Decks
Tarocco Piemontese (Della Rocca, Genoa, 1887) 0
A Piedmontese tarot printed by Fratelli Armanino in Genoa in 1887, following the pattern Carlo Della Rocca engraved for Gumppenberg in Milan in 1835. Courts and trumps are double-headed, as nineteenth-century Italian playing cards were, and the deck is drawn and lithographed rather than cut in wood — which sets it apart from every other historical deck here. It keeps the Marseille order, where Justice is VIII and Strength is XI, the reverse of Rider-Waite-Smith. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Sola Busca (Italy, 1491) 0
The oldest complete tarot deck that survives, engraved in northern Italy in 1491, and the only one before Rider-Waite-Smith whose pip cards are pictures rather than arrangements of suit signs — four centuries before Pamela Colman Smith did the same. Its trumps are not the Marseille figures at all but named Romans and Biblical kings, from Mato at O to Nabuchodenasor at XXI. No card back and no box survive, so the back shown here is a modern reconstruction: the deck's own paper colour, ruled in its own ink. Images from Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Minchiate (Baragioli, Florence, c. 1870) 0
A Florentine Minchiate — 97 cards, the largest historical tarot. Forty trumps and the Fool in place of twenty-two, holding the four cardinal and three theological virtues, the four elements and the twelve signs of the zodiac. The top five trumps — Star, Moon, Sun, World and the Trumpets — carry no numeral and rank above everything numbered; the Trumpets is captioned FAMA VOLAT, rumour flies. Printed by A. Baragioli in Florence between 1860 and 1890. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Tarocchi of Mantegna (Ferrara, c. 1465) 0
Not a deck, and not a tarot. Fifty engravings printed in Ferrara or Venice around 1465 by an anonymous hand known as the Master of the E-Series, who had nothing to do with Mantegna. The sheets were never cut and never played with: they are a teaching ladder of the world, numbered 1 to 50 and divided into five tens — the conditions of man, Apollo and the Muses, the liberal arts, the cosmic principles and virtues, and the firmaments of the universe. There are no suits, no trumps and no court cards. No card back exists either; the one shown here is a modern reconstruction in the sheets' own paper colour. Images from the Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0.
Cary–Yale Visconti (Milan, c. 1442) 0
One of the oldest surviving tarots, painted on gold in Milan around 1442 for the Visconti court. Sixty-seven cards remain, and no two suits are missing the same ranks. Alone among historical decks it gives every suit six courts — King, Queen, Knight, Horsewoman, Damsel and Knave — and puts Faith, Hope and Charity among its trumps, of which only eleven survive. No card back survives either; the one here is a modern reconstruction in the deck's own tone. Images from the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University, public domain.
Visconti–Sforza (Milan, c. 1451) 0
The most famous of the early tarots, painted in Milan around 1451 for Francesco Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti. Seventy-four of its seventy-eight cards survive, split across three collections: the Devil, the Tower, the Knight of Coins and the Three of Swords were lost centuries ago, and the King of Cups survives but is absent from the published series — so seventy-three are here. No card carries a number or a title; the Marseille order shown is the one scholarship agrees on, not one the cards state. No card back survives either, and the one here is a modern reconstruction. Images from Wikimedia Commons, public domain, where the cards are gathered as the Pierpont Morgan–Bergamo set.
Tarocchino Bolognese (Zanardi, Bologna, c. 1850) 0
Sixty-two cards: the twos, threes, fours and fives were thrown out of every suit back in the fifteenth century to make the game quicker, and the pack has stayed that way ever since. Four Moors of equal rank stand where an ordinary tarot has the Popess, Empress, Emperor and Pope — they replaced them in 1725. Only trumps 5 to 16 carry a number; the Begato, the Matto and the four highest carry none at all. The cards are double-headed. Made by Carlo di Gio Zanardi in Bologna between 1840 and 1860. Scans from the Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.