Two updates
The newly revised version in French of my essay.
Le Tarot Arithmologique
La séquence arithmologique du nombre pentagonal 22 = 1+4+7+10
Download PDF link for paper version :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5Hg6jopEFmbYmJfd0RFSG5UbUk/view
Nota bene : M. HOWARD has also published on Andrea VITALI's site a Review in English :
In Appreciation of Alain Bougearel's "1+4+7+10=22"
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=608
My Essai has now two additions (one phrase in the Introduction and a much longer additif in the Conclusion) to what has already been presented on Andrea VITALI 's site.
(in French)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=603&lng=ITA
(in English)
http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=603 (translation M. HOWARD)
Translation of the 2 additifs in English by M. HOWARD :
Introduction
Additif :
At one point in history, probably at the latest before the end of the last quarter of the fifteenth century, the number of cards finally settled at 78, i.e. 56 + 22.
Conclusion: significance of the Math at the Omega of the arithmological sequence
Additif :
In the scholastic thought of the Church, the number 22 makes sense.
(Cf: Steve Morgan on THF :
http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1102&start=340#p17660 )
Thus Origen, one of the Fathers of the Church, was first, before being ordained a priest, a student of Ammonius Saccas, the teacher of Plotinus - the founder of Roman Neoplatonism, whose writings in their entirety were published by his disciple Porphyry of Tyre under the name of Enneads.
Origen, historically regarded as the Father of Biblical exegesis, defined the Number 22 in these terms:
In the order of the numbers, each individual number contains some strength and power over things. The Creator of the Universe has made use of this power and strength, either for the constitution of the universe itself or to express the nature of each thing as it appears. It follows, according to the Scriptures, that we must observe and calculate these aspects which belong to the numbers themselves. And in truth, the books of the Bible itself, such as the Jews have transmitted them, are [in number] twenty-two, equal to the number of Hebrew letters, and this is not without reason. Indeed, twenty-two letters [that] seem to be the introduction to God's wisdom and the knowledge of the world.
Select in Ps I - PG 12, 1084)
(Cf : A. Quacquarelli, s.v. Numeri, in DPAC, pages 2447-2448)
The members of the Neoplatonic academy in Florence (1459-1521) could not ignore it, whether Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, [his friend] Giralomo Benivieni or others ...
(See:
http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewt...90&hilit=Giovanni+Pico+della+Mirandola#p17190)
The 22 pictorial allegories and the 21 tarots + the Math:
Many lists of tarots consider the Math not to be part of the 21 tarots, even if positioning it in the 0 position before the Bagat, with an ordinal progression of:
0 and 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20, 21
Hence a count of:
0 [Math] + XXI Tarots
The "Sermones ...", the oldest list of tarots, positions the Math - while calling it NULLA -on the twenty-second line, after the World and before the Bagat:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,1 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 0
Hence a count of:
XXI Tarots + NULLA
The 1637 Rules, the oldest in France, count XXII Triumphs:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,1 2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22
Hence a count of:
XXII Triumphs = XXI tarots + 1 (The Excuse)
These ordinal progressions in no way conflict with the arithmological generation of the Pentagonal Number 22 of 1 + 4 + 7 + 10.
Beyond knowing whether there are 21 or 22 Triumphs, the ordinal progressions are justly subject to perceiving the 22 pictorial allegories as arranged in a circle depicting an Ouroboros.
One can legitimately count:
- from the 1st Allegory to the 22nd: the Bagat is the first Triumph and the Math is the 22nd, after the 21st, the World
or indeed:
- from 0 to the 21st allegory: the Math is the 0th Triumph; the Bagat is the first, and the World, twenty-first.
In summary:
- the Math is the 22nd in ordinal position in a count of 1 to 22
or
- the Math is 0th in ordinal position in a count from 0-21