Here is a "Tarocchino Bolognese" with 62 cards, described as played only in Bologna, from 1960, "not common." (Although the person who sent it says 1960, probably his eyes are as weak as mine, because a blow-up of the Ace of Coins tax stamp says 1980). Instead of the Pope, Papess, Empress and Emperor there are four "di Moretto," which look to me like four female Moors. Anyone know about this? As you can see, two are identical. This deck was used for fortune telling--someone has penned in "la Consultant" on one of the Moretto (Moretti?), and "le Stelle" on the 10 of cups, which is peculiar because there is a Star card among the trumps.
Because some of the cards are in much better condition than others (i.e., less grubby) I suspect that the dirtiest cards were used for divination, and I also wonder if someone might have taken cards from a different pack to make up ones that were lost. Or might there be another reason for the "le Stelle" 10 of cups in the same deck as a Star?

I like the solution to the Hanged Man problem.

Interestingly, of the trumps, both the Wheel and the World are not perfectly reversible.

Congratulations Debra!

And congratulations on owning a deck that matches the oldest known form of divination with Tarot cards.

Ross put together a wonderful page on Tarotpedia about the use of the Bolognese for divination here:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Bolognes ... Divination

And more about the deck can be found here:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Tarot_Decks:_Bolognese

Apparently, the "four papi" were replaced with the "four moors" in 1725.

The Mitelli can also be used with this form of divination, which strikes me as very similar to the types you'd see on many antique oracles and early cartomancy.

Ah. Thank you Robert (and Ross!).

So they are "little" moors.

I'm still thinking that one of the two twin Moors came from another deck, and probably the fortune teller had lost the Star and substituted the 10 cups (which does have a star on each end). The fellow who sent them said he had two decks and sent me one. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a bunch of incomplete packs and pieced them into two decks. Moral of story: Never Throw Anything Away.

By light of day I'll see if I can correlate the degree of grubbiness to the scheme laid out in Ross's article.

But I have one of these Bolognese decks which has two identical Moors. They've been identical ever since I took them out of the shrink wrap...

Very nice deck, debra!

The meaning "The Stars" for the 10 of cups is unique. The other four sources say "Roof tiles", "Happiness" (two decks say this), and "May it flourish!" (Che fiorisse). I guess "roof tiles" could be read as a way of signifying "a happy home".

The ink on your cards seems to be ball point, which means after about 1960. This is true for a few of the cards in the list on the Tarotpedia site as well, where a ball-point meaning is sometimes put in place of an older fountain-pen inscription.

The meaning "La Consultante" also appears to be unique.

Ross

Thank you both!

La Fanu, that solves the main mystery--two identical Moors in a new pack!

And Ross, yes, ball-point is my guess too.

I thought "La Consultante" might be copied from an Etteilla style of reading.

Yes, I checked this morning to see whether I was mistaken or not, or thinking of another deck.

I wasn't mistaken; I have the Modiano Tarocchi Bolognese. The backs are black plaid. The cards look identical to yours, but as you haven't included an image of the backs I cannot know for certain.

Why on earth would one receive two identical cards in the same deck? But, yes, ever since I opened them up there have been two! Some game-playing expert would be able to put us to rights here...

Huh. I wonder if one of the Moors got lost and a tradition of two identicals was begun? Odd.

Green and black plaid backs.