Tarot News, May 2004
- Handstand on a house made of Tarot cards, 4 meter high above ground: Walter Mooshammer of the Zirkus Meer has composed an artistic show.
- Not everybody knows, that Michael Dummett, author of various Tarot History books, was Professor for Logic at the University of Oxford and has published various books with themes of philosophy. His latest work is Truth and Past, and somehow his historical interests are mirrored in the title. Various other Links from our Who's Who page for Tarot Researchers to Michael Dummett:
- Tarot is also the name of a metaller band of Finland. They have already a longer history since 1984 and own a website, Wings of Darkness. How did they got the name? See here: "Late in the year 1985 we got our first record deal and the record company asked us to change our name to something easier to pronounce for Finnish people and in some drinking session we ended up with the name Tarot. Nothing special in that." Some songs can be downloaded
- Future prediction was a political theme in the recent votes in India.
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Typing "Tarot" in the French News section of Google.com leads to lots of reports about recent tarot tournaments - real card playing. The same try at the English News site of Google.com has quite different results, the focus of the results is divination. Quite a contrast.
- Aeclectic.net with its Tarotforum has parted their group Tarot History and Iconography in two groups, Historical Research and Marseilles and Historical Decks. The number of posts has increased rapidly in the last monthes.
- In London a Tarot conference is announced for 9/10th October: Invited speakers are Titania Hardie, author of the Star Tarot, Paul Roland, author of the Kabbalah Cards, Lisa Tenzin-Dolma author of the Glastonbury Tarot, Caitlin Matthews, author of Arthurian Tarot,
Sally Morningstar, author of The Wicca Pack, Paul Hughes-Barlow, author of Tarot and the Magus. Tarot historians are missing :-).
- Michael J. Hurst has updated his Tarot Fragments.
- We couldn't identify the middle column of Tarot cards at this site. Perhaps somebody can help.
- Observations:
It still lives: "History of the Tarot: The Tarot is the oldest card game in the world. Time has covered up its origins, thus the formation of myths and legends. The one that is mostly accepted tells us that it was invented by the Great Hermes Trismegisto who is known as the messenger of the gods, who possessed the knowledge of the words of Power as well as their correct pronunciation." (Tarot Cafe). Interesting: "The earliest known "book" of Tarot cards still in existence are those from 1840-42, of which seventeen remain. The first entire deck still in existence was painted by the Italian Bonifacio Bembo for the Duke of Milan. (Inner Self, M. J. Abadie)". Why not? "The origin of tarot (or tarok) cards is unknown but it is speculated that they were introduced into Europe by Crusaders or by gypsies. We do know that they were used in Italy in the early 1300s (Psychic Internet)". Early: "The word Tarot may have originated during the fourteenth century in Italy in the word form of Tarocco or Tarocchi" (Psychics Online).
A general good information about inaccurate statements about Tarot gives The TarotL Tarot History Information Sheet, although it needs a little updating. My humble opinion.
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Trionfi.com has changed at some pages its outfit, also added some contents (for instance "Play", but also others),. reorganised the structure of the site and improved the handling of the Museum. Further changes will follow in June. According to the reorganization it may happen, that some links do currently not work. We beg for patience, we hope, we find the errors.
The picture "Apollo with Daphne" presents, according to art researcher Maike Voigt-Lüerssen (compare Tarot News of April), the young Milanese duke Galeazzo Maria Visconti and his wife Bona of Savoyen in the year 1468, at the opportunity of their marriage in the role of Apollo and Daphne. This creates a riddle: Did the Daphne-motif, which was the central motif of the Michelino deck, reappear in the Visconti-family more than 40 years after the deck? It seems, that Daphne was not a very common motif before that time. Why did it reappear just at this place? Was the Michelino deck, the "oldest Tarot cards", which to our knowledge was bought by Jacopo Antonio Marcello in the year 1449 and sent as present to the wife of Rene d'Anjou, still in the possesssion of the Visconti-Sforza family in 1468? Galeazzo was very young in 1449, but he might have heard of the deck and this might have inspired him to choose the motif. But perhaps he even knew the deck, cause it was given back by Rene d'Anjou after the death of his wife Isabella in the year 1453? Rene was in Milan in the year 1453 and his servant and friend Giovanni Cossa visited the Sforzas variously and reassured friendly relationship between the two courts.
(composed by Huck Meyer)
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