The Order and Meaning of the Trumps

[dminoz]

Yes- the Charles VI and the Minchiate have this order of virtues (see my post on the Charles VI below)

Thanks Ross. Where is your post on the Charles VI? I can't find it.

With reference to my prior suggestion that the Lovers card is Wisdom/Prudence -- looking at the Lovers card from the Charles VI, in the relevant article by Alain at http://trionfi.com/0/a/01/

... it doesn't take much effort to see, with three couples and two angels, that this image could be talking about "knowing the right thing to do, and the wrong thing to do" -- i.e. Prudence.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia (I never thought I'd be quoting the Catholics about anything...:

Prudence... "an intellectual habit enabling us to see in any given juncture of human affairs what is virtuous and what is not, and how to come at the one and avoid the other. It is to be observed that prudence, whilst possessing in some sort an empire over all the moral virtues, itself aims to perfect not the will but the intellect in its practical decisions.

Its function is to point out which course of action is to be taken in any round of concrete circumstances. It indicates which, here and now, is the golden mean wherein the essence of all virtue lies. It has nothing to do with directly willing the good it discerns. That is done by the particular moral virtue within whose province it falls. Prudence, therefore, has a directive capacity with regard to the other virtues. It lights the way and measures the arena for their exercise.

The insight it confers makes one distinguish successfully between their mere semblance and their reality. It must preside over the eliciting of all acts proper to any one of them at least if they be taken in their formal sense. Thus, without prudence bravery becomes foolhardiness; mercy sinks into weakness, and temperance into fanaticism. But it must not be forgotten that prudence is a virtue adequately distinct from the others, and not simply a condition attendant upon their operation.

Its office is to determine for each in practice those circumstances of time, place, manner, etc. which should be observed, and which the Scholastics comprise under the term medium rationis. So it is that whilst it qualifies immediately the intellect and not the will, it is nevertheless rightly styled a moral virtue" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12517b.htm)

It is perhaps no coincidence that while Prudence oversees the operation of the other three virtues, there are three couples on the Charles Vi card, being watched over by the two angels.

Change of subject: Those Charles VI images are very interesting -- for one thing, they're artistically superior to so many other tarot images of the time. I know the Visconti-Sforza images are important historically, but aesthetically, they look awful (to me, anyway); they look as though they were painted in a big hurry by a mediocre artist. The Charles VI, on the other hand, are far more skillfully put together.

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

Thanks Ross. Where is your post on the Charles VI? I can't find it.

It's a post titled "Florence and Bologna" a few back.

 

[dminoz]

Some of you have probably seen this before, but just in case you haven't (and it was new to me)...

Here is the entire image of an allegory by Piero Della Francesca:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/dminoz/francesca_1.jpg

The text accompanying it in the book I found it in says that it is from the reverse of a portrait of Frederigo Sforza. Apparently it was commonplace to paint Triumphs on the back of portraits.

It clearly shows the place of the Chariot in the scheme of things.

Here is a detail of the Virtues:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/dminoz/francesca_1crop.jpg

You can clearly see Justice and Strength. One figure has back to the viewer, and the one in the orange dress looks to be spinning or holding a mirror, probably, and has a mask on the back of her head / a second face.

Presumably she's Prudence -- going by the similarity to this:
http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/~matsuda/ripa/catalogue/ripa_illus_html/043k0096w.html

Can anything else be deduced from the image? Is the little cherub bloke with the sword a clue to anything, or is he just putti?

 

[le pendu]

Great image dminoz!

You can clearly see Justice and Strength. One figure has back to the viewer, and the one in the orange dress looks to be spinning (??), and has a mask on the back of her head / a second face.

Which virtue is she? She's not Temperance, so presumably she's Prudence?

It is certainly Prudence in the orange dress. It is probably a mirror in her hand. She is very typically shown holding a mirror, and with two faces.

 

[dminoz]

I like the Della Francesca image because it suggests what the Chariot card is about -- the seeker, the querent, the reader , is mounted proudly on his chariot -- like the Sforza in the image -- and he has on board the four virtues, who have joined his parade. In my Hadar Marseille deck, he is crowned, and is clothed in what may be the sun and the moon (on his shoulders). He's at the top of his game. He's on a roll, and things could could not get better.

Which of course they don't, in fact they get worse, because the next image is the Wheel, and it casts him down into the sequence of cards that begins with the Hermit and ends with the Devil. One minute he's riding in triumph, the next minute life sucks. The wheel of his chariot became the Wheel of Fortune.

Perhaps the four virtues become the four creatures on the wheel? (Just thinking out loud.) Perhaps also we might look for the footprints of the four virtues in the Hermit, the Traitor, Death and the Devil.

Things won't get better again until he sees the stars in the sky behind the tower of Dis (thanks to Ross for that one, I like it.). Can anyone recommend a good translation of the Divine Comedy? Is the Cary one ok?

 

[Major Tom]

To return to the order and meaning of the trumps...

Robert O'Neill, in his Tarot Symbolism suggests that different ordering of the trumps provides for different allegorical intrepretations. He uses the placement of the Judgement card as an example:

"If this card (Judgement) is last in the series, as in the Bolognese decks, the symbol represents the Angel Gabriel calling the just to their reward."

"If the card (Judgement) lies next to last, it could represent the call to mystical union, the call out of the tomb of the body."

"Changing the position of the card completely changes its significance."

Couldn't the different orders simply reflect how actively the local church heirarchy sought out heretical thought? Or how actively the card makers desired to be seen as orthodox?

This still begs the question why was the Marseilles ordering the one to survive into current usage?

 

[DoctorArcanus]

Some of you have probably seen this before, but just in case you haven't (and it was new to me)...

Here is the entire image of an allegory by Piero Della Francesca:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/dminoz/francesca_1.jpg

I did not know this painting. Thank you for sharing it with us!

The text accompanying it in the book I found it in says that it is from the reverse of a portrait of Frederigo Sforza. Apparently it was commonplace to paint Triumphs on the back of portraits.

In the XIV century, when paintings still used to be on wood, not on canvas, it was indeed common to have a painting also on the back. As far as I know, Triumphs were not particularly common as a back painting: this is the first time I see a Triumph that was painted on the back of a portrait.

Can anything else be deduced from the image? Is the little cherub bloke with the sword a clue to anything, or is he just putti?

I don't know about the putto: I think he is an allegory of something, but I don't know of what. He seems to be driving the chariot, so it would be interesting to undertand what is his meaning.

The angel on the left is Victory, according to the Iconologia by Cesare Ripa:
http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/Ripa/Images/ripa051b.htm
http://emblem.libraries.psu.edu/Ripa/Images/ripa051a.htm
A young lady cloth'd in Gold; Wings on her Shoulders, holding in her right Hand a Garland of Laurel and Olive...

Marco

 

[Huck]

Some of you have probably seen this before, but just in case you haven't (and it was new to me)...

Here is the entire image of an allegory by Piero Della Francesca:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/dminoz/francesca_1.jpg

The text accompanying it in the book I found it in says that it is from the reverse of a portrait of Frederigo Sforza. Apparently it was commonplace to paint Triumphs on the back of portraits.

It clearly shows the place of the Chariot in the scheme of things.

Here is a detail of the Virtues:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b195/dminoz/francesca_1crop.jpg

You can clearly see Justice and Strength. One figure has back to the viewer, and the one in the orange dress looks to be spinning or holding a mirror, probably, and has a mask on the back of her head / a second face.

Presumably she's Prudence -- going by the similarity to this:
http://www.humi.keio.ac.jp/~matsuda/ripa/catalogue/ripa_illus_html/043k0096w.html

Can anything else be deduced from the image? Is the little cherub bloke with the sword a clue to anything, or is he just putti?

http://www.iupui.edu/~history/www/fall98/b4211029.htm

"235 The Triumphs. Federico on triumphal chariot, crowned by Victory on globe, pointing with sceptre to the cardinal virtues: Justice (sword and scales), Wisdom (mirror), Fortitude (broken column), and Temperance. Wife, Battista Sforza: chariot drawn by unicorns, B. holds prayer book, around her theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. Inscriptions: AHe rides illustrious in glorious triumphChe whom, as he wields the sceptre appropriately, the eternal fame of his virtues celebrates as equal to the greatest dukes.@ Wife: AShe who observed self-restraint in success flies on all men=s lips honored by the praise of her great husband=s exploits.@ Back of panel: images of couple as private persons. "

As far I understand this and other earlier informations, the triumph pictures of
Federico Montefeltro and his wife Battista Sforza are not at the backside of a portrait of Federico Sforza (whoever this was, I know of a famous Francesco Sforza), but at the backside of a double portrait with the mentioned Federico Montefeltro and Battista Sforza. As far I understood, the double portrait was at the front of doors of a furniture and when you opened the doors, then you saw the triumph pictures at the opened backides of the doors: Federico being accompanied by the cardinal virtues (+ victory) and Battista accompanied by the theological virtues (following theabove description, but... controlling the pictures, something seems wrong in the descriptipn; pleas compare he pictures, when you find them; better pictures are desired, if somebody has them ...).

As Montefeltro was a successful condottieri, the presence of victory is not very surprizing.
The Lazzarelli manuscript, which was first dedicated to Borso d'Este, but was then altered to a dedication to Federico Montefeltro, the duke of Urbino (who became duke as late as 1474, has on its 27 illustrations as final picture also a picture of victory.

http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/Mantegna/

Which may raise the question, if the manuscript dedicated to Borso already had a "victory" (Borso had a favour for Iustitia) and already 27 illustrations. Perhaps one may conclude, that the original Lazzarelli-text had 22 illustrations, and that the whole 5 unusual gods-pictures, which somehow jump out of the composition of spheres and muses, which make the major part of the text, are an added part.

See the complex discussion of the Mantegna Tarocchi, in which the person of Ludovico Lazzarelli is considered to have played a major role.

http://trionfi.com/0/m/00/

 

[Parzival]

Kwaw's post on the Fool and the 5x14 thread brought up something which is worth another thread - a discussion about the original order of the 22 trumps.

My opinion (currently):

The Fool plays a special role in almost all games, and also in the allegories, occult or otherwise, which explain the series. He is listed either first or last, but he doesn't have a number and he doesn't come anywhere in the middle (everybody knows the when and where of the exceptions, and they're not relevant).

So, I think the Fool belongs "outside", even if he is also the "lowest" - below the Bagatto, in terms of his position in society. He can also approach the highest, which the Bagatto never can, which is the Fool's freedom.

So, we are left with 21 trumps.

I am firmly convinced that the A order, which Tom Tadfor Little called the "Southern" order, is the original order. It has a few variations, notably between Florence and Bologna. The difference is where the Chariot should go - just before the Wheel, or just after Love.

Either position can make sense to me, since I see the order of the trumps to fall on two sides of the Wheel of Fortune - on the one side is human life and achievement, on the other side is what is inevitable and the higher powers.

Bologna makes sense as either a 3x7 series, or a 10-1-10 series. In both cases, the Wheel occupies exactly the middle.

3x7 I interpret as physical, moral and spiritual truth.
10-1-10 as microcosm and macrocosm.

From Bagattino to Chariot (1-7), we have conditions of life, Love which conquers everyone, and the Triumph - the highest glory a person can reach.

Then come the three virtues (Southern order remember), the Wheel, and the three inevitabilities - Old Age, Reversal of Fortune, and Death. These seven represent the balance of Virtues against Fate (Adversity) (3-1-3), while showing that Death is not avoidable in the end.

The last seven - Devil to Angel (southern order) - show the structure of the Cosmos from the lowest (Devil) to the highest (Angel), essentially like Dante. From the Devil we go to the Tower of Dis, which leads upward to Purgatory (Dante goes to this tower and sees the stars at the end of the Inferno, before ascending). The Star in the southern packs seems to refer to the magi following the star as well - so there is a veiled reference to the ultimate message here. There are three figures.

In the next card, the Moon, there are two figures, studying the Moon. The Moon can be an allusion to Mary, and the faith of the Church (with the two astronomers representing faith and reason - one points to the moon, one studies a text).

In the next card, the Sun, is a spinner. Mary is often shown spinning in scenes of the Annunciation (from an infancy Gospel account). The Sun then represents Christ. I think she might also be an allusion to Bologna, whose textile industry was the main source of wealth for the city, in addition to the school (the university could also be represented by the astronomer/astrologers - one of the biggest subjects studied in Bologna, next to Law).

After the Sun, the World. In southern style decks, the four-quartered world is shown with a Mercury like figure standing on it. I think Mercury here represents the Message, the Word, or the Gospel, sent to the four quarters of the World and ruling the Cosmos (the "World" in the card is actually the entire Cosmos (Mondo, Mundus, Universe), up to the starry sphere. Beyond the starry sphere is the Prime Mover, here symbolized by the Word, Mercury as Message.

Finally is Eternity, shown by an Angel blowing the trumpet (Tromba - homophone for Trionfo-Trump) on Judgement Day. This was a common way to show the concept of "Eternity" in Petrarch's "Trionfi". An Angel is also the exact opposite of a Devil, without blaspheming God himself by putting him in a card game.

This last point I think is important, because Bologna was (and is) a very Catholic city. This is why I think there *are* allusions to Christian doctrine in the cards, but veiled in conventional symbolism, rather than straightforward.

Above all, I think the erudition of the design betrays a very learned maker. In the Fool there is a Fool blowing a trumpet and beating a drum; in the highest card, there is an Angel blowing a trumpet. Two very different trumpets, at two ends of the scale! In the exact middle, Wheel of Fortune turning; I think this clear allusion to Boethius is also an indication of a learned creation.

By "learned" I don't mean a grey-bearded professor; since the early themes are carnivalesque, a triumphal procession, the rise and fall of human glory, and eternal things from Hell to Heaven, I think the designer was rather somebody like a "Goliard" - educated but not necessarily dogmatically orthodox students and clerics, who turned out verses such as the "Carmina Burana" and Bologna's own "Alma Mater Studiorum". Of course University towns, such as Bologna, is where you found "goliards".

I think I see the goliardic spirit in the trumps.

This is a most interesting and thoughtful post. I am in strong accord with the observation that the whole pattern is 10-- Wheel (10) -- 10. This arrangement seems obviously thought through, in Dantean, possibly Pythagorean, fashion. The 10 trumps preceding the Wheel are this-world or character types involved in this-world. No cosmic principles. The 10 trumps following the Wheel progress into more and more spiritual-world dimensions and principles, so that all the last 10 correspond to supra-temporal realms, the first 10 to temporal reality. The Wheel is the bridge between, turning down into time, turning up and out of time. That the Hermit was moved from after the Wheel to before the Wheel is significant. He should fit- in his meditation on time- into the temporal 10, not into the supra-temporal realms. So he was put there and remains there, facing the Wheel. That the World was changed to final position in the sequence makes perfect sense. The perfected whole culminates all kingdoms, including the angels. All this only to follow up in appreciation Ross' clear comprehensive overview. 10-Wheel-10 : further study of this anything-but-random pattern is needed...

 

[Ross G Caldwell]

Hi Frank,

thanks for your thoughts. The following one struck me -

That the Hermit was moved from after the Wheel to before the Wheel is significant. He should fit- in his meditation on time- into the temporal 10, not into the supra-temporal realms. So he was put there and remains there, facing the Wheel.

If the A sequence, with Hermit after the Wheel, is the original, then I would take the Hermit to be an allegory for Old Age or the passage of time itself - one of the inevitable things in Fortune's turning. Hence, in this order I wouldn't see it as person *contemplating* time. I see no essential contradiction in the symbolism when the hourglass stands for the passage of time rather than crutches and a hunched old man passing a column (a ruin?). He is shown with hourglass in the Catania, Charles VI and Visconti-Sforza decks (but in the first two he was numbered "11" and "xi" of course). And, at least in the Bolognese tarot and Florentine ones (early Minchiates), there is no hourglass. He is old age and decrepitude.

I see the differences between the A sequence(s) and the C sequence to be a result of literally numbering Death as 13. The Bolognese didn't even number their cards until around 1790, and then they started with the number 5, placed on the *sixth* card - Love! That's how they finally came around to dealing with the problem of Death being the fourteenth card in their series; but they didn't change anything in their sequence to do so.

But it appears that foreigners to the game numbered it much earlier - the earliest surviving French deck, Catelin Geofroy in 1557, has the "TdM" numbering. This is partly why I think the French cardmakers devised this sequence, and perhaps the very practice of numbering the trumps.

I would guess this is because of a few reasons. It would be hard for foreigners to understand the order of the trumps without numbers, especially new learners. What order are the Virtues supposed to be in? What is this figure hanging by a foot? What order are the two Popes and two Emperors supposed to be in? Where does a Hermit go in all this?

But, it seems clear, Death had to be number 13. Perhaps the A series designers (for the sake of argument) saw 13 as the "Traitor" Judas (he's holding money in the earliest A types), but in any case they didn't use the numbers in any way - it was an ordinal series, not a cardinal one. But the meanings were unclear as the game spread beyond its origins, and easier means had to be devised to put them in order. Death with his scythe was trans-European by this time (very much unlike the hanged man meaning "traitor"), and associated with the "unlucky" number 13. So Death had to be 13, and something had to be changed in the sequence to make it so.

We can see from all the different kinds of orders that the Virtues were considered the most maleable category. We could speculate as to why, but in any event it seems whoever devised the TdM order saw the second section of 7 cards as the home of the Virtues, and saw a way to make Death into 13 very easily from it - space the Virtues evenly at the first, fourth and seventh place in this section. Temperance was seen as a more noble virtue than Fortitude and Justice, and hence placed - oddly as all commentators have noted - *after* Death. But however odd it might be, it solved the problem of needing to have the 14th card numbered 13, and it used both an inherent structure of the trump series (7-7-7) and the flexibility of the order and meaning of the Virtues to make it so.

The strongest point in favour of this scenario, rather than the other way around (i.e. the Bolognese gathered all the Virtues together and bumped Death up to 14, and then later used an illogical numbering to force Death to have number 13), is that the French cards *seem to have been numbered from the beginning*, obviating the need for memorization. Thus however odd the spacing and position of the Virtues might be, it is irrelevant anyway because a player could rely on the number, and needn't make any symbolic connection or intellectual effort at all to use the cards. The A series, on the other hand, grouped all the Virtues together from the beginning, without numbers, so that a relatively easy effort of memorization would suffice. That is, it is easier to remember that all the Virtues beat the first seven, and then the order of the Virtues themselves, than to remember whether Fortitude beats the Hermit, or whether Justice beats the Hanged Man, or whether Justice beats Fortitude. I believe it is easier to have the virtues grouped under the Wheel than spread throughout the series. This is speaking as someone who doesn't see any patterns at all or who doesn't care to - who just wants to know the rules and scoring as quickly as possible.

Going to the move of the Hermit in my scenario then, it could be explained by the desire for symmetry on the part of the TdM designer - the Hermit was moved to make way for Fortitude exactly in the middle place, since this is a simple switch between the A and C orders around the pivot of the Wheel, and hence preserves the symmetrical spacing of the Virtues in the second 7. As you observe, this attitude toward the Hermit could also be explained as seeing him more as a literal "Hermit" contemplating time, rather than as an allegory for Old Age or the Passage of Time.