The term "Trionfi" - in relation to playing cards
Start Documents
Analyses
1423: Imperatori - first note
March 1425: Birth of Bianca Maria Visconti
May 1425: Parisina killed
June 1425: Trionfo Filippo Visconti (Michelino Deck ?)
1438: Council in Ferrara
1439: Council in Florence
(real Trionfo - probably no cards)
Burchiello
Autumn 1441 Bianca Maria Visconti in Ferrara
(small Trionfo at her arrival - no cards)
14 Figure, 1.1.1441
(Marriage Trionfo projected ?)
October 1441 Marriage Bianca Maria Visconti
(Cary-Yale Tarocchi?, Marriage-Trionfo ?)
Marcello is already near to Francesco Sforza
December 1441: Leonello new Signore in Milano
01 1442/1 Ferrara/Sagramoro
(February 1442 / Trionfo projected ?)
02 1442/2 Ferrara/Kids
(small Trionfo for the kids
according to the interests
of their mother (?)
1443 Imperatori - 1st reappearance
1443 Real Trionfo in Naples
Alfonso of Aragon
(no cards known)
Pause (1443 - 1450)
August 1447: Filippo Maria Visconti dies
Decembrio is in Ferrara
1447 Decembrio writes "Vita ..."
Vita di Filippo Maria Visconti
early 1449: Marcello with Francesco Sforza
in the region of Milan
Scipio Caraffa didn't know Trionfi decks
03 1449/1 Marcello letter
(Nov. 1449)
25.2.1450: Francesco Sforza occupies Milan
04 1450/1 Ferrara/Sagramoro
16.3.1450 Trionfi cards are paid
25.3.1450 Leonello visits Milan
After 8 years pause suddenly Trionfi decks production in Ferrara
Imperatori - 2nd reappearance
October 1450: Leonello dies
Borso new signore in Ferrara
05 1450/2 Florence
December 1450: Trionfi allowed (Florence)
06 1450/3 Sforza letter
December 1450: Difficulties to get a Trionfi deck
07 1451/1 Ferrara/Sagramoro
Borso's Trionfo projected ?
07b 1452/1 Siena/Emperor-visit
08 1452/1 Malatesta/Sforza
The letter signals a Trionfi production in Cremona, perhaps as a preparation for a Trionfo
August 1453: Real Trionfo in Milan
The peace of Lodi is near (9th of April 1454)
Probably Borso prepares
already before some Trionfi decks
production in series from February till April
09 1454/1 Ferrara/Sagramoro
10 1454/2 Ferrara/Sagramoro
11 1454/3 Ferrara/production
12 1454/4 Ferrara/production
13 1454/5 Ferrara/production
13b 1455/1 Padua / preaching
14 1456/1 Ferrara/Trotti
Trotti's comment signals, that now Trionfi is (at least in Ferrara) a well known game.
15 1456/2 Ferrara/Sagramoro
Last Sagramoro document
16 1457/1 Ferrara/70 cards
Very important, proves the 5x14 theory
17 1457/2 Ferrara/Vicenza
18 1458/1 Ferrara/Vicenza
19 1459/1 Ferrara/production
20 1459/2 Bologna
First "real" document outside of the courts)
21 1460/1 Ferrara/Vicenza
22 1460/2 Ferrara/Vicenza
23 1460/3 Ferrara/Vicenza
24 1460/4 Ferrara/Vicenza
25 1460/5 Ferrara/Vicenza
25b 1460/6 / 1513(?) Ancona - allowance
26 1461/1 Ferrara/Vicenza
26b 1461/2 Padova / Valerio Marcello
27 1463/1 Ferrara/Vicenza
28 1463: The law, which allowed Trionfi in Florence, is repeated
Probably the appearance must be interpreted in the way, that experiments are done with the number of trumps. Possibly the begin of the end of the 5x14-structure, possibly related to the new allowance in Florence 1463.
Later Notes (not complete)
29 Mantova 1465, inventory
Minchiate (since 1466)
29b Pavia Castle Frescoes 1469
29c Ferrara/Modena Bonacossi production
30 Polismagna
relates to the Decembrio Manuscript
31 Vita di San Bernardino 1472
32 Naples 1473 (Aragon court)
33 Naples 1474 (Aragon court, Beatrice)
33b Rome 1474 - 1478 / Import from Florence
34 Milan 1475, Letter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza
34b Fabriano 1476, request for allowance
35 Bologna 1477, printed decks
36b Recanati ca. 1480
37 Naples 1482, "Cartaio" Francesco
38 French dictionary, 1482
38b Cicognara-note (? forgery)
39 Brescia, 1488 - allowance
40 Salo, 1489 - allowance
41 Bergamo 1491 - allowance
42 Letter Ippolito d'Este, 1492
43 Rene d'Anjou II, France, 1496
44 Reggio, 1500 - allowance
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Artist + Persons
References
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"Trionfi" as Cards (Documents)
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Document 29c
Ferrara (Mantova ?) November 1469
4th November 1469: "A Federico di Bonacossi per pagamento de uno paro de carte da triomphi ... Lira Marchesana 11.04" (11 Lira Marchesana 4 Soldi paid to Federico di Bonacossi for delivering a pack of Trionfi cards.
Ortalli ("Prince of the playing cards") came to the conclusion, that after 1463 production notes of Trionfi were missing in Ferrara for longer time. Ross Caldwell found the note (October 2009) in Atti e memorie delle Rr. Deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie Modenesi e Parmensi, volume 2, by Carlo Vincenzi (1864) and in corresponding texts of the same time (for instance Documenti ed illustrazioni risguar danti la storia artistica ferrarese by Luigi Napoleone Cittadella (1468), p. 12 ff., which researches the context of the mentioned artist, who belongs to a family of painters (the father Ettore is already an artist, later other artists follow). Much later a family with the title Conte and the same name lived in Ferrara in the "Palazzo Bonacossi" for 2 1/2 centuries - the Palazzo still exists, the first part had been build just in the year 1469, but belonged in this time to another owner. Nowadays the Palazzo contains the Musei d'Arte Antica e Museo della Cattedrale.
At the same page we found a second note of interest for playing card research:
25th December 1469: "A M. Gurono suo fratello per zugare a ronfa. A Figarolo. .... Lira Marchesana 16.16" (16 Lira Marchesana and 16 Soldo are paid to M Gurono his brother for gambling [the game] Ronfa. In Figarolo.)
Gurone d'Este has been an abbot of Adria and in his late life also bishop of Viterbo and a half brother of duke Borso d'Este (compare the family of Niccolo d'Este). Figarolo (now Ficorolo) is a Ferrarese location in duke Borso's time at the Venetian border, near to the river Po - the region fell to Venetia after the Ferrarese war in 1483/84. Duke Borso had some building activity in his time in Ficarolo - the Este possession in Ficarolo is said to have been used for traveller visits. The date 25th of December signals, that the d'Este family or a part of it are willing to spend some time (likely 25th of December - 2nd of January) in Ficarolo connected to the traditional gambling activities in this special week, as they're also known of the Christmas celebrations of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in the biography of Lubkin.
It seems, that the entry is the second oldest document about the game Ronfa in Italy. The first appears in the allowance of trionfi, ronfa and criche in Florence 1463. Compare our collection to the game Ronfa.
(autorbis)
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Palazzo Bonacossi |
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