hi Iolon,
in your article you finish with "For this reason I also believe that the Visconti Sforza cards (70 cards, 5 suits of 14 cards) were made in the same year, in 1454."
A peace was also concluded during the emperor wedding in Italy in early 1452, but it started to vanish already in the course of April 1452. In October 1452 we have a Sforza letter related to a deck for Sigismondo Malatesta, and possibly there was another related letter already at the end of 1451 or 1452 (according Pizzagalli).
1452 [November – Sigismondo Malatesta requests cards of Bianca Maria Visconti Sforza, recounted by Daniela Pizzagalli]:
"Gran parte del suo [Bianca Maria's] tempo era anche occupato dalla corrispondenza, perché aveva contatti personali con tutte le corti. Intratteneva carteggi paralleli spesso ricchi di argomenti che esulavano dalla politica: significativa, ad esempio, la richiesta che ricevette da Sigismondo Malatesta, nel novembre 1452, di un mazzo dale famose carte da trionfi miniate, vanto dell'artigianato cremonese…. Di far realizzare un mazzo di carte per il Malatesta, Bianca Maria non aveva affatto voglia, anzi temeva di non saper mascherare abbastanza la sua invincibile ostilità contro di lui, tanto che, quando Francesco ordino personalmente i tarocchi a Cremona, lei, ringraziando per averle `levato questa fatica dalla mano' gli sottopose il testo della risposta a Sigismondo autorizzando il marito ad apportarvi modifiche."
[Pizzagalli 1988:129]
Preliminary translation
(by Ross Gregory Caldwell)
A large part of her time was also occupied in written correspondence, she having personal contact with the whole court. At the same time she maintained correspondence rich in subjects outside of politics: shown, for example, in the request which she received from Sigismondo Malatesta, in November 1452, for a pack of the famous hand-painted trump cards from the highly praised artisans of Cremona … Bianca Maria did not have the slightest desire to have a deck of cards made for Malatesta, on the contrary she feared of not knowing how to disguise enough her undying hostility for him, so much that when Francesco personally ordered the tarocchi at Cremona, she thanked him for “lifting this burden off my hands”, in the text of her response to Sigismondo, authorizing her husband to make modifications.
http://www.trionfi.com/0/e/r71/08.html
Ross Caldwell found recently in Emilio Motta's work the following letter from "Cichus" (= Francesco Simonetta, in 1452 secretary of Francesco Sforza and writing in the name of Francesco Sforza) to Antonio Trecco, treasurer. Both persons appear also in the Francesco Sforza Trionfi documents of December 1450 in a similar adminstrative function. The letter relates to a Trionfi card deck for Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and was written at October 28 in the year 1452.
Francesco Sforza was in this time at a fortress in Calvisano (about 30 km in Southern direction from Brescia) and rather objectively he was just engaged in the war against Venice, which broke out in the mid of the year 1452. For the following November 1452 three battles are recorded in Manerbio, Asola and Gottolengo, all in the range of 12-20 km from Calvisano. Calvisano belonged to Sforza and Milan since 1451, but it was given back to the control of Venice after the peace of Lodi 1454. Sforza's many letters from Calvisano between October 22 and November 14 make assume, that Sforza used the small town as his provisional war capital for 3 weeks.
http://trionfi.com/0/et/p/malatesta-1452.jpg
http://trionfi.com/etx-sigismondo-pandolfo-malatesta
There were other notes with similar content, who spoke of 1451 without clear reference, I remember.
Naturally it is possible, that Sforza was related to Trionfi card productions in 1451, 1452 and 1454. From Florentine records we know, that Trionfi card productions had a peak in these years.
http://trionfi.com/0/es/p/x-deals-01.jpg
http://trionfi.com/naibi-aquired