Andy's Playing Cards - The Tarot And Other Early Cards - page II - Regional Tarots

Woodblock printing and stencil colouring techniques helped to keep the cost of tarot decks affordable: this enabled the game to spread across Europe in less than one century, not only in noble courts but also among the common people.
In several countries the tarot's illustrations underwent further changes, according to factors such as popular taste and local tradition. More consistent changes took place in tarots whose suits turned to the French standard (Diamonds, Spades, etc.), although this did not happen until the 19th century: the trumps, yet maintaining their numbering from 1 to 21, lost their traditional subjects, replaced by genre scenes.

ITALY

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TAROCCO BOLOGNESE      all the cards shown are by Dal Negro (Italy)

the Fool and the Trivial Performer		The Tarocco Bolognese, from the city of Bologna, has 62 cards. It is called Tarocchino ("small tarot") as the Milanese pattern discussed in part 2, not for its dimensions, despite the slim size, but for the fewer number of cards. Each suit has an ace, values from 6 to 10, and the four usual courts. The rank and subjects of the 22 trumps are slightly different from those of the tarot of Marseille (see page III for the comparative table). Bologna's tarot also rejected the use of having the names of the subjects spelled on the relevant trump.

Instead, western numerals appeared in some of the cards, probably around the late 18th century, whereas in the Lombard pattern the trumps had long since been numbered with roman numerals. The choice of using only numbers from 5 (Love) to 16 (the Star) is explained by the particular structure of the set of trumps in game played with this deck, by which only some of the subjects are "counted". Furthermore, the apparent discrepancy in giving no.5 to Love, despite this is the sixth card, is also explained by the same hierarchic scheme in the Tarocchino game: the card usually considered the first trump, the Trivial Performer, in play groups with other subjects at the bottom of the series (see table below).		Fortitude and the Devil

Due to this shift, though, the numerals featured on the trumps apparently indicate a lower rank than the one these subjects really have.

The 22 trumps of Bologna's tarot are traditionally referred to by the players with names in dialect.

CARD No.ll l 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ll ll ll ll ll	DIALECT NAMES Béghet Murett l'Amàur al Car la Virtò la Giustézzia la Forza la Furtòuna al Rumetta al Traditàur la Mort al Dièvel la Tarr el Strel Lòuna Sàul Mand Anzel Mat	ACTUAL MEANING the Trivial Performer Small Moors (4 cards) [1] Love the Chariot Virtue [2] Justice Fortitude/Strength Fortune the Hermit [3] the Traitor Death the Devil the Tower [4] the Star Moon Sun World Angel Fool	EQUIVALENT IN MARSEILLE'S TAROT (according to Bologna's ordering) the Trivial Performer the Popess - the Empress - the Emperor - the Pope the Lovers the Chariot Temperance Justice Fortitude/Strength the Wheel of Fortune the Hermit the Hanged Man Death the Devil the Tower the Stars the Moon the Sun the World Judgement the Fool

• l - these cards are known as i Cuntadur ("the Counters");
  
• l - these ones are known as el Ràssi ("the Red Cards");
  
• l - this series is known as i Taruc ("the Tarots");
  
• l - this series is known as la Grànda ("the Great");
  
• l - the four Moors keep their name;
  
• 5 ~ 16 - the series of trumps with numerals is called Nòmer ed Scavàzz (more or less "Breakneck Numbers", since an incomplete series of these cards is referred to as scavezzo = "breakneck", or "topping"), but each of them is also individually referred to with the relevant number.
• [1] - The earlier name of these subjects was "the Popes"
  
• [2] - Subject also referred to as "Temperance"
  
• [3] - The earlier name of this subject was "the Old Man"
  
• [4] - The earlier name of this subject was "Lightning"
  

Instead the 40 suit cards are referred to as pali, a word that shares the same root of the Spanish word palos, i.e. "suits".

A distinctive feature of this pattern is the group of four male characters of equal rank, into which the classic trumps Popess, Empress, Emperor and Pope were turned in early times. Initially known as the Popes, they were renamed the Moors (also referred to as the Moorish Kings, or Small Moors), following the ban issued in 1725 by pope Benedict XIII upon the use of "the Pope" and "the Angel" as names for playing card subjects; the latter, though, was never changed nor dropped.		the modern Moors (the central one is repeated) and (far right) a Moor from a 1850 edition

In 18th and 19th century editions they were four different personages, very similar though not identical, whose faces were brown, in accordance with the subject, but in the following century one of them was duplicated (i.e. three different, one of which double), and the tanned face detail was discontinued.

the Hermit

Bologna's tarot still show traces of the early subjects in 15th century decks. Since during the Renaissance no princely court was found in this city, unlike in Milan and Ferrara, this pattern did not develop from early hand-painted luxury decks belonging to local lords, therefore no specific deck acted as an archtype, for instance as the Visconti cards did in Milan. But comparing the illustrations still found in the modern editions to the hand-painted tarots known, the ones made in Ferrara and its surroundings, geographically closer to Bologna than to Milan, reveal some striking analogies. For instance, the Hermit has no lantern, but still wears wings, a detail derived from the ancient name of this card, Time (in fact, an elderly winged character was originally featured). After this detail, the nickname for the Hermit is l'Anzlaz (more or less "the cheaper or lesser angel"), whereas Love is nicknamed l'Anzlen ("the little angel"), after the picture of Cupid.

Also Fortitude (previously shown) features a figure standing by a column, a way of depicting this subject never found in Lombardy, and rather typical of north-eastern Italian tarots.

The Traitor is typically reminiscent of the archaic set of trumps, although only the name changed, as also in this case the featured subject is the well-known personage hanging head down from a scaffold.

The sixteenth trump (yet marked "15"), the Tower, was originally labelled as Lightning; in Bologna's pattern the collapsing square building on fire is still very similar to the stout tower cracked by a thunderbolt, featured in the so-called tarot of Charles VI (late 15th century). The most evident analogy is the series of three cosmological subjects, namely the Star, the Moon and the Sun, which feature illustrations similar to the ones found in some early tarots from Ferrara: the last two feature a pair of astronomers and a woman with a long spindle, respectively. These subjects are discussed more in depth in the gallery dedicated to the tarot of J.Viéville.		the Tower	Tarot of Charles VI: Lightning

The Star, instead, features three personages wearing clothes and headgear that suggest their belonging to a high status, such as that of dignitaries; this iconography might be consistent with the subject of the uncut Rothschild sheet, in the Louvre Museum (Paris), whose interpretation of the allegory is based on the biblical three Wise Men (the Magi), led to Bethlehem by a comet.

Tarocco Bolognese: the Star, the Moon, the Sun		Finally, the World developed from the early image of a globe floating in the heavens, guarded by an archangel. In Bologna the latter was turned into Mercury, with a winged hat, winged feet and a medical staff, but the illustration has undoubtly remained very similar to the early representation.	the World

Despite this, Bologna's tarot was one of the first patterns in which double-headed subjects were used, already in the 19th century.

A rather ornate and fancy edition of Bologna's tarot, drawn by Giovanni Maria Mitelli in the late 17th century, featured very particular innovations (see Mitelli's Tarocchino).

sample suit cards from the Tarocco Bolognese: ace and king of Coins, 10 of Cups, ace of Swords and queen of Batons	Bologna's regional pattern, the 40-card deck named Primiera Bolognese, shares with the Tarocco Bolognese the same style; it has three of the tarot's court cards (no queen), but the set of pip cards runs from 1 (ace) to 7, while the tarot lacks all values from 2 to 5.

Further reference to Bologna's Tarocchino can be found in the following pages:

Maurizio Barilli's

Il Tarocco bolognese (composition of the deck and rules for several games, in Italian)

Accademia del Tarocchino Bolognese (historical notes and information about the deck and the game)

John McLeod's Ottocento page (rules for this game, in English)

TAROCCO SICILIANO      all the cards shown are by Modiano (Italy)

The Sicilian regional tarot is the least common of the three Italian ones still in production. Probably sprung from Bologna's pattern, the Tarocco Siciliano is made of 64 cards, but its size is very similar to those of regional decks, i.e. much smaller than any other tarot pack. The trumps are 22, as usual: the numbered ones run from 1 to 20, featuring western numerals, while two non-standard ones named Miseria ("misery") and Fuggitivo ("Fugitive") have no number and rank at the two ends of the set. The full list of subjects is as follows (the different positions in the tarot of Marseille are shown in square brackets):

the Trivial Performer