I start a new thread, not to go too much OT from the discussion started by Ross in the thread about the World.

I've picked up Kaplan II and re-read the section about the cards discovered in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (p. 289-296). I am sure that Novati (who first presented the cards in 1908) gives much more information, but I have not read his articles.

I think the "classical" group is very interesting. It is strange to see all this different card-backs with the theme of classical gods.
In particular, I have noticed that in the bottom left corner of Marte, at the back of the 10 of coins, the "ADM" acronym appears. Is it a signature? Which hypotheses have been made about this?

You can read Novati's 1908 article in Il libro e la stampa online at the Emeroteca Digitale
http://emeroteca.braidense.it/eva/indic ... colo=14748
(and download it too, of course)

He doesn't seem to mention the ADM initials on the Mars back.

Thank you Ross! If I am not missing something, Novati does not seem to even mention Mars, I wonder why.

In the last footnote, he says that many illustrations of Ariosto are similar to the "Ruggero and Angelica" card back. He refers to a 1603 Valgrisi edition, which I could not find.
I attach the two illustrations of Ariosto's XI Canto I have found on google books (1566 and 1656).