1. The face of this
World is subject to the face of the heavens. 2. This locus has Gemini
as its basis. 3. The rider is Perseus, 'La Morte', here depicted as a femme
fatale. 4. Modelled on Canis minor, the more northerly of Orion's two 'dogs'
5. Capricorn, reworking the older model of Auriga as 'Magus'
6. A very interesting adaptation of Orion's form. 7. The
astronomical locus is the furthest extreme of the southern heavens.
'Strength.' 8. Here the heavens' 'fallen angel' Canopus. 9. Probably
based on Canis major, whose chief star's character as Sothis, 'the piercing
supporter' was well known in Europe. Semaphoros.
Notes and Comments by
Influenced by Byzantium, Vittorino da Feltre's school 'La Giocosa' revived
in Italy the habit of using exercise-games in elementary levels of teaching.
From that model, perhaps, the Franciscan named Thomas Murner in the late
fifteenth century devised his course for teaching elements of logic. He
presented students (in parallel with his 16 written lectures as 'Letters' or
charta), with suites of practical exercises and mnemonic diagrams to
supplement and reinforce students' memory of the material. Each lecture was
linked with its associated exercises and diagrams by use of a common emblem,
the 16 emblems speaking to philosophical symbolism and to stages of progress
through academe's 'little year.' In 1509 an outline of his astonishingly
successful method was published - probably by the University of Cracovie
where Murner taught ' under the chief title Logica Memorativa: 'Memorials of
Logic.' The published book provides an outline of that teaching method,
together with the format for students' exercise-games and copies of the
mnemonic figures. Hargraves quotes an anonymous inscription, dated 1842,
which suggests Murner's success was due to the 'use of a card-game to teach
logic' but this is an exaggeration, for although the book's advertisement
does distinguish between the new style of elementary teaching: 'chartiludum
logice' and the token-using exercises: 'cum iucundo [iuc = joc] pictasmatis
exercito' Murner's intention was not to teach logic by means of a card-game
so much as to offer the sort of programme composed of text, exercises and
demonstration figures that is now usual in modern primary education. The 16
suit-signs, incidentally, should be understood as a doubled, or
complementary circuit of 8 parts, the mnemonic figures as intrinsic to
Murner's approach. His 16 emblems (as listed in Hargraves) were [hawking-]
bell, fish, acorn, scorpion, lobster, cap, heart, grasshopper, sun, star,
bird, moon, cat, shield, crown and serpent.
Connection between the principles of card-pack construction and those of
Murner's mnemonic figures is plainly evident, but so are the differences. A
card-pack's emblems normally alluded to the quarters of time and direction,
while Murner's are keyed to his sequence of lectures. The emblems and
pictorial figures in standard packs were derived ultimately from
astronomical types, but Murner separates the allusion of his suit-signs
from the astronomically-based anthropomorphic figures. The published book
omits Murner's lectures, too, which are the heart of his programme. The
University appears to have chosen instead to promote the overall method,
providing a course outline and copies of the basic materials. Our following
comments are not upon that course, but upon the sources from which Murner
himself drew when designing these memorial figures. One should consider them
as items in a thesaurus, whose reference languages are Latin, German and
1. Murner's guiding principle in design for his Course, its exercises and
imagery, is well embodied by the figure given for [step] 4 in the Acorns'
suite. We might cite a phrase from the Centiloquium: 'The face of this World
is subject to the face of the heavens.' The 'World' here is represented by
the female figure, whose paired mirroirs are intended to suggest the upper
and lower hemispheres, as well as the 'epitome-form' itself. Books of
concentrated matter - in the form of extracts from texts or figures for
reflection - were then known as florilegia, tresors, thesauri or mirroirs.
This figure of the World reminds us at once of the 'epitome' represented by
this curriculum, and of the condensed mnemonic figures which are at hand,
while at the same time alluding to the physical pinnacle of the world, the
Pole star [cynosura]. We see that the 'World's' better side is given by
reflection upon the higher glass, an idea emphasised by marking that glass
with the theologian's number of divine perfection '1'. The opposed and lower
glass is marked by the number '11' ' equally traditional as the number for
error and sin. Logic's deductive and inductive processes were similarly
polarised, as were most of the discursus games derived from the style of the
2. The eighth locus in the Fish suite takes the constellation of Gemini as
its basis. The twin to our right is understood as having been led to err (by
allusion to the Gospel narratives Mat.18:6; Rev 18:21-23) while the other
maintains a 'righteousness' associated with right measures and proportion.
The representation of the corrupted twin's left leg conveys Murner's
knowledge of Arabic nomenclature in astronomy.
3. Stage Two in the suite of the 'lobster' shows a mounted figure holding up
the emblem of the heart. The rider is Perseus, 'La Morte', here depicted as
a femme fatale. In other figures derived from Perseus' moral character, the
heart may become a cup, since both were significant ' in astronomical lore '
of the ultimate trophy or triumph of the Pleiades. The rider displays the
poor lover's heart as that trophy and naturally suggests the endlessly
popular theme for discursus 'Amor vincit omnia.' But mere earthly love is
not here suggested as being greater than Death itself. The rider wears a
string of pearls which ' as throughout Murner's diagrams ' informs the
viewer that a figure promotes carnal or earthly knowledge over spiritual
wisdom, after the way of the Fool.
4. Here we see the figure for a 'bitter' lower constellation, which
southerly locus in these diagrams is invariably indicated by some form of
grinding tool. The woman appears to be modelled on Canis minor, the more
northerly of Orion's two 'dogs'. Traditionally considered the weeping wife
of a cruel master, Canis minor is called in Arabic 'al Ghumaisa' ' the
weeping, but here is shown 'crying aloud' in a different sense. In many
card-sets she appears with Taurus in the guise of a horned and
trident-bearing demon. Her connection with the demon-as-husband goes back to
Egyptian times in the east. Murner's having her uphold the 'rule of 50 '
latin L' alludes to a monastic custom of treating the 'l-rule' as symbolic
of the Egyptian [and Egyptian Jewish] traders. It implies also the Egyptian
habit of orienting to the 'bent' southern Pole, rather than to the eastern
5. This female figure mounted on the goat is another example of Murner's
giving female form to a constellations normally depicted as male. The
construction of this whole mnemonic demonstrates Murner's practical knowledge
of astronomy, and his understanding but disdain of horoscopic astrology.
In addition, the reversal of gender would support a religious emphasis on
the stars as inanimate and gender- neuter while at the same time facilitating
the 'sic et non' style of logical debate. In most card sets, though, it is
Auriga who is properly the master of measures. Most often tagged 'Magus,'
Auriga was patron and guide of Crete, his goat-star, Capella being identified
with Amalthea, nurturer of the infant Jove on Mt. Ida. Murner, however,
transfers the entire character to the constellation of Capricorn, which
astrology appointed to oversee the period of Christ's birth at the winter
solstice. Murner indicates this altered reference by providing Capricorn
with its identifying long horns and by setting the usual grinding implement
below to indicate its southerly locus. Murner takes his division between
the northerly and southerly celestial figures to be the line of the ecliptic,
where the older method had taken the celestial equator. Becoming general
about the mid-sixteenth century, this habit of re-working the older moralised
heavens very swiftly led to a complete disintegration of the old ' indeed ancient '
6. A very interesting adaptation of Orion's form, the presence of the
millstone once again suggests the erroneous teachings of the 'Fool', but
also that corruption invoked most notably in the d'Este pack. Murner
recognises the 'three-point' of Orion's head, and makes the rearmost point
especially prominent. Cloven hoofs signify always a demonic character, and
so speak to another long- established strand of thought about this
constellation. Murner's evident confusion about whether or not Orion is al
Ghumaisa's demonic master is understandable, especially since another of
Orion's conventional characteristics was that of being 'a devilish hard
task-master.' This idea is to be seen again in illustrations of the Picatrix.
Murner evidently thought that to beat knowledge into the young in the older
way was stupid and unnecessary, his allusion to the ostrich again referring
to this idea. Job 39:13-18, speaks of the ostrich as 'hardened against her
young ones ' God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to
7. The astronomical locus for this occulted 'hell's kitchen' is found at the
furthest extreme of the southern heavens where monastic tradition had an
anti-cynosure in the form of woman bound to the 'hell-mouth'. Her character
was considered both concupiscent and brilliant - a hair-splitting disputant.
She was also supposed responsible for luring ships to their doom, and was in
that sense the 'breaker of ribs.' The celestial ship held securely by her
magnetic attraction was the great figure Argo Navis. In more positive
versions she becomes 'St. Lawrence' upon his burning grid, or Persephone,
enduring endless lonely labour in the southern underworld. 'Strength' is her
most common tag in card-sets.
8. Here the heavens' 'fallen angel' Canopus, a figure half-hidden and half
revealed, is shown in a way that makes clear the influence of Byzantium.
Canopus is the pilot-star of the southern Argo Navis as 'arca'. In most
depictions he becomes the hermit lucifer, the fallen light-bringer. Murner
however has adapted for his image the form of the Byzantine Perseus, which
was commonly shown as the Angel of Death seated by (or on) Christ's tomb.
Correctly the southern heavens' 'tomb' is a constellation below Canopus and
was indeed considered the place from which souls emerged or re-emerged. The
Arabs called it the Murraba' and we now know it as Crux, the Southern Cross.
It appears in most 78-card packs under the tag 'le Judgement.' From the
earliest period of card-use, an ancient habit which supposed that the hidden
southern stars must exactly mirror the form of the northern plainly
influenced the pictorial forms. Combined with the need to arrange the
astronomical types by pairings, that fixed idea contributes largely to the
commonly confused and inaccurate forms on card.
9. Murner's flexibility in constellation-gender makes this figure difficult
to identity without comparison with the full set. I am inclined to believe
it based on Canis major, whose chief star's character as sothis, 'the
piercing supporter' was well known in Europe. Despite its southerly
position, the constellation was widely revered in pre-Christian Italy and
France, eventually being sanctified as [St.] Guinefort. It may be, however,
that Murner was thinking rather of a star just above the ecliptic, a Lyrae,
whose Latin name was 'fides' and whose harp in western moralia and heraldry
was often made into the form of a shield. Whether identified with Sirius,
with 'Fides' or even with Aquila, the figure is intended as one of a pair,
companion figures to the radiant Lord travelling his east-west road. [Guinefort
comes from a root meaning to signal or flash intermittently. With regard to
the eye's flashing light it came to mean 'winking'.]