Tarot and Kabbala

Ross G Caldwell said:

Your book here gives the source as the Epistolae, in his Opera, vol. 2. The letter is number 72.
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We should see from the Latin what form "Tarot" takes. The letter should date from around 1530, so it would be a very early occurence of this word, whatever the sense (e.g. the card game, the musical instrument, etc.)

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The dog name "Tarot" should be mentioned at least twice in the letters. And dogs have an age usually (an average might be 5 years ?) ... Monsieur and Mademoiselle seem to be the youngest, as it's told that "they were brought from France". If Tarot would have been from 1524-27, we would have Agrippa then at the court of Louise of Savoy, mother of French king Francois I. ... a woman, which might have had some interest in games. Her contemporary Margarete of Austria, also with familiary connections to Savoy, had also favor for games ... and also contact to Agrippa.

Why did he have so much dogs? For hunting or for protection?

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Another curious fact from Agrippa:

http://books.google.com/books?id=qq...r&dq=agrippa&ei=VTzpScPGA5LaygShwuUL#PPA63,M1

... the page mentions a Theoderic from Cologne, a bishop of Cyrene, who praises Agrippa ... is this a joke? Or a forged letter? Was there in this time a bishop of Cyrene?

Regarding Cyrene

Theodor Wichwael, O.S.A. --the Auxillary Bishop of Cologne-- was the Titular Bishop of Cyrene from Aug 2, 1504 until his death on March 3, 1519.

In both the Eastern and Western traditions, a Diocese (See) can only have one Bishop at a time.. However, many See's are just too extensive or complicated for one Bishop to effectively serve. Bishops of such See's began to acquire auxiliaries (often Bishops who sought refuge from hostile invasion of their original homes). Since these Auxiliaries could not also be consecrated for the Diocese they actually served, they began to consecrated for cities that no longer supported a Bishop of their own, or might no longer even exist. Many such See's existed in what had once been Christian-North Africa, but no longer had Christian populations.

The most recent Titular Bishop of Cyrene was Valérien Bélanger, the Auxillary Bishop of Montreal, he died in 1983.

conversus said:

Theodor Wichwael, O.S.A. --the Auxillary Bishop of Cologne-- was the Titular Bishop of Cyrene from Aug 2, 1504 until his death on March 3, 1519.

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Thanks for the hint ... also called Dietrich von Caster (Kaster is a location near to Cologne and the location Nettesheim, where Agrippa probably came from), buried in a church in Bedburg.

Wichwael seems to be a form of Michael ... ... probably a mutation inside the local Ripuarian dialect.

At

http://books.google.com/books?id=qq...r&dq=agrippa&ei=VTzpScPGA5LaygShwuUL#PPA95,M1

is reported, that Agrippa wrote "Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex" or "De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus", which according other sources

http://books.google.com/books?id=TP...bKl&sig=hI3NE46qXCNMZFju3eBylueT53Y#PPA199,M1

was given in 1509 as a lecture in 1509 in Dole and printed in 1529 with a dedication to Margarete of Austria.

(which leaves the question open, if Margarete was addressed already in 1509 and also, if the edition of 1529 was that, what was lectured in 1509.)

Compare also this somehow better explaining source:
http://books.google.com/books?id=wj...WUL&sig=J7Fg0AZmfF-usrhttOuwuRSXP_0#PPA185,M1

It's said, that Agrippa was inspired by his own wedding and marriage in 1509 or short before ... the girl was from Geneve (this dating is contradicted at other sources).

In the content of the text "De nobilitate et praecellentia foeminei sexus" Agrippa presents the topic "women are better than men" ... curiously enough we had this recently in one or some more of our discussions:

The Boiardo Tarocchi presents 10 pairs of terzets, which as hidden topic have 10 virtues and 10 vices. Virtues are presented by women, which act wise and generous, and the vices are presented by men, who act stupid and end in common desasters. In our analyses of the poem this topic "women are better than men" was discovered without regard of other contemporary literature.
The Boiardo Tarocchi poem was dated by us at "around January 1487" cause the marriage of Lucrezia, daughter of Ercole d'Este, in the same month. This was concluded, cause the last and highest trump was focussed on the female Roman heo Lucrezia, ... and this position was observed as unusual.

Recently we became aware of another text with the same topic "women are better than men", written by a Ferrarese notary Goggio and dedicated to Leonor of Aragon, wife of Ercole d'Este. The text was detected by the Ferrara specialist Gundersheimer in the 70's of 20th century. Gundersheimer - probably without knowledge of the Boiardo Tarocchi poem - argued, that this radical approach of feminine literature was unknown for 15th century, he discovered a "new trend". The Goggio text, who according Gundersheimer didn't spread and was probably known only in internal Ferrarese circles, was written or at least dedicated after Summer 1487, which lead to a general dating of ca. 1487-1490. In the consequence later various other women-praising texts appeared especially in the Ferrarese circle.
From the timely coincidence we take the argument, that our earlier argumentation regarding the dating of the Boiardo Tarocchi was correct.

Now we see, that also Agrippa of Nettesheim discovered this literary genre ... an interesting detail.

For the general publication series of Agrippa ...

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/agrippa-nettesheim/

Agrippa's wife contracted the plague and died at Antwerp in March 1529. Despite this personal loss, he was hopeful of winning the patronage of the governor of the Netherlands, Margaret of Austria. Though he had hoped for a higher office, he eventually accepted an appointment as imperial archivist and historiographer. He wrote several brief works as historiographer, including an account of the coronation of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor in 1530 and a funeral oration later that year for Margaret of Austria.

Far more important to Agrippa's lasting reputation was his decision to begin publishing his writings with Antwerp printers. In 1529 Michael Hillenius published his first book, a collection of short treatises and orations, mostly from his Italian period, but including his little work on female excellence, which he finally presented to Margaret two decades after he wrote it in Dôle. In January he received an imperial license to print several titles, including both De occulta philosophia and De vanitate. In 1530, Cornelius Grapheus printed the first edition of De vanitate. The following year, Grapheus produced a partial edition (Book One) of De occulta philosophia.

In terms of his relations with the regent, publication of De vanitate was an error. Its sharp criticism of the mendicant orders and many practices of the church led the friars to strike back with charges of impiety and Lutheran heresy. Margaret referred the matter to the theological faculty of Louvain, which condemned the book as scandalous, impious, and heretical. The condemnation came before the Parlement (high court) at Mechelen, and Agrippa was dismissed from his appointment at court and presented with a demand to suppress his book. He responded not by submission but by quickly producing two works of self-defense, a brief Querela denouncing the “theosophists” who had brought the charges and a much longer Apologia replying point by point to the accusations. His resistance and angry talk about declaring war against the monks made his position at court even worse.

More realistic than his stubborn self-defense was his effort to find a new patron. The archbishop-elector of Cologne, Hermann von Wied (1477–1552), was interested in Agrippa's occult learning and sympathetic to moderate religious reform. In 1531, Agrippa had dedicated the partial edition of De occulta philosophia to him; and in March of 1532, he spent about a month at Bonn as the archbishop's guest. His efforts to regain favor in Flanders continued, but without success. Fearing arrest by creditors who had already caused him to be imprisoned briefly for unpaid debt, in June 1532 he suddenly moved to Bonn.

Agrippa was a member of the archbishop's court from 1532 until sometime in 1534. His letters show him living comfortably in attendance on Archbishop Hermann and in close touch with members of Hermann's household who shared his interest in the occult sciences. He continued his efforts to publish his writings and to defend them against the theologians. The Cologne printer Johannes Soter was at work on the complete De occulta philosophia in November of 1532 when the Dominican inquisitor charged that the forthcoming book was heretical. The Cologne city council promptly ordered Soter to stop work and impounded the sections already printed. Agrippa addressed an impassioned protest to the council, dated 11 January 1533. Its blunt tone, denouncing the inquisitor and the other Cologne theologians as a pack of sophists who hated humanistic studies and attacked books they were not competent to judge, probably did not mollify his critics; but the archbishop overruled the inquisitor and De occulta philosophia was finally published in July of 1533.

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Well ... there is some interest to know the true story about the origin of Agrippa's text "De occulta philosophia", from which is said at one of these reporting web sites ...

"Written from 1509 to 1510 (he would have been 23 at the time), it circulated widely in manuscript form, and was eventually printed in 1533. "

Was Agrippa's text really somehow existent in 1510 ... or what is the really background? Actually Agrippa did spend a longer time on the final redaction of his text in 1429 - 1433, it's natural, that he used a lot of his earlier notes and summaries used at other opportunities.

Is there any serious research about this point outside?

Agrippa admits, that he had a longer visit at the home of Trithemius near Würzburg in 1509/10. And Agrippa had an adventurous life till then, not really the time to have made all the serious studies.
But Trithemius had this time ... and Trithemius had problems in 1509/10.

Trithemius had become a rather young abbot in 1483 in Sponheim. He was very successful in organising the cloister and enlarged the library from ca. 50 books and manuscripts to more than 2000, forming by this way probbly the greatest library in Germany. The library was visited by famous scholars. Trithemius himself became involved in the publication and authoring various texts (about 90 books). He got invitations from outside and followed them.

Bad surprizes: Trithemius got opposition at his own cloister and it's told, that part of the library was burnt (1505/06). And: Trithemius was accused of committing forgeries. And: Most researchers believe, that there is evidence for these forgeries. And: there was rumour about magical activities of Trithemius. And: Trithemius left the library and found refuge by Lorenz of Bibra, Fürstbischof of Würzburg.

Lorenz of Bibra (bishop from 1495 - 1519) is counted as a friend of the early German humanists, and later he helped to protect Martin Luther.

In 1509 one of the writings of Trithemius was indexed (his work about Steganography). Well, it's also said, that Trithemius had a lot of protection from the side of emperor. But who attacked him?

The whole matter of opposition against the humanists started to take place from the side of the Cologne Dominicans, the attacked focus later became Reuchlin. The Pfefferkorn-story ..

"Born a Jew, possibly in Nuremberg, Pfefferkorn moved to Cologne after many years of wandering. After committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted to Christianity in 1505 and was baptized together with his family."

And the publication attacks again Jews started 1507. Pfefferkorn (probably) himself didn't really know, what he was doing, he had "a limited knowledge of the subject", probably he was used at least to a part as a dummy for the arguments of others (probably the Cologne Dominicans) ... ... that he earlier committed a burglary might well be an invented story of the counterfighting humanists, but who knows. Probably the ascending career of Jacob of Hoogstraten

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07464b.htm

is part of the background of Pfefferkorn, another part is the expulsion of Jews in Spain (1492) and another part is the publication of the famous Hexenhammer in 1486 just by Dominicans ...

... which according my recent study of internet documents (especially Wikipedia) goes back to complex forgeries of a single person "Heinrich Kramer" or "Heinrich Institoris", in which this person forged for instance the participance of Cologne professors ...

... ... in which the Cologne professors now look so innocent, that I start to think about the fact, that Wikipedia is strongly used by living users of Vatican accounts, and that I should start to read Wikipedia with some calculation of "input of Catholic perspectives" and "modern whitewashing tendencies" and perhaps should better control some data by older texts.

Well, I would think, that Pfefferkorn had "dummy" function for the Cologne Dominicans, but some aspects of the publication of the work of Agrippa in 1510 give the impression, that Agrippa himself was the dummy author for studies actually done and compiled by Trithemius.

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Interesting in my short studies around the "Hexenhammer" is, that it "ausgehend von einer nahezu durchgängigen Verderbtheit des weiblichen Geschlechts" ... well, in other words "women are really the bad sex" ... it takes an opposite position than the above mentioned women-friendly texts of Boiardo, Goggio and Agrippa.

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The 'defence of woman' was a common theme, a genre in and of itself.

kwaw said:

The 'defence of woman' was a common theme, a genre in and of itself.

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Well, it's Gundersheimer, who calls the quality of the Goggio text a "new quality" in the course of the history of this men-women-relationship. He sees it not as a "defense of women", but as a declaration, that "women are better than men".

Indeed the Italian view of the relation men-women changed during 15th century. The executions of Parisina d'Este 1425 and Beatrice de Tender 1418 cause of adultery probably wouldn't have taken place in the same style in the later part of 15th century.

Hi Huck,
Returning to the question of Reuchlin picking up on the "neo-platonism" of Azriel; I have a better quote from a footnote in Origins of the Kabbalah, page 440 taken from G. Thery. "Azriel's and Scotus Erigena's agreement on important ideas and concepts appears so striking and so powerful that the hypothesis of possible historical links between the two thinkers, which I have already discussed here many times, must be seriously taken into consideration. Of course, attenuations, qualifications, de-Christianizations, and even misunderstandings must have occurred; nevertheless, the Christian Neoplatonist remains Azriel's closest possible model on too many points of detail for the resemblance to be accidental. The relationship of Azriel's Hebrew to Erigena's Latin is sometimes clearly evident from the choice of words as well... " and he goes on. There is a very thorough article in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy about Eriugena. His work was condemned at about the same time that Azriel was writing. Gershom Scholem speculates that condemning the work to the underground made it more approachable by the Gerona Kabbalists.

Frances Yates in studying Ramon Llull, who lived in the latter part of the 13th Century, noted that Lull is using Eriugena as his secret source. As I mentioned earlier one element throughout the occult tradition is Lullism. I think it's possible that Reuchlin, also being a Lullist and inclined toward Neo-Platonism, melded his translations of Azriel with these other ,similar Neo-Platonic influences. In this way, Kabbalah entered the already existing underground tradition of Eriugena and Llull (whose work had come under suspicion but was never condemned.) The Catholic ban on Eriugena's work was not lifted until the 1960s. Maybe it was easier for Trithemius, and Reuchlin to just call things Cabala rather than deal with the potential for problems by calling it something else. Trithemius's biographer says as much when he writes that the word Cabala was for purposes of "linguistic obfuscation"

kapoore said:

His work was condemned at about the same time that Azriel was writing. Gershom Scholem speculates that condemning the work to the underground made it more approachable by the Gerona Kabbalists.

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Amaury of Bène, condemned 1204
David of Dinant, condemned 1210/15

I don't understand enough of this time and these teachings. In about the same time the Spanish St. Dominik was active in the region, leading dialogs with the Albiginensers then. 1220 he founded his order in Bologna ... which gives the impression, that Dominik was from Italy, but he was from Spain, Kastilien.

Surely an interesting topic, but actually not my time.

When I began searching for the origins of the Tarot, I started out with Ramon Llull. He lived after the Albigensian crusade but at the same time as the Templars were condemned. One version says that he met Jacques de Mollay while great Templar was in prison. He knew Michael Scot. Later his works, which are huge (something like 200 plus books and mostly untranslated) were associated with alchemy. http:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Llull
A computerized version of his art is at http://lullianarts.net/cont.htm
What makes this art similar to Tarot is that it is interactive and follows a question and answer format. The art consists of nine letters or topics around a circle that moves over 9 fixed subjects. Ask a question and try to interpret the answer from the way the circles line up. This has been considered the first computer. The topics have been compared to the Kabbalah in that both express divine attributes. Lull's are goodness, greatness, eternity, power, wisdom, etc. The attributes or names of the kabbalah are Chockma (Wisdom), Binah (understanding), etc. Of course, the Kabbalah is based on 10 and Llull's art is based on 9. Both, though, have interconnecting lines of correspondence. Harvey Hames wrote a book on the Art of Conversion, which is about the Gerona Kabbalalists and their relations (or possible relations) to Ramon Llull. Robert O'Neil devoted an essay to the topic. I have for many years now thought of Tarot as an extension of the Art Brevis of Llull--I always picture the Trumps around the art. I do think, though, that moving into this material at first glance is not easy because it is so medieval. It took me a long time to understand, for example, what is meant by "accident," "substance" "intelligible" and so on.

In the case, that LLull's language experiments had similarity to Kabbala, that doesn't mean, that Kabbala had similarity to Tarot.

In the time of Llull there weren't playing cards in Europe, and when there were playing cards or evidence for playing cards, we have no evidence for something similar to Tarot cards. And when we have an object with similarity to Tarot cards, then it had 16 Greek gods as trumps, curious bird suits and totally 60 cards. At hat time LLull is already dead for about 110 years.

http://trionfi.com/0/b/

And when we have Trionfi games with some similar iconographical elements to Tarot (maybe ca. 1440), there is considerable doubt, if at the beginning the number 22 was implemented in the game structure, and no real reason to assume a relation to kabbalistic content.

Well, we have two "somehow proven" greater early iconographical influences on that, what later developed to be Trionfi cards and then Tarot: one is the iconography of early chess and the other is the model of the 9 heroes.

Do you see, that LLulls work influenced chess or the 9 heroes concept?