In a recent discussion the cards found in Sforza Castle were brought up, specifically the 2 Coins which, if it comes from a Tarot de Marseille, would be the oldest Tarot de Marseille (besides, perhaps if you want to count the Cary Sheet), card that we have in existence.



The image above is from The Encyclopaedia of Tarot, Volume II, p289. This and Volume one are two of the most important books you can buy to help with studying tarot history, and I highly recommend that if you don't already own copies you get them right away. They are an enormously important reference, and information and images from them are discussed frequently on this forum.
Volume I:
Volume II:


I have scanned the pages discussing the Sforza Castle cards because I think many of these cards are incredibly important for discussing the origin of the Tarot de Marseille. These are large scans so that you can read the information and see the images in moderate detail, I'll add one per post, and they can be clicked on to enlarge for easier reading. I look forward to what will hopefully be some interesting discussions.

Thank you a huge lot for these Robert,

I've been wanting to buy Kaplan II for a long while, but always postponed this buying hoping to find a cheaper used copy... I guess I'm not serious enough about tarot history - and actually it's quite cheap so I shouldn't wait any longer.

First thing that came to my mind was that the date is hard to read ! Also the dimensions make this card isolated so could it come from a non tarot pack ? This is very unlikely since every detail is so close to the later tarot de Marseille decks.
The cards from group 11 and their backs definitely look like french tarot cards.

Bertrand