Re: help identification tarot of marseilles
Posted: 29 Apr 2021, 10:08
Franco Pratesi gave this comment . ..
At an older text I quoted once an IPCS page ...Together with Finale cards arrived into Florence cards from Oneglia, now one half of Imperia.
I have no idea of the previous history, I only imagine that people have studied the history of papermaking there. If there was a big production of paper, it is reasonable to assume some production of playing-cards as a secondary activity.
The I.P.S.C. gives the following information:
This type of pack originated in Florence in the first half of the 16th century, by 1540 at the latest. It is properly designated "Italo-Portuguese", since, while it has several "Portuguese" characteristics, it lacks others, and the pattern was presumably devised at a date when the Portuguese type was not yet thought of as constituting a distinct suit-system. By the later 17th century, it was in use also in Genoa, where it was known as Ganellini, and in Sicily, where it was known as Gallerini, the word "Minchiate" having an obscene connotation in both areas. It died out in Sicily during the 18th century, when, however, it became highly popular in Rome under the name "Minchiate", which in the 17th century had replaced the original name of "Germini". It seems to have died out in Florence in about 1900, and in Rome probably some decades earlier.