ABSTRACT
The first card is the Knight of Cups. It shows Antonio Foscarini, Venetian ambassador in London from 1611 to 1615, perched uncomfortably on a horse (‘You ride like a Venetian’ was, of course, a proverbial insult at the time). He was a man of distinguished service who had been knighted as ambassador in France; also a man prone to eccentric and licentious behaviour (hence the Cups). A member of the hereditary ruling class in Venice, he was also part of a cosmopolitan international community of fellow ambassadors and political sympathisers. Both communities were linked by a network of couriers and messages criss-crossing Europe, as can be seen in the second card, the Chariot.9
