Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

1
We have discussed the "Orfeo" packs of Lucca in this Forum before. One good set of posts starts at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14940&hilit=orfeo#p14937. There are also the summaries by Dummett, to different conclusions, three paragraphs down in this present post.

An article in The Playing Card for Oct.-Dec. 2017, pp. 65-747 "The Orfeo Conundrum" by Giobattista Monzali, sheds some new light on these cards. especially in regard to the dating--and also, along the way, the manufacturer. In addition, he distinguishes between two types of "Orfeo" decks: those that definitely are minchiate and those that might be tarocchi. He also makes a nice observation about the woodblocks used in the two cases but does not draw any conclusions from that.

Packs are called "Orfeo" packs because several of them show Orpheus on their backs; but they also include packs with "alla fama" and "d'Lucca" backs (images on p. 66). These packs share some things tying them to Lucca: the Lucca skyline on the "Trombe" card, as opposed to that of Bologna or Florence; also two horizontal bands on the 2 of Coins (in the "Orfeo" minchiate decks), which seems to be unique to Lucca (images p. 70); and the pages of Swords have the coat of arms of Lucca (images p. 67)

One mystery about these decks, or rather some of them, is whether they are minchiate or tarocchi, and if tarocchi, how many cards in the deck On the latter, Dummett in 1993 speculated that there were 69 cards in all; see viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1019&p=15181&hilit=Orfeo#p15181, In 1981 he had argued for 78, at http://askalexander.org/display/22525/T ... 5?pw=orfeo. Why did he change his mind? All I can think of is the fact that no decks have been discovered in the interim that have any of trumps I-IX and are not clearly minchiates. This continues to be true.

Another mystery is when they were made, i.e. whether in the 18th century or as early as the 17th. On this one Manzoni makes a real contribution.

For the dating, Monzali compares certain cards of a known Lucca minchiate deck (with a geometric pattern on its back (shown on p. 68 ) with those of an "Orfeo" minchiate deck (not one of those that might be a tarocchi, however). They are very similar except for the writing on the cards, which appears to identify the card maker. The Lucca minchiate without one of the three backs characteristic of the "Orfeo" packs has on its 2 of Cups the name "SANTI" plus the initials F and G. The 5 of Cups has the initials S, F, and G. Trump XXIIII (Libra) has on it "SANTI" on one line, then "G" with space for more letters which may have come off, then on the next line "NELLI". The "Orfeo" minchiate has on its 2 of Cups the letter "F". The 5 of Cups has the initials S, F, and G. Nothing can be read on the Libra card (all shown on p. 69).

Monzali recalls (p. 68) that in March of 1996 Franco Pratesi had published a list of the holders of the concession to collect the taxes on playing cards in Lucca. The name of Santi Giovannelli appears on this list for 1722-1724 and later as Santi Felice Giovannelli from 1727-1745,when he is replaced by someone else.. Franco's list had no names for 1725-1727, So the "Orfeo" minchiate can be dated to 1722-1745.

Monzali also clarifies a few things that previous writers had not gone into. Of the Orfeo packs, as I mentioned, some are clearly minchiates, because they have the standard female pages in coins and cups and centaur knights of minchiate (shown pp. 72 and 73), as well as cards unique to minchiate. There is one "Orfeo" deck from the 2006 auction of the Kaplan collection, which has trumps III, IV, V, VI, and VIII (thus far missing from the type with tarocchi-style pages and knights), but also XXIIII-XXVIII, XXX, and XXXIIII (p. 65), which make it clearly a minchiate (he does not say what the pages and knights look like.; presumably they are mnchiate-style). There is also, brought to the attention of the IPCS in 2014, an "alla fama" deck done by Giovannelli in a museum in Lucca that is a complete minchiate (p. 68). And more recently another Giovannelli minchiatw has "been detected" (p. 68), which is the deck he uses to argue for Giovannelli's production of the possibly non-minchiate decks. He does not say, that I can find, whether this deck has any of trumps I-VIII.

As many have noted, the problematic "Orfeo" decks have all-male pages and mounted knights, suggestive of tarocchi (shown same pp. ). The Fool and Aces are also different from minchiate's (added later: the "Orfeo" can be seen in a post by Huck at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14940&hilit=orfeo#p14945), and for these decks none of the cards unique to minchiate are extant. These facts speak in favor of their being tarocchi.

On the other hand, most of the existing designs, other than those mentioned, are precisely those of minchiate. Also, Franco could find no records of tarocchi produced in Lucca, only minchiate, whether for export or local consumption, during this time (p. 76). Also, the numbering of the triumphs is precisely that of minchiate, at least for the 12 extant ones plus the Fool. No known tarocchi has precisely that order.

If tarocchi, then how many triumphs, given that none of the triumphs below IX the Wheel is extant? For comparison, here is Dummett's list of A-type trump orders, from his 1980 Game of Tarot:
Image
Conceivably for the "Orfeo" there are only 69 cards altogether, i. e. 56 + 12 +1. Or there might be 8 below IX the Wheel, as in minchiate, but for a total of 77 cards altogether. Or there is an additional unnumbered card below the Bagato, as in the Sicilian tarocchi, for 78. Or there are 4 "Papi" as in the Bolognese tarocchini, with an unnumbered Bagato, again for 78.

Both issues, whether the problematic packs are tarocchi or minchiate, and how many cards in these packs, remain unresolved. Monzali says (p. 76),
Weighing I would give two-third to the first option (Minchiate pack) and one-third to second one (Tarot pack). However, I am not happy at all with the reconstruction of a pack of 69 cards suggested by Sylvia Mann.
I cannot find in his article anywhere he has shared with us his reasons for such unhappiness with the 69 card alternative..

The nice point about the woodblocks is that Monzali notices (p. 75) that the "Orfeo" minchiate decks seem to use the same woodblock as the non-Orfeo minchiates of Lucca, but with more wear, but the possibly tarocchi decks use new woodblocks. What is to be gained from this information is not clear. However it does rule out one speculation that Dummett had in 1980 (which I put in bold below; copied from Game of Tarot Ch. 20, at viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1175&p=19235&hilit=Orfeo#p19235):
Perhaps the designs used were not at that time regarded as the exclusive property of the Minchiate pack, which had probably taken them over, at the time of its invention in the previous century, from some local standard pattern for the normal Tarot pack; or, possibly, the cardmaker using the sign Orfeo found it more economical to use Minchiate blocks, so far as he could, to produce ordinary 78-card Tarot packs.
My only criticism of the article is that, while being more complete than anything else, it should have been a bit more more complete. In particular, does the Kaplan collection deck have minchiate knights and pages, or tarocchi ones? He doesn't say, that I can find. Perhaps it is assumed without checking. And does the Lucca minchiate in his possession have any of trumps I-VIII? Do we need to allow for the possibility of a third type of Lucca pack, one with the cards unique to minchiate but without any trumps below VIIII. I hope not. Also, if he is going to reject the 69 card hypothesis, he should tell us why.

I hesitate to reproduce the images here, because all of them, the article says at the end, are from the author's private collection. The Playing Card now has a pdf electronic edition for $16 a year, or 12 pounds Sterling, The print edition is 30 pounds and up, which besides the current volume also gives access to back issues via "Ask Alexander", and other things. See https://i-p-c-s.org/subs/join.php for more information.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Added later: For nice images of "Orfeo" cards, see Huck's post at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14940&hilit=orfeo#p14945
Last edited by mikeh on 25 Dec 2017, 00:14, edited 4 times in total.

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but stil mysterious

2
I have found the relevant page of the auction catalog for the Kaplan auction catalog,
http://askalexander.org/display/22146/C ... 4?pw=Orfeo

It only shows one of the pages and knights, the page of swords. It is the standard minchiate image, not the tarocchi image. Also, in the blurb it is described as having "Portuguese suits". So we can conclude that the deck is a minchiate, not one of the ones whose composition is so mysterious.

Added later: my conclusion is thus different from what Ross said at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14950&hilit=Orfeo#p14949. Admittedly there are no knights pictured, but it would seem that the Page of Swords is enough to show that it is a minchiate. The other type is quite different (see next post), with its shield and no sword overhead.
Last edited by mikeh on 24 Dec 2017, 11:19, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but stil mysterious

3
I happen to have from Interlibrary Loan the right volumes of the Cary Collection Cataloque, 1981, volumes 2 (text) and 4 (images) to post what this catalogue has of the three "Orfeo" type (actually, one with a "standing figure" back and two with "alla fama" backs. According to Monzali (p. 66), Dummett in Il Mondo e l'Angelo says that the back with the "standing figure" is of "a young man holding a sword inscribed but without any caption".

So here is ITA 49, first the text and then the images. This is the best I can do, with the library's scanner set on "photo" and "high resolution".
Image
Image
Image
I think you can make out the shield in front of the Page of Swords (on the left). It is of the "Orfeo" problematic type, i.e. possibly tarocchi.

Then here are the two others, first the descriptions and then the images:
Image
Image
I think you can make out the horse underneath the knight, top left, and that the page of Batons, bottom middle, is of the right type to be possibly tarocchi.
Huck had a post with good images of the Orfeo minchiate vs. possible tarocchi style pages and and knights, at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14940&hilit=orfeo#p14945

It would be nice if these cards were in the Beinecke Library online digital collection, but if so I haven't found them.
Last edited by mikeh on 25 Dec 2017, 00:05, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

5
MikeH wrote (post 1 in this thread) ...
One mystery about these decks, or rather some of them, is whether they are minchiate or tarocchi, and if tarocchi, how many cards in the deck On the latter, Dummett in 1993 speculated that there were 69 cards in all; see viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1019&p=15181&hilit=Orfeo#p15181, In 1981 he had argued for 78, at http://askalexander.org/display/22525/T ... 5?pw=orfeo. Why did he change his mind? All I can think of is the fact that no decks have been discovered in the interim that have any of trumps I-IX and are not clearly minchiates. This continues to be true.
Sylvia Mann wrote in "All cards on the table", 1990, at page 20 ...
Very closely allied was another obsolete Tarot pack, called here the Lucca Tarot which seems to have 69 cards only, very much in the style of the Florentine Minchiate and having the same design for its 13 trumps but omitting I-VIII and XVI-XXXV, and simply retaining IX-XV and the 5 top, unnumbered trumps and the Fool, as well as having different Court figures. So far there is no clue to the game for which this was used.
At another place she added a few other sentences at p. 40. The book was made for a German exhibition 1990-91, at which the Lucca Tarocchi was shown.


I've transferred some material from Aclectic ... (it proved to be somewhat complicated, so I was content with only a part).
If you want more, visit http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=253494
Lucca Tarocchi

The given picture likely
These two pictures (both from the same source) were on the web, an older address stopped to worked, but I'd saved it. They likely belong to a catalog of an exhibition in Schaffhausen in 1988. Then only 1 complete Lucca Tarocchi existed (according Sylvia Mann), but already others incomplete with less trumps.
Image
Image
About 1990 Sylvia Mann reported about the Lucca Tarocchi
All cards on the table exhibition catalog in 1990/91:
Image
In the 2000s I found an auction report:
Image

The text declared:
Orfeo Tarot Pack (Tarot Lucchhese or Tarot di Lucca). Lucca, Italy, ca. 1730. 57/69 . The total number of cards in a complete pack is unknown, as is the date of publication. Missing: 2 5 of Cups, 5 7 of Batons, 7 of Swords and all seven trumps IX to XV. Only two packs thought to be complete are known.
So the auctioneer declared, that there were two complete decks then. I've no confirmation for that.
The 6 pictures were given in a larger version:
Image
**************
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

6
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/collectio ... 96-0501-35

And I'm confused, is Orfeo a trump and also the backs of the cards? The BM says "Hand-coloured woodcut Backs printed in black with a figure of Orpheus". Or do they mean the backs are black and within the deck is the (odd) Orpheus trump?

One might have thought Orpheus replaced the Sun/Apollo as that was his tutelary god, but both are present in the trumps (if Orfeo a trump). It looks like Apollo's laurel tree arches over Orpheus as he plays a viola(?), famously charming animals. Unless I missed it there is no Strength trump, and given the only animal is a prone lion - like in many Strength trumps - I'm inclined to think this is a clever depiction of that card, where the club is replaced by the more sublime yet conquering symbol of music.

No overt sign of Orpheus's wife Eurydice, but plenty of pre-c.1730 material that championed that theme: Jacopo Peri's Euridice (1600, based entirely upon books X and XI of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607), Luigi Rossi's L'Orfeo (1647), the French composer who began his career in Italy, Marc-Antoine Charpentier's La descente d'Orphée aux enfers (1686), and a cantata Orphée descendant aux enfers(1683), Christoph Willibald Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice (1762). This last, although it premiered in Vienna in 1762, involved numerous ex-pat Italians from the Tuscan and Ligurian regions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orfeo_ed_Euridice

It is possible Eurydice - given the otherwise strong presence of that theme in Italy at this time - is made to be represented upon the Chariot, where a nude woman appears to sit cross-legged ("privates" open to the viewer) with the titulus Fama Vola above ("the report or rumor flies" - Virgil). Problematic as we first encounter fama attributes associated with the World trump. If Orpheus is strength, is that virtue directed against the "unchaste" nude female on the chariot? At an oracle of Dionysus, where Orpheus saluted the sun at dawn, he was ripped to shreds by Thracian women for not honoring his previous patron Dionysus . Given the Virgil quote on the Chariot his version is likely, but Ovid was of course popular for mythic material; in Ovid's version Orpheus abstained from the love of women, either because things ended badly for him, or because he had sworn to do so (Met. X). So perhaps the wife left in hell and his manner of death by women are both generally symbolized by the female figure. It is possible the that the Chariot celebrates Orpheus's fetching of Eurydice from Hades, but he famously failed in that venture and why would Eurydice be depicted nude, sitting rudely on the cart without at least a chair and apparently bound?

If all of this is valid, an odd mix-up of Chastity who originally is associated with the Chariot in the CY (the jousting shield to fend off Cupid), and now is made to recall that theme but only if juxtaposed with Orpheus. We accordingly get a triumph of Orpheus's fame due to his chastity - his denial of women - and the nude woman is bound at the hands by the titulus like the bound Cupid sitting on the front of Chastity's cart, likewise without a chair. One wonders if there wasn't a club of aesthetes in Lucca with strong homosexual preferences....but from here you'd really have to dive into the social history of Lucca in the 18th century; certainly this Orpheus/gay-theme was already attested to in Renaissance England and no doubt in Italian if one pursues this angle: https://dro.dur.ac.uk/17060/. All of this might help explain the limited production run of this deck.
Image

Sometimes Chastity sits enthroned on her processional cart, but stands victorious here on an ornamental dais (trophy stand?) while cupid sits nude on the cart, just like in the Orfeo Chariot above:
Image

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

7
Phaeded wrote: 02 Feb 2021, 17:03 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/collectio ... 96-0501-35

And I'm confused, is Orfeo a trump and also the backs of the cards? The BM says "Hand-coloured woodcut Backs printed in black with a figure of Orpheus". Or do they mean the backs are black and within the deck is the (odd) Orpheus trump?
"Orfeo" is the name of a backside, and "alla Fama" and "d'Lucca" are others.

Depaulis in a catalog of an exhibition 1984-85
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k ... eu%20magie
Image


Image



An article of Franco Pratesi 1995-96, reflecting articles of Depaulis and Sylvia Mann (point 6 in the article) to the Lucca Tarocchi and giving early 18th century dates for recorded playing card activities in Lucca (point 7).
PLAYING CARDS IN LUCCA
http://naibi.net/A/59-LUCCA-Z.pdf
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

8
Huck wrote: 03 Feb 2021, 06:26
Phaeded wrote: 02 Feb 2021, 17:03 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/collectio ... 96-0501-35

And I'm confused, is Orfeo a trump and also the backs of the cards? The BM says "Hand-coloured woodcut Backs printed in black with a figure of Orpheus". Or do they mean the backs are black and within the deck is the (odd) Orpheus trump?
"Orfeo" is the name of a backside, and "alla Fama" and "d'Lucca" are others.

An article of Franco Pratesi 1995-96, reflecting articles of Depaulis and Sylvia Mann (point 6 in the article) to the Lucca Tarocchi and giving early 18th century dates for recorded playing card activities in Lucca (point 7).
PLAYING CARDS IN LUCCA
http://naibi.net/A/59-LUCCA-Z.pdf
Thanks Huck.

Even if Orfeo was the most common type, comparing the three card-backs is interesting: The female appears to be a variant of Prudence holding a compass; the soldier with a reference to fama perhaps merely the quest of any man of mean's ambitions. And the prone lion is unambiguous to any cardplayer familiar with tarot (or any number of representations of the seven virtues) - Strength. So like Prudence, the Orfeo variant is also suggestive of a cardinal virtue.

The fact that fama appears both as a card-back and on the titulus of the Chariot singles out that trump for special attention as it reflects the supposed goal - fame - but in terms of what is conquered: not male Cupid but an allegorized female cupidity, perhaps thought of as a terrestrial Venus (vs. the sublimated Uranian/heavenly Venus). Therefore I would still maintain a special connection in the Orfeo decks, between Orfeo and the Chariot. Like the knight errant suggested but the soldier back, the mystic seer figure of Orfeo overcomes fate (the Wheel is one of the few trumps) while maintaining chaste (the nude female on the chariot being temptation).

And back to the proposed aesthete literary group in Lucca, with perhaps homosexual proclivities, there is at least strong historical evidence as to why a misogynistic turn might be expected in Lucca:

Hewlett (M) Women, sodomy and sexual abuse in Late Renaissance Lucca, PhD diss, University of Toronto, 2000

Hewlett, M. (2005) “The French Connection: Syphilis and Sodomy in Late-Renaissance Lucca,” in K. Siena (ed.)Sins of the Flesh: Responding to Sexual Disease in Early Modern Europe, Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2005, pp. 239–60.

Finally, an excellent paper on Lucca's political opera, providing a reason the musical Orpheus would be singled out for a card-back:
Peter N. Miller, "Stoics who sing: Lessons in Citizenship from Early Modern Lucca", Historical Journal, 44, 2001
Abstract: Lucca was the smallest and least important of the three Italian republics that survived the Renaissance. Venice and Genoa still command the attention of historians. But in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, for all that it might seem out-of-the-way, Lucca developed an extraordinary political literature. The regular election of senators was marked by the musical performance of a text, generally drawn from Roman history, that illustrated the way citizens of a republic were to behave. The poet and composer were natives and the event was a lesson in citizenship. A close look at the content of these serenades, or operas [Orfeo e Euridice?], makes clear that the republic's motto might have been Libertas but its teaching emphasized constantia. The themes and the heroes of Lucca's political literature were those we associate with neo-Stoicism. The relationship between neo-Stoicism and citizenship in early modern Lucca is the focus of this article. These texts present us with the self-image of an early modern republic and its understanding of what it meant to be a citizen. They are an important source for anyone interested in early modern debates about citizenship and in the political ideas that are conveyed in the commonplaces of baroque visual and musical culture.

Available via the author's academia.edu page, here: https://www.academia.edu/8195292/Stoics ... dern_Lucca

Obviously a libretti dealing specifically with Orpheus would clinch this matter (I haven't seen the list of all 89 plays), but the cultural context goes back to at least Poliziano's Fabula d'Orfeo, and Ottavio Rinuccini's pastorale, Euridice, used as the libretto for Peri's opera, Euridice, performed at the Pitti Palace in 1600 for Maire de Medici and Henry IV's wedding. For a general background for Orpheus see Chapter 4 "Orpheus's Ways" in Mitchell Cohen's The Politics of Opera: A History from Monteverdi to Mozart (2020: 55f).

Phaeded

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

9
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 quoted material to by-pass that and I'm sure as hell not going to retype all of this):

Excerpts:
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

Sorry about the visible formatting but not going to make this anymore painful and edit that back out (and I pasted this into Word and removed all formatting so really curious as to how the pdf code - if that's what it is - stayed in the text).

Re: Orfeo packs now dated but still mysterious

10
I detected today a webpage ... "Opera d'arte a Lucca"
https://www.beni-culturali.eu/opere_d_a ... -68/371078
It has a Minchiate deck (possibly from Lucca) and the author presents this text:
Nella cartella relativa all'opera, conservata a Palazzo Mansi, si conserva una lettera del professore Michael Dummet del New College di Oxford, pervenuta al Museo, che così riporta: 'si tratta dei tarocchi del tipo detto 'i Germini' (oppure all'inizio del Settecento, le 'Minchiate'). Questo tipo trasse origine a Firenze. La differenza principale dal tipo normale dei tarocchi consisteva nel numero dei trionfi (o tarocchi propri), cioè 40 invece di 21. I primi 35 trionfi sono numerati e sono in grado crescente: la Stella, la Luna, il Mondo, le Trombe (la carta suprema del mazzo). Come nel mazzo normale dei tarocchi, ci sono 14 carte in ciascuno dei quattro semi (Spade, Bastoni, Coppe, Denari), cioè l'asso, il due, il tre.... dieci e quattro figure. Con il Matto, il mazzo comprende 97 carte. Il gioco dei Germani era ben noto in tutta la Toscana, ed anche negli Stati Pontifici. Il gioco ebbe origine nella seconda decade del Cinquecento e morì verso la fine dell'Ottocento (ma a Genova, dove anche si giocava a questo gioco, là detto ' i Gallerini', sopravviveva fino a circa il 1930). Non sono sicuro se questo mazzo sia di fabbricazione fiorentina o lucchese. Non c'è qualche caratteristica dei mazzi che erano certo fabbricati a Lucca, per esempio lo stemma di Lucca sul fante di Spade: ma questi mazzi (di cui non esiste uno completo) non sono mazzi di Germini, ma di Tarocchi normali, e il loro disegno differisce, in riguardo a certe carte, dal disegno dei Germini. Ci sono alcune fra queste carte lucchesi che portano dal rovescio le parole 'ALLA FAMA', ma c'era anche un cartaio fiorentino che usava come marca di fabbrica le parole ALLA FAMA. Nella mia opinione, il mazzo sarebbe probabilmente di provenienza lucchese, della seconda metà del Seicento: ma è difficile esserne sicuri.'
Automatic Google translation
In the folder relating to the work, kept in Palazzo Mansi, there is a letter from Professor Michael Dummet of the New College of Oxford, received by the Museum, which states: 'it is the tarot of the type called' i Germini '(or the early eighteenth century, the 'Minchiate'). This type originated in Florence. The main difference from the normal type of tarot was the number of trumps (or proper tarots), ie 40 instead of 21. The first 35 trumps are numbered and are in increasing degree: the Star, the Moon, the World, the Trumpets (the top card of the deck). As in the normal tarot deck, there are 14 cards in each of the four suits (Swords, Batons, Cups, Coins), ie the ace, the two, the three .... ten and four courts. With the Fool, the deck includes 97 cards. The game of the Germans was well known throughout Tuscany, and also in the Papal States. The game originated in the second decade of the sixteenth century and died towards the end of the nineteenth century (but in Genoa, where this game was also played, there called 'the Gallerini', it survived until about 1930). I'm not sure if this deck is from Florence or Lucca. There is no characteristic of the decks that were certainly manufactured in Lucca, for example the coat of arms of Lucca on the knave of Swords: but these decks (of which there is no complete one) are not decks of Germini, but of normal Tarots, and the their design differs, with regard to certain papers, from the design of the Germini. There are some of these Lucca papers that carry the words 'ALLA FAMA' on the reverse, but there was also a Florentine paper maker who used the words ALLA FAMA as a trademark. In my opinion, the deck would probably come from Lucca, from the second half of the seventeenth century: but it's hard to be sure.
Image

Large Image:
http://www.catalogo.beniculturali.it/im ... 015191.JPG

Well, I'm shocked about the "The game of the Germans (Tarot or Minchiate or Germini ?) was well known throughout Tuscany, and also in the Papal States." I would like to know, how the author comes to this opinion. Possibly he associated the name Germini to Germany?

**********

Added: I compared the picture to pictures, that I've from the Lucca Tarocchi (Version with 69 cards)

I got this result:
Lucca trumps are 4th row from right to left 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 16 ... all rather similar
Lucca trumps are 5th row from right to left 40, 39, 38, 37, 36 ... all rather similar
However, I don't find a card, which looks similar to the Fool
Image


***************

I remember in a dark way, that I've read somewhere, that one (ore more) complete Orfeo decks (97 cards) were found, so that the Lucca Tarocchi riddle (69 cards for Sylvia Mann) had been solved, so, that it never really existed. Possibly here ...
https://i-p-c-s.org/problist.html .... "Unsolved Problems concerning Tarot and Italian Cards" by Michael Dummett 1999
An extraordinary type of Tarot pack, using Minchiate designs for many but not all of the cards, with 56 suit cards, the Matto and only twelve trumps (missing all those below the IX, including of course the Bagatto) appears to have been peculiar to Lucca. For what game was this used?
[March 2012: An incomplete Orfeo pack in Mr. Stuart Kaplan's collection, that was offered at auction in 2006 (auction catalogue, no. 128), yielded some of the missing trumps, namely: IIII-VI, VIII, XIII, XV, XXII, XXIIII-XXVIII, XXX, XXXIIII. Therefore, it is possible that all Orfeo packs were in fact regular Minchiate packs.]
I had my doubts about it, cause I remembered the Stubbai valley Tarot, also called Droggn.
"Droggn, sometimes called French Tarock (German: Französisches Tarock) is an extinct card game from the Austrian branch of the Tarock family for three players that was played in the Stubai valley in Tyrol, Austria until the 1980s. Droggn is originally local dialect for "to play Tarock" (in standard German usually "tarockieren"), but it has become the proper name of this specific Tarock variant. An unusual feature of the game compared with other Tarock games is the use of a 66-card deck and that there is no record in the literature of a 66-card game and no current manufacturers of a such a deck. The structure of the game strongly indicates that it is descended from the later version of Tarok l'Hombre, a 78-card Tarock game popular in 19th-century Austria and Germany, but with the subsequent addition of two higher bids.
During his research into The Game of Tarot, Michael Dummett learned that 66-card Tarock packs had been made during the 19th century in the Tyrol, but could find no record of any games played with 66 cards. Equally curious was that Piatnik had continued to manufacture 78-card packs into the 1980s, even though Austrian literature suggested that games played with more than 54 cards had died out in the early part of the 19th century. In 1992, card game researcher, Remigius Geiser, found out from Piatnik that, towards the end, 78-card packs had been sold exclusively in the Stubai valley near Innsbruck. In their follow-up work, Geiser and McLeod tracked down a number of players who had played the game of Droggn in the past and were able to demonstrate its rules. Some of the players called it French Tarock (Französisches Tarock).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droggn

The players bought full Tarock versions (78 cards) and simply reduced it to 66 cards from the not necessary cards (12 cards). Something similar might have happened in Lucca, but there the difference would have been 69 to 97 cards, that would have been much more cards without function. In this case possibly 4 blocks with 24 cards each were used to produce the Minchiate version, and possibly a full block was spared.

**********

Added later (09/02/2021): An article to an exhibition of the deck (2014)
https://www.luccaindiretta.it/cultura-e ... 700/25131/
Image
Last edited by Huck on 09 Feb 2021, 21:45, edited 2 times in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com