Huck
Earlier I've given various arguments, why there are relations between Chess and Tarot.
The concept of the 14 Nothelfer (translated with "14 Holy helpers") seems to have been also related to chess.
Some general information the group are given with the wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Holy_Helpers
... not the best text and with errors. For instance originated the Nothelfer NOT in the Rhineland, as the article states.
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The catholic Nothelfer cult (developing during 14th century in Regensburg with an earlier (but insecure) note of 1284 in Krems; definitely established and distributing at begin of 15th century from Regensburg) and the Jacobus de Cessolis chess interpretation (estimated globally "around 1300"; with individual pawns as "professions") run together in time. In the same period belong also the "9 worthies", which appear for the time in a roman of Jacques de Longuyon in his "Voeux du Paon" (1312), likely made for the crowning of the emperor Henry VII. in the same year.
This is not "old iconography", but imitated according some earlier style ..
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Maximin_(Pachten)
.. but one easily understands the idea, that the Nothelfer look like exotic chess figures with a closed door at the position, where one expects the king and the Queen.
I found the remark, that the 14 Nothelfer were "always" connected to Jesus and Maria (in the above picture possibly intended to be "behind the closed doors". What I've seen as real pictures of Nothelfers, this "always" is not true, but anyway, pictures with Jesus and Maria plus 14 Nothelfer exist.
http://www.diekelten.at/vierzehnnothelfer.htm
I'm not sure, but the following picture seems to present the Regensburger Nothelfer window, which was made c. 1360 for the Regensburger Dom, it's possibly the oldest surviving representation of a complete set of Nothelfer. It has 16 (not 14) Nothelfer, the saints Leonhard (somehow connected to France) and Oswald (somehow connected to England) are included (in 1360 the English-French war is rather active ... perhaps the inclusion of these both relates to contemporary political realities; the French king was then prisoner of the English after a lost battle in 1355).
Info to ..
Leonhard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_of_Noblac
Oswald: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_of_Northumbria
The picture does not show up, but it is here:
http://www.haber-brandner.de/eshop/...lfer/?XTCsid=c9b57c9fbfcf3317aa54866ddfb5fa8d
8 figures to the right, 8 figures to the left, the middle filled with other scenes.
An older Nothelfer Fresco (called the "oldest representation", also in Regensburg, c. 1320/30), considered incomplete, is given at this page ...
http://www.altrofoto.de/index.php/r...s+Innenansicht+S%FCdliches/layout-115104.html
Compare also (German article):
http://books.google.de/books?id=-nt...page&q=regensburger nothelfer fenster&f=false
The later traditional scheme with 14 Nothelfer (and 14 fixed figures, as they are mostly given in later time) is first recorded in two Regensburger texts.
Compare (German text)
http://books.google.com/books?id=-ntgMbpT0OkC&pg=PA661#v=onepage&q&f=false
... according which one text gives the row "around 1400" and the other in 1408.
*********
The day of the 14 Nothelfer is the 8th of August (I don't know, since when). This writes "8.8." ... and in my opinion this indicates possibly the relationship to chess, where 8 pawns are combined in two rows with 8 chess officers.
Cyriacus, one of the 14 Nothelfer saints, got, although he died at 16 of March, also the date 8.8. as his day. This according the transfer of his bones, which was done once at 8th of August (as I've read).
*********
The pawns of chess refer to professions (according Cessolis), similar are the Nothelfer (like often other saints, too) related to professions (beside their dominating medical associations).
The concept of the 14 Nothelfer (translated with "14 Holy helpers") seems to have been also related to chess.
Some general information the group are given with the wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Holy_Helpers
... not the best text and with errors. For instance originated the Nothelfer NOT in the Rhineland, as the article states.
************************
The catholic Nothelfer cult (developing during 14th century in Regensburg with an earlier (but insecure) note of 1284 in Krems; definitely established and distributing at begin of 15th century from Regensburg) and the Jacobus de Cessolis chess interpretation (estimated globally "around 1300"; with individual pawns as "professions") run together in time. In the same period belong also the "9 worthies", which appear for the time in a roman of Jacques de Longuyon in his "Voeux du Paon" (1312), likely made for the crowning of the emperor Henry VII. in the same year.
This is not "old iconography", but imitated according some earlier style ..
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Maximin_(Pachten)
.. but one easily understands the idea, that the Nothelfer look like exotic chess figures with a closed door at the position, where one expects the king and the Queen.
I found the remark, that the 14 Nothelfer were "always" connected to Jesus and Maria (in the above picture possibly intended to be "behind the closed doors". What I've seen as real pictures of Nothelfers, this "always" is not true, but anyway, pictures with Jesus and Maria plus 14 Nothelfer exist.
http://www.diekelten.at/vierzehnnothelfer.htm
I'm not sure, but the following picture seems to present the Regensburger Nothelfer window, which was made c. 1360 for the Regensburger Dom, it's possibly the oldest surviving representation of a complete set of Nothelfer. It has 16 (not 14) Nothelfer, the saints Leonhard (somehow connected to France) and Oswald (somehow connected to England) are included (in 1360 the English-French war is rather active ... perhaps the inclusion of these both relates to contemporary political realities; the French king was then prisoner of the English after a lost battle in 1355).
Info to ..
Leonhard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_of_Noblac
Oswald: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_of_Northumbria
The picture does not show up, but it is here:
http://www.haber-brandner.de/eshop/...lfer/?XTCsid=c9b57c9fbfcf3317aa54866ddfb5fa8d
8 figures to the right, 8 figures to the left, the middle filled with other scenes.
An older Nothelfer Fresco (called the "oldest representation", also in Regensburg, c. 1320/30), considered incomplete, is given at this page ...
http://www.altrofoto.de/index.php/r...s+Innenansicht+S%FCdliches/layout-115104.html
Compare also (German article):
http://books.google.de/books?id=-nt...page&q=regensburger nothelfer fenster&f=false
The later traditional scheme with 14 Nothelfer (and 14 fixed figures, as they are mostly given in later time) is first recorded in two Regensburger texts.
Compare (German text)
http://books.google.com/books?id=-ntgMbpT0OkC&pg=PA661#v=onepage&q&f=false
... according which one text gives the row "around 1400" and the other in 1408.
*********
The day of the 14 Nothelfer is the 8th of August (I don't know, since when). This writes "8.8." ... and in my opinion this indicates possibly the relationship to chess, where 8 pawns are combined in two rows with 8 chess officers.
Cyriacus, one of the 14 Nothelfer saints, got, although he died at 16 of March, also the date 8.8. as his day. This according the transfer of his bones, which was done once at 8th of August (as I've read).
*********
The pawns of chess refer to professions (according Cessolis), similar are the Nothelfer (like often other saints, too) related to professions (beside their dominating medical associations).
