https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/auctionmediaphotos/2/5/c/1474530480552407.jpg I was going to argue the lack of red splitting the shield horizontally meant fake (or at least a near contemporary copy by someone who didn't care to exactly match Colleoni's stemmi) , but it appears that house at leas...

Played cards exactly as described by von Rheinfelden. Thanks for asking. http://www.michaelfassbender.org/hestarted.jpg And don't forget to invite Bob Hamman to this webpage - top Bridge player in the world. I bet he's got some fantastic ideas about the origins of the trumps. https://www.texasmonthl...

If you want to discuss the relationship of Lucca Tarocchi to the historical conditions of Lucca in the 17th/18th century and their possible relationship to other abbreviated decks (the Bologna variant) I'm all ears, but if you want to persist in positing a connection between that deck and JvR you'r...

Huck: The arrangement of the cards, if it was not just done by accident, could have done it as early as 1369 or as late as early 18th century Phaeded: Worst idea yet. You're trying to push back the first appearance of trumps some 80 years on the flimsiest of coincidences, into a period void of evid...

As far I know we have no date, when Fibbia appeared in Bologna, so any interpretation of details is just speculation. There is also no security, that the Lucca Tarocchi of 18th century was in existence in 14th century. What we have is an observation. A few days ago, after I had realized, that the y...

hi Phaeded, following is the case: 3 contexts and one observation According Andrea Vitali and an expert for the history of costumes 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 hav...

Relevant excerpts from Peter N. Miller, "Stoics who sing: Lessons in Citizenship from Early Modern Lucca", Historical Journal, 44, 2001, noted in previous post (server is preventing this material for some reason - something embedded in the pdf from which it was copied/pasted? Posting as jpegs of the...

Has someone hazarded any other date besides that of the auction house that had c. 1730? The British Museum simply gives 18th century but also calls it minchiate: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-35 And I'm confused, is Orfeo a trump and also the backs of the cards? The BM...

Huck, I've been trying to post a reply in the other Lucca Orfeo deck thread [I'm being blocked for some reason - nevermind: did a work around by snipping the text as jpegs and pasting them in as "[img]"] and from that forthcoming post is this illuminating article on politics and early operas in that...

Has someone hazarded any other date besides that of the auction house that had c. 1730? The British Museum simply gives 18th century but also calls it minchiate: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-35 And I'm confused, is Orfeo a trump and also the backs of the cards? The BM ...