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Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmitesnew evidence | Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog "Tarot helps you meet whatever comes in the best possible way."

Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmites new evidence

Gertrude Moakley (The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo, 1966) introduced the Tarot world to a possible original source of the Papess card: Maifreda (or Manfreda) Visconti da Pirovano was to be declared Pope in Milan on Easter 1300 in a new age of the Holy Spirit. Instead, Maifreda and others in the sect were, that year, burned at the stake, along with the disinterred body of Guglielma, who had inspired this new movement. Could Maifreda be depicted on the Tarot Popess card? Maifreda was an Abbess in the Umiliati Order and first cousin to Matteo Visconti, the Ghibelline (anti-pope) ruler of Milan. Maifreda believed the Holy Spirit had manifested on earth in the form of Guglielma (d. 1281), a middle-aged woman with a grown son who claimed to be a daughter of Premysl Otakar,King of Bohemia, and, who on arriving in Milan in 1260, donned a simple brown habit and lived the life of a saint. To the Guglielmites, her arrival fulfilled a prophecy of St. Joachim de Fiore that a new age of the Holy Spirit would begin in 1260, heralding the inauguration of an ecclesia spiritualis in which grace, spiritual knowledge and contemplative gifts would be diffused to all. Although she vehemently denied it, rumors of divinity already swirled around Guglielma during her lifetime. And, Her words about the body of the Holy Spirit, together with her mysterious royal origins, Pentecostal birth, imputed healings and stigmata, coalesced to create a more-than-human mystique in the minds of her friends. Immediately after her death dozens of portraits were painted and chapels were dedicated to Santa Guglielma. (Visconti-Sforza card on the right her cross at top left is hard to see.) Barbara Newman (aka Mona Alice Jean Newman) presented the most complete account in English of the Guglielmites in her From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature, but it is in her more recent paper, The Heretic Saint: Guglielma of Bohemia, Milan and Brunate, that we learn important details that make an attribution to Maifreda as Papess much stronger than previously thought (all quotes and information not otherwise attributed are from this article). Many tarot scholars since Moakley have doubted Maifreda as source, nor do they give much credence to an older
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assumption that the card depicted Pope Joan (see article by Ross Caldwell). Instead, modern thinking proposes that it was always an allegorical image of Fides (Faithsee Giotto image to right), Sapientia (Wisdom), Ecclesia (Holy Mother Church) or the Papacy itself. Alternately, she could be Isis (see below with Hermes Trismegistus & Moses by Pinturicchio in the Vatican), the Blessed Virgin Mary or a priestess of Venus (below) see especially Bob ONeills Iconology of the Early Papess Cards and Andrea Vitalis essay on The High Priestess. Even Paul Huson in Mystical Origins of the Tarot finds it difficult to believe the Visconti family would memorialize a family member burned at the stake as a heretic.

Certainly Faith and Holy Mother Church may be referenced in the Tarot image, but they were probably of a more heretical sort than the orthodox church has ever sanctioned. Andrea Vitali recounts a summary of the trial of Guglielma and her followers in which we find:

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As Christ was true God and true Man, in the same manner, she [Guglielma] claimed herself to be true God and true Man in the female sex, come to save the Jews, the Saracens and the false Christians, in the same way as the true Christians are saved by means of Christ. [Tying her story in with the final cards of Judgment and the World, we find,] She too claimed she would arise again with a human body in the female sex before the final resurrection, in order to rise to heaven before the eyes of her disciples, friends and devotees. ONeill objects that beyond the deck specifically produced for the Visconti about 1450, the local Milanese phenomenon of Guglielmites is unlikely to be the source for the image on earlier decks, for example, the 1442 deck mentioned in an inventory of the Este estate in Ferrara. But, as Newmans paper points out, Matteo Viscontis son, Galeazzo, married the Duke of Ferraras sister in 1300 and lived there from 1302-1310, so Ferrara had its own early connection to this saint. Furthermore, Guglielmas story and veneration were popularized in Ferrara by 1425 through a hagiography (saints life) by Antonio Bonfadini, and in Florence through a popular late-15th century religious play by Antonia Pulci although they garbled her history. (15th century deck on the right is known as the Fournier/Lombardy II.) Matteo Visconti (first Duke of Milan and first cousin to Maifreda) had as an advisor his good friend, Francesco da Garbagnatean ardent devotee of Guglielma. Matteo was at the center of his own long battle with the Church, having expelled the Papal Inquisitors in 1311, and being himself excommunicated in 1317, tried for sorcery and heresy in 1321, and having Milan placed under interdict in 1322. Matteos grandmother and uncle (archbishop of Milan) had earlier been named heretics. (Pope/Papess? card, left, is from the Cary Sheet found at the Sforza Castle, Milan.) From Newmans article, we learn that Maifredas convent was in Biassono, but she fails to note that Biassono is only five miles from the small town of Concorezzo that in 1299 was home to 1,500 Cathars. (Ive since been told that this source is wrong and that most of the Concorezzo Cathars were burned as heretics or driven out by 1230). After the Albigensian crusade many small towns around Milan became refugee outposts of this faith, of which Concorezzo was a center, and may have inspired the order of nuns who called themselves the humble (umiliati)[correction: the Cathar influence on other groups is not known.]

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Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmitesnew evidence | Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

The most compelling bit of data making the attribution of the Papess card almost certain is that between 1440 and 1460 Bianca Maria Visconti, wife of Francesco Sforza and duchess of Milan, frequently visited Maddalena Albrizzi, Abbess of monasteries in Como and Brunate, and gave aid and gifts to the Order. (Brunate is just north of Milan with Biassono between them). Even the stones for the Como monastery were donated by Francesco Sforza. The Visconti-Sforza deck (first picture in post) was probably commissioned by or for Bianca Maria. Around 1450 (the same period as the deck) a cycle of frescos were painted in the Church of San Andrea at Brunate that recorded the story of Guglielma: How she left the house of her husband, came to Brunate, and lived a solitary life here, wearing a hairshirt and ordinary dress . . . in the company of a crucifix and an image of Our Lady. Only one of these frescos, ornately framed, remains today near the original chapel that had been dedicated to Saint Guglielma (see above). It depicts Guglielma with two figures kneeling before her. She appears to be giving a special blessing to a nun. Newman identifies the two as Maifreda and Andrea Saramita (he was the main promulgator of her divinity as the Holy Spirit). Others, more convincingly, claim them as Maddalena Albrizzi (founder of the monastery and candidate for sainthood) and her cousin Pietro Albrici who renovated the church. Even as late as the nineteenth century, Sir Richard Burton, author of The Arabian Nights, noted that Santa Guglielma, worshipped at Brunate, works many miracles, chiefly healing aches of head. It seems reasonable to conclude that Bianca Maria Visconti may have had a special devotion to the woman whom, 150 years after being condemned by the Inquisition, so many Lombards venerated as a saint, and that she honored an earlier
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Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmitesnew evidence | Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

family member, Maifreda, who served as Guglielmas Vicarhiding her in plain sight as an allegory of Faith. Lets ask the question about the source in a slightly different way: Would it have been possible for Bianca Maria Visconti to have not seen this card as Maifreda? Likewise, would it have been possible for a church reformer of the time, familiar with Maifreda and Pope Joan, to have not seen this card as an allegory of Heresy instead of Faith? For instance, a monk wrote in Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis (c. 1450-1480) about La Papessa, O wretched, it is what the Christian Faith denies. Later Swiss, Germans and Belgians de-sacralized the deck, finding both Pope and Papess objectionable and substituting for them cards like Jupiter & Juno, Bacchus & the Spanish Captain, or the Moors. The Papess, it seems, has always been a mysterious and disturbing force, spreading anxiety instead of the calm assurance one might expect from Faith.
Acknowledgements: Huck Meyer pointed out this picture and Newmans article at Aeclectics tarotforum last year see discussion. I was then reminded of this material through reading Helen Farleys fascinating book, A Cultural History of Tarot: From Entertainment to Esotericism. Check out Ross Caldwells webpage on the Papessa.

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12 comments
Comments feed for this article November 8, 2009 at 5:36 am

Thanks for this post Mary! Its very interesting. I read your books and I follow your blog.I recomend them to my students. I live in Argentina and its a pitty that your books are not translated to spanish. Marcela Simonetti Thanks again for your teachings! Blessings Marcela
November 8, 2009 at 7:40 am

cynthia Tedesco

thank you mary for this scholarly & important article! i hope this information will be discussed at
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Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmitesnew evidence | Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

RS10.
November 8, 2009 at 10:57 am

Dear Mary,

Storm Cestavani Thank you so much for posting this. I recently have become very interested in the Visconti/Renaissance period. These are great reference resource books that I find very insightful and informative. Hugs, Storm
November 8, 2009 at 11:03 am

mkg

Marcela Id love to have my books translated into Spanish, but Ive been told the workbook approach would not be very popular.

Cynthia Sorry, I wont be covering this at Readers Studio. It is more about the practice of tarot and experiential workshopswhich is great, too. I may go a little into some Waite-Smith research but only as we can apply it in our readings.
November 8, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Thank you, Mary. My favourite card illucidated some more by this article. Yet another instance of the not-so-spiffy aspects of churchianity at work to perpetuate only itself instead of love. Love live Manfreda. Blessed be! James Wells
November 10, 2009 at 9:21 am

Thanks Mary for showing us some of the many historic religious, cultic, personal threads that may contribute to this one image in the Trumps. In reading through your account I was reminded of just how different a mindset people had at the end of the Middle Ages that it is hard the fathom the amalgamation of political intrigue, religious ambition, simple piety, visionary posturing, dynastic positioning, humble nunnery, vigilant policing, displaced populations, heresy hunting, wars, plagues, famines, adolescent grandiosity, hidden within a pack of cards used for gaming and perhaps for naming an alternate order to the status quo? It is no easy task to comprehend these alien forces and creeds except that we probably have not changed that much and are just as capable of such double dealing as our remote ancestors. That is except for us, wily, easy-going tarot readers. Paul Nagy
November 10, 2009 at 12:28 pm

Paul -

mkg Wow. You saw all of that in this one post! There should be a prize for something like that.

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November 14, 2009 at 11:32 pm

What a magical expression of history, Mary! Markedly interesting to me how the feminine here got such a bad wrap when presenting as numinous. Thanks for getting my gears moving on this magical card! Youve expressed a very real and chthonic numinosity to the Papesse cardslight and history for me. Thank You! Jordan Hoggard
October 14, 2010 at 4:05 am

BOUGEAREL Alain

Les Tarots ont-ils un lien avec le courant cathare ou no-cathare voire avec des vanglistes franciscains radicaux ou apocalyptiques de la pr-

Renaissance italienne? Aucune vidence historique dautant que les Cathares sont iconoclastres, nest-ce pas? Toutefois : - comme je lai soulign dans le pass, les Tarots naissent bien dans un contexte culturel des cours lombardes o les courants no-cathares sont puissants ; - si lon admet la possibilt dune reprsentation dun personnage rel sur les cartes des Tarots de la famille Visconti, alors la carte de la la Papesse symboliquement la Foi chrtienne- pourrait bien reprsenter l hrtique Soeur Manfreda Visconti brle par lInquisition. La thse initie par lhistorienne Moakley , suivie en cela par moi-mme dans mon essai Origines et histoire du tarot , analyse puis rfute par le chercheur ONeill, suivi en cela par mon minent confrre Ross Caldwell, mapparat de nouveau dactualit de par les dcouvertes de Newmann reprise par Mary Greer : Barbara Newman (aka Mona Alice Jean Newman) presented the most complete account in English of the Guglielmites in her From Virile Woman to WomanChrist: Studies in Medieval Religion and Literature, but it is in her more recent paper, The Heretic Saint: Guglielma of Bohemia, Milan and Brunate, that we learn important details that make an attribution to Maifreda as Papess much stronger than previously thought (all quotes and information not otherwise attributed are from this article). http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/papess-maifreda-visconti-of-theguglielmitesnew-evidence/ NOTA A propos de : Tarots et no-catharisme : http://www.officieldelavoyance.org/spip.php?article608 Alain Bougearel A propos de : La Papesse et Soeur Manfreda Visconti di Pirovano : http://www.officieldelavoyance.org/spip.php?article877
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October 14, 2010 at 4:45 am

See also :

BOUGEAREL Alain http://www.facebook.com/editnotes.php? import#!/note.php?note_id=155516041155663&id=100001498838632

lovepsychic
February 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm La papisa Maifreda | El tarot

Thanks for shedding some light on this intriguing mystery

P LE A S E LE A V E A RE P LY .

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