pre-Gébelin Tarot History: Petrarchian Triumphs

Cognate Images

The ranks of man image above is from a c.1400 Italian manuscript of Petrarch's De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae. The five images below are from a 1503 French manuscript of Remediis. They show the central allegory of the Tarot trump cycle, the ups and downs of Fortune's Wheel: SUCCESS (Love & Chariot), REVERSAL (Time or Asceticism & Fortune herself), and DOWNFALL (Traitor & Death). In Tarot as in Petrarch's Remedies these circumstances, which define the Fall of Princes storyline, are responded to with Virtue. The two End Times images are from a c.1400 Flemish Apocalypse and the c.1330 English Holkham Bible.

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.

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.