Based on the Tarot of Nicolas Conver, Alain believes that the two figures on either side of the young man, are NOT women as is usually assumed but men.
He studied the way they are dressed before coming to this conclusion.
He points out that the person on the right is dressed in the robe of a bourgeois, and is probably a town magistrate, a burgomaster or a provost. His headgear is decorated with a red band, as are the hanging sleeves of his robe, which corroborates his position as a magistrate.
The person on the right of the young man (the younger figure), is not necessarily a woman either. This person is dressed in a long black robe. It was uncommon for young girls to wear black dresses. Even nuns did not wear black, but white; it was only at the end of the seventeenth century that they wore black – and even then – not all of them. Only men dressed in black when they entered the lower seminary, or when they went to the Sorbonne to read their classics. This person is certainly one of these and has put on the robe of students of the arts. His crown of flowers means that he was crowned at the Floral Games. It was customary to place around the forehead a band of golden flowers. In fact, it was their only prize.
(The Floral Games was a literary academy founded in Toulouse in the 12th Century by seven troubadours - the poems later were only allowed if they were in Occitanian.)
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Interestingly, Kris Hadar believes that the Tarot originated in Occitania. If anyone is interested, I can copy an email for you that I received once from him, telling me why he thinks this is so.
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