Cardinal virtue of Wisdom/Prudence

Huck

Cesare Ripa is (c. 1560 – c. 1622), and the whole genre "Emblem books" comes from Andrea Alciato (May 8, 1492 – January 12, 1550), with a first book 1531.

3 eyes for Prudentia with explanation past-now-future is a nice time allegory and for Dante and Chaucer, that's rather early. Nice finding.

In Alberti's Philodoxus from 1424 (a theater play, comedy, with allegorical figures) Father Time meets Fortune and each of them has 3 helpers. One of the assistants of Father Time is his daughter, something like "Truth". There there are 3 pairs of lovers:

Fortunatus ... who marries Fame (this is the lover sponsored by Fortune, a negative hero)
Philodoxus ... who marries Doxa, which means something like glory (Doxa is the better sister of Fame). Philodoxus is the positive hero.
Then there is the true hero, Phroneus, friend of Philodoxus, a sort of Prometheus. He is married to Mnimia, which is "memory", and she is the guardian of Father Time's daughter "Truth". He had lost Mnimia, but finds her again. Mnimia isn't a beauty, but has other advantages.

"Truth" is rather silent and doesn't speak very much, maybe two words or so.
But I guess, she's Prudentia.
So the relationship between Prudence and Father Time is so, that she's his daughter, not identical (to Alberti).

14th century is simply a rather bad century with many plagues and problems. So literature and other cultural activities are somehow less than in 13th century.
Humanism and book culture exploded with 15th century. The number of intellectual and reading and writing persons increased dramatically. Surely the new-allegories-makers attempted to create "according the values of the past", but otherwise they were simply "modern". There's a jump in the societies, the old law of the interaction of quantity and quality did its work.

100 intellectual and reading and writing persons cause specific effects.

10.000 cause more. That's another quality. Surely the 100 before hadn't been stupid, but the later situation causes kybernetic effects.

The number of existing books in Germany between 1500 - 1520 increased by the factor 6, so I've read. Well, that's a revolution (which actually took place, called "reformation"). So - between many other effects - also the theme "allegories" exploded.

Maybe around 1995 1% used internet. Nowadays 60-70% use it. That's another number and another quality. This situation is comparable to the dramatic changes during 15th and early 16th century.
 

firecatpickles

Yygdrasilian said:
It has been suggested that the path to Wisdom begins with knowing that we know "nothing"...
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/cipher


Hmmm... Perhaps a reason that Wisdom--as a card---isn't in the 78-card deck? Replaced by the Fool? The Fool as Wise Man trope?
 

ender

Stultitia, where is the prudence?

"Time, with the hourglass in hand, embodies the art of waiting, dissented feature of Prudence"
(Simon Vouert, Alegoría de la Prudencia, 1645. Musée Fabre, Montpellier) Quote of the painting, from the book symbols and allegories, Matilde Battistini.

Giottescas virtues:

In anticipation of the XV century French iconography, Giotto keeps only seven virtues (the three theological and four cardinal) and seven vices. Faith, Hope and Charity face Idolatry, Despair and Envy. Fortitude, Justice, Prudence and Temperance are opposed, respectively, to the Inconsistent, Injustice, Madness (Stultitia) and Anger.


The virtue of prudence is not reflected, but it appears his vice.
interesting
 

firecatpickles

Welcome to Aeclectic, ender!

ender said:
The virtue of prudence is not reflected, but it appears his vice.
interesting

More on virtues and vices:

http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpress...e3008&toc.depth=1&toc.id=d0e3008&brand=eschol

Re: "Thus virtue is a characteristic [habit] involving choosing the mean relative to ourselves determined by a rational principle as the man of wisdom would define it. And this mean is the midpoint between two evils or vices, one of which is conditioned by excess and the other by deficiency. . . . "

One of my favorites! Enjoy :)

From:http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft4m3nb2n4&brand=eschol
 

Debra

I smell Aristotle.

*slinks away*
 

firecatpickles

Debra said:
I smell Aristotle.

*slinks away*

My fart, excuse me...


lol Sorry, but ya can't get far enough away from Vices and Virtues for the stench to actually go away. (notice my use of split infinitives lately, kwaw?)
 

Yygdrasilian

ethikē aretē

As I reco11ect, decks prior to the Marseilles pattern differed less by sequence than by where their cardinal virtues were placed.
As if to ask: where does Virtue belong?

In keeping with Aristotle, their positions within the Noblet Tarot have a correspondence with the Qabalah Tree in tune with the golden mean. Taken as a kind of Game Board, the Tree provides a lattice upon which the Hebrew Letters (partitioned by digital root) are arranged to build a Caduceus. Together, the cardinal virtues form a pivotal feature within the Tree’s 10-point symmetry for realizing this al-KEM-ical transmutation of Lead ♄ into ⊙ Gold.

Put another way: Thoth’s elixir of memory & wisdom has long been a ‘hidden’ tradition. Should you wonder why- just ask Socrates... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TCq_ZBKamk