Chapter 15: World
The early World cards (prior to the oldest extant deck of the Tarot de Marseille type) show a circle with a landscape or city within, i.e., the New Jerusalem.
In Figure 49 (~1445) Beatrice shows the New Jerusalem to Dante.
Notice that the throne in the new city is reserved for the Holy Roman Emperor
whose heraldric symbol was the black eagle. We know that Dante used the
city, the New Jerusalem, as a symbol of heaven. For example, in the Inferno (1:124-126) Virgil explains to Dante that he cannot be his guide for the entire journey because the Emperor who reigns above will not allow him
entry to his "City".
The later Tarot cards change the image of the World from the New Jerusalem to the Triumph of Christ. Similar illustrations were produced for Paradisio Canto 28 (Figure 50, ~1445) as they were for many other Medieval examples. However, Dante offers some surprises that might help explain why the Tarot World contains a female figure instead of Christ.
Modern interpretations consider the female on the World card as Sophia or Wisdom the highest of the Platonic virtues. The best candidate might then be Beatrice who represents the higher wisdom that is revealed to Dante. And indeed, Beatrice appears in some illustrations within a mandalora with 4 angels (Figure 51, late 14th century). The image in Figure 51 appears as an illustration of the appearance of the Chariot in the Purgatorio. Interestingly, as Beatrice approaches, the chorus sings (Purgatorio 30:19) "Benedictus qui venis" i.e., "Blessed is HE who comes"! So Beatrice appears as a symbol for Christ or at least Christ's revelations of wisdom (Sayers 1955).
The other modern interpretation that might be encouraged by Dante is the female as the maternal, creative force, the Shekinah. Without implying any influence of QBLH, one must consider the follow passage (Paradisio 23:94-126, translation from Mandelbaum 1995):
"descending through that sky there came a torch, forming a ring that seemed as if a crown: wheeling around her – a revolving garland…"I am angelic love who wheels around that highest gladness inspired by the womb that was the dwelling place of our Desire; so shall I circle, Lady of Heaven…And like an infant who, when it has taken Its milk, extends its arms out to its mother, Its feeling kindling into outward flame, Each of those blessed splendors stretched its peak upward, so that the deep affection each Possessed for Mary was made plain to me."
The vision of Mary, encircled by a revolving garland, must have been a powerful and emotional image for the Marist theology of the early 15th century. So we must not dismiss offhandedly the hypothesis that the World card resembles Dante's description of Mary, the female creative force.
One further point needs to be emphasized. These descriptions of Beatrice/Mary were written in Italian and were well-known in the city-states of Italy. These descriptions were not available elsewhere in Europe, nor in times earlier than the last quarter of the 14th century. So if the Tarot designers were influenced by these descriptions, then the World card with a female figure must have originally been Italian and not earlier than the wide distribution of Dante's Commedia, i.e., the late 14th or early 15th century. This argues against any theory that assigns the World image to an earlier age or elsewhere than northern Italy. The evidence also suggests that there may have been an early image of the World that used the image typical of the later Tarot de Marseilles – perhaps a lost card belonging to something like the Cary-Yale woodcut sheet?
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