the text (two verses) it is apparent, that it was printed by Leonardo
Achates, a printer of Basel, and somehow written by Lorenzo Spirito, but there
is somethinng like "El vero compositore **** " ...I don't know, what these
stars shall mean

###

El vero compositore ••••
Di Basilea fu maestro Leonardo
Qual di farla in uicenza non fu tardo.

Hier ist der Drucker Leonh. Achates aus Basel, nicht der
Verfasser gemeint, denn in drei ändern Versen heisst es:

Chi avesse disio di voler sentire
Chi fu di queslo sorte lo inventore
Lorenzo Spirito fu senza fallire.

###

Perhaps the riddle solves, if one assumes a true "unknown" author, then the
printer (Achates) and then the Italian translator (Spirito)

Solzmann is puzzled by a very specific condition. The work is described as
half-xylographic and and as half typographisch, which means half printed as a
book with letter-types and half in the way of blockbücher, as they were - more
or less - only used in Germany and the Netherlands and not in Italy (mixing
text and pictures at a big woodcut).

The printer Leonhard Achates was from Basel and started to print in 1473 (till
1491). So Solzmann starts to think, that this might be the oldest printed book
in Viczenza, perhaps even from 1473.
Solzmann expressed his interest, to have a look on this book.

---------------------

I might imagine, that Achates brought xylographic plates from Germany, perhaps
made in a mix of Latin words with pictures, so not a problem for an Italian
reader. Spirito translated the text to Italian and this had to be made in
letter-types. So they spared a lot of work in the printing process.
One has to consider, that with the Blockbuchtechnik Germany was about 20 years
earlier than Italy in the public market. So there were already a lot of
resources.

For the concrete research it means ... it would have been no problem for Lorenzo
Spirito to steal his book from German sources.and publish it under his own name.

Naturally it would be of interest to find this old book ..., that already
Solzmann searched.

#############

[In another mail is added:]

###
Following is the work, which might help in the Spirito question (1473):

Hain, Ludwig.
Repertorium bibliographicum in quo libri omnes ab arte typographica
(1826 - 1838)
2 volumes, totally 4 books

Gallica has 3 of them , unluckily not the Nr. IV, which should contain the note,
which is of interest, likely under the name "Spirito"
or the numbers "N. 14957 - 59"
###

Huck: I should add as explanation - Laurent d'Esprit and Lorenzo Spirito should be the same person.

Usually the work of Lorenzo Spirito is given for "1482". According Solzmann the Venetian librarian Morelli (late 18th, begin 19th century) found an autographic manuscript ("Nach einer von Morelli in
der Marciana gefundenen autographischen Handschrift ist das
Libro delle Sorte 1482 geschrieben"), which suggested this date.

Possibly the work of Laurent d'Esprit (1474, mentioned by Lhote) and the later work of the Lorenzo Spirito (1482), both written from the same man, were different books and with different content (?).

A manuscript of Conrad Bollstatter contains ca. 10-15 "Losbücher" (the correct number depends, how one fdefines a Loosbuch). The collection was written between 1450 and 1473. One of these books, that from 1459, has technical similiraties to that, what became the Lorenzo Spirito edition.

 

[mjhurst]

A lot book using card indices

Here is a page from one of the most well known lot books of the 16th century, which used playing card images as indices.

A Page from Marcolino
http://www.geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/Fragments/Images/HG243.html

Earlier lot books had used small images as indices to link the spinner results to a particular fortune, and some used small images of dice as a more direct method of use. Some of these are also online.

The place of lot books in the history of cartomancy is an intermediate one. They date back to ancient times, and are originally related to bibliomancy, fortune telling by the use of a sacred book, such as Virgil or the Bible. Then special books of fortunes, rather like the I Ching, were created. A famous one is the Sortes apostolorum.

"In a prohibition of all sorts of methods of divination proclaimed by Pope Gelasius in 494 mention is made of the Sortes apostolorum. The oldest version of this book which has been discovered, however, dates from the 10th century. After three days of fasting, the singing of the officium s. trinitatis and the reciting of a prayer, the enquirer casts three dice of six sides each at one throw. Fifty-six answers are given.... It is characteristic of this version that many answers open with a poetic description or comparison; in the answer to the case 5.4.3., for instance, the impatient enquirer is compared to a blind little dog and in 6.5.2. to a hunter who wants to catch the deer while they are still running.... The Sortes apostolorum were translated into Provencal in the 13th century, but the method of deciding which answer is the relevant one is different. The use of dice has here been replaced by coloured threads fastened to each of the answers. The enquirer selects one of these threads at random, then the book is opened and the answer to which the thread is attached is read. A French translation which stands much closer to the Latin text, in method as well as in the wording of the answers, is preserved in a Vienna manuscript of the late 13th or early 14th century." (Braekman, Fortune-Telling by the Casting of Dice, 1981).

The use of spinners was popular in lot books of the late 15th and early 16th centuries, but other methods of random selection were also employed. Dice were either an alternative or the primary randomizing device in some of the most significant examples, including Spirito's Book of Luck: "There are 20 questions, grouped around a wheel of fortune on which are represented four men; to each man a reference is added to a list of kings.... These 20 kings in their turn guide the enquired to 20 planets; the table of dice casts attached to these planest contain 56 references to the 20 spheres of the planets. After one has found their way through these stages, they finally reach 20 prophets who each have 56 three-line answers to give...." (Braekman, Fortune-Telling by the Casting of Dice, 1981). Thierry Depaulis notes that this book "was a best-seller around 1500-50", the period when Kartenlosbucher were developed.

Some of these methods were quite involved. Here is an example from a Web page that doesn't appear to be up any longer.

****
The way the lottery-book works is simple:

You start by choosing one of 16 questions – for example: whether or not your plans are going to work out well (q.1). Or whether a particular friend or ‘geselle’ (associate or business partner) will prove reliable (q.2). Or, more intimately, whether it’s wise to get married right now (qq.3 & 7 – most of the oracles say "yes"!).

You then throw the dice to get any number between 2 and 10 (if you throw 11 or 12, you have to throw again).

The combination of your question-number plus dice-throw provides the first stage in the lottery-book answers: You are sent to one of a series of 12 Mountains, or Rivers, or Apostles, or Birds, or Herbs, or Prophets, or Trees, etc. The appropriate mountain, river, apostle, bird, herb, prophet, tree, etc. then sends you to consult one of sixteen Kings.

Most of these Kings can be related to a modern country – France, England, Scotland, Russia, Lithuania, Prussia, Sicily, etc. – For the King of Krakow, we understand Poland. But where Terramer was, nobody knows ... About two-thirds of the oracles are provided at this stage by the relevant King.

For the remaining one-third of the dice-plus-question combinations you are sent on a further stage to one of a group of twelve ‘Foursomes’: Patriarchs, Heathen Masters, Evangelists, Hermits, Warriors, Lovers (= Minnesänger) etc.

They then give you your answer – and we hope it’s the one you wanted !
**** end of snip

Fanti's 1524 Triompho di Fortuna is another fascinating lot book from the period in question, based on dice, and Andrea Vitali has shown us two images from it (lightning-struck tower and hanged traitor) which provide explicit examples of what Tarot symbolism meant during the Renaissance. It is revealing to find these Tarot symbols associated with detailed interpretive meanings. But the lot books provide an interesting subject matter in themselves.

In terms of the history of cartomancy, some of the key examples include the spinner lot book (Basel) from the 1480s with animal indices and related spinner lot books (Mainz) from the early 1500s with playing-card indices. The fortunes in the latter book were were clearly derivative of the earlier book. The much more elaborate lot book of Marcolino followed not long after, in 1540, and a page from that is shown at the link above. According to Dummett and WPC, the first fortune-telling deck appears to have been Dorman Newman's in 1690, later published by Lenthall. (Other writers attribute it to Lenthall and date it decades earlier.) "What we have here is essentially the transference of the method of Marcolino's book to a pack of cards, since the questions and answers, and, in clue form, the intermediate instructions, are printed on the cards themselves. This represents a step towards the practice of fortune-telling with ordinary playing cards, in that it liberates the user from having to consult a book." In 1765 Casanova described genuine cartomancy, fortune-telling with cards as it is practiced today, and in 1770 Etteilla wrote the first book on cartomancy, coining the word itself. A decade later, in the early 1780s, fortune-telling with Tarot cards was first described.

Best regards,
Michael

 

[Huck]

According to Dummett and WPC, the first fortune-telling deck appears to have been Dorman Newman's in 1690, later published by Lenthall. (Other writers attribute it to Lenthall and date it decades earlier.) "What we have here is essentially the transference of the method of Marcolino's book to a pack of cards, since the questions and answers, and, in clue form, the intermediate instructions, are printed on the cards themselves. This represents a step towards the practice of fortune-telling with ordinary playing cards, in that it liberates the user from having to consult a book." In 1765 Casanova described genuine cartomancy, fortune-telling with cards as it is practiced today, and in 1770 Etteilla wrote the first book on cartomancy, coining the word itself. A decade later, in the early 1780s, fortune-telling with Tarot cards was first described.

Best regards,
Michael

Thanks, Michael

But, as I already said, one has to observe, that the Boiardo deck in 15th century had already something written on the cards. As we know from Viti late in 15th century, the users reacted amused and related a card drawn to themseves or to that one who got the card. I repeat the text:

####
“E da questo dar di carte che tocar deve a chi per sorte ha la migliore, nascie il primo piacere: perciò che ognuno lege li versi che nelle carte sue sono e mostranli a li compagni. Et in ciò si vedono a le volte a donne et omini venire terzetti che sono grandemente al proposito loro, e di gran riso de chi gli ascoltano” (Tarocchi (a cura di Simona Foà) Roma 1993, p.60). The first pleasure came from the distribution of the cards, made by the one who has the better: every one read the verses in his cards and show’em to the companions. And sometimes the tercets are so appropriate that the friends laugh heartily.
####

Well, true, not any verse in the poem reads like an oracle, the divinatory style in the Mainzer Kartenlosbuch reads stronger related. But we've that, what Lenthall made, already in 15th century. It's not a very serious form of divination, true.
Often enough the Losbücher declared, that they were for amusement.

We know, that the probability, that cards suvived 15th century or later was much less than the probability for the survival of books. We've a series of Losbücher in greater number ... maybe there was something similar with cards.

Maybe this sort of action should have survived as document and literary description, or prohibition, in the case, that it was farspread.

Btw. ... we have two Lenthall cards here
http://www.wopc.co.uk/tarot/divination.html
and some others
http://www.wopc.co.uk/uk/margary/lenthall.html
with not much text, as it seems, very near to the losbuch-technique and very far from ordinary cartomancy ...

and a description, which says, that one needed a complex instruction to use the cards. So it didn't work "without book" totally.

Regards

 

[mjhurst]

Hi, Huck,

But, as I already said, one has to observe, that the Boiardo deck in 15th century had already something written on the cards.

Just because you and Lothar decided that Boiardo's poem was in some way related to lot books or some other form of fortune-telling doesn't make it true, or even interesting. It certainly could have been used that way, as could any other text imaginable. But there is no indication that it ever was used for fortune-telling, nor that it was intended to be used that way. The fact that it was a poem structured around a Tarot deck, and was eventually printed on a deck of cards, is not even vaguely suggestive of fortune-telling prior to the 18th century, because there is no indication that Tarot was considered a fortune-telling method back then.

As an example of possible fortune-telling use of texts, any texts, I mentioned the ancient practice of bibliomancy. Any text whatsoever can be used in that manner.

It is worth remembering, as another example from the 17th century, the use of emblem books for fortune-telling. Any emblem book could, hypothetically, be so used, but that wasn't their purpose, nor do we have any evidence that most of them were used in that way. We can *imagine* that they were, but without evidence it would be a vain speculation.

However, because we have evidence, we know that a few of them were so intended, as Kwaw has pointed out some three years ago. He discussed Gregoire's passage (a great discovery by Ross) about the "vestiges of erudition" seen in Tarot and their connection with something published by the emblematist Wechel. Wechel was the publisher of, among many other things, the hugely influential emblem book of Alciato, so that hinted at a connection.

Aeclectic thread
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=30834&page=1

EVIDENCE is what tells us that some emblem books were used as lot books. The thing about George Wither's emblem book, for example, is that it was *designed* as a lot book, including *instructions* for its use as a lot book, and it even included spinners for a randomized selection. At least a couple other specific examples are noted online.

The Symbolic Literature of the Renaissance
http://www.camrax.com/symbol/Fateintro.php4

"The emblem book was also often employed as a lottery; the book was opened at random and the selected emblem was interpreted for its relevance for the reader. At the back of Wither's Collection of Emblemes of 1635 there was a revolving paper dial which could be used for this purpose and Wither got the idea from an earlier book the Veridicus Christianus by Jan David from 1601. Another method of selecting the emblem was by inserting a pin between the closed pages of the book. This technique is actually depicted in the frontispiece to the Openhertighe Herten, the Openhearted Heart, by van der Velde a compilation of heart emblems written between 1618 and 1627."

We could have imagined such usage, but it would have been mere speculation, like your interpretation of Boiardo. Yes, of course *any* text in the history of writing *could* be so used. However, nothing about Boiardo's poems resembles any known fortune-telling method. Nor does it include directions or any instructions for such usage. If we look at *real* lot books, we find similarities with other lot books. If we look at some of the emblem books which were also intended as lot books, again we find *evidence* of that intention, including instructions.

In the complete absence of any evidence suggesting that Boiardo's poems were in fact used for fortune-telling, or that anything similar was ever used for fortune-telling, it is not a useful line of speculation. Nothing leads up to Boiardo as a fortune-telling method, and nothing derives from it. Your speculation is an isolated, wholly ad hoc claim, and yields nothing by way of explaining either the Boiardo poems or cards themselves nor any earlier or later work. It explains nothing. Unless and until you find some evidence that it was in fact used for that purpose, it therefore seems a pointless fantasy, non-productive, and a thousand others, equally useless, can be invented simply by listing a thousand other texts.

Regarding the gradual development of cartomancy from lot books through fortune-telling decks to eventual use of regular decks, it may not be the story you would like, but it is vastly superior to mere empty claims about Boiardo. It is an intelligible and coherent history, it is consistent with the known evidence, and it was developed by playing-card historians.

Given the choice between unsubstantiated and arbitrary guesswork versus documented and explanatory history, I'll go with the historians.... but thanks anyway.

 

[Huck]

Hi, Huck,
In the complete absence of any evidence suggesting that Boiardo's poems were in fact used for fortune-telling, or that anything similar was ever used for fortune-telling, it is not a useful line of speculation. Nothing leads up to Boiardo as a fortune-telling method, and nothing derives from it. Your speculation is an isolated, wholly ad hoc claim, and yields nothing by way of explaining either the Boiardo poems or cards themselves nor any earlier or later work. It explains nothing. Unless and until you find some evidence that it was in fact used for that purpose, it therefore seems a pointless fantasy, non-productive, and a thousand others, equally useless, can be invented simply by listing a thousand other texts.

Hi Michael,

You asked for evidence, and I already gave twice the relevant text:

####
“E da questo dar di carte che tocar deve a chi per sorte ha la migliore, nascie il primo piacere: perciò che ognuno lege li versi che nelle carte sue sono e mostranli a li compagni. Et in ciò si vedono a le volte a donne et omini venire terzetti che sono grandemente al proposito loro, e di gran riso de chi gli ascoltano” (Tarocchi (a cura di Simona Foà) Roma 1993, p.60). The first pleasure came from the distribution of the cards, made by the one who has the better: every one read the verses in his cards and show’em to the companions. And sometimes the tercets are so appropriate that the friends laugh heartily.
####

from Viti, which means, the only commentator of the Boiardo Tarocchi poem in 15th century, who lived from ca. 1470 - precisely 1500, dying 6 years after Boiardo's deck.
The story seems to be, that Boiardo didn't brought his small work to the printer and to some real existence, but possibly Viti did. So the cards, which appeared late and with surprize in our time and were then recognised as "from the Boiardo Tarocchi", are likely the work of Viti.

http://trionfi.com/0/h/03/

Raymondi Luberti analysed a few years ago, in the Boiardo group then:
"Viti simply explained the Scandiano’s count poem in his Illustrazione dedicated to a lady of Urbino's’court, maybe Elisabetta d' Urbino, the Duchess, or Emilia Pia her intimate confident and friend or another anonimous Madonna.
The meaning of his work was to use it for a verbal game with tarocchi."

It seems, that this took place ca. 1497, Boiardo was already dead. Viti had cards and played with them. Either there was a production already in Boiardo's time ...and Viti got the cards, but then it would have been difficult for him to dedicate them. Or he produced the deck himself, then he could dedicate them - somehow.
It seems, that we know of the poem only by Viti ... if he hadn't been, it wouldn't exist to our eyes.
So somehow Viti is in the role of the inventer, although he didn't write the poem.

Dummett reacted disappointed. He searched for something, which gave him material, that explained the way, "how they played Tarot".

Well, he got something, and it was "how they played it", but it was not that what he exspected.

According to Viti the players react amused and relate the given terzine, which they get "accidently", as fitting for themselves. Disappointing they don't go in action and play with the cards the game "Trionfi" and tell Dummett the rules.
In short: One could play with this cards the game Trionfi, of course, but they used it otherwise. It seems, that the given condition of the terzine gave them another idea, how to play the game.

Losbücher mostly said, that they are for "Kurzweil", for amusement only. The divinatory aim had a low level, it wasn't taken too serious. The players of Viti react as one could imagine, that reader of Losbücher would have reacted. Some fun about divinatory meaning.

From the technical viewing point the Boiardo Tarocchi is nearer to cartomancy than the early German Kartenlosbücher: the meaning is already on the cards and it uses a common card deck structure. And the Lenthall cards are more an imitated Losbuch, than it was a card game.
Regarding all three productions, the Boiardo deck is nearer to common modern cartomancy than the other both sources.

 

[Huck]

Just as some interesting background information:

Pier Antonio Viti was brother of Timiteo Viti, a famous painter.

This learned till 4th of April 1494 in Bologna by another famous painter Francia, so not in Urbino, where all the story of the Boiardo deck played (Boiardo himself died December 1494 and it doesn't look likely, that he left in high age the Ferrarese territory).
From Francia, Timoteo's teacher, we do know, that he was active also as engraver, which should have been in this time still a rarity between Italian artists.
Perhaps Timoteo Viti knew by this way also something about engraving. In Urbino (now he should have been near to his brother Pier Antonio, who "made - somehow - the cards and had the poem in ca. 1497) he took
somehow the workshop of Giovanni Santi (also famous painter), father of the more famous Raffaelo, who had died in 1494 (the mother already dead in 1491). Raffaelo was in 1495 12 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael

Raffaelo was then - according to some - a pupil of Timoteo (this is disputed), Wikipedia - which doesn't mention Timoteo) gives alternative versions, but states "His father's workshop continued and probably together with his stepmother, Raphael evidently played a part in managing it from a very early age."

Another source states
"Raphael was born Raffaello Santi or Raffaello Sanzio in Urbino on 6 April 1483. He received his early training in art from his father, who was the painter Giovanni Santi. According to many art historians, he also studied with Timoteo Viti at Urbino. This is assumed due to the works Raphael executed that showed a strong similarity to works of Timoteo Viti. These works contain both a delicate miniature like quality and poetic atmosphere.
Raphael moved to Perugia in 1499 where he became a student and assistant of the painter Perugino. Raphael imitated his master very closely and art historians have confused their works for centuries. "
http://www.veritus.org/raphael/biograph.php

Well .. likely the matters were a little confused in 1495 in the Santi workshop with Timoteo Viti, a 12-years-old orphan Raffaelo, a step-mother, who is mentioned and with an also mentioned partner of Timoteo. And in the background the French army still were at war in Italy then.

It's said, that Timiteo rather immediately got a greater commission. So work went on ...
Timoteo was born in Urbino, and was in the age 20-25 in Bologna, where he possibly learnt a little bit of engraving.

Bologna had a splendid card industry and it's about 30 km of Ferrara, where the poem likely once was written. There are various ways possible, how the Tarocchi poem might have come to the workshop of Francia. Naturally there are also ways possible, that Pier Antonio Viti did all by himself without participation of his borther and his workshop.

Pier Antonuio Viti said, that the poem was dedicated to a signora in Urbino - one assumes, that it was Elisabetta Gonzaga (* 1471), wife of duke of Urbino Guidobaldo (* 1472). The marriage took place 1489. Boiardo was still alive then ... but Viti was just ca. 19. Would Boiardo have used him as a messenger to transport the poem?

Did Pier Antonio Viti also leave Urbino for some time? .. an unsolved question.

Oh well, many possibilities. Suggested is, that the activity took place ca. 1497.

The natural hypothesis should be, that Boiardo made the poem for the marriage of Eleanore of Aragon with Hercole d'Este. Boiardo was part of the delegation, that took the bride from Naples via Rome to Ferarra in 1473.


But how far such connections go ... I stumbled about this biography

"Marcantonio Raimondi

Engraver, b. at Bologna, 1475 (1480?); d. there, 1530 (1534?). He studied under the goldsmith and niellist Francia, and later often signed his work M-A. F., F referring to his teacher. His earliest plate (1505), "Pyramus and Thisbe", shows a goldsmith-like shading. His first artistic stimulation came from seeing plates by Dürer, some of which he copied (1506) with such perfection that they sold as originals. When rebuked by the Venetian Senate on Dürer's complaint, the young man subsequently added his own to Dürer's initials. From Lucas of Leyden Raimondi also learned much; his burin gained in mellowness from engraving Perazzo's work. Rapidly assimilating and always simplifying, Marcantonio's "Mars and Cupid" (1508) finds him master of technic and finished in style.

About this time Raimondi left for Rome, stopping at Florence to sketch Michelangelo's (lost) cartoon "The Climbers", which he afterwards engraved in Rome (1510). Seeing a proof of this Raphael exclaimed: "It is the finest I have ever seen and the finest that can be seen!" The two artists became friends and Raimondi's next work was Raphael's "The Death of Lucretia". This and later plates show the darks becoming less dramatic and the burin work more "open". Raphael left much to Raimondi, never giving him a finished picture but a pencil or pen outline-drawing, knowing that the proper treatment and elaboration would come from his engraver; and hence there is often a marked discrepancy between an oil by Raphael and Raimondi's engraving thereof. Marcantonio's triumphs in Rome equalled those of Raphael; Dürer wrote for proofs from his hand, and German engravers flocked to Rome to study under him. Romano and Aretino subsequently induced him to engrave obscene or suggestive plates, for which he was imprisoned by Pope Clement, who, however, freed him several months later at the solicitation of Cardinal de Medici. In 1527, at the sack of Rome, he is said to have escaped, leaving a fortune and his plates in the victors' hands. Some authorities record that he died four years before this, heartbroken at the death of Raphael. Raimondi opened up a new province of the burin — reproduction; he inspired the largest following that ever an engraver had, and he drew as well as da Vinci or Raphael. "His sentiment was noble, his taste pure" (Delaborde); his style, simple and sober, his modelling of figures beautiful, and he was the first engraver who omitted details. Of texture, tone, and local colour of modern engravers he had not a trace. Raimondi engraved about six hundred plates. His best are: "Adam and Eve" (probably the finest); "Virgin with the Bare Arm"; "Massacre of the Innocents"; "The Plague"; "The Judgment of Paris" (with a trace of goldsmith-like shading)."
(source: New Advent)

A pupil of Francia like Timoteo, likely a friend of Timiteo in the time of his studies in Bologna.
So he learned about Raffaelo from Timoteo ... likely. And then he followed Raffaelo to Rome.


Really funny in our context of divination is the following: Raffaello - when very successful in Rome - invited Timoteo Viti to assist him. Which Timiteo did ...

... for this following work only; at least in the dictionary, that I requested, this was the only work and "Raffaello was satisfied" (a second source has the opinion, that he stayed a year and made more in this church, but it was destroyed):

http://www.wga.hu/art/r/raphael/5roma/2/05sibyl.jpg

a fresco in the church of Santa Maria della Pace in Rome

... the sybils. And Timotei returned back to Urbino. Is that a sort of private memorial between Timotei and Raffaelo, that they once together worked on the sybillinic Boiardo-deck, a rather primitive work in the youth of Raffael, who possibly had to engage in engraving for education, which he didn't love especially perhaps?

Earlier Timotei was the master and now the game had turned? Secret revenge of a once-had-been-pupil?

Funny.
Vasari told, that Timotei had the cartons later for the sybils.

Finally I find the information, that the Viti brothers were children of a mother Calliope, who was born as daughter of the painter Antonio Alberto or Alberti from Ferrara. Here is the Ferrarese connection of the Viti brothers. The father died early, the mother was influential.
Which opens the way for a young Pier Antonio in Ferrara (where possibly still were relatives), possibly studying medicine there, who got the commission from Boiardo to bring the Tarocchi poem to Urbino to the marriage of Elisabeth Gonzaga in 1489.

A lot of possibilities.

 

[Huck]

http://trionfi.com/0/p/41/

contains now some data to the first card divination books in Germany and also a picture of one of the texts (Mary - Teheuti - requested it.