MikeH
Hi, Huck.
Thanks for your information. In emphasizing Boiardo’s Hermetic influences, I did not mean to denigrate his Kabbalistic ones. I only despair of ever being able to understand them. Unlike Pico, Boiardo’s Kabbalistic references seem to be veiled and elusive. Unlike Pico, we do not know Boiardo’s sources and what they said. Pico, on the other hand, spoke his Kaballa outright. And he must have given Reuchlin a reading list when he visited Pico, because ever since, scholars have successfully used the writings Reuchlin mentioned in his Art of the Kabbalah for understanding Pico. Yet Pico’s Kaballistic theses are still hard to understand!
I agree that we must take the chessboard politics of the time very seriously when examining its cultural products. But I do not think that Innocent VIII attacked Pico so virulently just because he was Ferrarese. Pico’s relatively open ecumenicism was against everything that Innocent, champion of the Inquisition and the Hexenhammer, stood for. Hence his burning of all the undistributed copies of the Theses, his prohibitions against printing or reading them, and his institution of universal censorship over printing presses. (I am not sure all of this is on Wikipedia.) And Pico’s protector was Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, not anybody in Ferrara. Moreover, it seems to me that Innocent’s attack, including Pico’s brief imprisonment, did leave him something of an intellectual cripple—although his other good stuff may still be buried in 15th century Latin.
Then there is the question of the relationship between 15th century Italian Kabbalah and the tarot-style triumph decks. It seems to me that tarot reflects the same spirit as Pico and Boiardo. But connections are hard to establish. Pico’s Kabbalah in the 900 Theses, which remained influential for centuries, seems to me closer to tarot than many others’. I have tried to work out connections between it and the tarot that are not simply projections of my own desire to see them there. They remain loose but still promising. Before posting this note, I put my thoughts up on a blog, if you have time to read them, at http://15thcenturytarot.blogspot.com. The essay is about 3000 words, which seems to me a bit long to post here and slightly off this thread’s subject.
I have now also posted an idea I have about the 15th century Milan decks, on another Aeclectic thread, “I Trionfi Origins?”. It is a variation on the 5x16/5x14 theory.
There is a superficial Pico-tarot connection that you probably already know, since your 1457 web page on Trionfi mentions Galeazzo Sforza’s letters home from Ferrara. The people he was playing cards and tennis with were the Pico della Mirandolas (Gregory Lubkin, A Renaissance Court: Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza, p. 309, referencing a letter of 2 August.) Galeazzo mentions only the father, Francesco Pico, because that’s whom Galeazzo’s father wants him supervised by. But there are also two sons around Galeazzo’s age. There might even be a nephew in town. I can easily imagine Boiardo’s parents thinking that his getting to know a future duke couldn’t hurt. Boiardo is around the same age, if we go with Tarotpedia’s version of his birthdate. I suspect Galeazzo is not only spending time with the Picos but actually residing with them, because Galeazzo’s father, concerned that they might spoil the boy, writes Francesco Pico that Galeazzo is to be treated “in a domestic manner and familiarly and no longer as a guest” (Lubkin p. 26).
Of course our Pico, he of the 900 Theses, wasn’t born for another 6 years or so. These facts just show the milieu in which he would have been raised.
Thanks for your information. In emphasizing Boiardo’s Hermetic influences, I did not mean to denigrate his Kabbalistic ones. I only despair of ever being able to understand them. Unlike Pico, Boiardo’s Kabbalistic references seem to be veiled and elusive. Unlike Pico, we do not know Boiardo’s sources and what they said. Pico, on the other hand, spoke his Kaballa outright. And he must have given Reuchlin a reading list when he visited Pico, because ever since, scholars have successfully used the writings Reuchlin mentioned in his Art of the Kabbalah for understanding Pico. Yet Pico’s Kaballistic theses are still hard to understand!
I agree that we must take the chessboard politics of the time very seriously when examining its cultural products. But I do not think that Innocent VIII attacked Pico so virulently just because he was Ferrarese. Pico’s relatively open ecumenicism was against everything that Innocent, champion of the Inquisition and the Hexenhammer, stood for. Hence his burning of all the undistributed copies of the Theses, his prohibitions against printing or reading them, and his institution of universal censorship over printing presses. (I am not sure all of this is on Wikipedia.) And Pico’s protector was Lorenzo di Medici in Florence, not anybody in Ferrara. Moreover, it seems to me that Innocent’s attack, including Pico’s brief imprisonment, did leave him something of an intellectual cripple—although his other good stuff may still be buried in 15th century Latin.
Then there is the question of the relationship between 15th century Italian Kabbalah and the tarot-style triumph decks. It seems to me that tarot reflects the same spirit as Pico and Boiardo. But connections are hard to establish. Pico’s Kabbalah in the 900 Theses, which remained influential for centuries, seems to me closer to tarot than many others’. I have tried to work out connections between it and the tarot that are not simply projections of my own desire to see them there. They remain loose but still promising. Before posting this note, I put my thoughts up on a blog, if you have time to read them, at http://15thcenturytarot.blogspot.com. The essay is about 3000 words, which seems to me a bit long to post here and slightly off this thread’s subject.
I have now also posted an idea I have about the 15th century Milan decks, on another Aeclectic thread, “I Trionfi Origins?”. It is a variation on the 5x16/5x14 theory.
There is a superficial Pico-tarot connection that you probably already know, since your 1457 web page on Trionfi mentions Galeazzo Sforza’s letters home from Ferrara. The people he was playing cards and tennis with were the Pico della Mirandolas (Gregory Lubkin, A Renaissance Court: Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza, p. 309, referencing a letter of 2 August.) Galeazzo mentions only the father, Francesco Pico, because that’s whom Galeazzo’s father wants him supervised by. But there are also two sons around Galeazzo’s age. There might even be a nephew in town. I can easily imagine Boiardo’s parents thinking that his getting to know a future duke couldn’t hurt. Boiardo is around the same age, if we go with Tarotpedia’s version of his birthdate. I suspect Galeazzo is not only spending time with the Picos but actually residing with them, because Galeazzo’s father, concerned that they might spoil the boy, writes Francesco Pico that Galeazzo is to be treated “in a domestic manner and familiarly and no longer as a guest” (Lubkin p. 26).
Of course our Pico, he of the 900 Theses, wasn’t born for another 6 years or so. These facts just show the milieu in which he would have been raised.