Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

2
Well ...
a great find, Mary. I didn't know this place.

There are a few questions around this deck, indeed.

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There's a Popess and there are numbers.

... and:
Production person
Published by Francesco Berti (biographical details | all objects)
Production place
Published in Bologna (all objects)
(Europe,Italy,Emilia-Romagna,Bologna (province),Bologna (city))
Date
1650-1699
Schools /Styles
Italian (all objects)

Description
Tarot pack: complete pack of 78 playing-cards bound (at the British Museum) as a small book
Hand-coloured woodcut
Backs printed with a figure of a woman, hand-coloured, lettered "Al Leone"
Late 17th Century

Inscriptions
Inscription Content: The 2 of cups is lettered "Tarochi Fini Di Francesco Berti In Bologna". The 2 of coins is lettered "Carte Fine"; and the 4 of coins "Al Leone".
And Andrea Vitali had it NOT in his book in 2004.
And the British library acquired it 1864.

It looks in many aspects similar to Tarot de Marseille.

Maybe it's easier to look at it this way:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... entPage=13

The numbers are those of the Marseille Tarot.

Bolognese export deck to France ???? Wrong date ?????

Kaplan II, p. 220, dates Francesco Berti to 1770-1780. This seems a rather thick contradiction to "1650-1699".
Last edited by Huck on 19 Aug 2012, 11:03, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

3
A DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF PLAYING AND OTHER CARDS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM ACCOMPANIED BY A CONCISE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE SUBJECT AND REMARKS ON CARDS OF DIVINATION AND OF A POLITICO-HISTORICAL :
...

SECOND HALF OF SEVENTEENTH CENTURY?
BOLOGNA.

TAROTS 1 pack, representing the old Venetian tarots set of twenty-
two atutti, combined with the full numerals, fifty-six in number,
i. e. seventy-eight in toto. As here arranged, the true tarots
series is the last series in the book. It begins with "Le Fol,"
unnumbered as usual, followed by "Le Bateleur," Number i., and terminating
in the typical manner with "Le Monde," xxi. Each emblematic card follows
exactly the common old titles and sequences, as are given by Merlin, p. 32.
Each of the tarots is numbered at the top in Roman numerals, and has the title
below the design.

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The numeral suits are of the marks always accompanying the old Italian com-
bined tarots sets, viz. coppe (here coupes), danari (deniers), bastoni (baston), and
spade (spee). Each suit has here of course an additional coate card or honour —
the chevalier — in accordance with the rule of this typical series. Each numeral
card has the number of its value marked in Roman characters at the sides. The
coat-cards have their titles inscribed below the designs. On the two of coupes —
here the first card in the arrangement — is the following inscription at the lower
portion : Tarochi Fini Di Francesco Berti in Bologna.

Image

On the two of deniers is inscribed " Carte Fine " within an ornamental scroll
connecting the marks of the suit, while on the four of deniers is " Al Leone " on
a tablet in the centre, on which is likewise a large bird pecking the ground.

Image


The back of each card in all the series has a full-length figure of a man with
a turban, and in Oriental dress. He holds by the tail a live bird in his left hand,
and a dead bird, apparently, in his right. This figure, printed in black, is relieved
from off a ground watered or clouded in rose-madder colour. Below it in a
margin retained for the purpose is the address al leone.

The whole of the designs, which are from wood-blocks, are of the commonest
and coarsest character. The colouring is in keeping with the rest.

This series of cards is noteworthy, as illustrating the following remarks of
Taylor, Bibl. 9, ix. p. 229.

" With regard to the tarots, it is singular that so many of the packs, no
matter where manufactured, bear French titles, some of them, as we have seen, of
very barbarous orthography. A pack, however, in our own possession, inscribed
on the deuce of cups, Fabbricatore Gumppenberg, and on the backs of the cards,
which are tarottes in blue, l in Milano] has the titles in Italian, corresponding
with those of the French pack of 1 500."

In the set under notice, the titles of all the atutti are in French, e.g. Le
Bateleur, La Imperatrice, Le Empereur, Le Ermite, &c. The same is the case
as respects the honours of the numeral series, as, e.g. Valet de Spee, Reine de
Spee, Roy de Spee.

These cards are stiffly mounted, and like those of many Italian packs, have
the paper of their backs turned over the edges of the front so as to form a border.

end quote:
http://www.archive.org/stream/descripti ... t_djvu.txt

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

4
Yes, the dating is WRONG. It falls in the category of decks, which had been also produced at Trieste and other locations, all around 1800.

Here is another deck, perhaps more interesting. Miniature Tarocchi cards, also from Bologna, 38 cards only:

Image


Unluckily one doesn't recognize too much.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... umpages=10
Print made by Anonymous (all objects)
Published in Bologna (all objects)
17th Century

Tarot pack: incomplete pack with 38 of 62 miniature playing-cards for tarocchino pasted (at the British Museum) into a small book.
Etching
Backs plain
...
Dimensions
Height: 30 millimetres
Width: 17 millimetres ... indeed rather small
..
This pack is believed to be a tarocchino pack (which has 62 cards) as two Moors or satraps replace Le Pape and La Papesse in the attuti suit.
If it has two moors, it wouldn't be from before 1725, right? The dating 17th century - again - is too optimistic.
Last edited by Huck on 24 Jan 2012, 12:02, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

5
Vitali illustrates another Al Leone (Francesco Berti), a Tarocchino Bolognese, on pp.49-59.

Obviously he didn't include the French titled Tarot de Marseille-style deck for export since it isn't a Tarocchino. Possibly it was meant for the French-speaking part of Piedmont.

The second BM one has a Moor, but is single headed, so it should be between 1725 and around 1790, when Bolognese cardmakers started making doubled-headed cards.
Image

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

6
Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote:Vitali illustrates another Al Leone (Francesco Berti), a Tarocchino Bolognese, on pp.49-59.

Obviously he didn't include the French titled Tarot de Marseille-style deck for export since it isn't a Tarocchino. Possibly it was meant for the French-speaking part of Piedmont.

The second BM one has a Moor, but is single headed, so it should be between 1725 and around 1790, when Bolognese cardmakers started making doubled-headed cards.
The second deck with miniature cards is very near to the Leone deck shown by Andrea Vitali at pp. 49-58 (btw I found a "Bonia Docet 1770" - ? possibly 1772 ? at one of the Fante cards p. 56 in Viali's book).

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... but it's partly also near to the deck of 17th century in Paris, Tarocchi Alla Torre, p. 32-33

*********************

The British Museum has rather good presentations of all major Mantegna Tarocchi versions and a very beautiful hand colored Mitelli Tarocchino version. Also the Hebreo cards and the Colonna Sheet. Unluckily the webmaster has decided to torture the visitors with the curious ways, how the visitor shall find the pictures. And the pictures are often very small. The Mitelli edition, however ...

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... rentPage=1

Image


.. is very beautiful.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

7
Huck wrote:Yes, the dating is WRONG. It falls in the category of decks, which had been also produced at Trieste and other locations, all around 1800.

Here is another deck, perhaps more interesting. Miniature Tarocchi cards, also from Bologna, 38 cards only:

Image


Unluckily one doesn't recognize too much.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... umpages=10
Print made by Anonymous (all objects)
Published in Bologna (all objects)
17th Century

Tarot pack: incomplete pack with 38 of 62 miniature playing-cards for tarocchino pasted (at the British Museum) into a small book.
Etching
Backs plain
...
Dimensions
Height: 30 millimetres
Width: 17 millimetres ... indeed rather small
..
This pack is believed to be a tarocchino pack (which has 62 cards) as two Moors or satraps replace Le Pape and La Papesse in the attuti suit.
If it has two moors, it wouldn't be from before 1725, right? The dating 17th century - again - is too optimistic.

Image


http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/s ... rentPage=1
The thief left it behind: the moon at my window. ---- RYOKAN ----

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

9
Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote:Thanks sembei, that's beautiful!

I wish I could understand what the "sonnet" is ... it is at least a very creative use of the trumps and court cards in the "tarocchi appropriati" genre (not really the best name here), from Bologna in the 19th century.
A poem, composed about love using the names of the Triumphs, can be found in a miscellany of writings in prose and verse datable to the XVII to XIX century treating of religious, political and satirical matters in large part concerning the top Pontiffs (11). The work, whose title is Con li Trionfi e con le figure del Gioco Tarocchino in quest’Ordine disposti, si descrive poeticamente la forza d’Amore, (With the Triumphs and with figures of the Game Tarocchino in this order disposed, the strength of love is poetically described), describes Love driving his chariot and striking with his arrows men's hearts without distinction, affirming the madness of those people who think of withstanding him, since Love rules over everything that the sun and the moon illuminate; it concludes with the affirmation that there exists no greater power than him in the world.

http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=243&lng=ENG
And the sonnet is this:
http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/sag ... onetto.jpg


Sorry if i don't talk too much. My english is very bad. #-o
The thief left it behind: the moon at my window. ---- RYOKAN ----

Re: Bolognese deck from c. 1650

10
sembei wrote: And the sonnet is this:
http://www.letarot.it/cgi-bin/pages/sag ... onetto.jpg
Thanks - I recognize it now, in Vitali and Zanetti, no. 7. I wish they had included the illustration!

Don't worry about your English. You can post in Spanish too if you like. We're used to foreign languages and the problems of non-native speakers. There are Spanish, French, Italian, German, Finnish, and Japanese mother-tongues here. There might be others too.

I don't think this poem is translated. I'll try to start:

"Love guides, by swift steeds,
On his Wheeled Chariot, and always betrays,
the Temperate (accurate?) Bolt (?), and wounds every heart;
Death precedes him, and Winged Time follows him.
Men and Ladies, and Youths beside..."

That's all for the moment.

I think the image is of Love guiding the Lightning Bolt, if that wasn't clear. Not sure how the word Tempra is being used.
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