Editing The High Priestess (section)

==History==
[[File:La Papessa.jpg|thumb|An untitled Popess on the "Rosenwald Sheet" of uncut [[Tarot]] woodcut designs, late 15th-early 16th century (National Gallery, Washington)]]

===''La Papesse''===
This Tarot card was originally called ''La Papesse'', or "The Popess". Some of the cards directly linked the woman on the cards to the papacy by showing the woman wearing a ''triregnum'' or [[Papal Tiara]]. There are also some modern versions of the [[Tarot of Marseilles]] which include the keys to the kingdom that are a traditional symbol of the papacy.{{sfn|Dean|2018|p=[https://archive.org/details/TheUltimateGuideToTarotABeginner/page/n65 65]}} In [[Protestant]] post-[[Protestant Reformation|reformation]] countries, Tarot cards in particular used images of the legendary [[Pope Joan]],{{sfnp|Crowley|1991|p=[https://archive.org/details/bookofthothshort0000crow/page/24 24]}} linking in to the mythology of how Joan, disguised as a man, was elected to the papacy and was only supposedly discovered to be a woman when she gave birth.{{sfnp|Rustici|2006|pp=1–2}}

===Other variants===
In the [[Rider–Waite Tarot]], illustrated by [[Pamela Colman Smith|Pamela Coleman Smith]], the Popess was changed into The High Priestess sitting between the pillars of [[Boaz and Jachin]] (which has a particular meaning to [[Freemasonry]]). She wears a crown similar to the Egyptian goddess [[Hathor]] and is depicted with the [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Marian]] imagery of a blue mantle and the [[Woman of the Apocalypse|moon at her feet]]. [[A. E. Waite]], the co-creator of the Rider–Waite deck, dismissed the idea that the card originally depicted [[Pope Joan]] and speculated that it was instead connected to the ancient cult of [[Astarte]].{{sfnp|Waite|1926}}

Other variants that came after Rider–Waite are the [[Virgin Mary]], [[Isis]], the [[metaphor]]ical [[Bride of Christ]] or [[Holy Mother Church]]. In Swiss Troccas decks, she is called ''[[Juno (mythology)|Junon]]'' ("Juno"), the Roman Queen of the Gods. The "Flemish Deck" by Vandenborre (c. 1750-1760) refers to this card as ''Le Espagnol Capitano Eracasse'' ("The Spanish Captain Fracasse"), after a version of [[Il Capitano]], a character from ''[[Commedia dell'Arte]]''.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

===Sister Manfreda===
[[File:Bonifacio Bembo.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Visconti-Sforza Tarot]] card]]

''La Papessa'' in the [[Visconti-Sforza Tarot]] has been identified as a depiction of Sister Manfreda, an Umiliata nun and a relative of the [[Visconti of Milan|Visconti family]] who was elected Pope by the heretical [[Guglielma|Guglielmite]] sect of [[Lombardy]]. In ''The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo'', [[Gertrude Moakley]] writes:

{{blockquote|Their leader, Guglielma of Bohemia, had died in Milan in 1281. The most enthusiastic of her followers believed that she was the incarnation of the Holy Spirit, sent to inaugurate the new age of the Spirit prophesied by Joachim of Flora. They believed that Guglielma would return to earth on the Feast of Pentecost in the year 1300, and that the male dominated Papacy would then pass away, yielding to a line of female Popes. In preparation for this event they elected Sister Manfreda the first of the Popesses, and several wealthy families of Lombardy provided at great cost the sacred vessels they expected her to use when she said Mass in Rome at the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Naturally, the Inquisition exterminated this new sect, and the "Popess" was burned at the stake in the autumn of 1300. Later the Inquisition proceeded against [[Matteo I Visconti|Matteo Visconti]], the first Duke of Milan{{sic}}, for his very slight connections with the sect.{{sfnp|Moakley|1966|p={{page needed|date=July 2019}}}}
}}

This identification has been supported by other Tarot historians, such as Michael Dummett in his book ''The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards''.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}