The Tarot Deck - Part 2 - First steps.....

Start at zero...The Fool from the Visconti Sforza Tarot deck

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot (Tarocchi dei Visconti) is one of the oldest (if not the oldest) deck on record. It was designed for members of the Visconti family who ruled Milan in the 15th century. They were commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and by his successor Francesco Sforza.

Modern reproductions of the full deck and also just the Major Arcana are available and are very beautiful.

The name "Visconti-Sforza Tarot" is used collectively to refer to incomplete sets of approximately 15 decks, now located in various museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. Sadly, no complete deck has survived; rather, some collections boast a few face cards, while some consist of a single card.

To see images of the majority of the deck (with some unfortunately blocked by their owners) please follow this link: Visconti Tarot images.

The Tarocchi dei Visconti decks were hand painted  by the Milanese artist Bonifacio Bembo in the first half of the 15th century. They were only available to the very wealthy family that commissioned them. Many of the cards would have featured images that had the faces of family members.

It is most likely that the cards would have been used to play the game of Trionfi (or Trumps), which is actually still played in many parts of Europe. If you are interested in the game of Trionfi then follow this link: How to play 'French Tarot'. This game uses the full 78 cards of a Tarot deck and is the ancestor of Bridge.

Cheaper cards were also available. These were printed, but no decks survive. They were often burned as a sort of symbolic sacrifice at the end of festivals in a 'Bonfire of the Vanities'. By the end of the 15th century, Tarot cards were being produced in Florence, Urbino, Venice and other cities in Northern Italy.

It was only around 1530 that the decks started to be called Tarocchi... the origin of our word Tarot.

Some cards might have been used in Divination and Cartomancy as early as the 17th century,  but it wasn't until the 18th and 19th centuries that this became commonplace.

In the early 16th century a new version of the Tarot, called the Minchiate. was created in Florence. This became the most popular deck in all of Italy but was rarely seen outside of Italy until fairly recently.

The Minchiate has 41 trump cards (including the Fool) rather than 22 making the total number of cards in the deck 97. These 41 trumps include all of the 12 signs of the Zodiac, the 4 elements (Air, Earth, Fire and Water) and some other cards representing temporal rulers. For the Wikipedia article on the Minchiate use this link: 'Minchiate'. To see the Minchiate Trumps use this link: 'Minchiate Trumps'. Minchiate decks are available on Amazon.

In this blog, I will not be exploring the use of the Tarot in Divination, Cartomancy or Card Games. There are many other sites that deal with these topics and I would refer you to them. For the use of the cards in Card Games, then please follow this link 'French Tarot' and for information on the many decks available and for general information and links with regard to Cartomancy and Divination please follow this link to the excellent 'Aeclectic' site: 'Aeclectic.net'