A9: Other early Matto cards

I have mentioned the Leber Matto, c. 1500-1520, before, as an example of a "tarroco" figure in the sense of "angry." Marcos Filesi called attention to this characterization at http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=609. He calls him (below) a "choleric fool."
 
Let me say again what I said in the earlier discussion: As Ross Caldwell and M. J. Hurst have explained, he has all kinds of weapons with him, but nothing for combating the insects buzzing around him (http://pre-gebelin.blogspot.com/2009/04/witless-warrior.html). The motto, Ross says, is "I wish that a net would be given to me." He is a clear example of the angry but ridiculous madman. And not only are his genitals exposed, but he is urinating uncontrollably, as Hurst points out.

What I find especially relevant about Marcos's post is that he relates the figure to the Mundus alter et idem of Joseph Hall,  which he knows about from Andrea's essay on it (http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=152). It is a work in Latin first published c. 1605 in Frankfurt (the 20th century editor even includes a facsimile of the title page, with the word "Francofvrti" , although not the date), with three German reprints up to 1664--Hanover 1607, Utrecht 1643, Munich 1664--and a German translation in 1613, reprinted in 1704 (modern English edition p. xxx). A rather free English translation appeared in 1609 (The Discovery of a New World, translated by John Healey, c. 1609, edited by Huntington Brown, 1937).

Hall's satire describes an imaginary land called Moronia ("Fooliana" in the translation), of which one province is Orgilia, whose capital is the city of Tarocchium. This last is a word that Hall says he gets from Garzoni (about whose work Hospital of Incurable Madmen Andrea has also written an essay). I quote from Hall's own gloss on this name, from the modern edition,  p. 206; I think that the editor is giving a translation of Hall's Latin): 

Garzonius in his 13th Discourse says furious fools are "Da Tarocco"; whence this name.

Later in his travels through Moronia/Fooliana, Hall's narrator even comes across a hospital run by this Garzoni, "an Italian,"; it is called "Hospitall of incurable Foolianders" (p. 118).The marginal gloss of the English version explains that "Garzoni" was the name of the author of "Hospitall of incurable fooles."

In the description of the inhabitants of Orgilia, Hall says that they arm themselves whenever they go out, and not with just one weapon (p. 95):

There is none of these that euer stirre abroad vnarmed; hee that is but halfe sufficiently apparelled, will bee sure howsoeuer to haue his armour vpon him A capo a pie: and like a Porter hyred by Mars, ha's his Musket on one shoulder, and his Halberd on the tother, his sworde there, and his great bumme duagger here, with two boxe hilts, a man may boyle two joynts of meate in them, and at his back he bore his bow and shafts..

(There is none of these that ever stir abroad unarmed; he that is but half sufficiently apparelled, will be sure howsoever to have his armor upon him A capo a pie [head to foot]; and like a porter hired by Mars, has his musket on one shoulder, and his halberd on the other, his sword there, and his great bum [?] dagger here, with two box hilts, a man may boil two joints of meat in them, and at his back he bore his bow and shafts...)

This resident of Moronia/Fooliana is much like the Leber Fool card, taken to an even greater extreme. Then if such a person should meet anyone who will not give way to him, Hall's narrator says, he draws his weapons and demands of that person to "kiss my pumpe"--"pumpe" is an old word for "shoe"--and if not, there must be the satisfaction of his honor. And then, if the other has died, he eats his victim. The English translation is clear:

If one chance to kill his enemy, hee feedes vpon him immediatly, for they eate raw flesh altogether, and drinke warme bloud, and this is the best esteemed fare.

(If one chances to kill his enemy, he feeds upon him immediately, for they eat raw flesh altogether, and drink warm blood, and this is the best esteemed fare.)

More chances for bloodshed come whenever a person feels himself a victim of injustice. For there is no remedy for injustice except personal acts of vengeance (p. 95), and no law except "Conquer and possesse."

Although Hall never refers to the game of tarocchi, he and some of his readers must have known, about the game and its Italian name. Dummett in Game of Tarot says--I am not sure the page--that the game had reached England by 1600. Also, Florio's 1611 Italian-English Dictionary  has, for the meaning of "tarocchi," "a kind of playing cardes called Tarocks or Terestriall triumphs" (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/568c.html). In 1598 he had said "cardes used in Italy" (p. 413 at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio1598/florio_1598.pdf); but in 1611 this qualifier is dropped.

At the same time, Hall's description suggests an unsympathetic account of the followers of Bacchus as described by Euripides--not drinkers, who are described elsewhere in the book as devotees of Bacchus, but people who get worked up, as in Garzoni's book, into a delusional fury (also suggested by the name, in the translation, of the river running through the capital, Furieuse). "Orgilia" suggests the Greek "orgia," despite Hall's gloss, p. 202, that it comes from "orgueil," French for "arrogance." The 20th century editor suggests a relationship to the Greek orge, meaning "wrath"; but orgia is even closer. Yet wrath is also part of the Dionysian cult. In Euripides' Bacchae, personal vengeance for Pentheus's lack of proper respect for Dionysus (refusing to allow his worship in Thebes) would seem to be the god's main motive for luring Pentheus to his death. And the result is indeed the eating of Pentheus' raw flesh by the god's followers, including his own mother. Euripides' lines are hardly flattering to those who with to emulate the followers of Dionysus. For example, having ripped her son limb from limb, under the delusion that he was a wild beast, Agave says to the Chorus (http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/euripides/euripides.htm): 

We've had good hunting. So come, share our feast.

To which the Chorus, not under her delusion, replies:

What? You want me to eat that with you?
Oh you unhappy woman.

I cannot help but wonder whether the game and the cult were perhaps associated in a positive way by some people at this time--not identifying with Euripides' crazed Maenads, to be sure--and Hall wanted to satirize that association.

The Leber card itself, I want to emphasize, does not seem to me to suggest the cult of Dionysus--its inspiration is merely the idea of "tarocco" meaning "angry" (and the "perturbatio" of the Greek tarachos). Only to someone who associated inappropriate defensiveness with Dionysus--as a reader of Euripides might--would make such an association.

The PMB Matto likewise dos not suggest anything Dionysian, at least not directly. But in the context of Carnival and Lent there may be an indirect connection, and also in the sense of the depressed phase following mania.

With his seven feathers, Moakley (The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo, p. 115) compared him to the Lenten Fool, succeeding the Carnival Fool, whom she identifies with the PMB card. The feathers represent the weeks in Lent:  Giotto's stultia, the Vulgate's word for "folly," also has these feathers (on the right in the image). The round belly indicates pregnancy, Moakley says. It could also be the hypocrisy of the well-fed who affect poverty at Lent. Or perhaps the naive joy of someone fed well at Carnival, not realizing that he will be starved for seven weeks and then sacrificed (The "Fish-Eaters" website, http://www.fisheaters.com/customslent2.html, says

In many places in Italy, Lent is personified by the effigy of an old woman that is displayed during Lent, and then burned at the stake (sometimes after a "trial") at the end of the season.

It is only to the extent that Easter retains vestiges of old pagan cults of animal sacrifice that the PMB card has the suggestion of Dionysus here--the goat who was sacrifrced as punishment for all the damage done by goats to the vines, according to Virgil.

Also, the PMB Matto fits the Dionysian mold in another broad sense, of  "tarocco" as "manic", as in the mania of the Maenads. He could be exhibiting the state of a gambler who has lost everything, the depressed phase following the mania of playing and winning--a depression clearly indicated in the Tarot of Mantegna figure and title--or the inflated hero, like Oedipus quick to anger, after his downfall., or Pentheus's mother Agave after she realized that she has killed and eaten her son's flesh. Such a Matto has attained some wisdom, at least about his former life, and perhaps his spiritual life is about to begin. But any such connection to Dionysus is in the eye of the beholder.

On the other hand, it seems to me that the Cary Sheet Matto, on the right below, from c. 1500 or a little earlier, gives us a stronger hint of the Wise Fool:

Even though his leggings are still around his feet, his gait seems purposeful, like that of a pilgrim, and on his back he has a three-tiered hat or pack. Its threeness might suggest a kinship with the Pope, who usually has a three-tired tiara, but also the legendary Hermes Trismegistus, the Thrice-great. The Cary Sheet Bagatino has something similar on his back.

The Sicilian Tarot today has two Fools, one a beggar and the other a court jester or professional Fool.
 
Although this tarot seems to have been introduced into Sicily in 1660 or so (from Spain?), the tradition might be an old one (I get these images from "Huck" at http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=782&p=11519#p11519). These might suggest a sense of  the ignorant or unwise fool on the one hand and the wise fool on the other. Court jesters were valued for satirizing not only others but also the lord they served, offering him wise counsel in an entertaining form. The Fool in Shakespeare's King Lear is of that sort. That play trades on the wise fool/ignorant fool distinction in other ways as well: Lear is foolish when he speaks most clearly, and wisest when he is most inarticulate. And Gloucester's son wisely pretends to be "Mad Tom," a former profligate reduced to beggary and madness.  .

Another deck, from France that might be counted as one with two Fools, according to "Huck," on THF, is the Minchiate Franchesi, which is dated to c.1660 (http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=782). Huck observes that the dating comes from a publication in which the noted French card historian Thiery Depaulis participated (http://www.millon-associes.com/doc/CP-Carte-a-jouer-051111.pdf).

"Chaos," I think, would be the upper Folly, and "Momus" the lower one. I am not sure that they divide into "wise" and "ignorant," however. These two names are in Hesiod's genealogy of the gods, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyx_(mythology)), in which Chaos is first and Momus his grandson, a god who mocks the others, In the illustration, however, Momus appears merely a court jester. There is slight a connection to Ferrara: Alberti wrote a long narrative called Momus just after the period he was friendly with Leonello d'Este, tarly he 1440s. In  the first part ofAlberti's text, "Huck" points out, Momus praises the beggar.

Finally, we must not forget Matteo Boiardo's tarocchi poem of sometime between 1460 and 1490 (http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Boiardo_Tarocchi_Poem:_Chapter_5_-_Triompho_Del_Vano_Mondo; I thank "Huck" again, for reminding me of this poem). Boairdo, too, was a Ferrara courtier, serving as governor of Reggio, a d'Este domain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Maria_Boiardo).

Mondo, da pazzi vanamente amato,
Portarti un fol su l'asino presume,
Ché i stolti sol confidano in tuo stato.

(World, you are vainly loved by the mad,
And a fool thinks he can bring you on his donkey,
Because the stupid only trust your state).

The donkey here is perhaps reminiscent of Silenus's, who in his depiction as a perennial drunk is often made foolish (I owe this observation to "Huck"). However Silenus is not one who chases the materialism of the world and to that extent must be classed among the wise. Another example is the ass that Apuleius's hero is turned into in The Golden Ass, clearly a consequence of his lack of wisdom. But donkeys are proverbially associated with both fools and wisdom: "Ass" was a synonym for "fool" tin the Renaissanceas now, as can be seen in the pun on "Asso" meaning "Ace" in Aretino's Lampoon for the election of Adrian VI (see Andrea's Tarot in Literature I at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=199&lng=eng). But there is also Balaam's ass in the Bible. In that case, Balaam is the ignorant and the ass the wise one. And there is the ass's foal that Jesus rides into Jerusalem on, making Jesus the fool, just as he is for Erasmus

Boiardo, it seems to me, had two fools in his imagined deck. Where the first started out his poem on the trumps, the other is near the end:

Oblivion di termine e confine
Del tutto sei, Elice e Dido a Lethe
Menasti, e famma e tempo hai in toe ruine.

(Oblivion, you are the end and boundary
Of all, you took to Lethe Elice and Dido,
And among your ruins you have fame and time.)

"Lethe" is the river Lethe which wipes out all memory of one's past life, here probably compared to senility. The other reference is to Petrarch's Triumphs, in which Time triumphs over Fame; but for Petrarch Eternity is what triumphs over Time, the domain of the Wise Fool.

In any case, the path is set out for us, the "the path of the fool/madman," I would call it, from deficiency into fullness, whether in Christianity or in the so-called "mystery cults" of antiquity as identified with Dionysus and Orpheus.