Tarot History Forum

A set of six cards which includes one Tarot trump (Figs. 22, 23, 24, 25). The backs of three of these cards show an elaborate design depicting a warrior and a naked woman, identified by Novati as Ruggero and Angelica, with Cupid above them aiming his bow. The design is framed in a border, not as wide as that in the classical deities set, patterned with lozenge-shaped dots and folding over to form a border for the face of the card. The remaining three cards have lost their back designs and, consequently, the borders on their faces, but the correspondence of their measurements with those of the cards whose backs remain leaves no doubt that all six belong to the same pack. These cards are the largest of all those found at the Castello: Novati gives their measurements as 68 x 138 mm, and the comparisons I have made suggest that this may be a slight underestimate, the actual values being about 69 x 141 mm. The three cards with back designs are the 6 of Swords and the 6 of Coins, both virtually intact, and the 7 of Swords, which is badly damaged and of which about two-thirds survives. The other three are the 8 of Batons, of which the face is well preserved and nearly intact, the World, of which the face is intact but rather damaged, and the 9 of Swords, well preserved but badly torn. The five numeral cards again exactly correspond to their Tarot de Marseille counterparts, with the same exception that they lack any inscribed numerals at the sides (or elsewhere).

The World shows the same design as in the Tarot de Marseille, of a naked female figure within an oval wreath, with the symbols of the four Evangelists in the corners of the card, outside the wreath, placed as on the Tarot de Marseille card. The figure is plumper and much better drawn than in the Tarot de Marseille; her left leg is bent, but does not extend behind her right leg, which is straight. She appears to have a cloak hanging down behind her, but the details are difficult to make out. There is no inscription at the bottom giving the name of the card. On the three cards without backs, the face designs are enclosed in a rectangular frame: the frame can also be seen on all three cards whose backs are preserved, but only in places where the border is missing; it is evident that the frame was supposed to be covered up by the border folded over from the back. This makes it puzzling that the World does have an inscribed Roman numeral XXI, but above the frame at the top of the card; it would therefore have been covered by the border. Novati assigns this pack to the late 16th century; I should be more inclined to date it to the 17th. In any case, it is surely Milanese.

marco wrote: 21 Nov 2011, 20:46 In particular, I have noticed that in the bottom left corner of Marte, at the back of the 10 of coins, the "ADM" acronym appears. Is it a signature? Which hypotheses have been made about this?