hi Phaeded,
following is the case: 3 contexts and one observation
A.
A picture in Bologna gave us notice about a Prince Fibbia, who shall have invented the Tarocchino from Bologna.
FRANCESCO ANTELMINELLI CASTRACANI FIBBIA, PRINCIPE DI PISA, MONTEGIORI, E PIETRA SANTA, E SIGNORE DI FUSECCHIO, FILIO DI GIOVANNI, NATO DA CASTRUCCIO DUCA DI LUCCA, PISTOIA, PISA & FUGITO IN BOLOGNA DATOSI A' BENTIVOGLJ, FU FATTO GENERALISSIMO DELLE ARME BOLOGNESE, ET IL PRIMO DI QUESTA FAMIGLIA CHE FU DETTO IN BOLOGNA DALLE FIBBIE, EBBE PER MOGLIE FRANCESCA, FILIA DI GIOVANNI BENTIVOGLJ.
INVENTORE DEL GIOCO DEL TAROCCHINO DI BOLOGNA: DALLI XVI RIFORMATORI DELLA CITTÀ EBBE PER PRIVILEGIO DI PORRE L'ARMA FIBBIA NELLA REGINA DI BASTONI E QUELLA DELLA DI LUI MOGLIE NELLA REGINA DI DENARI. NATO L'ANNO 1360 MORTO L'ANNO 1419.
(Francesco Antelminelli Castracani Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, Montegiori, and Pietra Santa, Lord of Fusecchio, son of Giovanni, born of Castruccio Duke of Lucca, Pistoia, Pisa & fled to Bologna in service to Bentivoglio, was made commander in chief of the Bolognese army and the first of this family, which was called Fibbia in Bologna; married Francesca, daughter of Giovanni Bentivoglio.
He was the inventor of the game Tarocchino of Bologna. By the XVI City Reforms he had the privilege of putting the Fibbia coat of arms on the Queen of Staves [card] and that of his wife’s on the Queen of Coins. Born in the year 1360, he died in the year 1419)
http://letarot.it/page.aspx?id=107
According Andrea Vitali and an expert for the history of costums Dr. Elisabetta Gnignera: "The work was painted by an unknown artist around the 30s of the 17th century."
According playing card research Prince Fibbia hardly could have invented the Tarocchino of Bologna, but it is possible that he designed a game with some similarities to the later Tarocchino.
Well, the possibility exists, that Fibbia brought from his old home, where he had a reason to flee from, a type of a unusual card deck. And this region and this old home might have been Lucca or some location near to it.
B.
The researcher F.L.Hübsch wrote in a work about trade in Bohemia till the year 1400 also a few sentences about playing cards in 14th century. He knows, that playing cards were in Bohemia in the year 1340, and Polish nobility played with them already before 1340. Hübsch knows not that playing cards were produced in Prague in the first time, but they were imported from Nuremberg. He knows, that a playing card producer, Jonathan Kreysel from Nuremberg, arrived in Prague 1354. And some other statements.
None of the statements could be completely confirmed, although they are almost plausible. I persecute the hypothesis, that Karl IV. distributed playing cards on his journeys. In 1365 he was in Bern on his journey to Arles, and 2 years later (1367) appeared a playing card prohibition in Bern. In 1376/77 he made 2 journeys, one to Aachen (crowning of the son Wenzel as Roman king) and another to Paris. The result of them is (just my opinion) that, what John of Rheinfelden observed in Freiburg . And the half brother of Karl IV., Wenzel I. of Limburg and Brabant, started a well documented playing card production at his court.
The 3rd journey of Karl IV. to Italy is the one of 1368-1369, which I addressed in the starting article ...
viewtopic.php?t=2035&p=23280#p23279
... and it is the one, which caused Lucca to become a republic in 1369. and I'm still in search for a sign of playing cards for this journey.
C.
This is the Lucca Tarocchi, which was proposed by Sylvia Mann in the 1980s as a possible deck in Lucca, a Tarot deck with reduced trumps, possibly taken from a Minchiate deck.
She wrote:
"There were 69 cards, 56 numeral cards and 13 Trumps."
The 13 Trumps and a backside "Orfeo":
A selection of the other cards ...
still in work