John Meador
Reflecting on the illustration of Guillaume Postel's Clavis as envisioned by Abraham von Franckenberg in 1646:
http://f3.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/cIAqP0...5KLwGKbuNVQofTzOEclL_x7Yg6U0QRk/postelkey.jpg
(archived in the files at tarotL- you must be a member to access)
In Franckenberg's centennial illustration of Postel's key,
we can detect the letters TARO/ROTA therein. This illustration
appears to be the source for later esoteric comment by various
writers concerning the Clavis Absconditorum's supposed relevance to
tarot.
This Clavis remains untranslated into English, however it is available in
Latin from the gallica website in PDF format. A French translation
(1975) is also available in print.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/metacata.idq?Bgc=&Mod=&CiRestriction=%
28@_Auteur%20postel%26guillaume%29&RPT=
Abraham von Franckenberg was well acquainted with Postel's works and
thought. Franckenberg was from Wroclaw(southern Silesia) in what was
Bohemia.
What was the tarot known as in 1646 in Bohemia(and Amsterdam)? How many cards were in the decks and what components did these contain?
Is it reasonable to assume the letters: *taro* would suggest, tarock,
or tarocchi to someone at that time and place?
Ronald Decker in his most recent work<<note #28, p. 352>> denies that Franckenberg intended this formulation to intend "tarot", but presents no evidence, or rationale for this conclusion. Decker also attaches the ROTA formulation to Eliphas Levi. J. P. Laurent, in an article: " Postel vu par le XIX siecle occultisant", in the volume: Guillaume Postel 1581-1981, ed. Guy Tredaniel, 1985; suggests Levi developed this from reading Court de Gebelin:
" Il commenta dans La Clef des Grands Mysteres une dispute Juifs-Chretiens entre Balthazar Orobio et Philippe de Limborch en les renvoyant tous deux aux hieroglyphes de l'Egypte et aux peintures symboliques de l'Inde, citant Court de Gebelin mais ignorant La langue hebraique restituee de Fabre d'Olivet et tout le courant qui fit des Egyptiens, avec Basnage, "les premiers cabalistes du monde". Postel est presente ainsi : "Un siecle deja avant Orobio, un homme d'une foi exaltee et d'une puissante erudition avait trouve la clef de tous les mysteres religieux, et publiait un petit livre intitule : Clavis absconditorum a constitutione mundi, La clef des choses cachees depuis l'origine du monde. Cet homme etait un illumine hebraisant et kabbaliste; on le nommait Guillaume Postel. Il crut avoir trouve la vraie signification du tetragramme dans un livre bieroglyphique anterieur a la Bible, et qu'il nomme la Genese d'Enoch, pour en cacher sans doute le vrai nom aux profanes ; car sur l'anneau de la clef symbolique, dont il donne la figure comme une explication occulte de son singulier ouvrage, il trace ainsi son quaternaire mysterieux: "
T
O+A
R
-ibid.
Franckenberg, immersed in the Rosicrucian milieu, seems likely to
have had the following in mind when executing the design:
"...after the death of the said A. none of us had in any manner known
anything of Brother R. C. and of his first fellow-brethren, then that
which was extant of them in our Philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst
which our Axiomata was held for the chiefest Rota Mundi, for the most
artificial, and Protheus the most profitable."
-Fama Fraternitatis, 1615
for more on Franckenberg and the Rosicrucians, see:
Johannes Bureus' Hyperborean Theosophy -Susanna Akerman
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/alrunaredivia.html
also
Helisaeus Roeslin, the New Star, and the Last Judgement
-Susanna Akerman
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/helisaeusr.html
http://f3.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/cIAqP0...5KLwGKbuNVQofTzOEclL_x7Yg6U0QRk/postelkey.jpg
(archived in the files at tarotL- you must be a member to access)
In Franckenberg's centennial illustration of Postel's key,
we can detect the letters TARO/ROTA therein. This illustration
appears to be the source for later esoteric comment by various
writers concerning the Clavis Absconditorum's supposed relevance to
tarot.
This Clavis remains untranslated into English, however it is available in
Latin from the gallica website in PDF format. A French translation
(1975) is also available in print.
http://gallica.bnf.fr/metacata.idq?Bgc=&Mod=&CiRestriction=%
28@_Auteur%20postel%26guillaume%29&RPT=
Abraham von Franckenberg was well acquainted with Postel's works and
thought. Franckenberg was from Wroclaw(southern Silesia) in what was
Bohemia.
What was the tarot known as in 1646 in Bohemia(and Amsterdam)? How many cards were in the decks and what components did these contain?
Is it reasonable to assume the letters: *taro* would suggest, tarock,
or tarocchi to someone at that time and place?
Ronald Decker in his most recent work<<note #28, p. 352>> denies that Franckenberg intended this formulation to intend "tarot", but presents no evidence, or rationale for this conclusion. Decker also attaches the ROTA formulation to Eliphas Levi. J. P. Laurent, in an article: " Postel vu par le XIX siecle occultisant", in the volume: Guillaume Postel 1581-1981, ed. Guy Tredaniel, 1985; suggests Levi developed this from reading Court de Gebelin:
" Il commenta dans La Clef des Grands Mysteres une dispute Juifs-Chretiens entre Balthazar Orobio et Philippe de Limborch en les renvoyant tous deux aux hieroglyphes de l'Egypte et aux peintures symboliques de l'Inde, citant Court de Gebelin mais ignorant La langue hebraique restituee de Fabre d'Olivet et tout le courant qui fit des Egyptiens, avec Basnage, "les premiers cabalistes du monde". Postel est presente ainsi : "Un siecle deja avant Orobio, un homme d'une foi exaltee et d'une puissante erudition avait trouve la clef de tous les mysteres religieux, et publiait un petit livre intitule : Clavis absconditorum a constitutione mundi, La clef des choses cachees depuis l'origine du monde. Cet homme etait un illumine hebraisant et kabbaliste; on le nommait Guillaume Postel. Il crut avoir trouve la vraie signification du tetragramme dans un livre bieroglyphique anterieur a la Bible, et qu'il nomme la Genese d'Enoch, pour en cacher sans doute le vrai nom aux profanes ; car sur l'anneau de la clef symbolique, dont il donne la figure comme une explication occulte de son singulier ouvrage, il trace ainsi son quaternaire mysterieux: "
T
O+A
R
-ibid.
Franckenberg, immersed in the Rosicrucian milieu, seems likely to
have had the following in mind when executing the design:
"...after the death of the said A. none of us had in any manner known
anything of Brother R. C. and of his first fellow-brethren, then that
which was extant of them in our Philosophical Bibliotheca, amongst
which our Axiomata was held for the chiefest Rota Mundi, for the most
artificial, and Protheus the most profitable."
-Fama Fraternitatis, 1615
for more on Franckenberg and the Rosicrucians, see:
Johannes Bureus' Hyperborean Theosophy -Susanna Akerman
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/alrunaredivia.html
also
Helisaeus Roeslin, the New Star, and the Last Judgement
-Susanna Akerman
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/helisaeusr.html