The Tarot of Marseille
In the 18th century, a very special type of tarot deck spread widely in France. Having gained popularity, it was...
In the 18th century, a very special type of tarot deck spread widely in France. Having gained popularity, it was...
The small parcel arrived on Aug. 31, 2000. Inside it, I found a blue cardboard box stamped with gilt armorial...
If the first prints of the Tarot of Marseille cards have all disappeared, some of their ancestors nevertheless have survived....
In the beginning of the 2000s, I became passionate about Plato, whose works I read with great fascination. Progressing through...
How are we to explain the similarities between Plato’s chariot of the soul, as interpreted by Ficino, and the...
Continued from part one. 7) The Chariot. In the Phaedrus, just before he described the chariot, Plato defined the...
If the Tarot of Marseille cards really are pedagogic enigmas meant to teach Marsilio Ficino’s Christian Platonism, then the...
On my computer screen, the image was hardly bigger than a business card, but it was large enough for me...
The bold rebuttal of the attribution of the Esztergom Cardinal Virtues fresco to Botticelli had disconcerted me. Should I resolve...
Unconvinced by Waldman’s refutation, I decided to go to Esztergom and see the fresco with my own eyes. I wrote...
Upon examination of the Esztergom Justice, I was all the more puzzled that, in 2008 already, I had identified another...
If Botticelli played a role in the creation of the Tarot of Marseille, chances are other cards besides Justice and...
Florence’s most famous painter illustrating Florence’s most famous poet: Botticelli’s Lucifer is unquestionably deeply rooted in Florentine culture. Inheriting some...
Continued from part one. 2) The columns. Why did Ficino add columns to the allegory of the cave? As there...
In 2003, I started reading the 18 books of Marsilio Ficino’s treatise on the immortality of the soul, the Platonic...
The miniature of Jerome of Prague at the stake has intrigued me greatly (see Episode 11). There was something...
On July 13, 2011, a great friend of mine, a specialist in Renaissance philosophy, introduced me to the Vatican Library....
Continued from part one. Feliciano’s manuscript, although composed of apparently heterogeneous text and images, was, in fact, conceived in a...
With the figure of Mars Victor, the manuscript Reg. Lat. 1388 of the Vatican Library had given me an additional...
Continued from part one. In 2012, referring in a book to the Lovers card in the Tarot of Marseille, I...
In all likelihood, the creator of the Tarot of Marseille’s Lovers card used Feliciano’s miniature representing Hercules at the Crossroads...
Continued from part one On the divine nature of love, Ficino did not content himself, in his commentary on the...
The study of the graphical sources of the Lovers card showed me that this card, as for its theme, resulted...
Continued from part one. That’s not all. Let’s carefully observe the lion’s head. In profile, its right ear should be...
During the first phase of my research, when I focused on the costumes of the figures in the Tarot of...
Continued from part one. For what reason does Ficino complicate the image of Plato’s chimera, adding to it some features...
The figure of Strength in the Tarot of Marseille thus seemed to be full of allusions to the image of...
Continued from part one. Let’s see what the old man’s main features are in the Hermit card: 1) beard; 2)...
I decided to make a day trip to London on January 12, 2002. It was my last chance to see...
Continued from part two. The reader arriving at this point in the text might be asking whether the author is...
Continued from part one. So what was the meaning of the lamp for Ficino? He knew Pythagoras’ « symbols », as...
“He lit a lamp in broad daylight and said, as he went about, ‘I am looking for a man.’”[1] When...
Continued from part two. In a passage from Canto 14 of the Inferno, Dante evokes the place where those who...
Continued from part one. Circa 1474, Marsilio Ficino published his treatise on Christian religion, written in Italian: the Della Religione...
In June 2003, I lay my hands on a wonderful book about the Tower of Babel. In this work, the...
Continued from part two. Plato developed his ideas on the physical world in his Timaeus dialogue, especially regarding the organic...
Continued from part one. One of Ficino’s first scholarly works, undertaken in 1457 when he was 24, was the commentary...
One of the 22 trump cards in the Tarot of Marseille has caused uneasiness in many people. Some call it...
Continued from part two. The pilgrim’s journey through the ages continues after William of Digulleville. He reappears strikingly more than...
Continued from part one. The great Cistercian Bernard of Clairvaux, circa 1140, gave a series of sermons on Lent. The...
Of all Tarot of Marseille trump cards, Arcana 13 is the only one that bears no name. Another card is...
Continued from part two. Like the pilgrim fool, the two wayfarers hold their luggage on their backs, even though the...
Continued from part one. Strikingly, a menacing animal pursues both wayfarers and the Mat’s pilgrim fool in all three images....
The Mat card corresponds well with the image of the pilgrim fool, invented by Marsilio Ficino (see episode 24). However,...
Continued from part 3. In Chapter 3 of Book III of his De Vita, published in 1489, Ficino explains the...
Continued from part 2. Marsilio Ficino was aware of the Orphic god Phanes, as he cites him in his Platonic...
Continued from part 1. In January 2003, as I was visiting the Galleria Estense in Modena, I was struck by...
The World card of the Tarot of Marseille presents a seemingly heterogeneous composition. Inside an oval-shaped garland of leaves stands...
