A thought on the Cardinal Virtues in the Tarot Cards
featuring the Bible of Notger
by Eguchi Koretaka
Originally presented on Eguchi's
site
The earliest known tarot decks are "Visconti-Sforza",
hand-painted in early fifteenth century. But these splendid
pieces of fine art were minorities because of their artistic
quality; such extavagant decks were for the aristocratic
pastime in a palace or castle. The streets and taverns
must have been filled with cheaper, vulgar woodprinted
decks imported from Germany or elsewhere, as we can see
in the ÔMagistracy of Venice, 1441' (Kaplan, Encyclopedia
of Tarot, vol I, p.22). The magistracy issued an order
forbidding the introduction of foreign manufactured printed
colored figures. Kaplan suggested this order was to protect
domestic card makers from German rivals and I have no reason
to doubt him.
Of course we want to see those imported German decks and "printed
colored figures" at that time, and many of us are searching
for them all around the world in vain. Those cheap, vulger
cards were just discarded when worn out, leaving no trace.
The quality of card paper used at that time was perhaps
low, and might have not survived the centuries.
But if we assume that the "printed colured figures" were
once "religious cuts and pictures of saints, produced in
the convents, and sold at the various shrines to the pilgrims"(Arthur
Hind, A History of Engraving and Etching, Dover, New York,
p.19), then at least we could know the direction we must
go--the religious articrafts of medieval North Europe.
And I found a very interesting thing in Liege, Belgium:
The Bible of Notger
Above is the Bible of Notger now in the custody of Curtius
Museum, Liege. The ivory plaque in the center was made
in circa 990 AD, while enamel parts in 1170. This masterpiece
of Meuse art was commissioned by the Prince-Bishop of Notger
who governed the Liege area in the latter half of 10th
century; he was known as a connoisseur of fine arts and
crafts.
Now let's see the details:
1 ivory
2 Fortitude
3 Justice
4 Temperance
5 The River
1 Ivory Plaque:
size : 190 x 110mm.
Typical image of Christ Triumphant.
Large pins at four corners make attaching/detaching easier,
and there must have been other same-sized plaques.
2 Fortitude:
A figure is holding lion's mouth.
Apparently an angel judging from the nimbus and wings
behind his head and shoulders.
The word "FORTITVDO" is engraved.
3 Justice:
Typical presentation of Justice with a balance.
Nimbus and wings. Engraved "IVSTITIA".
4 Temperance:
Angelic figure with two cups.
Engraved "TEMPERANTIA".
5 Personification of the Tigris:
The stream flowing out of the vase symbolizes the river.
Engraved "TIGRIS"
The other three personifications [not shown here] are:
upper left PISON, upper right GEON, lower right EVRATES".
So much for the details. True, the ivory plaque has considerable
similarity with the Atu XXI and much attention should be
paid to it, but I see as much importance in the enamel
parts. I believe this bible is one of the earliest examples
of depicting Cardinal Virtues as we see them in the Tarot
Cards. As Helen North writes in The Dictionary of the History
of Thoughts:
"In the eleventh and twelfth centuries several innovations
occur. The virtues are illustrated in important devotional
treatises and theological tracts, as well as deluxe Gospel-books,
sacramentaries, lectionaries, and the like. They also appear
on an infinite variety of small objects, usually religious
in nature: portable altars, shrines, reliquaries, tabernacles,
book-covers, candlesticks, and fonts (Katzenellenbogen,
1964). New symbolic objects and animals are now added to
the repertory of the artist in France, Germany, and the
Low Countries. Prudence may have a serpent or a dove; Fortitude
may tear apart the jaws of a lion; Justice may hold a sword,
a plumbline, or a set square; and Temperance may have a
spray of flowers, a sheathed sword, or (most often) two
vessels, with which she mixes water and wine, a visual
reminder of the rootmeaning of temperare."
(quotes from The Dictionary of the History of Thoughts)
First of all, we see the three Cardinal Virtues in the
angelic presentation. And the personifications of four
Edenic rivers in the corners correspond to the four Virtues.
But the correspondence of tetrad fails when it comes to
the Angels, of whom the Bible gives only three names, Michael,
Gabriel, and Raphael. That the angelic figures of Virtues
are based on those Angels is shown by the word "Tigris",
which appears only in Daniel 10.4 and Tobias 6.1. (usual
name for the Edenic river is Heddikel). Both Books tell
much about the Angels, indeed the main sources for their
informations.
Gabriel corresponds to Fortitude as his name shows: GBR-AL,
Fortitudo Dei. Perhaps this was the main motivation for
making Virtue-Angel association. And here he is depicted
as the angel who "hath shut the lions' mouths, that they
have not hurt me" (Dan.6.22).
Michael corresponds to Justice: the balance is his attribute.
Raphael corresponds to Temperance accordingly.
The space above the plaque shows the engraved alpha and
omega. The unknown craftman of this Bible could have contrived
to put the Prudence into the space but he didin't. The
reason is not clear, but basically the Prudence is supposed
to be very human virtue and not appropriate for the angelic.
And I believe here is some ingenuity; the undepicted Prudence
is the Bible itself, or a person or "you" who read the
Bible.
Now, the Tarot Cards. As we all know, Temperance of the
Tarot of Marsaille has wings. But older cards of Temperance
such as Viscontis, or the picture from Rosenwald sheet
were depicted as the traditional throned figure without
wings. Tarocchi of Mantegna gives us a philosophical figure
of Virtues, not angelic. Minchiates depict no angelic Virtues.
Tarocchini de Bologna, of Mittelli, and Sicilliano - no
wings.
My guess is as follows: the combination of three Angels
and three Virtues became a convention among the ivory-carvers
and enamel-makers of the Meuse area of 11th century: and
woodcutters and the engravers of later periods inherited
the convention, which they utilized in making cheap religious
cuts and prints. After the introduction of the playing
cards into Europe, a new type of card game named "taro" or "tarocchi" was
invented. The game required fourteen or more trumps and
the woodcutter-turned-cardmakers of the Meuse area did
not hesitate in converting religious prints into a gaming
device. And the procedure was easy enough, because the
playing cards and religious cuts were often made by same
craftmen in same places. These materials were objects of "Magistracy
of Venice, 1441". The Italian cardmakers utilized the some
of the Muese images such as Tower and Devil *, but for
the Cardinal Virtues they preferred the philosophical presentation
to the angelic ones because it was the Renaissance day.
And seventeenth century when the Renaissance images became
obsolete, cardmakers turned their eyes to the older iconography
again to pick up angelic images. Then Temperance had wings.
So it is no wonder some students thought that the wings
were an error of cardmakers who took a part of chair for
them. But the Angelic Virtues of the Bible of Notger of
11th century were a deliberate imaging, not an error. In
this respect we could make a hypothesis that the part of
imagery of Marseille Tarot is older than that of Visconti
Sforzas or Minchiates.
* We can regard the Tower and the Devil
cards as supplementaries to the Virtues. The God uses Gabriel
as an agent of the divine power of destruction. And the
destroyed objects were either the tower of Babel, that
of Barbara, or the wall of Jericho ("Charles VI"). Fortitude
who breaks a column suggests the same. And the Devil is
of course the indispensable attribute to Michael.
[A very warm thankyou to Eguchi Koretaka for permission
to reprint this important find from his website - Jean-Michel
David (ed.)]
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