The Language of the Birds

Namadev

Considering the information given by Marie Aubert, her entry is unambiguous.
Nevertheless, the entry is about "Sarrazina" and does not explicitely refer to Armenia.
So, the equivalence Sarrazens=Armenians isn't argumented.
At this point of the inquiry, the best is to consider this equivalence as "enigmatic" as Ross did write recently.

Alain
 

Namadev

Ewwabbit on LTarot where this topic is debated gives this reference :
In "The End of the Middle Ages", A. Mary F. Robinson has an entire
chapter for Valentine. In the passage about card playing, she was
writing about the king's madness, saying "There was in all the world
one only creature whose presence shed a little balm and solace on his
unhappy lunacy. This was his sister-in-law, Madame Valentine." (p.
135) The card playing passage starts at the top of p. 136:

Valentine was kind and pitiful. Although at this time she was ailing
(her second son was born in August, 1393), she did not fear to bring
her delicate magnificence into the filth and peril of the mad king's
presence. For hours she would sit with him, playing at cards: those
painted saracen Naibi which Covelluzzo noticed at Viterbo (the first
known in Europe) in 1379. Perhaps Valentine ahd brought them out of
Italy; they were the only pastime of the haggard king; and for hours
the painted images of Death, Love, Fortune, Madnes, and the Angel,
would silently fall from the hands of these two unhappy people,
keeping each other melancholy company in the dismantled chambers of
the barred and altered palace."

But here again as Sue (Ewwabbit) writes, there is no way of verifying the data because the author doen't give her historical sources.

So, one again, historical legend or historical fact?

Further inquiry needed.

Alain
 

Namadev

Hi,
These two references "relativised", I nevertheless consider that the theory of some kind of a cards game with allegorical subjects could have been played at this period in France.

Gabriele Mendele has the same opinion :
""Dans le "Ménagier" de Paris, en 1393, on lit que le Maire doit interdire aux ouvriers et aux artisans d'y jouer pendant les jours ouvrables.
Bien entendu, ON JOUE AUX CARTES A LA COUR [DU ROI].
Dans le Registre de la Cour, en 1392, on mentionne 56 sous patisens donnés à Jacquemin Gringonneur pour 3 jeux de cartes dorés et colorés, pour le divertissement du Roi lunatique Charles VI...

Jusqu'alors, les Tarots n'existaient pas encore.
[Mais] en 1393, le chroniqueur MORELLI déconseille les dés et propose aux jeunes gens le jeu des naïbi avec lequel "ILS POUVAIENT APPRENDRE ET MEME S'EDIFIER.
Cela serait incompréhensible s'il ne s'agissait du Jeu des Couleurs et IL SE POURRAIT BIEN QU'Il PARLAT DE FIGURES EMBLEMATIQUES sur le type des Tarots de Mantegna, mais nous ne saurions l'affirmer"

Gabriele Mendel
Les tarots des Visconti

So :
1)Cards playing was effcetive in all the social class ain Paris at these times
2)Pedagogical subjects close to the allegorical figures of the Mantegna "trumps" seem to have been joined to the original card game.


Alain
 

Namadev

JMD wrote :

On a similar note, I have at various times tried to purchase your book, but have yet been unable - any suggestions (Amazon.fr doesn't seem to offer it, nor the fnac!) [/B][/QUOTE]

Hi JMD,

The book is nearly out of print but you shoud get it at the Edidors web site :

http://www.envoleefrance.com/


Two remarks :
1)It is an essay entirely written at the Conditionnel Mode...
2)It need to be updated
3)It was originally intended for a confidential and limited public :
"Cette recherche s'adresse à un public averti et n'est a priori destinée qu'à une diffusion restreinte.
C'est que nous ne sommes réellement certains que de faits fragmentaires et isolés, qui, en eux-mêmes, sont indubitables mais qu'il est extrêmement hasardeux de relier entre eux de façon définitive.
...
En l'état actuel, il est impossible de prétendre à un savoir intégral qui ne puisse être remis en question.
Il faudra donc que chacun accepte cet aspect nécessairement inachevé de notre propos.
de plus , nous souhaitons que le lecteur, quelles que soient ses opinions ou croyances personnelles, adopte l'attitude de ne rien admettre qu'il ne puisse vérifier par lui-même."
Origines et histoire du tarot, Introduction


Maybe will you have a difficult time with my essay but judging from the quality of your translations, I think not.

Many English readers of French writings have little problem with simple declarative sentences in French but as wrote Bob O'Neill in a private mail in his personnal review of this "essay, [as] "an experienced writer of the language, your sentences are often
much
more sophisticated and complex. So I have often reached an impasse -
knowing the meaning of each word, but not enough sophistication to be
sure
of the subtle overall meaning.

As a result, I have largely been limited to looking up a specific topic
and
reading a few pages. I have never been able to sit and read large
sections
because of my limited knowledge of the language - I am always concerned
that I am not really understanding your underlying themes.

...
I think I now see places where I thought we disagreed - but we were on
parallel paths and actually agreed."


Alain Bougearel
Nota bene :
Copyright is required for this particular post : this means that I do not permit any quotations of this mail for any use or in any times or in any manners
 

Namadev

Armenian connection

Hi,

I've found another "enigmatic" reference to an Armenian link.



ADVERTISEMENT


1)
http://usf.bridge.free.fr/bridge/cartesajouer.html

Les voyageurs de la route de la soie ont amenés ces cartes en
Occident jusqu'en Arménie où apparaît le jeu de naïbi. L'étymologie
du mot naïbi reste floue. En hindoustani naïb désignait un officier
de l'armée, un « lieutenant » ; du mot au pluriel nawwâb, on a formé
le mot français nabab.
Les naïbi étaient en quelque sorte des soldats en image. Dans les
naïbi, on peut donc raisonnablement penser que les images initiales
représentaient des officiers ou des nobles arméniens de divers rangs.
La mythologie arménienne associait les guerriers légendaires à des
demi-dieux, eux-mêmes soumis aux dieux guerriers, à quoi s'ajoutaient
les héros et les amants (comme dans la mythologie grecque). La
société arménienne médiévale était dirigée par quatre princes, ce qui
explique peut-être les quatre « couleurs » de ce jeu.
Au début, selon certains textes, les naïbi étaient vraisemblablement
d'un usage autant pédagogique que ludique : le jeu apprenait aux
enfants arméniens à compter et à conserver le souvenir de l'histoire
de leur peuple exilé."


Here again, the authors do not give their exact references.


Alain
 

Diana

Re: Armenian connection

Translation of Namadev's French text two posts up

Travellers on the Silk Road brought these cards to the West as far as Armenia, where the game of naïbi first appeared. The etymology of the word naïbi is unclear. In Hindustani, naïb designated an army officer, a "lieutenant"; from the plural of this word, nawwâb, the French word "nabab" was formed. (translators note: in English "nabob" meaning "a person of great wealth and prominence" - Websters' Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.)

The naïbis were, in a way, depictions of soldiers. In the naïbi, one can therefore reasonably surmise that the initial images represented officers or Armenian nobility of different ranks.

Armenian mythology associated the legendary warriors to semi-gods, who were themselves subordinate to the warrior gods. Added to these, were also heros and lovers (as in Greek mythology). Medieval Armenian society was ruled by four princes, which could explain the four suits of this game.

In the beginning, according to some texts, naïbi were probably used for teaching as well as for gaming purposes: the game would have taught Armenian children how to count, and to preserve the memory of the history of their exiled people.
 

Rusty Neon

Language of the 'Birds' [literally] in the Tarot?

Alain Bocher, _Cahiers du Tarot_, Vol 1, p. 165, writing on the Star card in the 1760 Conver Tarot de Marseille [The 'all caps' are Bocher's]:

"For the first time, we see the appearance of a bird in the TAROT. What will it say in its language of the birds. This language that we find engraved and sculpted in the stone of cathedrals and 'initiation' churches? It we speak to use of CORPS BEAU [beautiful body] as well as CORBEAU [crow/raven], and will tell us tht the CORPS BEAU is also called CORPS DIVIN [divine body]. It will also tell us that we must cut the head [Note: Decapitation is part of alchemical symbolism] so that there will appear the SALT of the PHILOSOPHERS (and the WISDOM of the philosophers!). It will also tell us that it is not a bird of ill-fortune, but a bird of a secret hidden in the blackest of its silence. It will say that it grows [French: croît] while one thinks it caws [French: croasse] and it will say that it is not the symbol of Death but that of Life in the Beyond. .... It is a bird of good-fortune if it is in the TAROT."

Edited to say: After posting, I realized (while in the shower) that a sloppy error appeared in the translation and have corrected it. Croît should be 'grow', not 'believe'. A question of a circumflex. Sorry for the sloppiness.
 

Diana

Rusty, if there is a circonflexe on the word "croît", it means to grow, not to believe. (From the word "croître".)

I think this is a very important text that you translated. Thank you.
 
Court Cards Jacques Vieville Tarot