Seriously, that's what you consider conclusive proof - worse photos than what is available on-line? First of all, unlike your quality shot of the Ace of Cups these shaky photos - and the distracting light reflection (flash?) on all of the tooled elements - compare that to Wiki's hi-res after yours ...

I know you don't believe that Bembo painted 22 trumps. I can only point out that I firmy disagree with your theory of 1460-1470 in Ferrara for 22 trumps, or any trump-evolution scenario. Let's agree by both being fascinated by the history of Tarot, and hopefully the future will show who is right an...

Are they forgeries? That would be strange, since PMB wasn't known to the public until Parravicino in 1903 Hi Ross, here you don't have a point. Maybe the cards have been hidden for years, in the 15th Century they were most probably on display for the upperclass (at least for noble people and famous...

then why are all of the smaller shields on the court cards a goldish hue, right next to dull gray oxidized silver, showing they are not silver? Sorry Phaeded, there is no gold on the blazons. Hereunder the pictures of the two knights I took myself in Bergamo. Maybe you should go there to have a loo...

I know, but in 1451 Venice, Naples, Savoy, and Montferrat joined forces against Sforza, who turned to Cosimo de Medici and concluded a Milan–Florence alliance that brought the Peace of Lodi (1454) and permitted him to consolidate his rule over Milan. Cosimo de Medici was the principal architect of t...

Hello Ross, It is only recently that I heard about this possible attribution to Franco dei Russi and the possibility that the blazon is from the Bon family. Personnally I think it would be very improbable that Francesco Sforza would dedicate this extremeny precious deck to a Venetian family. However...

No one dates the PMB after 1473 - the scholarly consensus is c. 1451-1454 If you want to react on a post you have to read it. The PMB has been made in the range 1451-1454, but there are 6 cards that have been made later, the virtues Temperance and Strength, the Star, the Moon, the Sun and the World...

the "Star" is quickly turned into such things as astronomers or the Three Wise men observing the star of Bethlehem, which has nothing to do with the oldest example in the PMB, and now simply called "star". Sorry, but the PMB star is not the oldest star card we have. This honour ...

Hi Nathaniel, I went a little bit deeper through your posts and the answers. I really appreciate your opinion and your effort to give new viewpoints there where a lot of uncertainty persists. However, even if I do not agree with everything they said, I think that Huck and Mike expressed at least 90%...

Hi Nathaniel, Thanks for your very interesting post. I'm sorry I did not react earlier, simply because I did not see it before. Some two months ago I got a new job in Mauritania and I was totally absorbed by this. There are many extremely interesting things in your posts but at some, at the first qu...