Tarocco Bolognese

le pendu

In a thread on the Tarocco Bolognese here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=43901
Ross G Caldwell posted a page from Dummett's "Il Mondo e l'Angelo" featuring one of the earliest surviving Tarocchi Bolognese.
http://www.geocities.com/anytarot/earlybologna.html

I find the deck fascinating for several reasons, one of the strongest is the lack of names, and probably, the lack of numbers as I have found Justice without the tiny number on it, leading me to believe it numbers were added to the images in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
http://www.albamontuori.it/t_giustizia.htm

I can't locate any more images of the Tarocco Bolognese, but noticed that two pages in The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume I, that feature images that, to me, are strikingly similar.

The first is on page 128, from an uncut sheet at the Bibliothéque de L'Ecole National supérieure des Beaux-Arts, dated late 15th or early 16th Century; and page 129, an uncut sheet from the Collection of Edmond de Rothschild at the Louvre, Paris, with the same dating.

Page 128:
http://www.tarothistory.com/images/encyclopedia1.jpg
Page 129:
http://www.tarothistory.com/images/encyclopedia2.jpg


To my eye, these images look directly related to the Tarocco Bolognese.

The only card that appears in both the Dummett image and in the Encyclopedia is The Chariot. While the two are not exact matches, they are so similar that I would think they are based on the same source.

The next "clue" is the quarter circles that appear in many of the tops of the cards.

Sorry if this is"old news", but it is news to me, and I'm wondering if the two are related and hoping to learn more about the Tarocco Bolognese as it seems to have many similarites to early decks, ("Charles VI" or "Gringonneur" for instance: http://expositions.bnf.fr/renais/arret/3/index.htm ) as well as later decks such as the Jacques Vieville.

Any information greatly appreciated.

thanks,
robert
 

le pendu

Huck said:
You see it similar as Andrea Vitali in his book about Tarocchi Bolognese.
Click to expand...
Thanks Huck.

Can I assume that our friends at http://www.trionfi.com assume that the images in Kaplan make a connection to the "Tarot of Bologna"? If so, how does Ferrara fit into this?

...while the images in the "Cary Sheet" show a connection to the "Tarot of Marseilles" and the "Bembo 14"? Can I also assume that Trionfi.com considers that Bembo>Cary Sheet>"Tarot of Milan">"Tarot of Marseilles"; and that the "milan" pattern is older than the Bologna pattern?

Thanks,
robert
 

Huck

le pendu said:
Thanks Huck.

Can I assume that our friends at http://www.trionfi.com assume that the images in Kaplan make a connection to the "Tarot of Bologna"? If so, how does Ferrara fit into this?

...while the images in the "Cary Sheet" show a connection to the "Tarot of Marseilles" and the "Bembo 14"? Can I also assume that Trionfi.com considers that Bembo>Cary Sheet>"Tarot of Milan">"Tarot of Marseilles"; and that the "milan" pattern is older than the Bologna pattern?

Thanks,
robert
Click to expand...

The pictures of the two sheets indeed have similarities to other pictures, which are also said to be of Bologna (comparable in Andrea's book).

Ferrara is 30 km from Bologna.

We assume generally a great freedom in the outfit of Trionfi decks before mass production. To speak of "styles" is too much demanded, when there are not decks enough. Our research in the moment goes more or less till 1475/77 ... so there are not so much decks to consider. The point at this stage is to collect the moment, when it jumped to mass production (or moments, as this was not a singular motion, but mass production here should have caused mass production there). And who did it when and where.

So naturally we've no opinion about later. Concluding from "later" to "earlier" is often difficult and has caused serious errors in the past. It's easier to clear the base, decide, which and what is real and which is fiction, and conclude on the base of that what seems reliable at a given time.

... :) the picture is easier, there is not so much confusing data then and you keep a clear head. One must understand the time, in which it takes place ... that are a lot of sidepaths, which have not so much to do with Tarot. But then assumptions win in solidity, and each solide piece turns the picture clearer.
 

Ross G Caldwell

le pendu said:
Can I assume that our friends at http://www.trionfi.com assume that the images in Kaplan make a connection to the "Tarot of Bologna"? If so, how does Ferrara fit into this?
Click to expand...

I think the consensus is that they are an early example of the Bolognese tarocchi; so are the Charles VI.

The consensus about the Charles VI (and Catania) cards belonging to a Ferrarese artist is shifting... towards Bologna or Florence.


...while the images in the "Cary Sheet" show a connection to the "Tarot of Marseilles" and the "Bembo 14"? Can I also assume that Trionfi.com considers that Bembo>Cary Sheet>"Tarot of Milan">"Tarot of Marseilles"; and that the "milan" pattern is older than the Bologna pattern?

Thanks,
robert
Click to expand...

I don't know about the rest of the trionfi.com members, but I don't think the "Milan" pattern is related to Bembo's at all. The Cary Sheet is hard to date... insofar as it is related to Milan and the "Tarot de Marseille", it could have come from France, or the design and style could have come from France, where by 1500 tarot cards were being made for export, and when France completely controlled Milan. I.e. I think the pattern with the World card high came from Avignon or Lyon and changed the way the Milanese played the game, around 1500.

I think it would be natural for the Lyon card-makers to put the World high, since they exported to the world and the New World had by then been discovered as well. The "World" was on everybody's mind, much as "Judgement" had been in the early part of the 1400s.
 

Huck

The nature of the questions around the 14 Bembo cards definitely demand, postulate and are rather sure about a connection between numerology of the Marseille deck and the "assumed row and numerolgy in the 14 Bembo cards".

This doesn't state too much about "iconographical questions". As I stated earlier there are reasons to think about a French Trionfi development after December 1476, when Galeazzo Maria, duke of Milan, was killed.

This murder and the death of Charles the Bold 2 weeks later changed European history dramatically.

The "happy Italian Trionfi scene" with all its glamor and festivities from before changed character then.

This historical "negative advances" is accompanied by conditions of printing industry, that make start of mass production of Trionfi cards likely at this time. Once mass production has started, great iconographical changes in the Tarot become difficult to explain.
They are not difficult to explain, as long "hand-painted cards" are the rule and dominant. In the contrary, differences and creative sidepath are natural for that phase.

So 1500 is "too late", around 1480 seems more likely as birth date for traditional forms.
The best we know of "Taraux" as appearance of a word is the date 1505, which contradicts the above opinion.
But we've a next appearance of the word with 1516 ... a great gap of 11 years. From this we cannot say, that 1505 is the "real first date", just postulating another gap of 11 years we would be already in the year of 1494.

In 1534 (Rabelais) we've the phenomen, that "trionfi" and Taraux are mentioned as different.

From 1496 we've the first French note of "Trionfi", Rene II..

But Michael Hurst based on Dummett: "According to the Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française, “…the earliest recorded use of the word [triumphe] in French as the name of a card game dates from as early as 1482. Unfortunately, we cannot be certain that these references are to games played with the Tarot pack.” Dummett considers it likely that this reference does refer to Tarot, which would thereby have been in France by about 1480. Another probable early reference to Tarot in France is from Lorraine, 1496, and one of the earliest unambiguous mentions of Tarot in France is to their manufacture at Lyons, in 1507. "

That's 1482.

Considering that "Trionfi" is an Italian word and the problem is there for a French tongue to speak this word in probably various local dialects ....

Trionfi - Trionf - Trion - Trio - T(a)rio - Taro - Taraux

These people .. as it seems ... don't write the word, but they speak it. In hectical situations at playing cards table, they take the trick and cry " I triumph" and as it is too long to say this, they say "triumph" and as this is too long they cry "trion" and as this is too long they cry "Trio" ... and finally "Taraux".
And now this new word finds its way back to Italy and it isn't recognized anymore as "Trionfi". It's now a foreign word and it looks stupid, as expressed in the 20ies of 15th centuries by a local speaker.

And when now an intellectual like Rabelais arrives at the scene, he realises, that there are 2 different words, ergo there must be 2 different games.

No earlier Egyptian use required. In reality it comes from "Deep Egyptia", that's the playing cards table round the corner.
Whoever has taken his place at the playing card table with "intensive players", and observed the originality of the used language and the transmutation of words during a long night with cards and alcohol, that one knows, that the way from "Trionfi" to "Taraux" may take place in the difference between evening and morning.

So actually .. if this interpretation is true or untrue ... the appearance of a new word Taraux doesn't allow to conclude the existence of a new sort of deck in 1505. The possibility exists, that there was "no new deck at all".

Normal logic demands to search the start of mass production and the genesis of standard forms at another time than 1505. 1480 is not bad, but perhaps even earlier.
 

firemaiden

OH my god, thanks Robert for posting the Rothschild sheets!
 

le pendu

My pleasure! Hopefully Mr. Kaplan won't have his lawyers on to me for doing so!

Aren't the images wonderful though?

I'm amazed at the size of the Angel on the Angel/Judgement card.. no wonder the Italians referred to it is as "The Angel". The Angel is so paramount to the depiction.. with Judgement seeming almost an afterthought.

The Wheel has four figures on it like the Visconti decks, with the figure on the top holding an orb... throughly an "I Reign" message I think.

Isn't the Tower amazing? So much like the Charles VI deck.

http://letarot.com/dossiers-chauds/...dieu/images/Charles-VI-maison-dieu-medium.jpg

I love seeing Death on horseback... like some of the early non-tarot related imagery... see The Triumph of Death, Sacro Speco, Subiaco, Fresco:
http://www.philipresheph.com/a424/gallery/piclib/piclib4.htm

To me, the sheet seems very much connnected to the Tarocco Bolognese.... and we can see some of the images connected all the way to the Vieville.

Isn't it wonderful that we have the Cary Sheet to connect us to the TdM, and these cards which seem to echo an early pattern showing up again in other early decks?

best,
robert
 

firemaiden

reactions to Rothschild sheets...

The Rothschild cards are fantastic - I'm struck by how the Sun card looks like the Tarot de Paris Sun card - minus the baboon dog-faced visitor.

I was thinking the same thing about the Angel card - yes, the perspective is such that the angel dominates.

Yes, the Tower is amazing, what is fantastic is the perspective, the card is almost drawn from the perspective of the people falling - all skewed (were these woodcuts? or hand-drawn, they look too fine to be woodcuts).

Is it Hermes with the winged hat who drives the chariot, and Hermes again we see atop the wreathed globe of the world?.

That wreath! Like the wreath around the globe in the Rosenwald Sheet World card, it is like an intermediary stage between between the figure on top of the globe, and a figure inside a wreath.

Which Viéville images are you thinking of?

Oh, and I don't recognise the figure on the bottom right of sheet 1, who is that guy with wings and stilts? A strange kind of Hermit?

Huson (Mystical Origins of the Tarot) finds a resemblance between the Devil on this sheet, and Lucifer devouring Judas Iscariot, as depicted in the 1512 printing of Dante
 

firemaiden

It's VENUS!

While hoping to find a copy of the Rosenwald sheet on line I found this Library of Congress exhition Heavenly Craft: the wood cut in early printed books and saw this woodcut of the chariot of Venus in Flores astrologiae, 1488.

So the figure with the winged hat, is Venus! This chariot pulled by birds (eagles? ducks?) reminded me of the Tarot de Paris Chariot, which is pulled by ... (geese?) (a swan and a pelican?). And of course the Rothschild sheet Chariot has the same gal with the winged hat, as does the World card. Is this old news?
 
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