- Sola Busca - MATO - .0.
On this card of the Fool we see a backpipe. An instrument many people think it is connected with the Scottish Highlands. Studies on this great woodwind instrument have proven the use of backpipes for already millenia.. Some people are agitated at least.. See the Bagpipe history nonsense archive. http://forums.bobdunsire.com/forums/arc ... 56540.html
In this writing i will try to connect the bagpipe of the card with the dog, Nero, the strange boots and the feathered Pan.
Some facts about backpipes
– The bagpipe is an wood-wind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag.
-The bagpipe is traditionally thought of as being linked to Persia, Persia has a long recorderd history
and was closely linked with music from the Shepherd's world.
– Originally the 'askaulé(os)- askaulos were also made of dogskin.
'You pipers who are here from Thebes, with bone pipes, blow the posterior of a dog'
– The bagpipe is familiar to all societies that look after livestock. The reason why bagpipes ended up spreading from the Middle East through Europe and even as far as China. (Oxford- Dr Frankopan)
-World wide bagpipe exchange: Backpipes were played in Persia since at least 900 AD,
In Oman and Jordan there are bagpipes which came from the British fairly recently (Dr. Urkevich)
- The bagpipe of the fool
Backpipes in Italy
Follow this link http://www.unh.edu/Archives/music/Icon/ibphs.htm for information about pictures of bagpipes in Italy in the 15th century.
Angels were often pictured with bagpipes in the Italian Christian Iconografy of the old and new testament. But also pictures are found of the normal rural life and Pan and Satyrs with bagpipes.
Information about the bagpipe According to the attached book which goes along with the Sola Busca Lo Scarabeo (Museum quality):
'The bagpipe that the fool is playing is a pastoral instrument believe to have been used in the ancient time by sileni, wild and lascivious creatures. The instrument was therefore considered to be diabolical, like all the woodwind family. This diabolical symbolism associated with wind intruments – pipe and bagpipe, in contrast to 'celestial'string instruments – shows the negative character of the card. There might also have been an association to the word 'folle'in Latin, which means 'sack' or 'bellows' so a 'folle'might be a bag of air, nothing, nonsense.'
Okay i see and feel te negative character and this bagpipe is played by a panlike creature clothed as Nero wearing shepherd's shoes..
But what to do with the dualism concerning bagpipes? In the 15th century most pictures of bagpipes are related to those sweet little angels playing together on bagpipes, flutes and violins? During the days this deck was created bagpipes played by the Zampognari must have had another certainly positive influences.
Some Italian facts concerning bagpipes
Nero played the bagpipe ; it is unknown if he was playing the backpipe when Rome was burning.(mentioned by Suetonius and Dio Chrysostom)
– Romans called it 'Tibia Utricularis' and those bagpipes were used in war to freighten the horses of the enemy.This utricularis (of sheepskin) was used by Nero who kept the back under his armpit in an attempt to please Athena.
– Backpipes were prevalent from the middle ages until into the renaissance. Italian names for the bagpipe are f.e. Pifferi, Zampogna, Bagpipe players are called Zampognari.
The Zampognari – Presepio – buolic poetry / Italian bagpipes in the Medieval age and Renaissance
During the medieval age started a practice called the PRESEPIO approaching the time of Advent. Many shepherds were requested to perform in the front of the statue of the Virgin mary or before a 'presepio'(nativity scene).
During these cold winter days the Shepherds came down from their mountains with their bagpipes made of sheepskin. Sheeps their precious cattle they are taking care of whole year. Playing the bagpipe made of the skin of the sheep must have meant a lot for them.. Playing the bagpipe meant the sheep came alive again. Which i feel as a positive energy.
The people during those days believed that these shepherds had inherited the practice of singing and playing from the Angels that sung the first Carol when Christ was born.
During the Renaissance the zampogna was associated with bucolic Poetry which represented beautifull rural landscapes like the Greek Arcadia, a sort of mythological home of Pan, the God of the Shepherds.
Pan playing the bagpipe; an leafless tree on the background
Anonymous (15th century), Pan Silvanus Florence: a picture which very looks like Mato of the Sola Busca.
- Pan moon sun headed star in the sky playing bagpipe
Jacopo Sannazzaro wrote a bucolic poem Arcadia. This lyric poems were presented as songs accompinied by the sound of a Zampogne which according to the poet 'can give more pleasure than other instruments.'
Zampogna was considered as a very sophisticated tool although of simple origin.
(Source: mariasannino.com)
Questions arise..
Is there a connection to the dog on other fool cards? Shepherds always have dogs... and what intreges me is the use of dogskin for the oldest bagpipes.
This fool card lacks the dog from other tarots. But in a way the bagpipe points to the dog (Auskolos, the Greek Equivalent was made originally from dogskin)
And last but not least: Dogs on Fool cards often try to get skin of?
Why the book describes only the negative side of the bagpipe?
In renaissance the Zampogna music accompanied the beautifull buolic poetry describing the world of Arcadia, the mythological home of Pan. The instrument was described by Sannazzaro as 'can give more pleasure than other instruments.' Roman Vigil wrote: 'the pipe twitters sweetly'
Somehow i feel a connection with the language of the birds...
Isn't this a positive side of the bagpipe?
Why the book points to the vision from religion in an obvious religion free tarot?
Further this fool looks like Pan for me. The Headdress of the fool are feathers. But they somehow look like leaves; as the Greenman wears.
The strange boots of the Fool.
The strange boots of the fool. It must be winter on this card? (the tree without leaves / Advent?) And then this dress and naked chest and legs? Looks quit cold to me.
Zampognari originally dress in suits made of knee length trousers, long socks, a leather jacket, a mantle and a cap. Shoes they wear are usually the typical footwear of peasants and shepherds. Those shoes are known as 'cioce' which are made of long leather straps that surround the legs up to the knee and a kind of sandal that ends with a long tip rounded upwards.
- Zampogneri
Nero played the bagpipe. The dress of this fool looks for me as a Nero – Like dress?
Is this 'winning'fool partying on the feste dei folli (festival of fools 26,27,28 deccmber) playing the bagpipe?
And is it possible to 'time' this card and relate it to december?
Looking to the feathers of the fool.. Typical of the feste dei folli was the race that rewarded the one who, blondfolded, was able to hit the animal with sticks. The winner was awarded with the crown made of the plumage of the rooster and deserved the title of 'King of the rooster' or 'king of fools'.
During this festival all values celebrated for the rest of the year were reversed.
The fool is wearing a Pan like headdress, the trophee of the feste dei folli.
- The earned Feathers of the winning fool?
- fool headdress.png (266.04 KiB) Viewed 7251 times
He is blowing on the bagpipe, an instrument Nero was playing holding it in the (unusual) same way as described Nero did. The bagpipe also reminds to the bagpipes made of dogskin(dog). His shoes and bagpipe points to the sheperds who had inherited the practice of singing and playing from the Angels.
His dress points in a way to Roman elite.. A short one for this case and only halve of the normal Roman (long) suit/dress.
Dressed quit well for the festival all (religious and social) values were reversed.
) 
) I haven't yet taken a lot of time to research pictures, but there seem to be an awful lot of sorts.