Plutarch (Guarino, Boiardo-poem, Sola-Busca)

At

http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/plivs10.txt

are the biographies of Plutarch, in which he described 24 pairs of men, each time a Roman hero with a Greek (in one pair 2 Roman with 2 Greek). From one pair, Scipio - Epamoneindas, it's said, that it belonged to the original series ... so perhaps there were once 25 pairs with 52 men.

The construction, as it is now, is said to have been finished in Latin translation in 1462 .... after the asttempt started ca. 1400.

THESEUS - ROMULUS - COMPARISON OF ROMULUS WITH THESEUS
LYCURGUS - NUMA POMPILIUS - COMPARISON OF NUMA WITH LYCURGUS
SOLON - POPLICOLA - COMPARISON OF POPLICOLA WITH SOLON
THEMISTOCLES - CAMILLUS
PERICLES - FABIUS - COMPARISON OF PERICLES WITH FABIUS
ALCIBIADES - CORIOLANUS - COMPARISON OF ALCIBIADES WITH CORIOLANUS
TIMOLEON - AEMILIUS PAULUS - COMPARISON OF TIMOLEON WITH AEMILIUS PAULUS
PELOPIDAS - MARCELLUS - COMPARISION OF PELOPIDAS WITH MARCELLUS
ARISTIDES - MARCUS CATO - COMPARISON OF ARISTIDES WITH MARCUS CATO.
PHILOPOEMEN - FLAMININUS - COMPARISON OF PHILOPOEMEN WITH FLAMININUS
PYRRHUS - CAIUS MARIUS
LYSANDER - SYLLA - COMPARISON OF LYSANDER WITH SYLLA
CIMON - LUCULLUS - COMPARISON OF LUCULLUS WITH CIMON
NICIAS - CRASSUS - COMPARISON OF CRASSUS WITH NICIAS
SERTORIUS - EUMENES - COMPARISON OF SERTORIUS WITH EUMENES
AGESILAUS - POMPEY - COMPARISON OF POMPEY AND AGESILAUS
ALEXANDER - CAESAR
PHOCION - CATO THE YOUNGER
AGIS - CLEOMENES - TIBERIUS GRACCHUS - CAIUS GRACCHUS - COMPARISON OF TIBERIUS AND CAIUS GRACCHUS WITH AGIS AND CLEOMENES
DEMOSTHENES - CICERO - COMPARISON OF DEMOSTHENES AND CICERO
DEMETRIUS - ANTONY - COMPARISON OF DEMETRIUS AND ANTONY
DION - MARCUS BRUTUS - COMPARISON OF DION AND BRUTUS
ARATUS - ARTAXERXES
GALBA - OTHO

Epamoneindas - Scipio (missing), some comparisons possibly also missing. Aratus, Artaxeres, Galba and Otho are perceived by some as single biographies, so that there are in this case 22 pairs, 1 double pair, 4 single biographies and one missing pair.

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Guarino da Verona was strongly involved in the translation attempt in the early time ... the following pages (in German) gives a view on the early development.

http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/SekLit/PADEplutarch.HTM
http://www.phil-hum-ren.uni-muenchen.de/SekLit/PADEplutarchHO.htm
see also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutarch
http://trionfi.com/0/d/21/

Guarino became an important, influential man in Ferrara and he was still important at the court, when in 1441/1442 the first notes about Trionfi cards appeared:

http://trionfi.com/0/e/00b/
... and http://trionfi.com/0/d/
http://trionfi.com/0/e/01/
http://trionfi.com/0/e/02/

Now there are now just 2 very special Trionfi decks of a later time, the Boiardo Tarocchi poem and the Sola Busca Tarocchi ... both have the quality, that they likely are also from Ferrara (the Boiardo Tarocchi for sure, and the Sola Busca is suspected to be either Venetian or Ferrarese) and both have the quality, that their hero-figures are organized in pairs ... similar to the pair model in the Plutarch text. The Boiardo Tarocchi poem alternates men and women, creating 1-2, 3-4, etc. in pairs and the Sola-Busca-Tarocchi alternates the left-right orientation of the figures (once detected by Fool's Fool here at aeclectic, in the case I remember correctly), again in 1-2, 3-4 etc.

http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/solabusca/index.html
http://trionfi.com/0/h/ .... for Boiardo
... with a special view on the system of Boiardo
http://www.geocities.com/autorbis/boiardo.html


Well, it looks, as if the Boiardo and Sola Busca compositions took - by the influence of Plutarch/Guarino - a small detail from Plutarch and transformed it in a model of Tarot ... somewhat strange Tarots of course.

Why Plutarch took possibly 25 pairs with 52 persons? I think the week was invented not long before Plutarch, perhaps Plutarch had an interest to reach the number 52 for the weeks in a year? In the same way he reached the number number 50 (2x25) ... which always was an attractive number.

Actually I don't know for sure, if Scipio / Epamomeindos (a Thebean general from Theben in Greece in ca. 400 BC, who did win the battle of Leuctra against Sparta) was an intended pair ... but the German Wikipedia mentioned it.

Without going into explanations, Huck, would you care to list how each of the pairs from Plutarch hints at the 'pairs' from either the Boiardo poem or the Sola Busca deck?

I would be quite interested to have another look at these in the context of this thread.

jmd said:

Without going into explanations, Huck, would you care to list how each of the pairs from Plutarch hints at the 'pairs' from either the Boiardo poem or the Sola Busca deck?

I would be quite interested to have another look at these in the context of this thread.

Click to expand...

Plutarch presents pairs, the Boiardo poem uses pairs, the Sola-Busca-Tarocchi presents pairs.

That's all ... it was not my intention to correlate Plutarch-pairs with Sola-Busca-pairs or single figures or Boiardo-poem-pairs or figures individually. I don't think, that this would be a fruitful idea. Each of them are individual productions with own intentions, just using a similar mathematical principle.

It also doesn't make too much sense to compare Animal Tarot motifs with "normal" Tarot motifs.

Ah! I had read into your earlier post more than you intended, and was curious as to what conclusions you may have been heading towards for the very reasons you mention.

So basically, the suggestive principle is that pairings, as a concept, may be an important or influential 'ingredient' in each of these three, without the subject matter itself having correlations.

Good game of 'Snap' going on here! (x 3 decks) ~Rosanne

All what we know from Ferrara and its Trionfi documents, suggests, that this people belonged to the creative forces, which made Tarot.

Assuming, that Boiardo poem and Sola Busca really were from there, would demonstrate, that they were experimenting with the ideas and were not dogmatically fixed at a specific Trionfi deck version. That just these people, althozugh creative with new ideas, used patterns, which already had been focussed earlier at the same location, is the natural follow-up of ideas, which wander from teacher (Guarino) to pupils (Boiardo and ..) ... Boiardo's grandfather Feltrino Boiardo was intimate pupil of Guarino.

Pausanias, like Plutarch from 2nd century AD, found a pairing of Trojan and Greek heroes in Elis (at the Peloponnes) in a temple. Pausanias 5.22.2

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bi...01.0160;query=chapter=#166;layout=;loc=5.21.1


"By the side of what is called the Hippodamium is a semicircular stone pedestal, and on it are Zeus, Thetis, and Day entreating Zeus on behalf of her children. These are on the middle of the pedestal. There are Achilles and Memnon, one at either edge of the pedestal, representing a pair of combatants in position. There are other pairs similarly opposed, foreigner against Greek: Odysseus opposed to Helenus, reputed to be the cleverest men in the respective armies; Alexander and Menelaus, in virtue of their ancient feud; Aeneas and Diomedes, and Deiphobus and Ajax son of Telamon.

These are the work of Lycius, the son of Myron, and were dedicated by the people of Apollonia on the Ionian sea. There are also elegiac verses written in ancient characters under the feet of Zeus."

Perhaps these heroes pairs were a common feature in Roman times.

A late Plutarch's pair reflection by a Danish writer 1739 at:

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cach...aissance&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=14&client=firefox-a

"Holberg on Scanderbeg

In 1739 Holberg published The Achievements of Great Heroes. He had taken inspiration from the ancient Greek writer Plutarch, who once compared outstanding Greek and Roman characters.

Holberg wrote about 12 pairs: Zoroaster and Mohammed, Sulla and Caesar, Socrates and Epaminondas - and Zizka and Scanderbeg. The characters were as it appears - highly important persons from different times and different places.

One of the favourites of Holberg was Socrates, whom he highly appreciated because of his approach to knowledge and his moderation.

Scanderbeg was appreciated as one of the greatest generals ever lived - and for his modesty. According to Holberg Scanderbeg never overrated his position, but stood up as an humble Christian Soldier since he left the Ottoman army and abandoned Islam.

Writing about Scanderbeg Holberg took the work of Marinus Barletius (or Barleti) as a starting point, but he formed his own judgement. Possibly, he had an aim of his own to pursue - to promote certain virtues and to discredit other ones.

Holberg realized that Scanderbeg - with limited support - was capable of holding his ground against the Ottoman forces. Even more, he fought the enemy vigorously, defeated him and often put him to flight.

Holberg took an interest in Scanderbeg because of his great military achievements against the Muslims. Here we have to bear in mind the Ottoman attack on Vienna in 1683 (led by one of the Albanian-Turk Köprölu's - and the Habsburg attack on Kosova and Macedonia in 1689 (led by general Piccolomini and his vice-general, the Danish-German count Georg Christian von Holstein). At the time of Holberg the Ottomans still were to be considered a powerful and dangerous neighbour."


Actually I would suspect, that there are also other pairs-in-group creations in 15th century.

http://dig.lib.lehigh.edu/projects/exhibits/images/3/3_05.jpg

a picture from the first printed Plutarch edition by printer Ulrich Han, 1471, Venice

... looks a little bit like a Tarot card for a captain of a Venetian ship.

The book has also a list of them with biographies. It has differences with the other list of heroes and it even mentioned Charlemain (sic).

http://dig.lib.lehigh.edu/projects/exhibits.asp?id=3&num=05&exp=false

Looks a little bit as if they were not totally sure, what biographies were from Plutarch and which not.

Thanks Huck; fantastic!