This essay written by Andrea Vitali is a part of the “Triumph, Tarot and Tarocchini in Bologna from the fifteenth to the twentieth century” included in The Tarocchino of Bologna. History, Iconography, Divination from the fifteenth to the twentieth century by Andrea Vitali and Terry Zanetti. (Martina Editons, Bologna, 2005)
THE PRINCE
A famous picture, a time ago in Palazzo Felicini and now mysteriously disappeared, portrays in 17th century clothes Prince Francesco Antelminelli Castracani Fibbia, descendent of the captain Castruccio Castracani. The work was painted by an unknown artist during the 17th century. The painting shows the Prince standing near a table with Bolognese Tarocchino cards painted on it. Other cards are on the ground, others falling on the table. Under this painting there are the following words:
“Francesco Antelminelli Castracani Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, Montegiori, and Pietra Santa, Lord of Fusecchio, son of Giovanni, born Castruccio Duke of Lucca, Pistoia, Pisa. Fleeing to Bologna given to Bentivogli, he became an important general in the Bolognese army and the first of this family in Bologna called Fibbia (Buckle). His wife was Francesca, daughter of Giovanni Bentivogli.
He was the inventor of the game “The Tarocchino of Bologna”. By the XVI City Reforms he had the privilege of putting the Fibbia coat of arms on the Queen of Clubs card and his wife’s device on the Queen of Diamonds. Born in 1360, he died in the year 1419”. (figure 1)
This information certainly has various inconsistencies and errors, but, as we can see in the wording there are basic signs which could lead us to hypothesise that it was the Prince who invented the game of tarot, or rather, the “Ludus Triumphorum”. First of all, the story is backed up by lots of documents which suggest that Francesco Antelminelli Castracani existed and wasn’t a client fantasy (figure 2). The wording on the painting has some errors. Giovanni wasn’t Francesco’s father, son of Castruccio Castracani. Giovanni Castracani Antelminelli was in fact the son of one the most important leaders of the mercenary troops. Direct information comes from a will of Castracani made a year before his death, which was fully carried by Aldo Manucci in Le attioni di Castruccio Castracane degli Antelminelli Signori di Lucca con la genealogia della famiglia (The action of Castruccio Castracane of Antelminelli Lord of Lucca with his family tree) (1). There we can find lots of interesting news about the leaders’ last living moments and about his sons.
Here are some revelations: “…having made his testament the year before the year MCCCXXVII on December 20th in Lucca…but feeling faint because of his disease he spoke with his secretaries, giving them lots of orders; he desired to see his wife, the Duchess, M. Nicolo Castracani Antelminelli, Principal Vegli, Duccio Sandei, & F. Lazaro, Priore di Altopascio; & as tutor in the will with Enrico, Valevano, Giovanni & Verde and his sons to whom he gave a last paternal kiss” (p. 95). Castruccio died on 23th September 1328 at the age of “XLVII, five months, & five days” (p. 97). Giovanni died still young in 1343 and he was buried in Pisa, near his mother, S. Francis Church: “In the same temple Giovanni, son of Castruccio is buried, a knight and important man in many battles. His upper body is sculpted, armed, and dressed with Chivalric clothes, with the emblem of his family: & the inscription said: “Virtutis exemplum. momentaneo iuventutis flore clarescens, praematurae mortis in cursu praeventus, tegor hac in petra Ioannes, natus olim Illustris Domini Castruccij, Lucani Ducis, altissimae mentis, indelendae memoriae, libertatis patriae defensoris, hostibus semper invicti. Anno MCCCXLIII. Die XIJ.Maj”. (A paragon of virtue, while I got fame in the flower of youth I came too early to the path of death and here I am, covered by this stone, That is me Giovanni, son of the famous lord Castruccio, Duke of Lucca, a very clever man, with an indestructible memory, defender of the homeland, never defeated by the enemy. 14th May 1343) (p. 107). It is clear that, as the inscription under the painting said, Francesco wasn’t Giovanni’s son, because he was born 17 years after his death.
Like his brothers Giovanni was a Prince of many Tuscan cities, and in particular Prince of Pietra Santa and Monteggiori, thanks to a charter given by the Emperor Lodovico the Bavarian, who “Wanting to demonstrate an ephemeral benevolence, hinding ingratitude, on 10th April granted, to the Duchess, wife of Castruccio, all the real estate left by her husband. So she had Monteggiori Castle with all the villas inside the Countryside and lands under Pietrasanta; assigning four thousand gold florins per year for Vicar’s lands to her sons and to all future descendants. On 17th December, the Prince made two charters to the Duchess, for Valerano and Giovanni, giving them and their successors the titles of Lords of Monteggiori, with the same lands and the same collection” (p. 105). Manucci carries the whole text of this charter in his work, as well as the Castruccio will.
So, who was this Francesco in the painting? Manucci, and also other documents and family trees referring to this family, said that he was born of Orlando, son of Enrico, first-born of Castruccio Castracani. From Manucci we discover that Enrico, Giovanni’s brother, had a son named Orlando, who had four other sons, Castruccio, Enrico, Francesco e Rolando.
A Fibbia descendant, Padre Flaminio Fibbia, who was a member of the Order of the Benedettini, sent a letter on 12th March 1594 to his cousin, informing him about a family tree in the house of Lord Bernardino l’Antelminelli Principal Gentleman of the City of Lucca. He wrote that, this Lord of Lucca thought that all the family descended from a man named Francesco, son of Rolando, who was born of Enrico, son of Prince Castruccio, and about the emblem he said: “ Now, I have no doubt that our family came from Antelminelli, through Castruccio Castracane, and this is proved by the arms, which is completely identical to ours, as your Excellency knows, represents a half dog with a collar in light blue part and Buckles in the white part, as the old real emblem of the Antelminelli used by Castruccio Castracane who shows the same images but with Buckles because of the surname variation, while the Eagle added recently. He blamed that there was the Eagle although, as I told you before, this was a present of Charles V to our family. He said that the Eagle was received from the Emperors, but the real emblem is composed by a white Dog with a light blue collar in a field, under, the shield is white in which, as I told you before, I put the Buckles”. The Benedictine list all the names in the family tree, beginning with Castruccio Castracane, Prince of Lucca, who had as son Enrico, and from him born Orlando who generated Francesco, who lived in Bologna and from him the Family now called Fibbia or dalle Fibbie followed, in this way people of Bologna and His Annals, adding that texts about Castracani mentioning that Francesco had two sons, Perazzino and Antonello” (2).
As for the presence of the Eagle in the coat of arms, it came from Emperor Charles V, who declared, by letter, on 27th February 1533, the "Doctor and cavalryman of the Pope’s army", Alessando Fibbia, our descendant. And later, in another letter dated 1st October 1533, he granted the honour of placing a black eagle with a buckle in it’s mouth on his family’s coat of arms (3). There is evidence in many of the works by historians in Bologna, such as Dolfi (4) or Montefani (5), both inspired by Alidosi (Antiani Consoli di Bologna, lib. 5 - Aged Consul of Bologna, Book n. 5) that Francesco was the son of Orlando, born of Enrico, son of Castruccio. This progeny is in another family tree, found in the Bologna State Archive (6).
There is no doubt about the fact that the descendant branch of Enrico moved to Bologna, as we can see from the will dated 5th November 1561, drawn up by Joannis Baptista Frassetti, where Francesco Fibbia, son of Vincenzo, states that his noble family came from Francesco “descendentis a stirpe Henrici primogeniti Castruccii de Castracanis, olim Lucae Principis, qui Henricus expulsus fuit Anno 1328, & in hac civitate Bononiae Domicilium elexit, et habitavit in Domo Magna, sub Capella Sancti Prosperi, quam Vincentius praedictus postea vendidit illis de Desideriis Anno 1475" (descendant of the family of Enrico, first-born of Castruccio Castracani, formerly Prince of Lucca. This Enrico was ousted in the year 1328 and came to Bologna, where he lived in a big house inside the San Prospero parish church and then, the father Vincenzo sold it to Desideri in the year 1475). This will was printed from the original manuscript by the ex typographers Longhi in Bologna during 1764 (7).
So we have been able to discover that the Francesco Fibbia in the picture was real and that he was Prince of Pietrasanta and Monteggiori, thanks to the Lodovico the Bavarian charter. It is probable that he never married Francesca, daughter of Giovanni II Bentivoglio, because she married Galeotto Manfredi, Lord of Faenza in 1482 in Bologna. The marriage didn’t last, because in 1488 her husband died, killed by assassins under her orders and she was free to marry Count Guido Torelli, a Vatican Chancellor. There aren’t any sources to testify to the presence of another Francesca, whether daughter of Giovanni I or a descendant from a secondary branch of the Bentivoglio family. The Fibbias were closely tied to many Lords of Bologna, because many held office in the Bentivolgio Army. A Biagio, called the Bolognino, joined up in 1420 with Bentivoglio to conquer Castel Bolognese. The family tree Discendenza di Guarniero I. Progenitore della Nobilissima Famiglia Antelminelli (Guarniero’s the First progeny. Father of Antelminelli aristocratic family) bears the same inscription as the painting “Biagio called Bolognino Prince of Monteggiori and Pietrasanta fled to Bologna, was given to Bentivogli and was a captain in the Bologna army. He became Knight and Lord of this family”. The same words are in the inscription under the picture of “Francesco Antelminelli Castracani Lord of Fusechio Count of Palatino, fled to Bologna, became a nobleman called the Fibbia”. In this document the year of his death is recorded as 1399 (8).
We know that the Fibbia and the Bentivoglio (coat of) arms were printed on the 17th Century Queen of Staves and Queen of Coin tarots. As, for example, in the already mentioned “Alla Torre” Tarot, where the Fibbia (coat of) arms appeared on the Queen of Clubs (the Queen of Diamonds is missing from the deck of cards). These (coats of ) arms also appear in the same cards in many decks from the XVIII century, such as “Al Mondo” (figures 3 - figures 4) (9) and “Alla Colomba” (figure 5) (10).
Lots of (coats of) arms, noble or not, were put inside many kinds of old decks, and every engraver or printer was completely free to do so, because there wasn’t any fee to pay. Now, we should consider whether these emblems were put inside by the Fibbia and Bentivoglio families, and if there was a story or a tradition linked to the origin of playing-cards. Whoever wanted the picture certainly wasn’t well acquainted with the exact genealogy of the family or any personal story about its ancestors. But today, we can say that the inscription was well-grounded. In particular, Francesco Fibbia could be the inventor of Tarots or rather Triumph.
By a careful examination of what has been written on the picture, I believe that this hypothesis is well grounded. First of all, the customer who ordered it didn’t know the exact time of origin of the creation of tarots, as the ones who dealt with them in the XVI century and following centuries. On the picture it is written that Francesco Fibbia was the inventor of Tarocchini, but we know that these represent a XVI century variation of the game of tarots, already existent in Bologna since the XV century with the name of Triumphs. All this means that the writings’ author pointing out someone living between the XIV and the XV century as the inventor of Tarocchini, did not know the correct date of their creation, considering them as an original form and not a later variant. Although all this, the dates indicated on the picture result to be very similar to those thought to give birth to the game of Triumphs, and this is really amazing. If the writings’ author had quoted a later date in relation to the one we nowadays know as hypothetic origin of the Triumphs - the beginning of the XV century - we would have immediately understood that it dealt with a kind of operation conceived to strongly underline the role of this Family, since the tarots cards in Bologna were really loved and used at every social level.
It has really been by chance that the author of the writings had pointed out such dates so close to reality, an unconscious guessing, due to the promotion of his own family or maybe is it more believable that he would have discovered an ancient document he has reported, knowing that all this should have brought high reputation to his family?
Francesco Fibbia lived during the construction of the St Petronio Basilica started in 1390, and the construction of Bolognini Chapel (1400-1420), in which there is the image of the Hung, adopted in the game of Triumph to represent the Traitor. In addition, the Chapel was entitled The Three Wise Men, also represented in the Star-card of the Bolognese Tarocchino.
It is likely that, whoever invented Triumph, knew all these frescos well and wanted to honour Bologna and its big Basilica, putting all those figures and characters inside the game.
Notes
1 - The work was printed in Rome in 1590. 2 - ADOLFO CAVAZZA, News about the Fibbia Family, Fabri, D’Arco, Fava and Pallavicini, Bologna, 1901, pages 7 - 8. 3 - ADOLFO CAVAZZA, op. cit., page 11. 4 - SCIPIONE POMPEO DOLFI, History of a Bologna Noble Families, 1670, page 320. 5 - MONTEFANI, Bolognese Family, Bologna, University Library, ms. n. 34, c. Pallavicini, Bologna, 1901, pages 7 - 8. 6 - Bologna, State Archives, Archive Fund Fibbia- Fabbri, Family trees, Envelop 1. 7 - Bologna, Archiginnasio Library, 17 Historical Biographies - Will, Cap. I, n. 12. 8 - Bologna, Archiginnasio Library, coll.32.E.10. 9 - Collection Giuliano Crippa, Milan. 10.Bologna, Archiginnasio Library, Playing-cards, 16.Q.V.23.
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