full deck
I was reading of certain sources ascribing the magician's hat as a incorporating the Lemniscate -- a symbol of mathematical infinity. I noticed that this concept of representing "infinity" by using the lemniscate was first suggested by the English mathematician John Wallis in 1650 and before that time was used by the Romans to denote 1,000, which was a very large by Roman standards.
Considering the creation of the J. Noblet Tarot (1650 thereof), how likely is it that such a correlation exists between the big, floppy hat and the symbol of infinity? I rather doubt there is one, considering the turmoil of the times across the English Channel and the much slower dissemination of ideas, not too mention the difficulty in the average (and even above average) person's ability to read and readily adapt complex mathematical treatises to esoteric notions but . . .
This idea must come from a much later rumination upon Tarot imagery (I suspect).
P.S. For everyone's amusement I include this graphical meditation upon Bernoulli's lemniscate. It's really quite cool.
http://thor.prohosting.com/~nraak/bernoullis.htm
Considering the creation of the J. Noblet Tarot (1650 thereof), how likely is it that such a correlation exists between the big, floppy hat and the symbol of infinity? I rather doubt there is one, considering the turmoil of the times across the English Channel and the much slower dissemination of ideas, not too mention the difficulty in the average (and even above average) person's ability to read and readily adapt complex mathematical treatises to esoteric notions but . . .
This idea must come from a much later rumination upon Tarot imagery (I suspect).
P.S. For everyone's amusement I include this graphical meditation upon Bernoulli's lemniscate. It's really quite cool.
http://thor.prohosting.com/~nraak/bernoullis.htm