The Avignon Papacy

The Avignon Papacy has come up a couple of times in recent threads. I've often wondered what connection, if any, it had on the development of the Tarot?

A bit about it for those who are unfamiliar or need a quick refresher:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avignon_Papacy

Of course, perhaps the Western Schism itself had particular meaning?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Schism

The (rather unlikely) possibility that the Popess in the Tarot may have it roots here was discussed in this thread:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=46726

I've been reading a bit about Pope Clemente VI lately, and he seems a most remarkable man. One of the most striking things about him, to me, was his actions on behalf of the Jews during the pogroms that occured during the Black Death years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_VI

Another interesting feature of the Avignon Papacy is the presense of Petrarch, who has long been considered as influencial on the development of "Triumphs" and the relationship to Tarot. And of course his beloved Laura died at Avignon.

Years later, Avignon becomes one of the production centers for the Marseille Tarot.

What, if any, are the relationships between Tarot and Avignon? What connections can we make and what have we failed to make?

Let us open the door a bit and see if there is any light inside.

best,
robert

One aspect that le pendu and I have at various times discussed are the geographical connections between places at various periods of history pertinent to both early Tarot and its development.

Avignon is fascinating for so many reasons, including, of course, it being the later location of the Payen family of cardmakers after their move from Marseille, and its early close connection with Rome and northern Italy (including Milan and hence also the Visconti family), and with Paris.

A real center between all the regions of major tarot finds.

Yet, as also mentioned in various threads by le pendu and Ross Caldwell, there seems a paucity of evidence for Tarot being in Avignon in its earliest phase. Handpainted decks were certainly in northern Italy on non-papal states, and some deck or other (whether Tarot-like we are unsure) in Paris at the same period.

Personally, I would suspect that Avignon gets prominance in Tarot's development after it has already found a home, and been further developed, in other places - whether these be Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Genoa or Milan... each, interestingly, non-papal cities on important trade routes.

Summary of cards in Avignon 1431-1505

From Hyacinthe Chobaut, "Les maîtres-cartiers d'Avignon" (Provence Historique, t. VI (1955), pp. 5-84).

Earliest mention of cards is 15 January, 1431.

Bernard de Guillermont, papermaker, agrees to sell all of his paper for the upcoming year at a fixed price to two Italians established at Avignon (Nicolas de Ambrosiis and Odet Bouscarle), all kinds of paper including paper for making playing cards - "pro qualibet rayma papiri ad faciendum cartas pro ludendo, viginti unius grossorum" - for any ream of paper for making playing cards, twenty-one gross.

14 October, 1437. A certain Jaco Sextorii, papermaker, sells his production of paper for one year to the Italian Odet Bouscarle - all types of paper including paper "pro rayma papiri dupli pro cartis, viginti grossorum" - for a ream of double paper for cards, twenty gross. (the name is shorter (cartis) and the price is going down!)

Chobaut notes that paper-making in the Comtat-Venaissin (Avignon region) begins in the second half of the 14th century. He says that while some of this paper might have been made for export to towns like Lyon, it is highly probable that there were already card-makers in Avignon.

1441 - card playing prohibited in the Statutes of Avignon for religious and clerics. - "... statuimus et ordinamus, quod si quis clericus vel ecclesiastica persona ad ludos taxillorum, alearum vel cartarum publice vel occulte ... ludere praesumbit".

1441, 8 May. Etienne Mouret or Moret, named "factor cardarum (=cartarum)" - cardmaker. He is the earliest known cardmaker in Avignon. He is known to have lived in Avignon since 12 March, 1419 to around 1435, when he had moved 24km from the town (from 1419-1437, he is called "mercier" (haberdasher) in various documents; he is called "painter" in a document of 1437, and then in 1439 he moved to Avignon again, where he is called "mercier" in two documents of 1439 and 1440. In 1441 he is called "cardmaker" for the first time).

1442, 30 April. Mouret again named "factor cartarum".

1443, 15 June. Mouret again named "factor cartarum".

1443, 4 December. Mouret called "factor cartarum et pictor" (cardmaker and painter). This is the last time he is named in Avignon. Chobaut writes that "I believe that Mouret was a mercier, painter and cardmaker at the same time. These three professions were related in the 15th century (...). It must not be forgotten that at this time merciers sold playing cards, and that they were often painted by hand." (Marchione Burdochio (Bolognese) in Ferrara at the same time was a mercier (merzaro), and sold triumph cards to the Este family). Chobaut continues - "Even though we do not find him called specifically a cardmaker until 1441-1442, nothing prevents thinking he exercised this profession beforehand."

1444-1448. Mouret lives in Montpellier. In 1447 a certain Pierre Mouret, perhaps Etienne's son, is described as "fazedor de cartas, alias de ybys, que demora sota 'Sant Nicolau'" - cardmaker, also called 'ybys' (=naybes?), who lives under 'Saint Nicholas'". In 1448 Etienne Mouret is described as someone "que fa las cartas ho lo ybes per joguar" - who makes cards or 'ybes' for playing.

1441-1448. Gillet Curier is the second known cardmaker in Avignon. He is alternately called mercier and cardmaker in the documents; the earliest time he is called "factor cartarum" is 5 January, 1445. He also made images of Saint Peter of Luxemburg for the Celestine monastery of Avignon, perhaps for sale to pilgrims.

1448. Jean Benoît (from Bourges) is called "mercier".

1450. Jean Benoît is called "factor cartarum" (third known cardmaker in Avignon).

1451. Jean Benoît is called "factor cartularum".

1451. Jacques Monteil (from du Puy) "factor cartarum".

1456-1480. Raynaud Silvi (from Orpierre in diocese of Gap), named "factor cartarum" in various documents (fourth known cardmaker in Avignon).

1459-1472. Antoine Biolet, (originally from Lyon), named "carterius", "factor cartarum", or "factor quartarum" in various documents (fifth known cardmaker in Avignon).

1463. A certain "Labe" and Richard Rétif, named "factores cartarum" (sixth and seventh known cardmakers in Avignon).

1464-1487. Guillaume Veron (from Poitiers), named "factor cartarum" (eighth known cardmaker in Avignon).

1469. Guillaume Trentesous, named painter and "faciens cartas ad ludendum" (ninth known cardmaker in Avignon).

Chobaut continues - "Around 1475-1480... the number of master cardmakers multiplies in Avignon. Some learned their craft here, while others came from all over: Jean Barat, from the diocese of Ivrea (1473-1481); Guillaume Bal or Bar, from the diocese of Tarantaise (1485-1502); Jean Janin, from the diocese of Besançon (1477-1485); Antoine Deleuze (de Illiceto), painter and cardmaker, from Fontarèche in the diocese of Uzès (1473-1520), and even a woman, Catherine Auribeau, 'carteria', widow of the master Raynaud Silvi (1480-1510), etc...

"The most important producers of this epoch are : Pierre Perouset, painter decorator, cardmaker and merchant furrier, from Vienne (1481-1506), and Jean Fort or Le Fort (1488-1510), originally from the diocese of Paris, or perhaps earlier from Bernay in the diocese of Lisieux, who each had numerous apprentices. One finds beside them Jean Chaudet, from the diocese of Vienne (1483-1497); Jean Brunet, merchant mercier and cardmaker, from the diocese of Geneva (1481-1498), then his son Jean (1517-1521); Charles Charvin, from the same diocese (1497-1517); Antoine Filhat, originally from the diocese of Belley (1497-1520); Léonard Nicolay, from the diocese of Limoges (1500-1515), etc...

"Many of these specialists probably came from the Lyonnais center, very important for the fabrication of cards in the 15th century. The documents will show us that the production of cards was very abundant in Avignon between 1480 and 1515, even if, - to my knowledge at least, - no playing card preserved today in either public or private collections today is witness of it."
(pp. 9-10).

1505. December. The first known reference anywhere to cards called "taraux" (a little earlier in the year, in Ferrara, "tarocchi" are mentioned for the first time). Cardmaker Jean Fort (mentioned above), in Avignon, agrees to send various items to Pinerolo (in Savoy/Piedmont, near Turin), including 48 packs of cards "commonly called taraux".

Chobaut - "This period of prosperity (for the Avignonnais cardmakers) ceased between 1510 and 1520. Already in 1506, Pierre Perouset had gone bankrupt, his possessions were sold; beginning in 1510 Jean Fort abandonned the profession of cardmaker to devote himself entirely to haberdashery; some masters equally gave themselves over to other activities; many left Avignon, which they abandonned no doubt to find their fortune in other towns."

This abrupt decline was no doubt due to the massive production in Lyon.

Ross

Yes, this is very interesting idea. We found that the Triple Tiara emerged during the Avignon Papacy.
Examining the material, I am of the opinion that tiara is an incorrect term. The imagery suggests a triple crown, not a tiara. The structure of the tiara is different. Secondly, it is obvious that Three crowns refers to the Doctrine of the Trinity.

Quote:
Robert Place, The Alchemical Tarot:

In the Marseilles Tarot this card is the Pope. The Pope is the leader of exoteric religion, which creates order and laws of morality for the masses. The card was changed to the Hierophant by Arthur Edward Waite for the Rider-Waite deck; its name comes from the Greek term hierophantes, which is a priest who conducts initiation into the mysteries. In the Tarot the Hierophant explains the mysteries of the cards. His book is open; the secrets are there to be read by all.

The Hierophant is crowned by a magnificent triple crown, which is often seen in alchemical texts and represents dominion over the three kingdoms - animal, vegetable and mineral - which have been nurtured by the Empress. The triple crown especially applies to Hermes Trismegistus, whose name means 'thrice crowned' or 'thrice great' - literally, 'as great as can be'. The Pope also wears a triple crown which symbolizes the three estates of God, or the Trinity. End quote.

I would go a step further, and qualify this card as Hierophantic in general. I would like to use the term of Henry Corbin: hierognosis.
In this sense, the Hierophant is definitely, Trismegistus . . . “thrice great!”
According to the material at my disposal, the Triple Crown first appeared during the reign of Clement V.
This co-incidence? Petrarch, the Triomphi, the Cathars, etc. Avignon?

POPE CLEMENT V
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_V

He is recorded as the first pope to be crowned with a papal tiara.

THE PAPAL TIARA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_tiara

The triple tiara in Tarot should be traced through the movements of Petrarch . . . the courts he visited, the Triumphs and -
after all, Marseilles is not that far from Avignon.
Yours sincerely
Samten de Wet

While Avignon can boast the earliest known reference to tarot - called "taraux" in the oldest document from 1505 - I think there is no reason to believe that "triumph cards" were actually invented there.

The name of the cards was changed, and the earliest document says that the cards had a "common" name - taraux. This suggests that they had been around for at least a few years with that name (Depaulis thinks that that name is French, and that the "x" was silent; I am convinced that the "x" was still pronounced, and accounts for both the spelling "tarocs" attested up to the late 19th century, as well as the Italian form "tarocchi" (a plural word), whether the language was Provençal or French).

I think that in France the triumph cards of Italy, made in Florence, Bologna, Ferrara and Cremona (or Milan), were adapted and changed as they got produced in Lyon and Avignon, and in other cities. We cannot say when triumph cards began to be relatively mass-produced, printed, in Italy - the earliest record of printed cards actually comes from Palermo in Sicily in 1422, 20 years before triumph cards are recorded -, so whenever they began to be made in large enough numbers, they could have made it to France - say with Italian immigrant cardmakers. This could already have been happening by the 1440s. So triumph cards could have had a long development in France, and acquired the name "taraux", over about 60 years before we hear of them in Avignon - and the only reason we hear of them is because Savoyards in Pinerolo, near Turin (probably spoke Italian), specifically *wanted* these French cards.

It is also during these decades that the French suit-signs (Hearts, Diamonds, etc.) got invented, so we know that there was a good deal of thought and inventiveness put into playing cards in France. And the aim of the suit signs was to make production easier, so we see that the commercial end was very important to them. This is unlike the Italian makers, who never made cards in these numbers, and produced intricate designs that were not easily replicable.

So it makes sense that triumph cards would have been changed, and the name as well, in the hands of French cardmakers.

Since the designs of the French tarots are different from the Italian, we must think that the French cardmakers - the originators of the TdM style in my opinion - understood the symbolism differently. But before going to the trumps, it might be wise to compare the court cards of the earliest French tarots - Catelin Geofroy and the 17th century tarots of the Anonymous Parisian, Vieville and Noblet - with Italian cards to see what can be learned about the early model(s) they might have been inspired by.

Of course a century (Geoffroy) or two (Parisian, Vieville and Noblet) may be too late.

Ross, thanks for all the great information! Interesting that Jean Fort could be from Paris. So should I read this to say that we don't know for sure if the cards made in Avignon were regular 52 card packs or Tarot (or both) up until 1505? Then for certain we know they are also making Tarot cards by 1505?

samten, welcome to Aeclectic, and a warm welcome to the Historical Tarot section. I look forward to more of your interesting contributions. Please consider introducing yourself in the New Members forum.

best,
robert

le pendu said:

Interesting that Jean Fort could be from Paris. So should I read this to say that we don't know for sure if the cards made in Avignon were regular 52 card packs or Tarot (or both) up until 1505? Then for certain we know they are also making Tarot cards by 1505?

Click to expand...

Yes. Sometimes the records show that Latin-suited cards were made (the most common kind here in the south for a long time), Spanish style; sometimes they distinguish types. Most interesting for me is the term "ybys" and "ybes" used in a couple of the earliest records. I assume it's a pronunciation of "naybes", which means that the term was used in France (territory) for a while. And it is distinguished from the regular cards (maybe, maybe not), so we could have the same distinction here as in the contemporary Italian sources which talk about "cards and naibes" as being distinct.

Given the inventory of the possessions of Louis of Orléans (and Valentina Visconti) in 1408, which mentions "Lombard cards and Saracen cards", I think that Saracen cards must be naibes, which is the earliest name given to cards in Europe; that means that Lombard cards are a distinct type. So - if both are Latin suited, what is the difference? Hard to say...

We know the Spanish suited cards have non-interlaced batons and swords, and no Queens. So, are Saracen/naibes cards like this? That would be my guess - "naibes" are what we call Spanish style Latin suited cards.

"Lombard" cards are then what we know as Italian style Latin suited cards - the same as in the tarot - interlaced batons and swords, and Queens (this could be disputed; the standard old pack in Italy only survives in a few places, like Bologna, and they use a King, Knight and Valet, like the Spanish packs - the Queen is a really remarkable figure, and we're lucky that she survives in French and English packs *in place* of the Knight. And Tarot has it all!).

Ross

le pendu said:

Ross, thanks for all the great information! Interesting that Jean Fort could be from Paris. So should I read this to say that we don't know for sure if the cards made in Avignon were regular 52 card packs or Tarot (or both) up until 1505?

Click to expand...

I forgot to add that Chobaut (back in 1955) seems to have made a mistake: he seems to have thought that when a record says something like "cards with batons and swords" (describing the suits), that it is always a reference to tarot cards.

In this case, the earliest record of such a pack goes back to 1492. It is not impossible of course, and quite likely, that tarot cards were made in Avignon by this time. But they are not *named* as such until 1505.

I guess this seemed controversial at some point - I suppose because it was so widely believed that tarot cards didn't get to France until the invasions of Charles VIII (1494) and Louis XII (1499). But this hypothesis really has no merit.

The trouble has often been that specialists in playing card history were not actually historians (Dummett and Kaplan for example), so they made the elementary mistake of seeking a solution in a simple event, rather then getting more closely acquainted with the period before coming up with a theory.

It has been nice to find that Thierry Depaulis and I think along the same lines - that tarot probably had a long development in France in the second half of the 15th century. He thinks (I believe) that the TdM order and designs were invented in Lyon, after Italian cardmakers went there.

That is certainly possible, but if the A or southern game was the original (and I think we both agree it was), and if it was Florentines that went to Lyon (as they did) with this order, then the changes were very dramatic indeed (making World high, spreading the Virtues out, ordering the "papi").

I haven't thought about it for awhile, but my own idea was of a slower diffusion across the Alps through Savoy, so that the changes between A and C orders can be given some time, rather than a someone simply "reinventing" the order and designs at one time and place.

But... who knows? I think Lyon needs another investigation of archives etc. Hopefully they weren't destroyed during the Revolution, like so much else.

Ross G Caldwell said:

Given the inventory of the possessions of Louis of Orléans (and Valentina Visconti) in 1408, which mentions "Lombard cards and Saracen cards", I think that Saracen cards must be naibes, which is the earliest name given to cards in Europe; that means that Lombard cards are a distinct type. So - if both are Latin suited, what is the difference? Hard to say...

Click to expand...

Could "Saracen cards" be a Mamluk deck? It seems difficult to date the remaining Mamluk cards we have (but there is speculation that these cards existed as early as the twelfth century and the existing Mamluk cards have been dated to around the 15th century so they would be congruent with the earliest tarots). While the Mamluks were centered in the eastern Mediterranean, there could have been interaction and exchange during the crusades -- seems much more likely than the cards coming to Europe by way of the Moors in Spain. During this period, "saracen" was often construed in Europe to mean anyone/thing of Arabic/Islamic origin.

whipsilk said:

Could "Saracen cards" be a Mamluk deck? It seems difficult to date the remaining Mamluk cards we have (but there is speculation that these cards existed as early as the twelfth century and the existing Mamluk cards have been dated to around the 15th century so they would be congruent with the earliest tarots). While the Mamluks were centered in the eastern Mediterranean, there could have been interaction and exchange during the crusades -- seems much more likely than the cards coming to Europe by way of the Moors in Spain.

Click to expand...

They could refer to a Mamluk-type deck. Really we don't know.

I'm only going by the conventions of the times in distinguishing types of cards, and the one most often met with is "cards" and "naibes". This is a very common and early distinction - so much so that earlier commentators, from Merlin to D'Allemagne, thought that "naibes" must refer to Tarot cards or to Mantegna (and that Tarot came from Mantegna).

But when the Topkapi Mamluk pack was discovered and analyzed (1930s and 1970s), it was found that "naibi" was the title of some of the court figures, and suddenly it made sense of the etymology of the ancient and still current Spanish and Catalan name for cards, "naypes" and "naibes".

So "Mamluk" and "naibes" is essentially an interchangeable term. In this way, all we would be asking of the Louis d'Orléans record is if it is referring to a luxurious pack (like the Topkapi) or a more common pack derived from it.

The problem with interpreting it is that the Mamluk swords and batons (polo-sticks) are interlaced, which is the main distinction between the Spanish and Italian Latin suited pips. So if the Lombardy cards are Italian suited, that means they should have been interlaced - just like the Mamluk cards! So what's the difference?

Like you suggest, it could be simply that there was Arabic writing on the pack - Saracen. And the "Lombardy" pack was the Italian style derived from it; perhaps another luxurious pack, but with no Arabic writing of course.

So yes, we don't know and it could have been a luxurious (as we would expect of the King's brother) Saracen pack. Arguing with myself here, I'm almost convinced it was!

(but on the other hand, I like the elegance of equating Saracen with Catalan naibes and Lombard with Italian suited; 1408 is a *very* early date, relatively).