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Andrea Vitali & Michael Howard (Edited by) BOLOGNA & THE TAROT An Italian Legacy from the Renaissance History Art Symbology Literature
Appendix edited by the International Tarot Museum
cm. 17 x 24 pp. 512 of text with over 100 color photos Paperback cover Mutus Liber (Museodei by Hermatena Edizioni), Riola (Bo), 2020 (www.mutusliber.it - info@mutusliber.it) In English ISBN 978-88-99841-85-0
Purchasable on: http://www.mutusliber.it/bologna_e_i_tarocchi.html
A book like this has never been published in English and probably never will be again. The result of forty years of books, exhibitions, etc., by Andrea Vitali and ten years of collaboration with Michael Howard on translations, the focus is on Bologna, highlighting the city as one of the chief reference points for the birth of the Tarot. Together with essays by other authoritative experts, the result is a unique compendium of information drawn from original 15th-19th century sources, for the most part unpublished since their own time and now translated into English.
One essay presents the casual literary works known as tarocchi appropriati, which assigned the Triumphs (‘major arcana”) to various personages: noble ladies (in Pavia, Ferrara, and Bologna), ecclesiastical activists, street prostitutes, etc., mostly translated here for the first time.
Elsewhere Vitali comments on numerous Bolognese authors who utilized themes from the Tarot, reporting all the relevant passages, again mostly translated for the first time by Vitali and Howard. Again the cards are mined for their allegorical content, now including the tactics of the game and applied to the most varied situations: wars, the vicissitudes of love, humorous medical prescriptions, etc.
From the early sources, Vitali and Franco Motta present what is surely the most comprehensive analysis to date of the meaning and etymology of the word tarocchi (which in French became tarot), bringing new information and insights. Vitali does the same for the presence of the Magician - called the Bagatella early on - in the procession of the Triumphs, as well as offering new insights into various Triumphs as steps on a “mystical ladder.”
In that spirit Howard gives an extensive examination of the whole Bolognese order. He also presents a new look at an 18th century Bolognese cartomancy tradition that may be related to one promoted in France by Etteilla (especially in one rare early work previously unexamined).
Clothing historian Elisabetta Gnignera gives a vestimentary analysis of the so-called Tarot of Charles VI, with the aim of identifying where the deck was made, in which she draws a conclusion different from that usually made today. Her way of looking at the cards, through subtle distinctions in fashion among cities, is an education in itself.
Through recently discovered documents, Ross Caldwell discusses the origin and symbolism of the Bolognese “Equal Papi” rule, whereby the same the same title and rank is given to all four of the cards elsewhere called Empress, Emperor, Popess, and Pope.
Alberto Beltramo writes on the production of Tarot cards in Bologna, including how they were made and the ambivalent attitude of the Church towards playing cards.
French tarologist Alain Bougearel presents his thesis that by around 1500 the Tarot sequence might for some have been divided into sections defined by the “pentagonal numbers” of medieval number theory.
These are only some of the topics examined. This volume of 512 pages is enriched by hundreds of illustrations, most in color: cards, artworks, and documents. 1000+ footnotes provide both transcriptions of the original sources and, where available, where ti find them on the Internet. It is a monumental work in which, through testimonies in Bologna and elsewhere in northern Italy. an overview of the Tarot’s history is created, of interest not only to Tarot enthusiasts but also to those who want to know more about Italian literature, art, and popular culture.
Bologna and the Tarot, An Italian Legacy from the Renaissance History Art Symbology Literature
CONTENTS
Chapter One: The Ludus Triumphorum: an Ethical Game by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Two: An Etymological Hypothesis: Tarot, Fool, Tárachos by Franco Motta
Chapter Three: The Words Tarocco and Tarot by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Four: “El Bagatella”(The Magician), Symbol of Sin by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Five: Triumphs, Tarocchi, and Tarocchini in Bologna of the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Six: “Carte da zugare ... depinte al dito modo”:Vestimentary Notes on the So-called “Charles VI” Tarot by Elisabetta Gnignera
Chapter Seven: Tarocchi Appropriati: Triumphs Matched to Persons by Andrea Vitali and Michael S. Howard:
Chapter Eight: The Bolognese Order of Triumphs by Michael S. Howard:
Chapter Nine: The Priority of the Equal Papi Rule in Bolognese Tarocchi by Ross G. R. Caldwell
Chapter Ten: Points of Iconology by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Eleven: Playing Cards Printed in Bologna in the Modern Era by Alberto Bertramo
Chapter Twelve: Tarocchi and Tarocchini in Literature by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Thirteen: The Bologna Cartomancy Sheet Compared with Etteilla (Eighteenth Century) by Michael S. Howard:
Appendix A: Keywords for the triumphs Appendix B: Keywords for the suit cards
Chapter Fourteen: Arithmology and the Order of Trumps (Triumphs) by Alain Jacques Bougearel
Chapter Fifteen: Winckelmann and Tarocchino, 1755 by Andrea Vitali
Archetypes and Symbols: The Museum of Tarot as the schola of seeing by Adolfo Panfili
The International Tarot Museum, between Art and Magic by Giovanni Pelosini
Author Biographies
ILLUSTRATIONS
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History, art and symbolism of Tarot.
An editorial archive dedicated to Tarot and its history in art, culture and symbolism.
Bologna and the Tarot
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Andrea Vitali & Michael Howard (Edited by) BOLOGNA & THE TAROT An Italian Legacy from the Renaissance History Art Symbology Literature
Appendix edited by the International Tarot Museum
cm. 17 x 24 pp. 512 of text with over 100 color photos Paperback cover Mutus Liber (Museodei by Hermatena Edizioni), Riola (Bo), 2020 (www.mutusliber.it - info@mutusliber.it) In English ISBN 978-88-99841-85-0
Purchasable on: http://www.mutusliber.it/bologna_e_i_tarocchi.html
A book like this has never been published in English and probably never will be again. The result of forty years of books, exhibitions, etc., by Andrea Vitali and ten years of collaboration with Michael Howard on translations, the focus is on Bologna, highlighting the city as one of the chief reference points for the birth of the Tarot. Together with essays by other authoritative experts, the result is a unique compendium of information drawn from original 15th-19th century sources, for the most part unpublished since their own time and now translated into English.
One essay presents the casual literary works known as tarocchi appropriati, which assigned the Triumphs (‘major arcana”) to various personages: noble ladies (in Pavia, Ferrara, and Bologna), ecclesiastical activists, street prostitutes, etc., mostly translated here for the first time.
Elsewhere Vitali comments on numerous Bolognese authors who utilized themes from the Tarot, reporting all the relevant passages, again mostly translated for the first time by Vitali and Howard. Again the cards are mined for their allegorical content, now including the tactics of the game and applied to the most varied situations: wars, the vicissitudes of love, humorous medical prescriptions, etc.
From the early sources, Vitali and Franco Motta present what is surely the most comprehensive analysis to date of the meaning and etymology of the word tarocchi (which in French became tarot), bringing new information and insights. Vitali does the same for the presence of the Magician - called the Bagatella early on - in the procession of the Triumphs, as well as offering new insights into various Triumphs as steps on a “mystical ladder.”
In that spirit Howard gives an extensive examination of the whole Bolognese order. He also presents a new look at an 18th century Bolognese cartomancy tradition that may be related to one promoted in France by Etteilla (especially in one rare early work previously unexamined).
Clothing historian Elisabetta Gnignera gives a vestimentary analysis of the so-called Tarot of Charles VI, with the aim of identifying where the deck was made, in which she draws a conclusion different from that usually made today. Her way of looking at the cards, through subtle distinctions in fashion among cities, is an education in itself.
Through recently discovered documents, Ross Caldwell discusses the origin and symbolism of the Bolognese “Equal Papi” rule, whereby the same the same title and rank is given to all four of the cards elsewhere called Empress, Emperor, Popess, and Pope.
Alberto Beltramo writes on the production of Tarot cards in Bologna, including how they were made and the ambivalent attitude of the Church towards playing cards.
French tarologist Alain Bougearel presents his thesis that by around 1500 the Tarot sequence might for some have been divided into sections defined by the “pentagonal numbers” of medieval number theory.
These are only some of the topics examined. This volume of 512 pages is enriched by hundreds of illustrations, most in color: cards, artworks, and documents. 1000+ footnotes provide both transcriptions of the original sources and, where available, where ti find them on the Internet. It is a monumental work in which, through testimonies in Bologna and elsewhere in northern Italy. an overview of the Tarot’s history is created, of interest not only to Tarot enthusiasts but also to those who want to know more about Italian literature, art, and popular culture.
Bologna and the Tarot, An Italian Legacy from the Renaissance History Art Symbology Literature
CONTENTS
Chapter One: The Ludus Triumphorum: an Ethical Game by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Two: An Etymological Hypothesis: Tarot, Fool, Tárachos by Franco Motta
Chapter Three: The Words Tarocco and Tarot by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Four: “El Bagatella”(The Magician), Symbol of Sin by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Five: Triumphs, Tarocchi, and Tarocchini in Bologna of the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Six: “Carte da zugare ... depinte al dito modo”:Vestimentary Notes on the So-called “Charles VI” Tarot by Elisabetta Gnignera
Chapter Seven: Tarocchi Appropriati: Triumphs Matched to Persons by Andrea Vitali and Michael S. Howard:
Chapter Eight: The Bolognese Order of Triumphs by Michael S. Howard:
Chapter Nine: The Priority of the Equal Papi Rule in Bolognese Tarocchi by Ross G. R. Caldwell
Chapter Ten: Points of Iconology by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Eleven: Playing Cards Printed in Bologna in the Modern Era by Alberto Bertramo
Chapter Twelve: Tarocchi and Tarocchini in Literature by Andrea Vitali
Chapter Thirteen: The Bologna Cartomancy Sheet Compared with Etteilla (Eighteenth Century) by Michael S. Howard:
Appendix A: Keywords for the triumphs Appendix B: Keywords for the suit cards
Chapter Fourteen: Arithmology and the Order of Trumps (Triumphs) by Alain Jacques Bougearel
Chapter Fifteen: Winckelmann and Tarocchino, 1755 by Andrea Vitali
Archetypes and Symbols: The Museum of Tarot as the schola of seeing by Adolfo Panfili
The International Tarot Museum, between Art and Magic by Giovanni Pelosini
Author Biographies
ILLUSTRATIONS
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