Namadev said:
Hi,
Why am I shouting in the desert since so many years?
there are counter arguments ... for instance the 5x14-theory
4)The "searchers" such as Ross or Lothar or Huck focus upon the 5x14 theory and it's defense.
Alain
It's not a defense, it's an attack ...
on a somewhat stupid standard believe, that the Tarot had 22 trumps from beginning on "without any real evidence" .... which should and could be open to all reading eyes since we started to collect the material and made it available in the web. The material, on which earlier researchers stated this long believed theory ... and as we suspected already earlier and know now more or less with some security: there was nothing, which gave a reason to do so.
And remember, it's not long ago, that the table was turned. January 2003 Lothar published his thesis.
Before a lot of discussion was done without knowing this material or on the base of rudimentary knowledge only .... somewhat baseless discussions. Now anybody can reach and take the easy available material into consideration - and evaluate it how it confirms with his own ideas of the process or with our offered hypotheses.
The material is not perfect ... we didn't reach in all points the depth we wished. And we would need some help to do so from all this famous playing card research, which dominated the earlier publical opinion in this matter, but there is not much input from this side. ... it's a sleeping world.
But there is until now no contradiction to the 5x14-theory. And when .... we always like to hear real critique.
It's true, as you earlier mentioned, that Boiardo was known by the Viti brothers and that Raphael had to do with one of them. But this communicative process is too late .. a late comment to a development which took place earlier (in the case, that it is really relevant). There is no causeal chain in it, which went from Pythagoras ideas to the Tarot.
The visit of Emperor John in 1424 caused perhaps that sleeping Greek interests in Filippo Maria were opened and he took the choice to paint Greek gods in his first Trionfi deck with Greek gods (very different from the earlier prognosted 22-trumps-Ur-Tarocchi). A second visit 1438/1439 raised a second time the Greek interests now for all Italy, but we don't see much of Pythagoras; much more of Platonism. But the Tarot, which develops probably around 1441/1442, seems to offer Italian specialities now, not Byzantian motifs. Or do you know a Hanging Man from Byzanz?
Well, a good question ... The Greek wouldn't paint a pope for instance. Are the 7 virtues a Byzantine motif? Boethius, who worked about the virtues, was an Italian. I don't know the answer. Were the virtues of the same value in the Greek world as in the West?