I want now to pursue further the question of which is earlier, the "early" woodcut pattern or the "late" engraved or engraved-inspired version. First, here are my online sources for the two types. Among the engraved series, even though there were two sub-patterns, one after 1820 ...

I said in my previous post that I would explore how early the engraving plates might have been for the theorized 1682-1701 cards of Schreiber 47. My only point of reference is another engraved deck with some similarities to that one, enough to be significant, namely the Mitelli engraved tarocchini o...

An example of the historical minchiate with the Medici arms on the back, the date 1725 and the signature of Molinelli on card XXXII is at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105106319.r=jeucart%20minchiate?rk=107296;4. From the information supplied by Gallica it is not the same deck as that of Sy...

I recently watched a charming video comparing two currently available minchiates, Scarabeo's and Meneghello's, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3UkT8dfOk. It shows that they are the same deck; the only difference is the coloring. Lo Scarabeo's has the water blue, for example, while in Meneghello it...

I have found another difference between early Bologna and early Florence: the aces are different. I checked all the decks I linked to. In Bologna, the hands holding the Baton and Sword come from the left, but from the right in Florence. For Swords, I give one from Bologna and three from Florence. Be...

As cited in my previous post, De Giorgio's assertion that Florentine Kings of Coins and Cups are invariably unbearded, unlike those of Bologna, also invariably, provides the means to show that the Yale 14 minchiate cards are from Florence and not Bologna. But given the amount of misinformation that ...

I want to pursue several issues raised by Franco's essay of the previous post. One is, what is the date range for the production of these 14 cards? I suspect that it can be narrowed further. (2) What do the backs of the cards - "Poverone," "Poverino," and the Medici arms - say ab...

One of Franco's Pratesi's 2023 essays seems to me to raise issues of broad interest, both to those of us concerned with tarot origins as well as collectors, in general, how to tell from the cards, in the case of a partial deck, what city a minchiate comes from and when it was made. This is of course...

This translation is of "Trionfo e Lamento: Tarocchi in Vaticano," dated Sept. 5, 2023, in Italian at https://www.naibi.net/A/TRIOLAM.pdf. In the original Italian, it contains transcriptions of two 16th-century tarocchi poems, both already known here and extensively discussed (see Franco's ...

Here is a follow-up to Franco's previous 2024 essay on Florentine inheritance inventories, that posted immediately above. The new one below, dated Feb. 12, 2024, is translated from https://www.naibi.net/A/VECCHIETTI.pdf. This one gives the significant result - even if only in one case out of countle...