Chapter 3: Bagatto
The street magician/juggler/trickster shown on the early Tarot cards was well known in Dante's time and was mentioned by contemporaries (Ragg 1907). But there is nothing resembling this character in the Commedia.
Interestingly, there is a distinct place in the Commedia for the Magician in a more modern interpretation of the card. In Dante's work, wisdom is given high praise but he considered the magicians to be false prophets and they are given a very low place indeed – the 8th level of hell! Alchemists are discussed in Inferno Canto 29 as falsifiers of metals. In Canto 20, Dante presents as examples a seer (Inferno 20:34), a soothsayer (20:40), a diviner (20:46), a student of the occult (20:116), and an astrologer (20:118). Perhaps the most relevant character from the viewpoint of later European Magician cards is Asdente, a cobbler from Parma who practiced magic (20:118). The Dantesque punishment of the magicians is to have their heads put on backward. Of course, the Bagatto was always the lowest ranking trump, so perhaps there is some influence after all.
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