Do you have this picture in large ...?
What interests me very much ... Is there a chance, that the playing card production in Finale started in ca. 1500 or even earlier? The time of 1500 is rather explosive, as far playing card development is concerned.
Firenze was a very secure place for playing card development, the most documents that we have are from Florence thanks to the engagement of Franco Pratesi , but also thanks to the condition, that Florence and Toscana had a very good bureaucracy and bewared lots of documents in their archives. Now we have for the playing card peace in Florence the disturbing situation of 1497/98, when Savonarola burned playing cards. And was burnt himself under conditions, when still other Savonarolists were still active and powerful in Florence. This surely had to do with the situation, that France tried to attack aims in Italy 1494 - 1500 and finally was successful in Milan and also in Genoa. And with Genoa also in Savona and in Finale.
France had in this period late 15th / early 16th century considerable success in the development of a functional playing card industry, which finally led to the condition, that the French suit system became the most used suit system in the world. With this background the observation, that the first Tarot words as Taraux and Tarochi appear in 1502-1505 and first Germini appeared in1506 (as far we know it from our researches) wins a special interest.
Here's the document of 1506, in the article of Franco Pratesi
http://naibi.net/A/IPCS44N1.pdf
translated at
http://pratesitranslations.blogspot.com ... on-on.html
These are the 3 interesting lines
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36 paia di germini e tr(i)onfi ... speaks of 36 decks with Germini and Trionfi
1 paio di tr(i)onfi alla franc(i)osa non finiti ... a not finished French Trionfi deck
26 forme tra grande e piccolo da germini più chartoni ... 26 big and small forms (production tools)
Other important factors in this deciding time are Pope Julius II (pope since late 1503), earlier cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, and Alfonso d'Este, duke of Ferrara since January 1505.
Both are involved with playing cards and they hated each other. Pope Julius was born in Savona and he was bishop in Savona 1499-1502. Then he went to Vercelli and then he became pope. Pope Alexander VI. wished he could capture the cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, but he escaped to France. Giuliano had a lot with the fact to do, that French kings attacked states in Italy between 1494-1500. Alfonso was married to Lucrezia, daughter of Alexander VI. So Julius started intrigues, that Ferrante, brother of Alfonso, should replace Alfonso. Ferrante and another brother went to prison for this. And there they stayed for a long life.