Visconti Forza Newlyweds

Shade

I heard the Visconti Sforza deck was commissioned as a wedding present - do we have any idea who the happy couple was specifically?
 

Abrac

Probably Franscesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti. Stuart Kaplan says some scholars believe that's who is depicted on the Lovers card.
 

Debra

As I recall Rosanne did quite a bit of reading on this, so might want to search her historical threads, which is beyond the capacity of me and my lil phone, hi shade darling how are you?
 

Shade

Hi there Debra!

And thank you Abrac. My reason for asking is that for the Tarot podcast I produce, my cohost and I will meet (and be insulted by) historical Tarot personages and we thought we would start at the very beginning. A friend who ran the Italian guild at the Bay Area Renaissance faire for many agreed to be the lady in question but we needed to give her a name.
 

Debra

That's brilliant! Definitely check out Rosanne's posts--it was a purely political marriage, and Bianca was a child bride.
 

Yygdrasilian

mappa mundi

The Bride's Dowry:
http://www.liv.ac.uk/~spmr02/rings/sforza.html

The Marriage of Names:
Sforza ('Strength') + Visconti ('Powerful Lance')
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/De_Sphaera_-_Allegory_Sforza.JPG

vis- : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vis#Latin
-conti: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contus#Latin
forza: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/forza
mundo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Cary-Yale_Tarot_deck_-_World.jpg

Employing many of the same heraldic devices as the Visconti-Sforza Tarot, the illuminated text De Sphaera may help shed light upon the play of symbols within early Tarot tradition: http://bibliotecaestense.beniculturali.it/info/img/mss/i-mo-beu-alfa.x.2.14.pdf

Among them, does the Children of Saturn depict the beheading of Cabrino Fondulo? -thereby passing a ring from the Cremonese emblem unto the house of its new ruler? - 'alchemically' wedding the dragon houses Visconti and Sforza with the sanction of the dragon emperor Sigismund?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Visconti-sforza-04-emperor.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Dragon

And what of the sight-hound?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Cary-Yale_Tarot_deck_-_The_Lovers.jpg