Antica Sibilla Italiana

1
This 32 cards oracle deck can be seen on trionfi.com (Fortune Telling, 32 cards). Does anybody know the history of this deck? Is it the translation of a French oracle deck or an Italian creation? Is the original printer known?

Trionfi.com includes the Lo Scarabeo booklet that says that the cards are "derived from the famous Ermheticon, a book about games and magic that was well known during the Renaissance in the courts of French, Germany and Northern Italy". From the booklet, it seems that the cards were created for this 1996 edition, but they look XIX Century (and trionfi.com says 1860 ca).

Re: Antica Sibilla Italiana

5
marco wrote:Thank you Huck and Mike!
I guess the Antica Sibilla is ultimately derived from Eteilla. I wonder which intermediate steps occurred. I guess that by confronting the different 32 decks on trionfi.com I could get some clue :)
The normal 32 cards deck without the numbers 2-6 is likely the most sold deck nowadays in German.

Actually it should have been a similar reality in the first decades of playing card distribution. Decks with less cards are naturally cheaper than decks with much cards. As likely a lot of decks of the humble part of the population were simply self painted to spare costs, we possibly have to calculate, that there were basic decks without courts, just numbers (easy to paint), maybe with 4x8, 4x9 and 4x10 and perhaps even less occasionally. A lot of games don't need much cards.
As many findings of old cards appear either only in fragments or are often upper class decks (with enough money to have full decks), the use of reduced deck structure isn't easy to discover with security.

In the case of the Karnöffel game the 1450 documents seems to describe a game with at least 4x12 cards, but the later rules give the impression (cause the numbers 2-7 are especially defined to be 4 Emperors (2-5), a pope (6) and the devil (7)) that it was formed by the same game, but a reduced deck (perhaps 4x7 or 4x8) which used only the numbers 2-7 and perhaps one or two other cards in the suits (the Karnöffel and possibly a banner).

In a minimal "reconstructed" form 1=Ace would be the Karnöffel, 2-7 the others, and the trump color would be defined during the game. That would be somehow the cheapest possible deck (if you desire at least 28 cards).

As very easy suit symbols you might take the most rudimentary figures

Carreaux presents the 4 ... 4 corners ... perhaps starting with a circle
Clubs presents the 3 leaves ... perhaps starting with 3 dots
Pique a line parts 2 halves ... perhaps starting with a circle and a crossing line
Hearts (symbol of unity) 1 ... perhaps always a heart, cards always had some erotic

"Self painted" this might be done in 10 minutes, if you have prepared already the paper before.
Huck
http://trionfi.com
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