https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ ... 0&partId=1
of which they say:
The Bibliotheque nationale de France has a more complete deck of cards here :Incomplete tarot pack with 19 of 97 playing-cards for Minchiate of Florence. ... The backs of the cards are printed with the arms apparently of Cosmo de Medici the Third. The shield is surmounted by a ducal crown, and has below the motto "Colomba". / Hand-coloured woodcut / Circa 1675 / Height: 100 millimetres Width: 58 millimetres / Bibliography: Willshire 1876 Italian 257
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105109802
of which they say:
Here are the Hanged Man cards of the two decks:Title : [Jeu de minchiate à enseignes italiennes dit "alla Colomba"] : [jeu de cartes, estampe] Publisher : [Angelo Marisi ?] (Bologne ?) Publication date : 1760 ... Format : 77 cartes à jouer : gravure sur bois coloriée au pochoir ; 10,1 x 5,9 cm ... Ancien possesseur : Merlin, Romain (1793-1871). Référence bibliographique : Depaulis, Tarot 1984, 87 ... Description : Appartient à l’ensemble documentaire
And here are the backs So the two museums have different centuries, and different cities, for what seems to be the same cards
Of the two great national museums, I find the BnF highly reliable on the whole, especially when backed by the name Depaulis, and the BM somewhat less so, especially when they rely on Mr. Willshire. One example is in these two decks: the BM calls its deck "hand-coloured woodcut," while the BnF says it is "gravure sur bois coloriée au pochoir" A pochoir is a stencil, and I think these are stenciled. However, the BM is right about the main stuff, surely: the date is not 1750. I can't tell you that these are the arms of Cosimo III in particular, but they are Medici ducal arms, and there was no Medici duke after 1737. And Bologna? First of all these are minchiate decks, and if they come from Bologna, why would they have Medici arms on them? All the same, it was just possible that Bologna made Minchiate for export to Tuscany, and put the arms of a 50 years dead duke on them to please the locals. It was just possible that these two decks were made 85 years apart. But where did the BnF get the idea these cards were made by Angelo Marisi?
The name Angelo Marisi shows up elsewhere. He is in the catalog of the Museo Fournier de naipes. I can't link you directly to items at this museum, but click this link:
https://apps.euskadi.eus/emsime/colecci ... va/museo-2
then enter "Tarot boloñés" into the search box, and then look for #42013 in the page of results. This museum only shows you six cards of the deck. They say of it:
The descripción means: square corners, minchiate-type edges. (not songs, although it took me a while to figure that out). If you don't like the Spanish, you have your choice of languages: your other choice is Basque.Título: Tarot boloñés / Autoría: Marisi, Angelo (Bolonia, Italia) / Técnica: Coloreado con trepas ; Xilografía / Dimensiones: 122 x 55 mm / Descripción: Esquinas cuadradas, canto tipo minchiate / Anverso: 10 O: CARTE FINE ALLA COLOMBA / Reverso: Motivos vegetales entrelazados en negro, inscripción: Alla Colomba. / Fecha: 1750
Here is the Bagato from Angelo Marisi's "Alla Colomba", 1750, Bologna deck, and a Bagato from another Tarocco Bolognese deck, made in Bologna, with label "Alla Torre": The Alla Torre can be found here :
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105109607 So it seems that someone, perhaps the ancien possesseur Romain Merlin, had in front of him a deck with the label "Colomba," and it was a minchiate deck, and had the Medici arms on it, but despite these evidences of a Tuscan origin, a minchiate composition, and a pre-1737 date, he decided that these were the Tarocco Bolognese cards with label "Alla Columba," made by Angelo Marisi, in Bologna, in 1750! This mistake has ended up in the catalog description of the BnF, with indeed a question mark after Angelo Marisi and another one after Bologna, but with not even so much as a c. before the date of 1750.
Postscript:
Angelo Marisi shows up in one more place that I have found so far, another deck in the Museo Fournier de naipes. Again, click this link:
https://apps.euskadi.eus/emsime/colecci ... va/museo-2
but this time enter "Tarot lombardo" in the search box, and hunt for #36815 in the results:
I'm not too familiar with the name "Tarot lombardo." Perhaps it is the same as tarocco Piemontese. Unlike the tarocco Bolognese deck, for this deck, the MFn gives us a back. Here it is, showing the "Motivos vegetales entrelazados en negro." I also put in a card that has Marisi's name on it: