Rosanne
I have an Italian book by Alessandro Bellenghi 1985 published in Milan. I bought it in Milan for it's illustrations. One particular set of images set me about translating the words into English. The images come from Centro Documentazione Mondadori and are called Naibi cards. They were obviously used to teach geography to children as they show an Empress like figure with numbers all over her and corresponding cards explaining each area of Europe. The death figure explains the British Isles and the Sun figure France for example. The inscriptions are all in Latin showing directions and provinces.
The authors intention is to relate these educational cards as the historic base for the 22.
His theory goes like this......
A chinese historical document of the year 1120 refers to a game involving ivory tablets with allegorical pictures of Heaven and Earth, Man and the Stars-some virtues like Justice and Benevolence and the cardinal points. The Naibi of the 14th century Europe is inspired by these Chinese cards, as so depicts aspects and areas of life (somewhat like the Mategna, I am guessing)- the educational naibies diverge at this point- the images for the game of Tarot and the educational naibi becoming more Christianized with a further inclusion of 7 sacraments/sins/ the five senses and other symbols. The author speaks of the mention of Naibi in a 1299 manuscript by Pipozzo di Sandro called an Essay on the Government of the Family. This to my mind shows that Naibi was an educational game.
He then says that in Florence in 1376 the playing of Naibbe was prohibited, and to be prohibited under the name Naibbe meant that the educational game had developed into a game of chance even before Tarocchi/Tarot made an appearance.
Makes sense to me - especially after seeing the Naibi cards of geography of Europe.
Is this how you might think the 22 came about?
~Rosanne
The authors intention is to relate these educational cards as the historic base for the 22.
His theory goes like this......
A chinese historical document of the year 1120 refers to a game involving ivory tablets with allegorical pictures of Heaven and Earth, Man and the Stars-some virtues like Justice and Benevolence and the cardinal points. The Naibi of the 14th century Europe is inspired by these Chinese cards, as so depicts aspects and areas of life (somewhat like the Mategna, I am guessing)- the educational naibies diverge at this point- the images for the game of Tarot and the educational naibi becoming more Christianized with a further inclusion of 7 sacraments/sins/ the five senses and other symbols. The author speaks of the mention of Naibi in a 1299 manuscript by Pipozzo di Sandro called an Essay on the Government of the Family. This to my mind shows that Naibi was an educational game.
He then says that in Florence in 1376 the playing of Naibbe was prohibited, and to be prohibited under the name Naibbe meant that the educational game had developed into a game of chance even before Tarocchi/Tarot made an appearance.
Makes sense to me - especially after seeing the Naibi cards of geography of Europe.
Is this how you might think the 22 came about?
~Rosanne