The Sola-Busca Tarocchi & Hebraizing Elements in Ferraras

Renaissance Culture
Peter Mark Adams

From Origen to Augustine, almost all of the church Fathers assumed, as a matter of incontrovertible
fact, that, before the confusion, humanitys primordial language was Hebrew.
Umberto Ecoi

As the primordial language spoken by God, Hebrew occupied a privileged position in Christian
tradition from the earliest times. To the Renaissance mind Hebrew possessed an immediacy and
intimacy connecting the intent of God with the primordial act of naming and creation. This
connection was perceived as more direct and potent than any other system of writing excepting,
perhaps, Egyptian hieroglyphics,

Numerous Renaissance commentators defined hieroglyphics as a sacred language, seeing the

enigmatic ideograms and pictograms used by the ancient Egyptians as encoded with divine truth
at the time of Gods creation.ii

Study of these primordial languages could, therefore, reveal essential truths underlying all
creation; but perhaps more importantly for the Renaissance man as mage, the reverse was also
true. By manipulating the signs and their accompanying sounds, reality itself could be moulded

and shaped to take on the imprint of the mages strong intent bolstered by the performance of
suitable rites. The practical outcome of this worldview was that gaining command over such
resources was strategically and politically important. The Carmelite friars of Bologna and clerics
of Modena enjoyed the overwhelming support of their respective elites, including their
ecclesiastical establishments, for their performance of demonic magic; presumably because of
the strategic value that their abilities as ritual specialists offered.
Hebrew appears to have been especially significant in the context of Ferraras art and culture.
Under the Estensi, and uniquely in that age, Ferrara welcomed Jewish refugees from all over
Europe. As early as 1473, the Jewish community enjoyed tax exempt status, ran banking
operations, founded a synagogue and established a printing house for Jewish literature. The
benefits of this policy to the Estensi included access to Jewish money markets; but the reason for
their openness cannot be accounted for solely in financial terms. The involvement of the
Ferrarese court with Judaism appears to have been far deeper; it was driven by a theological
stance that sought to re-connect with the ancient Judaic roots of religion. The overall tenor of the
court with respect to Judaism was,

characteristic of what Jerome Friedman sees as a peculiar trend in the Renaissance of a

Judaising of the Christian religion, of a return to Hebraic sources and practicesiii

Renaissance hermeticists strove to unearth the beliefs and practices that were closest to the time
of the creation when the influx of divine power and wisdom was at its purest. From this
perspective true religion could be found in the most archaic elements of the Judaic tradition.
The motivation for this search and re-alignment of practice was, at least in part, instrumental; it

promised to deliver the practical magical benefits that proximity to and alignment with the
strength and power of the divine influx at its source could deliver.
The positive attitude towards Judaism on the part of the dEste court was also manifested on a
more personal level. Pellegrino Prisciani, a major figure at court, appears to have learned
Hebrew and allowed his home to be used for a Jewish circumcision ceremony, at which, in the
presence of other court observers, he acted as a witness. Prisciani developed a relationship with
the Jewish scholar Abraham ben Mordecai Farissol, a significant figure in Italian humanist
circles, who was encouraged to engage in public debates with Christian scholars in Ferrara on the
relative merits of their respective faiths. Predictably as the courtiers organising this event must
have been aware these debates succeeded in highlighting the one fundamental issue separating
Judaism from Christianity. As Farissol argued, if Jesus was God he could not be executed; and if
he was executed, he could not have been God. Given that the debate would inevitably lead to this
outcome, why did the Estensi court seek to air it in such a public way? It surely remains an open
issue to what extent their professed Christianity aligned with the public teachings of the Church.
Some of the poses struck by figures amongst the minor cards, such as the Seven of Swords
(below), look so contorted as to be suggestive of Hebrew characters. A similar supposition has
been made in relation to a number of artists; perhaps most notably in the case of Michaelangelos
more contorted figures featuring in the Sistine Chapel frescos. Inevitably, it is much easier to
imagine the presence of embedded images than it is to prove the case, one way or the other. We
need to consider whether the Judaised Christianity of Ferrara related to an all too familiar
Renaissance drive; to connect to the most archaic sources of divine power. And yet, as evidenced
by the decks worldview, these public manifestations of religious conformity cast a dark shadow,

an inverted, occulted reflection of the public life of the court constituted from extreme, and
highly malefic, magical practices.

Seven of Swords

i Eco, U. (1997).The Search for the Perfect Language. p.74.

ii Fiorenza, G. (2013). Hebrew, Hieroglyphs, and the Secrets of Divine Wisdom in Ludovico Mazzolinis
Devotional Paintings in McCall, T., Roberts, S. & Fiorenza, G. (eds.) (2013). Visual Cultures of Secrecy in
Early Modern Europe. p.137.
iii Ibid. Fiorenza, G. (2013). p.133.