Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmites—new evidence _ Mary K.pdf

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28/2/2014 Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Gug lielmitesnew evidence | Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/papess-maifreda-visconti-of-the-g uglielmites%E2%80%94new-evidence/

Mary K. Greer's Tarot Blog

"Tarot helps you meet whatever comes in the best possible way."

Papess Maifreda Visconti of the Guglielmites

new evidenceNovember 7, 2009 in Book/Story/Poetry Reports, Major Arcana, Tarot History & Research

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 thestake, 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 anew age of the Holy Spirit would begin in 1260, heralding the inauguration

of an ecclesia spiritualisin 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 herFrom 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
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb050/is_1_74/ai_n29167991/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630411/Matteo-I-Viscontihttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630411/Matteo-I-Viscontihttp://www.tarothermit.com/moakley1.htmhttp://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/bookstorypoetry-reports/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/major-arcana/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/tarot-history-research/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb050/is_1_74/ai_n29167991/http://www.amazon.com/Virile-Woman-WomanChrist-Medieval-Literature/dp/0812215451/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/630411/Matteo-I-Viscontihttp://www.tarothermit.com/moakley1.htmhttp://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/tarot-history-research/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/major-arcana/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/category/bookstorypoetry-reports/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/


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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 ofFides(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 Cardsand Andrea Vitalis essay on The High Priestess.Even Paul Huson inMystical Origins of the Tarotfinds 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:
http://marygreer.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/priestess-of-venus.jpghttp://marygreer.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/isis-hermes-pinturicchio-14941.jpghttp://www.amazon.com/Mystical-Origins-Tarot-Ancient-Modern/dp/0892811900/http://www.letarot.it/The-High-Priestess_pag_pg114_eng.aspxhttp://www.tarot.com/about-tarot/library/boneill/papesshttp://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/02.html


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The most compelling bit of data making the attribution of the Papess card almost certain is that between 1440 and 1460Bianca 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 SaintGuglielma (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
http://marygreer.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/guglielma-brunate-close.jpg


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12 comments

Comments feed for th is article

November 8, 2009 at 5:36 am

Marcela Simonetti

November 8, 2009 at 7:40 am

cynthia Tedesco

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.

Thanks again for your teachings!

Blessings

Marcela

thank you mary for this scholarly & important

article! i hope this information will be discussed at

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 notseen 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 Heresyinstead ofFaith? For

instance, a monk wrote in Sermones de Ludo Cum Aliis(c. 1450-1480) aboutLa 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 andsubstituting 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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November 14, 2009 at 11:32 pm

Jordan Hoggard

October 14, 2010 at 4:05 am

BOUGEAREL Alain

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!

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-the-

guglielmitesnew-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
http://www.officieldelavoyance.org/spip.php?article877http://www.officieldelavoyance.org/spip.php?article608http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/papess-maifreda-visconti-of-the-guglielmites%E2%80%94new-evidence/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/papess-maifreda-visconti-of-the-guglielmites%e2%80%94new-evidence/#comment-3593http://www.mystereum.com/http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/papess-maifreda-visconti-of-the-guglielmites%e2%80%94new-evidence/#comment-1742


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October 14, 2010 at 4:45 am

BOUGEAREL Alain

January 20, 2011 at 10:11 pm

lovepsychic

February 9, 2012 at 12:53 pm

La papisa Maifreda | El tarot

See also :

http://www.facebook.com/editnotes.php?

import#!/note.php?note_id=155516041155663&id=100001498838632

Thanks for shedding some light on this intriguing

mystery

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