Hebrew letters on Visconti-Sforza trumps

[DoctorArcanus]

I read this in a thread in the Kabbalah section:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=84642

Hi Northsea- your guess is right it seems as the main body of of the gowns have 8 rayed star motif. Kaplan notes that the artist who may have been Antonio Cicognaro, did not paint the usual heraldic devices of Visconti or Sforza on the gowns. There does appear to be a Aleph and a Shin but there is also a # sign and a trident type symbol. All in all they remind me more of Astrological talismans
glyphs, than the Hebrew letters. ~Rosanne

Are the relevant details of the cards available on the internet?
What do you think of these symbols?

Marco

 

[Rosanne]

Hi! I am hopeless with the web, but I am sure someone would be able to get you scans of the 6 cards not painted by Bembo, that have these different embellishments on the gowns. Kaplan thinks the painter is Antonio Cicognaro- who I know nothing about. I have the reproduction deck called the Visconti Gold and on these cards they look like glyphs rather than fabric patterns- but really I do not know. The 6 cards are Temperance, Strength, Star, Sun, Moon and World. I think you might have to search out the painter. There are the complete cards on Taroteca but not enough size to see the details. I have looked for this artist but have had no luck! ~Rosanne

 

[le pendu]

The deck is scanned here:
http://quatramaran.ens.fr/~madore/visconti-tarots/large/

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Thank you Robert.
Those scans are very good, but unfortunately they don't seem to be detailed enough to see the decoration on Temperance dress and other cards

Marco

 

[Rosanne]

Hi DoctorArcanus- I got the threads all mixed up when trying to reply to you on this thread.
In the Kabbalah forum I said this...

I can say with some assuredness, and a high power magnifier glass- that these are Greek letters around the hem- there is a ps, G, X,D, Z, L, O for instance (all non capital).
http://community.middlebury.edu/~ha...eekGrammar.html
The artist has done what was typical in the Renaissance and made the images of Classic Greek antiquity style. On the Star card Hem there are 4 dots dice like in design, on the dress is just a design that looks like a a bell with three streams from it. Greek Alphabet on the hem of Temperance for sure- no wonder people thought it might be Hebrew. Thanks Le Pendu for the site with the cards- I am lucky I have a large LCD screen for my computer.

I cannot work out how to show a blow up of a section of a card- sorry :frown:
~Rosanne

 

[Huck]

Hi! I am hopeless with the web, but I am sure someone would be able to get you scans of the 6 cards not painted by Bembo, that have these different embellishments on the gowns. Kaplan thinks the painter is Antonio Cicognaro- who I know nothing about. I have the reproduction deck called the Visconti Gold and on these cards they look like glyphs rather than fabric patterns- but really I do not know. The 6 cards are Temperance, Strength, Star, Sun, Moon and World. I think you might have to search out the painter. There are the complete cards on Taroteca but not enough size to see the details. I have looked for this artist but have had no luck! ~Rosanne

Dummett recently (as earlier) argumented strongly against Cicognara. Dummett suggested (now new), that the six cards were made for Benedetto Bembo.

http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=1345415#post1345415

Those scans are very good, but unfortunately they don't seem to be detailed enough to see the decoration on Temperance dress and other cards

The cloth of Temperance has simple stars, 4 lines crossing each other in the center

Star

Moon

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Thank you Huck.
I think the supposed Hebrew letters are at the bottom of the gown of Temperance and Star (and maybe other cards?).

This is a detail of the relevant area from the scans posted by Robert:
http://trahorfatis.pbwiki.com/TemperanceViscontiSforza
The resolution is not enough to clearly see what's there.

Marco

 

[Huck]

The best, that I've of it