Mercurio da Correggio - research to Mantegna Tarocchi

<table width="100%" border="1" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" > <tr> <td valign="middle" width="60"><center><a href="http://autorbis.net" target="_blank"><img src="http://trionfi.com/00/kldreieck2.jpg" width="36" height="31" border="0" alt="autorbis.net"></a></center></td> <td valign="middle" width="120"><a href="http://trionfi.com" target="_blank"><font size="5" face="Garamond, Verdana"><b><center><i> Trionfi </i></center></b></font></a></td> <td valign="middle"> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td><a name="a"><b><font size="3" color="#0033ff" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">    A</font></b></a><a href="http://autorbis.net" target="_blank"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">UTORBIS.net </font></a> - <a href="http://trionfi.com" target="_blank"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">TRIONFI.com </font></a> </td> <td align="right"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">created 2003 - 2006       </td> </tr></table><hr size="1" width="90%"> <table width="100%"><tr><td rowspan="2" width="30%" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#dddddd"> <b><font size="+1">Mantegna Tarocchi - Research Collection</font><br><br> Mantegna Tarocchi Pictures<ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/mantegna/" target="_top">Mantegna Tarocchi Pictures / <br> E-series, S-Series, Ladenspelder, Dürer, Lazzarelli, Modern</a> </ul><br> <b> Material about earlier researches<br> <ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/14/">Early: Lanzi, Zani, Duchesne</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/15/">Brockhaus (in development)<br> - "made by the pope"</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/31/">Romain Merlin, 1859<br> - "E-series was an album"</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/32/">Emile Galichon 1861 <br>- "they are not playing cards"</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/16/">Burlington Magazine, 1933<br>- to Angelo Parrasio</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/17/">Hind's error<br> - our Lazzarelli Hypothesis</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/18/">Hind's final suggestion<br>- Mantegna Tarocchi engravers</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/19/">Hind's list</a><br><br> </ul> Lazzarelli Hypothesis <ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/01/">Lazzarelli's Life</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/02/">Lazzarelli's scriptures</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/03/">Lazzarelli 1466</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/04/" target="_top">Pirckheimer - to 1466</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/05/t1.php" target="_blank">Pope Sixtus IV. / pictures</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/06/" target="_top">Parallels to Urbino-manuscript</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/07/">Fasti - the calendar</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/08/">Material to Eastern 1484 or 1485</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/09/">Trithemius about Faust and Mercurio</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/10/">Nuremberg 1493</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/20/">Lazzarelli / sources</a><br><br> </Ul> <center><hr width="80%"></center><br><br> Beggar development (Misero) <ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/">Lucian, Momus, Alberti, Diogenes</a><br><br> <ul> Artes Liberales <UL> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/72/">Artes Liberales 1425 - 1450</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/76/">Gregor Reisch, 1508 - 1517</a> <br><br></UL Muses Development<ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/d/55/">Music in Ferrara</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/d/551/">Added: Music in Ferrara</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/d/56/">Artists active in the Studiolo</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/11/">Muses Row / Lazzarelli 1471 </a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/12/">Muses Row / Gaffurio 1494</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/13/">Muses Row / Ficino 1469</a><br><br> </ul> Malatesta's Contribution<ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/61/">Malatesta - Start</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/62/">Malatesta family (1)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/63/">Malatesta family (2)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/64/">Malatesta family (3)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/68/">Duccio at the<br>Tempio Malatestiana</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/m/69/t1.php" target="_top">Malatesta Links</a> </ul> </b> </ul></td><td height="50" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#dddddd"> Mantegna Tarocchi </td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <h1>Eastern 1484 or 1485 in Rome <br><font size="4"> - identity of Giovanni "Mercurio"da Correggio</font></h1> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="top">Here are some excerpts from David Ruderman's 1975 article in the Renaissance Quarterly wherein he seeks to conclusively demonstrate an existence of the individual Giovanni Correggio. Note should be taken that in the additional evidence he presents, Avraham Farissol does not mention the name of the individual he is describing. The Plague- text of Mercurius evidently contains alchemical treatments; I was unable to consult the crucial McDaniel reference given; likewise the Ohly reference is not accessible to me at the present <b>(composed by John Meador)</b><br> <br><hr width="90%"><br> <font size="+1"><b>John Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio's Appearance in Italy as Seen through the Eyes Of an Italian Jew </font> <p>by DAVID B. RUDERMAN from: Renaissance Quarterly, V.28, 1975.</b><br> <br> "The literary evidence describing the revelation of the strange Christian prophet Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio in the communities of Italy and France at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century has been treated with considerable interest by a number of scholars. W. B. McDaniel was the first to publish the existing evidence on this unusual figure, together with the text of a hermetic plague tract attributed to him with an English translation. These sources portray a divinely inspired prophet, together with his wife, five children, and his disciples, making his way as a mendicant through Italy and France. Mercurio sees as his task the reprobation of all the sins of the Catholic Church and Christian peoples. He is empowered with the magical gift of the Supreme Being to prepare an antidote against the horrendous plague. <br> <i> [An Hermetic Plague-Tract by Johannes Mercurius Corrigiensis,' first published in Fugitive Leaves of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 1935-36 (mimeographed); later revised and republished in Transactions and Studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Series IV, 9 (1941-42), 96-111, 217-225; See especially McDaniel's summary of the Oratio ad sanctam crucem, pp. 217-218..]</i><br> </p> <p>He not only gains the loyalty of the uneducated masses who marvel at his wondrous abilities but is surrounded by a select retinue of outstanding scholars who are equally impressed by his talents and are unquestionably convinced of the authenticity of his prophecy. The latter include Carlo Sosenna, a lecturer at the University of Ferrara and author of a scholastic commentary to one of Mercurio's sonnets; Ludovico Lazzarelli, an avid hermetic who describes Mercurio's appearance in Rome in 1484; and Trithemius, another hermetic and mystic who relates Mercurio's appearance at Lyons at the end of the fifteenth century. <br> <i> [On Sosenna, see McDaniel, p. 219; Paul Oskar Kristeller, 'Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Corregio,' in Studies in Renaissance Thought and Letters (Rome, 1956), pp. 251ff.; G. Pardi, Lo studio di Ferrara nei secoli XV e XVI (Ferrara, 1903), p. 148. On Lazzarelli, see McDaniel, pp. 220, 222,ff.; Kurt Ohly, 'Johannes "Mercurius" Corrigiensis,' Beitraege zur Inkunabelkunde, n.f, II (1938), 140ff; L. Thorndike, A History of magic and Experimental Science, V (New York, 1941), 533; P. 0. Kristeller, 'Marsilio Ficino e Ludovico Lazzarelli, Contributo alla diffusione delle idee ermetiche nel Rinascimento,' in Studies in Renaissance Thougt and Letters (Rome, 1956) pp. 222-240, and 'Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio, due Ermetici del Quattrocento, e il manoscritto II.D.I.4 dell Biblioteca Comunale degli Ardenti di Viterbo,' in Biblioteca degli Ardenti della Citta di Viterbo, Studi e Ricerche nel 150* della Fondazione, ed. A. Pepponi (Viterbo, 1960),13-37. I have used an offprint of the article in the Columbia University Library, paginated 1-25, from which I cite. See also the references cited in this last article on p.8. n. 18. On Trithemius, see McDaniel, pp. 220, 222ff.; Ohly, pp. 140ff.; Thorndike, V (1934), 524; VI (1941), 439]</i></p> <p><i><br> </i>Kurt Ohly also published a detailed account of the Epistola Enoch, Lazzarelli's description of the prophet's visit to Rome. On the basis of a comparison of this text with three prefaces dedicated by Ludovico 'Enoch' Lazzarelli to Mercurio, along with other texts attributed to the prophet, Ohly maintained that Lazzarelli was not only the author of the Enoch letter but also the plague tract and the rest of the prophet's writings. He concluded that Mercurio was no more than a literary fiction invented in the mind of Lazzarelli or, at best, an insignificant preacher who had been elevated to the stature of a divine prophet through Lazzarelli's writings. Ohly defended the plausibility of this conclusion in light of the paucity of contemporary references to Mercurio's appearance and the probability that those remaining reports of his existence, including the detailed account of Trithemius, were simply based on the initial account of Lazzarelli.<br> <i> [Ohly, pp. 140ff., and McDaniel, pp. 221ff., who also discusses Ohly's contention. The entire Epistola Enoch was later published along with other selections of Lazzarelli's writings in Testi umanistici su l'ermetismo, ed. E. Garin, M. Brini, et al., Archivio di filosofia (Rome, 1955), pp. 34-47.] <br> </i></p> <p> Paul Oskar Kristeller subsequently published a study on Lazzarelli as well as new evidence regarding Mercurio, specifically a sonnet written by the prophet with Sosenna's commentary. As an appendix to his second article, he published additional sources on the actual existence of Mercurio. The references included evidence of the fact that Mercurio visited Florence, Cesena, Lucca, as well as Rome. On the basis of these new sources, Kristeller argued that there was no longer any doubt concerning the historical reality of Mercurio da Correggio. In a later article, he provided still further references to Mercurio, including additional works by the prophet himself. <br> <i> [Kristeller, 'Marsilio Ficino e Ludovico Lazzarelli . . . ' pp. 222- 240; 'Ancora per Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio,' pp. 249-257, esp. p. 257; and 'Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio - - - ' pp - 10-13, 20-22.] <br> </i></p> <p>Adding to this evidence, Eugenio Garin later published another document describing Mercurio's appearance in Florence in 1486, containing further biographical material on the prophet. <i>[Eugenio Garin, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Comitato per Celebrazione Centenarie (Mirandola, 1963), pp. 39-40.] </i></p> <p>To the growing number of references to Mercurio da Correggio another source can now be added which completely establishes him as an authentic historical personality in his own right, while revealing supplementary evidence on his broad appeal and the motivation of Catholic authorities to silence and punish him. Unlike the other contemporary reports previously discovered by scholars, there can be no question regarding the personal involvement of this witness who recorded the spectacle of Mercurio in three Italian cities as a totally unimpassioned observer. This source is found in a polemic against Christianity entitled Magen Avraham, written by Abraham Farissol (1452- 1528?), the Italian Jewish scribe, cantor, educator, and author. Farissol traveled widely throughout Italy during the second half of the fifteenth and the early sixteenth centuries, while establishing his permanent residence in the city of Ferrara. He wrote his polemic in Hebrew, ostensibly the result of a debate or series of debates at the ducal court of Ferrara between Farissol and two learned Christian theologians between 1487 and 1490. Upon the conclusion of these debates, Farissol probably revised and appended new material to his original manuscript as late as the second decade of the sixteenth century."<br> <br> "Farissol's passage reads in part: I myself saw in my time and in my town a man who was a great celebrity at the time, who used to go and preach and exhort in most of the gentile regions, and would exalt himself... by his wisdom ... until he almost imagined his utterances to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, prophesying and interpreting the Torah. He called himself Son of God, Mercurius Trismegistus, Enoch and Methuselah.... Their scholars however, answered him sharply, as for instance in Rome, where he was cast into prison in my presence, as also in Bologna. But through the power of his rhetorical quips, for he was certainly eloquent, he escaped and fled with his friends, the devoted of his philosophy and doctrine. Thus he went forth from prison, he and his retinue with him, wandering and exhorting in various lands, dressed in sackcloth and girded with ropes, to this very day, during my own lifetime .... "<br> <i> [Magen Avraham. chap. 5] <br> </i><br> " Farissol calls this man a great celebrity who wandered through most of the gentile regions, preaching, interpreting the Holy Scriptures, and extolling his wisdom altnost to the extent that he imagined his utterances to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. The itinerant nature of Mercurio's prophetic mission is clearly illustrated by all the sources mentioned above. His self-exaltation concerning his incredible knowledge is also attested to by the sources. Trithemius writes, for example: <br>'... For he boasted that he comprehended all the learning of all the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and Latins and despised practically all the ancients, philosophers as well as theologians, since compared to him only, he said, they were all unlearned and not one of them appeared to be wholly wise regarding the mysteries. Whence he confessed that he was versed in all the knowledge of the world, understood all the mysteries and arcana of natural things, was able to discover the deepest meanings of the scriptures, and knew everything that mortal man could know.'"<br> <br> "The precise time at which Farissol witnessed Mercurio is more difficult to determine but here, too, he adds a number of facts which help to establish the specific circumstances of his meeting. Farissol mentions explicitly that he saw him with his own eyes in Ferrara. The fact that Mercurio visited Ferrara and had contact with its citizens is all the more likely in view of the sonnet published in Mercurio's name with the scholastic commentary of Carlo Sosenna, the above- mentioned professor of the University of Ferrara, who was on personal terms with Duke Ercole I. One may surmise that when Mercurio came to Ferrara, he was received sympathetically by the court of Ercole and the duke himself, given the latter's unusual interest in astrology, divination, and the miraculous, and his later relationship to Savonarola, a similar prophetic figure."<br> <i> [See: Werner I. Gundersheimer, Ferrara: The Style of a Renaissance Despotism (Princeton, N.J., 1973), pp. 186ff. On the influence of astrology and magic at Ercole's court, see Giulio Bertoni, La biblioteca estense e la cultura ferrarese ai tempi del duca Ercole 1 (1471-1505) (Torino, 1903), pp. 117ff., 126ff, Antonio Rotondo, 'Pellegrino Prisciani,' Rinascimento, 11(1960), 69-110.] <br> </i></p> <p> Professor Kristeller (in 'Lodovico Lazzarelli e Giovanni da Corregio...,' p. 11, n.30) has already suggested Mercurio's possible link to the same Northern Italian feudal family of da Correggio which produced Niccolo da Correggio (1450-1508), the poet, playwright, and diplomat who was in close contact with the ducal court of Ferrara. Pompeo Litta, in his family tree of the da Correggio family (Famiglie Celebri Italiane, II [Milan, 1825]), does in fact list two lesser known members of the family with the name Giovanni, both of them living at the end of the fifteenth century. Besides Niccolo, a number of other members of this distinguished family were also in close contact with the Este court including Manfredo and Antonio da Correggio (see Litta above). If Giovanni Mercurio was indeed a relative of this distinguished clan, his connection with Ercole is all the more understandable. <br> <i> [On Niccolo da Correggio and his connections with the Este house, see Gundersheimer, pp. 211, 223, 258, 260; Bertoni, p. 147; and Alda Arata, Niccolo da Correggio nella vita letteraria e politica del tempo suo (1450-1508) (Bologna, 1934)] </i><br> <br> "Along with the other intellectuals like Lazzarelli, Trithemius, and Sosenna already mentioned, Garin (pp. 39-40) states that before Mercurio's imprisonment by the inquisitor of Florence, he was also invited to meet with both Pico della Mirandola and Flavius Mithridates, Pico's teacher, in the spring of 1486." <br> <br> "What is most astonishing in Farissol's description of Mercurio and his teachings is that he, as a Jew, was quite familiar with an intellectual and spiritual climate so alien to his own religious tradition. Yet he not only observed Mercurio on a number of occasions, but he openly admitted that he was familiar with his writings. What he probably meant was that he was conversant in the writings of Mercurio's followers, especially Lazzarelli. The fact that be was familiar at least with his Epistola Enoch is suggested by his confusion in assuming that Enoch and Mercurio were the same person rather than correctly identifying Enoch (Lazzarelli) as the disciple of his spiritual master, Mercurio." <br> <br> "Agrippa of Nettesheim quoted Apollonius; Trithemius himself interpreted the mystical appearance of Mercurio by referring to similar rites practiced by Apollonius of Tyana (see Yates, Giordano Bruno, p. 141; Garin and Brini, p. 32, n. 13). Farissol's reference to these esoteric works affords another small glimpse of the latter's impressive knowledge of an occult tradition regarded wiith particular fascination by his Christian contemporaries." </p> <p><i>[David Ruderman, op. cit.]</i></p> </td> <td width="290" valign = "top"><center> <br> <img src="http://trionfi.com/mantegna/42.jpg" alt="" height="400" width="240" border="0"><br> </td> </tr> </table></td></tr></table> <hr><br><br> <center><b><font size="1">Trionfi.com </b>has its focus on Tarot History and especially the origin of Tarot in 15th century, also the representation of about 100 000 Tarot and other playing cards in the Tarot Museum. <br><b>The chapter "Mantegna Tarocchi"</b> presents specific material to the socalled "Mantegna Tarocchi" - it's likely not produced by Andrea Mantegna, the famous painter. We present a specific hypothesis, by us called "Lazzarelli hypothesis", which contradicts common opinions about the objects, 50 copperplate engravings, which are sorted in a 5x10-scheme and of which not a single playing card deck of the early time has survived, but a lot of "normal" copperplate engravings (general opinion assumes, that they were never polaying cards in the early time). Common opinion usually says, based on the representation and arguments of Arthur M. Hind in the year 1938, that this composition was manufactured around 1465 ... we contradict and assume, that it was produced, after Ludovico Lazzarelli found some pictures in a Venetian bookstore and composed out of them 27 illuminations accompanying a manuscript. Then the final redaction would have been surely after 1470 ... for special reasons we suggest a date around 1475.<br> The Mantegna Tarocchi is extant in two different versions, one is called E-series and normally assumed to be the older, the other is called S-series. <br> Author: when not otherwise specified, autorbis. Copyright: trionfi.com. 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