mikeh wrote: 27 Aug 2017, 01:58
Finally, from Oneglia in Liguria is the only example known to me of a tarot deck with Spanish suits. It is by Giacomo Recchi, whose name and city appear on a panel of the Ace of Coins; a specimen is in the collection of Stuart Kaplan, who dates it to 1820 because of the stamp tax of the kingdom of Sardinia, used since 1815. A pack engraved on copper, it is seventy-eight one-headed cards. The triumphs were adapted from the first version of the Piedmontese Tarot; their inscriptions, like those of the figures of the suits, are in French. There are Roman numerals in panels on the top of the trump cards and the sides of the pip cards. Death (XIII) is devoid of writing; the Devil (XV) has a face on its stomach, and does not wear a little cap; [start 407] the suit cards are adapted from the designs of the famous deck of 1810, which was engraved on copper, by Clemente Roxas of Madrid. Since the deck is the prototype of the standard model today of the normal deck in Sardinia, it is almost certain that the Recchi deck was destined for that island, where the Tarot is still played today.
Thanks for the find. If this deck dates to 1820, then it may be too recent to be considered the Sardinians' standard deck as the suit cards were designed just 10 years earlier. I own a standard 40-card Sardinian deck but apparently it once came in 48-card format (with 8s and 9s) according to
https://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-26.html. Since Dummett wrote that the tarot deck is a full 78-card pack, then it must also contain 10s and queens. What do the queens look like and who designed them as it is likely Roxas was not involved with this deck? Did Kaplan publish anything about this in one of the volumes of his encyclopedia?
where the Tarot is still played today.
This is a surprise as Dummett never hinted at the survival of the game in
Sardinia in any of his other works. If he is right, then what deck do they use in the present? I suspect the Piedmontese pack just like in Calatafimi in Sicily. The Recchi deck's use of Piedmontese trumps leaves me with the impression that the Tarocco Piemontese already had a foothold on the island which may have displaced an even earlier pre-18th century pattern(s) of which all knowledge may be forever lost to us.
Sardinia and Piedmont were both under Savoyard rule from 1720 so it is no surprise there is Piedmontese influence on
Sardinia. Perhaps by 1999, when Dummett made Sardinian tarot games a millennium challenge question, he was too weary to do more field work.