The plan of salvation, the journey from the dawn of time through the Old and New Testament to the Day of Judgment, the outbreak of images, the esoteric symbolism, the rigorous ideological intent, are just some pieces of the large puzzle which is the Sistine Chapel.
As often it has been said, the decoration visible today, is the result of three different phases.
The first one between 1481 and 1482 by a team of painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo, and others. The second one between 1508 and 1512 by Michelangelo. The third one, much later, by Buonarroti again (the Last Judgement was completed in 1541).
It is impossible not to mention a set of ten tapestries (1515-19) designed by Raphael, on completion of the frescoes, originally hung around the lower tier of the walls, and now in the Vatican Pinacoteca.
Thanks to scholars such as Eugenio Battisti and Maurizio Calvesi, who analyzed the complicated relationships among the frescoes, the Sistine Chapel can be read as an elaborate theological and political manifesto. An illustrated treatise conceived by Pope Sixtus IV personally, a Franciscan prelate yearning for becoming a modern Solomon, who adorned Rome with sober buildings although monumental, as evidenced by his Sisto footbridge, the Basilica of San Vitale and the Sistine Chapel itself.
According to this interpretation, for the Sistine Chapel construction, the Pope would had assumed the same relationship between proportions and hall space-partitions of the ancient Solomon’s Temple.
In this way, he meant to allude the unforgettable XIII century doctrine, a reference model of the Christian Church and its universalistic ambitions. In addition we find a reference to the Kabbalistic symbolism, widely present in the Sistine Chapel, an esoteric method meant to explain the relationship between eternal Ein Sof (no end) and the mortal elements (his creation), i.e. the underlying sense of the Universe.

The number eight, traditionally a symbol of the Resurrection and consequently of the Eternal Life, offers a striking example. In St. Augustine of Ippo’s, St. Ambrose’s and Rabanus Maurus’ works (often mentioned by pope della Rovere) we find Kabbalistic numerology; Rabanus Maurus even goes so far as to study the correlation between the Christian cross and the octagon, an emblem of the world to come.

That is why, originally, the stories of Christ were eight, and the temple, painted by Perugino in the Delivery of the keys, the true ideological focus of pope’s program, is octagonal.

Therefore, the iconography of the decoration started as a propaganda focused on the primacy of Pope Sixtus IV on Solomon, of Christ on Moses, of the New Testament on the Old.

According to Calvesi, therefore, the reciprocal references between the stories of Christ and the life of Moses are justified by a compelling logic: “While the Old Testament is based on the law of fear, the New Testament on the law of love: this contraposition is connected with the dominant theme of the whole set, that opposes the Old Testament meant bloody in nature, to the New one, meant, on the contrary, to be spiritual and rich in symbols.”(1)
Such moral superiority is echoed in the above-mentioned Delivery of the keys.

About that, the art critic stated: “It is thanks to the forgiveness of Christ, and to his generous sacrifice that sinful human beings can redeem themselves and move from the Church Militant to the Church Triumphant and to the Resurrection, symbolized by the octagon in the background.

In fact, the triumphal arch of Constantine, repeated twice on both sides of the octagonal church, probably alludes to the Church in heaven, “triumphant” by definition, as already said, according to St. Augustine, resurrection plays a two-fold role: from sin to grace, and from the tomb to glory. But also the passage of the early Christianity, thanks to Constantine, from the clandestine activity to the glory of the official status, was assimilated by the Fathers of the Church to a “resurrection”. (2)

In other words, the temple painted in Delivery of the keys is an idealized building, probably a reinterpretation of the Lateran Baptistery (formerly attributed to Constantine himself under the name of bath of Chostantino), which refers both to the church on earth, embodied by Christ with his “ecclesia” (ἐκκλησία, “church” or “assembly”) of apostles, and to the one in heaven.

(1) Maurizio Calvesi, La Cappella Sistina e la sua decorazione da Perugino a Michelangelo, Lithos editrice, Roma 1997, p.65

(2) Ibidem p.66

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LA CAPPELLA SISTINA: LA CONSEGNA DELLE CHIAVI, UN TASSELLO DEL MOSAICO DELLA SALVEZZA

Il progetto della salvezza, il viaggio dalla notte dei tempi attraverso il Vecchio e il Nuovo Testamento per approdare al Giorno del Giudizio, una selva di immagini, una simbologia esoterica, un preciso intento ideologico: sono solo alcune tessere dell’immenso mosaico che è la Cappella Sistina.

Come più volte ripetuto, la decorazione pittorica oggi visibile è il risultato di tre grandi interventi.

Il primo risalente al 1481 circa, ad opera di Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Piero di Cosimo e altri. Il secondo ascrivibile agli anni 1508-12 per mano di Michelangelo. Il terzo, molto più tardo, sempre del Buonarroti (il Giudizio Universale fu completato nel 1541).

Impossibile non menzionare, la realizzazione di dieci arazzi (1515-19) su disegno di Raffaello, ideale completamento del ciclo, originariamente appesi nel registro inferiore della Cappella, e oggi conservati alla Pinacoteca Vaticana.

Grazie a studiosi come Eugenio Battisti e Maurizio Calvesi, che hanno analizzato le complicate interrelazioni tra le parti, la Sistina può essere letta come un complesso discorso di natura teologica e politica. Un trattato per immagini, dunque, elaborato da papa Sisto IV in persona, religioso francescano con smanie da novello Salomone, che adornò Roma con edifici sobri ma monumentali, come dimostrano il ponte Sisto, la Basilica di San Vitale e la Sistina stessa.

Secondo questa linea interpretativa, il papa, per la sua edificazione, avrebbe preso a modello, nei rapporti proporzionali e nella distribuzione degli spazi, l’antico Tempio di Salomone.

In questo modo, egli intendeva alludere a quello che, nella mai dimenticata dottrina del XIII secolo, rappresentava il modello della Chiesa cristiana stessa e le sue ambizioni universalistiche. A ciò si aggiungeva il riferimento al simbolismo cabalistico, largamente presente nella Sistina, veicolo atto ad elevare l’uomo dagli elementi inferiori a quelli superiori, attraverso la contemplazione e lo studio delle corrispondenze cosmiche.

Negli scritti di sant’Agostino, sant’Ambrogio, e Rabano Mauro, per non citare che alcuni autori largamente citati da papa della Rovere, numerosi sono i riferimenti al simbolismo cabalistico dei numeri

Valga per tutti l’esempio del numero otto: negli autori menzionati è simbolo della Resurrezione e quindi della Vita Eterna; Rabano Mauro si spinge addirittura a studiare la correlazione tra la croce e la forma ottagona come segno della palingenesi .

Non è un caso, allora, che, originariamente, fossero otto le storie di Cristo e che ottagonale sia il tempio dipinto dal Perugino nella Consegna delle chiavi, vero fulcro ideologico dell’insieme. Da notare, a tal proposito, anche il portico d’accesso al tempio stesso che descrive una croce.

Pertanto, il dettato iconografico dell’intera decorazione partiva con un intento didascalico imperniato, pur nell’ambito di un parallelismo, sulla superiorità del papa Sisto IV su Salomone, di Cristo su Mosè, del Nuovo Testamento sul Vecchio.

Secondo Calvesi, quindi, i rimandi reciproci tra le storie di Cristo e la vita di Mosè sono giustificati da una logica stringente: “Dunque l’Antico Testamento è legge del timore, il Nuovo Testamento è la legge dell’amore: questa contrapposizione si raccorda al tema dominante dell’intero ciclo, che oppone al carattere cruento dell’Antico Testamento quello spirituale e simbolico del Nuovo”. (1)

Questa superiorità è ribadita nella già menzionata Consegna delle chiavi, di cui lo studioso dice:“È proprio grazie al perdono di Cristo, e al suo generoso sacrificio, che l’umanità peccatrice può redimersi e trapassare, dalla Chiesa militante, alla Chiesa trionfante e della Resurrezione, che l’ottagono nello sfondo simbolizza. E in effetti, l’arco trionfale di Costantino, ripetuto due volte a fianco della Chiesa ottagonale, allude probabilmente alla natura “trionfante” della Chiesa celeste, come abbiamo già detto: secondo Sant’Agostino la resurrezione è duplice, dal peccato alla Grazia, e dal sepolcro alla gloria. Ma anche il passaggio della Chiesa delle origini, dal buio della clandestinità alla gloria dell’ufficialità, veniva assimilato dai padri della Chiesa ad una “resurrezione”, e questo passaggio fu merito di Costantino”. (2)

In altre parole, il tempio della Consegna della chiavi è un edificio idealizzato, probabilmente la rivisitazione del Battistero lateranense a Roma (anticamente attribuito allo stesso Costantino col nome di bagno di Chostantino) che fa riferimento sia alla chiesa terrena, incarnata da Cristo con la sua “ecclesia” di apostoli, sia a quella celeste della resurrezione.

Maurizio Calvesi, La Cappella Sistina e la sua decorazione da Perugino a Michelangelo, Lithos editrice, Roma 1997, p.65

Ibidem p.66

14th and 15th Centuries: According to some reports, the clergy made up about twenty percent of the clientele of private brothels and bath-houses in Dijon, France during the Fourteenth Century, and it seems the situation was similar all throughout Europe. Sixtus IV (1471–1484) was the first Pope to impose a license on brothels.

TODAY’S NEWS FROM (THAILAND) AMERICA:

POOKIE’S ADVENTURES IN (THAILAND) CALIFORNIA:

Hayden and I were watching television. Rather he was watching and I was playing with my computer. Someone on the show he was watching was crying. Hayden turned to me and said, “He is crying because his grandpa died. Pookie, I don’t want you to die. When are you going to start getting younger?”

PAPA JOES TALES AND FABLES:

THE PARABLE OF THE LION AND THE GAZELLE

Once upon a time, long long ago, there was a vast savannah on which only lions, gazelles lived amongst endless grass undulating in the soft breezes that blew across the prairie. The gazelles ate the grass and the lions ate the gazelles when they could catch them.

Lion – Washington DC National Zoo (Photo credit: Glyn Lowe Photoworks)

Although the lions were endowed by nature with fierce teeth, claws and strength, they were only able to catch the weak, aged, unwary or unlucky gazelles because nature, in order to maintain a balance on the savannah between predator and prey, made young healthy gazelles able to run faster than the lions and escape to eat the grasses that grew on the savannah and breed. And so, they all, lions, gazelles and grasses, thrived.

One day there was born into the pride, the biggest, the meanest, the fastest and the toughest lion of them all. One who was able to catch, kill and eat any gazelle that lived on the plain, which of course eventually he did. And the Great Lion as he was called and all the members of the pride prospered until that day the Great Lion had caught and killed all the gazelles and there was nothing left to eat.

So the Great Lion began to kill and eat all the other lions until they were all gone but one. As he was about to be dispatched by the Great Lion for the Great Lion’s last meal this next to last lion asked the Great Lion, “Why? You could have just eaten what you needed and we all could have prospered forever. Why didn’t you?” And the Great Lion looked at him with a smile and said, ” My job was only to kill and to eat. I was just following my nature. It was your job to make sure I did not run wild and destroy our grassy paradise.”

JOEY’S MYSTERY NOVEL:

Vince waited until the door closed behind the departing David Kitchen then turned to the visibly uncomfortable Foster Grenell and asked, “Well, what do you know about all that?”

Foster exhaled, clearly not wanting to involve himself in the disputes of his employers. “Not much, I know about the Red Star investigation of course. Uh..the Brotherhood thing began about three or four years ago.”

“While I was still here?”

“Yes, I think so, you were on the Executive Committee. It was all hush-hush. They would hold their…uh… prayer meetings at a mansion in lower Pacific Heights. A lot of important business men would come there now and then, politicians, state and federal too; not too many from San Francisco though. They would hold prayer breakfasts and then break up into smaller ‘prayer groups’.”

“How do you know about this?”

“Sam brought me there once or twice. He wanted to sponsor me. Said it would be good for my career.”

“So did you join?”

“No, it’s a Christian thing, I’m Buddhist. Besides, if you ask me it seemed a bit creepy.”

“How so?”

“Well, you know, a bunch of powerful and successful men, there were no women, meeting to pray in secret. Why couldn’t they just go to church on Sunday like everyone else?”

“Anything more“

“No, not really.”

“OK, why don’t you set up the meetings for you and me with the clients on the list we drew up. Lets see if we can get some additional work out of them, or at least keep them from leaving.”

After Foster had left Vince___(to be continued after the rapture)

PEPE’S POTPOURRI:

a. Eponymous laws:

Poe’s law (religious fundamentalism) — “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing.”

b. Trenz Pruca’s Aphorisms, Apothegms, Epigrams and Maxims ( http:/trenzpruca.wordpress.com/):

“You must be a Republican if you believe that public schools are an unnecessary government expense but prisons are not.”

c. The Mac Attack:

Niccolo Machiavelli 1 u (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“In every republic there are two parties, that of the nobles ['rich' — ed.] and that of the people ['the rest of us' — ed.]; and all the laws that are favorable to liberty result from the opposition of these parties to each other.”
Niccolo Machiavelli.

TODAY’S QUOTE:

“Rapid growth is not ours by divine right; it is not even mathematically possible over a sustained period. Our goal should be to get everyone out of abject poverty, even if it necessitates some income redistribution. Because we have way overstepped sustainable levels, the greatest challenge will be in redesigning lifestyles to emphasize quality of life while quantitatively reducing our demand levels. A lower population would help.”
Jeremy Grantham

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• Every morning; quote (lexokat.wordpress.com)

“Your arrangements are flawed” Ill Papa patiently murmured. A learned man he scrutinized Raffa’ plans intently; studying the people involved; location; dates and the method of execution. The Pope was unconvinced that the planning as proposed was as flawless as was being suggested. Girolamo Riario was a favorite nephew of the Pope, some believed him to be his son,  and was very confident of his future in church politics. However, this diabolical invention was deeply flawed to the degree that required that the entire objective must be reevaluated. The Pope encouraged Raffa to visit with the young talented son of Bernardo di Pietro a noted lawyer of Florentine nobility.

On Friday night, ABC presented an hour long “special” based on claims by two Jews regarding hidden insults, references to the Kabbalah, and pro-Judaic sentiments coded into the Sistine Chapel. Throughout the special, Roy Doliner, a Vatican tour guide, and Rabbi Benjamin Blech, Associate Professor of Talmud, Yeshiva University, explained how Michelangelo’s hatred for Pope Julius II led him to encode insults towards him in the frescos. The insult? The use of the “fig” – what amounts to giving someone the finger, is supposedly given by various angels towards a figure that is supposed to be Julius II. Next, Rabbi Blech claimed God’s appearing in a right-brain shaped cloud is a reference to Kabbalah. Here, Michelangelo was supposedly acknowledging Kabbalah and it’s “developed” doctrines regarding God. Doliner and Blech then claim the figures on the ceiling and in other places have Judiacs in them because Michelangelo was secretly communicating the idea that Christianity is rooted in Judaism !!! Here’s a link that summarizes the hour long television show –

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=4718693&page=1

Notice that, once again, Judaics are given a national media forum from which to promote their deceptions while subtly insulting and denigrating Christianity as an “inferior” spin off of their “exalted” traditions.

It is interesting to see the rabbis now coming out into the light with this “Da Vinci Code” styled nonsense.

The reader’s assertions are reinforced by the fact that Pope Julius II, like many of the Renaissance popes, was hardly an enemy of Judaism. Julius II was a nephew of Sixtus IV whose papacy is described in the Encyclopeadia Judaica as a “high point of tolerance” for “Jews.” The Sistine Chapel itself was named after Sixtus IV. Sixtus IV and Julius II, whose papacies were separated by the notoriously degenerate papacy of Alexander VI, both employed Judaic doctors. The doctor in Julius II’s employ, Samuel Sarfati (nicknamed “The Spanish rabbi, physician of the pope”), was descended from a family of Kabbalist rabbis who trace their lineage back to the rabbinic “sage,” Rashi. This French-Judaic name, “Sarfati” (also, Zarfati, Sarfatti, Sarfaty) pops up in the strangest places around Rome, such as Margherita Sarfatti, the Judaic lover of Benito Mussolini, who is said to have had tremendous influence over him.

read:

The Jewish mother of Fascism

Also of interest is Joseph Sarfati, a rabbi “convert” to Christianity who preached violence against Judaic people. Pope Julius III was his godfather.

The thesis of this book, “Sistine Secrets” is absurd to anyone familiar with the Vatican of the Renaissance which, regarding Judaism, was quite similar to the Vatican of our present time. This is the time when Johannes Reuchlin was studying under Rabbi Obadiah of Sforno in Rome at the behest of Cardinal Domenico Grimani and infiltrating his learnings into Christendom as “Christian Cabala.” Many of the seeds that were planted at that time are now coming into full, rotten bloom.

———

Jewish Encyclopedia:

ẒARFATI: Oriental Jewish family, traced by the bibliographer Azulai to a line of French rabbis descended from Rashi through his grandson Rabbenu Tam.

Encyclopaedia Judaica:

TAM, JACOB BEN MEIR (Rabbenu; c. 1100–1171), tosafist and leading French scholar of the 12th century. Rabbenu Tam was the grandson of Rashi and the son of Meir b. Samuel, Rashi’s son-in-law.

Encyclopedia Judaica:

SARFATY, family of rabbinic scholars in Fez, Morocco. According to a family tradition, the Sarfatys are descendants of Rabbenu Tam. R. Solomon, rabbi in Majorca, is mentioned in the responsa of R. Isaac bar Sheshet. A branch of the family settled in Fez. ISAAC (d. c. 1600) was dayyan in Fez. Some of his commentaries on biblical verses are quoted by his son Vidal in his works. VIDAL HA-SARFATY (c. 1550–1620) was referred to as “senior” and described as hasid (“pious”). He was a disciple of R. Abraham Uzziel.

His commentaries are outstanding for their originality; he quotes the Zohar and appears to have been a kabbalist. Many of the works of Spanish rabbis are cited in his works. Sarfaty’s writings included: Derekh ha-Kodesh, a commentary to the Sifra (1908); Megillat Sefarim, on Esther, Ruth, and Lamentations; and Ozar Nehmad, on Psalms (both works were published in Amsterdam in 1718 under the title Zuf Devash); Imrei Yosher (1874), a commentary on Midrash Rabbah; and notes on R. Elijah Mizrahi which were included in Samuel Sarfaty’s Nimmukei Shemu’el (Amsterdam, 1718) …

Jewish Encyclopedia:

SAMUEL ẒARFATI: Court physician to the popes Alexander VI. and Julius II.; died about 1519. The name “Ẓarfati” indicates that Samuel was a native of France, and as he was probably from southern France he is called by Burchard “the Spanish rabbi, physician of the pope” (“Notices et Extraits des Manuscrits,” i. 124). At the coronation of Pope Julius II., Samuel presented the petition of the Jews for the continuance of their privileges, making a solemn speech. By a bull of May 14, 1504, Samuel himself was confirmed in the rights previously bestowed upon him by Alexander VI. He was thus appointed court physician of Julius II., granted the privilege of attending Christian patients, freed from the obligation of wearing the Jews’ badge, and taken with his entire family under the immediate protection of the pope. On account of his property in France he also obtained letters of protection and safe-conduct from Louis XII. Samuel was an unusually skilful physician, and the pope relied more upon him than upon his Christian physicians. On Aug. 17, 1511, the pope fell seriously ill, and his physicians, with the exception of Samuel, pronounced him dead. Samuel’s opinion proved correct, and the pope lived two years longer. There exist certain calendar-tables in Hebrew the author of which is a Samuel Ẓarfati (Neubauer, “Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS.” No. 2255, 2), but they may belong to the printer Samuel Ẓarfati of Rome, who lived about the middle of the sixteenth century.

From the Encyclopaedia Judaica:

SAMUEL SARFATI, called Gallo (d. c. 1519), a physician originating from Provence, settled in Rome in 1498. He represented the Jewish community at the coronation of Pope Julius II (1503) and a year later became the personal physician to the pope, who confirmed the privileges granted him by Pope Alexander VI, including permission to attend Christian patients, exemption from wearing the Jewish badge, and papal protection for him and his family. In 1515 he became physician of Giuliano de’ Medici.

Of Julius II’s uncle, Sixtus IV the Encyclopaedia Judaica states:

SIXTUS IV (b. Francesco della Rovere; 1414–1484), pope from 1471 to 1484. In Italy the reign of Sixtus IV marks a high point of tolerance [for Judaic persons]. The pope used Jewish physicians, and perhaps employed Jews for the collection, copying, and translation of Hebrew works. He refused to canonize Simon of Trent, allegedly a victim of Jewish ritual murder.

Encyclopedia Judaica:

JOSEPH SARFATI (16th century), a rabbi of Fez, converted to Christianity. Adopting the name of his godfather Pope Julius III (1550–55), Andrea del Monte, he became a violent anti-Jewish preacher. One of his sermons was heard by Michel de Montaigne. Sarfati was one of the instigators of the condemnation of the Talmud and its burning in Rome in 1553. JACOB BEN SOLOMON SARFATI (14th century), a physician, was born in northern France. On the expulsion of the Jews he moved to Avignon in the second half of the 14th century.

From The Jewish Encyclopedia:

Rabbi Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno: Italian exegete, philosopher, and physician; born at Cesena about 1475; died at Bologna in 1550. After acquiring in his native town a thorough knowledge of Hebrew, rabbinical literature, mathematics, and philosophy, he went to Rome to study medicine. There his great learning won for him a prominent place among scholars; and when [Johannes] Reuchlin was at Rome (1498-1500) and desired to perfect his knowledge of Hebrew literature, Cardinal Domenico Grimani advised him to apply to Obadiah.

MASS - (Fr Joseph) — Andrew the Apostle – known as the introducer. 

NO PHILOSOPHY CLASSES — Fr Santos is out of town.

ARTS & IDEAS – (Fr Vallee) — modern philosophers.  Renaissance popes Sixtus IV (Sistine Chapel), Alexander VI (Borgia – nepotism), Julius II (warrior) and Leo X (Medici). Michelangelo‘s Pieta.  Our chapel’s murial — zodiac references.

MIAMI DINNER — today Fr Manny took all the Miami seminarians out to dinner to a fancy local Cuban restaurant Las Culebrinas.  Great food and even better desert.

DOTS — “bread shark” — grass smell