pre-Gébelin Tarot History: June 2009

Caveat Lector

I'm a Tarot geek, fascinated by the factual history and characteristic medieval allegory of this remarkable artifact. The bad news is that I'm not an art historian. My only credentials are having read most of the salient books on the subject and having a strong preference for facts over fiction. The good news is that I am not an apologist for occult, paranormal, or other New Age nonsense, nor a sucker for pseudo-historical fantasy. That has made me a skeptic among the true believers who dominate the online Tarot community. These are some of my musings.

Pichore's Remediis

The five images at the top of the page are from a 1503 French manuscript of Petrarch's De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae (BNF, MS. fr. 225). The artist was Jean Pichore (fl. 1500-1520), active in Paris and in Rouen, where Cardinal Georges d’Amboise, the archbishop, was one of his clients.
The central allegory of the Tarot trump cycle shows the ups and downs of Fortune's Wheel: SUCCESS (Love & Chariot), REVERSAL (Time {or Asceticism} & Fortune herself), and DOWNFALL (Traitor & Death).
As in Petrarch's Remedies these circumstances, which define the Fall of Princes storyline, are responded to with Virtue.
Images are available via Mandragore and Gallica

Do nothing you wouldn't
want to be caught dead doing.
Memento mori.

John Carradine's advice: "Never do anything
you wouldn't be caught dead doing."

Caveat Lector

Pichore's Remediis

Archived Posts

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Haiku for David

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