pre-Gébelin Tarot History: Petrarchian Triumphs

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, to provide an occasional counterpoint to the pervasive New Age pseudo-history of Tarot.

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.

Trionfi at Triumphs.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Petrarchian Triumphs

A recent page on Marinni's Journal has a collection of Petrarchian triumphs. As always, it is worthwhile to take some time to browse through the many pages of period art on this blog.