Tarocchi di Linus

Creator(s): Nicola Falcioni
Date: 1966
Country: Italy
Publisher: Baldini & Castoldi
Number of Cards: 24
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: 








 

Notes:
The cards were an add-on in the issue 3 (12) anno II 1966 of the Italian comics magazine linus . It was the first Italian comics magazine which featured stories for adults.

linus had a leftist cultural stance and it's editorial supported the Italian Communist Party. From the magazine's beginning, the comics section was accompanied by an extensive section dealing with society, politics, mass media, literature and other cultural themes. Among others Umberto Eco and Enzo Baldoni, the Italian journalist and writer killed in Iraq in 2004, worked for linus.

The cards came as an uncut fold-out sheet in the comics magazine. It's 24 cards, 20 of them majors and 4 aces for the 4 suits named coppe, spade, bastoni, denari. On most of the majors the traditional Tarot Marseilles imagery is recognizable and they have the traditional names. There are no cards for Magician, Justice and Chariot, but there is an aditional card "Il Fiore" (the flower) . The cards are non-traditional renumbered.  Instead of an lwb there is a page with interpretations for the cards in the magazine. I don't know if a complete tarot deck of these exists or if they are to find only in this comics magazine.

Le Jeu de Tarot

Creator(s): Chloé Marie Gaillard
Date: 2017
Country: USA
Publisher: Uusi
Number of Cards: 22+2+1
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: 
 

Notes:
This is the first in a series of Major Arcana decks by guest artists that Uusi is putting out . Chloé Marie Gaillard is a French self-taught artist currently living in  New Mexico. She studied fashion and worked for Christian Dior.

Each card is signed by the artist somewhere in the picture, they have a number and a French title at the bottom. Strength is 8 and Justice 11.  The deck combines the classic Marseilles imagery with shamanistic motives.

The cards are printed in USA on quality thick art paper, lightly varnished on both sides, they come in a screen printed wrap on recycled, heavy paper stock and with a bag. There are two title cards and another additional card with a short biography of Gaillard. Card size is 75mm x 130mm. The backs are reversible. This is a limited edition of 250, mine is number 3.

Das Tarockspiel der Visconti ( I Tarocchi dei Visconti )

Creator(s): Bonifacio Bembo or Francesco Zavattari
Date: 1977, 1974, 1450*
Country: Germany
Publisher: edition popp
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 3881550119
Type: Lombardy
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. I pp. 63-107, 285







Notes: 
The name Visconti Tarot is used collectively to refer to incomplete sets of approximately 15 decks from the middle of the 15th-century, now located in various museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. No complete deck has survived. For those three of them, which have the most surviving cards, exist today reprints.

One, which is named the Brera-Brambilla is located in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan it was painted for Filippo Maria Visconti, another is named the Visconti di Modrone pack and belongs to the Cary Collection at Yale University. At least the numeral cards for this pack were also painted for Filippo Maria Visconti, though it may be that the trumps and court cards are of a later date.  The third deck, which is referred to as the Visconti-Sforza, was painted for Francesco Sforza, who was married to Filippo Maria Visconti's only child Bianca Maria.

From this pack the Pierpont-Morgan Library in New York has 35 cards, the Accademia Carrara has 26 in its catalogue, while the remaining 13 cards are in the private collection of the Colleoni family in Bergamo.

"Das Tarockspiel der Visconti" is a reprint/restauration of the Visconti-Sforza Tarot. The original Italian edition from 1974 by Monumenta Lomgobardica was named "I Tarocchi dei Visconti", this is the German edition from 1977 printed by Grafica Gutenberg. It's a limited edition of 400, mine is number 3.

It is not sure, who the artist(s) for the Visconti decks were. Sometimes Bonifacio Bembo gets credited with the artwork, other scholars attribute the cards to Francesco Zavattari.

The Visconti-Sforza pack contains 74 cards, the four cards missing are The Devil, The Tower, Three of Swords and Knight of Coins. The replacement for the Knight of Coins was created by using a reversed image of the Knight of Cups and substituting a coin for the cup in the knights hand. The Three of Swords was made by erasing the two inner crossed swords from the Five of Swords. The Devil and The Tower were recreated in full color in a style as they may have appeared in the fifteenth century. The artist who recreated the missing cards is not named.


 Six of the cards ( Fortitude, Temperance, the Star, the Moon, the Sun and the World ) in this deck are likely made by a different artist than the other cards, four of those six later cards have the feature that in the foreground the earth terminates abruptly in a vertical cliff.

The pin holes at the top of each card do suggest that they were given or lent as artist’s models to other painters (this possibly explains how four cards are now missing). There are several incomplete sets, which contain one or more cards copied from this deck, sometimes reversed, sometimes with the original orientation.

Many cards contain either heraldic motifs or inscriptions such as “a bon droyt” or “amor myo”.The figures on the suit of bastoni wear silver pleated garments and carry a long staff. Those on the suit of cups wear gold garments, embellished by the heraldic device of sun and rays; each figure holds a large chalice.
The suit of swords shows figures dressed in full armour, carrying a large sword. The characters represented on the suit of coins wear garments decorated with blue ribbons wound around circular suns. The Knight of this suit is the only one not wearing a ducal crown.

Londa Tarot

Creator(s): Londa Marks
Date: 1993
Country: USA
Publisher: US Games
Number of Cards: 78+1
ISBN: 0-88079-664-2
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV pp. 401,404




  


Notes:
All cards were oil painted by the artist.U.S. Games  owns the 80 paintings for this tarot deck and they are in their collection of art. The artist once designed costumes and make-up for rock groups.

The depicted people are slender, androgynous and have angular faces. The scenes on each card are a stage with characters presented in a theatrical manner, they all have a title at the bottom and the Majors have a number at the top. Each card is signed "Londa". 

The Minor Arcana images are sometimes based on Waite. The suits are sort of color coded: The people on Wands wear brown clothes and the Wands themselves are brown too, the Cups all have violet/red in the backgrounds, the Cups themselves are golden, the people on Pentacles have green clothes and the Pentacles themselves are golden, the Swords are all blue (the people wear mixed colors) .

There is a title card and an extra card that shows a masked person with the question, "Who are you really?".

The backs show a circled cross in gold on black and are reversible. The lwb that comes with the deck is written by the artist herself, has some information about the artist and an introduction to the deck, it also contains two of Londa Marks' poems.

Samiramay Tarot

Creator(s): Vera Petruk
Date: 2017
Country: Russia
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: other
Reference: 









Notes:
This Tarot deck was created by the Russian illustrator Vera Petruk, who uses the alias Samiramay. There is another Tarot,  The Old Memories Tarot, by the same creator, which uses the same images for the Majors but different ones for the Minors. It also has different backs and a different border and isn't fully colored like this one.

The images are done in watercolors, liners and pencils. The cards are made look vintage with horizontal rippled stripes. It's a self-published deck, that is printed on demand and can be ordered on makeplayingcards.com. It's cards only, they are  shrink wrapped without box or bag.

Each card has zodiac and alchemy related symbols on it. The Minors are pips with a number at the center surrounded by symbols . Each suit has has a token image, which is displayed on the Minors. The suit of Wands shows a salamander, Cups display a set of three leaves, Swords has a violett flower and Pentacles come with a snake.


The Majors have the  usual number in yellow, most times (but not always) at the top center, additional they have most times (but not always) a Hebrew letter in the upper right corner and the corresponding numerical value of the Hebrew letter in the upper left corner. The astrological attributions in the Majors aren't compatible with the Golden Dawn system, but since there comes no booklet with it there is no explanation for the artist's choice.

The backs show a pattern with the Star of David and are not reversible.

Merrimack Tarot

Creator(s): Pamela Coleman-Smith
Date: 1961
Country: USA
Publisher: Merrimack
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: RWS
Reference: 

Notes:
In principle this is a Smith-Waite deck made as a cheap novelty fortune-telling deck. Each card has keywords for it's meaning printed below the titles to make for easy interpretation. It also has a fold-out paper to show where to place the cards and what each position means.

There is no mention of Rider-Waite-Smith anywhere on the box or in the instructions but the imagery is the exact artwork of Pamela Colman Smith. It is brightly colored and the colour doesn't always stay in the lines.  The back has a brownish tiled-looking mosaic pattern on it and is not reversible. It was printed in Hong Kong in 1961 and distributed by Merrimack Publishing Corp.

Tarocchino Milanese a Doppia Figura

Creator(s): Bordoni
Date: 1880* reproduction 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Bordoni*, Il Meneghello
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Milanese
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV pp. 680, 682







Notes:
This is a reproduction of a deck printed by Bordoni circa 1880.  The Ace of Coins contains an Italian monarchic tax stamp, 50 centesimi (valid mid-1880/1890s) and a stamp of the Milanese tax office dated 1890, but tax stamps don't give an exact date, because they may be applied years after the deck was first published.

This reproduction was printed as a limited and numbered edition of 2000 by Il Meneghello. There was another edition of the same deck - also by Il Meneghello - named "Tarocco Lombardo (a doppia figura)" that one is limited to 1500 copies.

This deck it is one of the earliest known to have double figures (doppia figura), or mirror reflections of the images on the cards. The back design shows a lancer on horseback.
 

The original was stencil colored lithography and has the backs printed on a separate sheet and glued to the cards, with the edges wrapped around the front. This edition also reproduces the backing paper edges on the front.

The cards came in a solid cardboard box with a wax seal of Il Meneghello.

Elisabeth Haich Tarot

Creator(s): Elisabeth Haich, Oswald Wirth
Date: 1983
Country: Germany
Publisher: Drei Eichen Verlag 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 3-7699-0408-7    
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Decker/Dummet A History of the Occult Tarot p. 185-187

Notes:
Elisabeth Haich (1897-1994) was an internationally recognized sculptor, painter and author of several books on spirituality. Together with Selva Yesudian she was instrumental in popularization of yoga in Central Europe.

She created 22 cards in the style of the Oswald Wirth deck to accompany her book Tarot. Die zweiundzwanzig Bewußtseinsstufen des Menschen, which was first published in 1969.

Her book does not advocate the use of Tarot to predict the future, nor  Tarot readings for any other purpose. She simply explains her mystical interpretations of the Major Arcana. Haich claimes that Tarot cards were created by initiates of prehistoric times and her interpretations of the cards make some use of Hindu ideas.

She aknowledges Oswald Wirth as the artist who originally created the set of Major Arcana,  which came with the book. For the edition printed in 1969 Haich reproduces his design, but without the borders and Wirth's ideograms. In the reprint of book and cards from 1983, the ornamented borders returned and the colors are a bit different.

Both editions have blank backs and very thin cardstock.

Creator(s): Elisabeth Haich, Oswald Wirth
Date: 1969
Country: Germany
Publisher: J. Fink Verlag 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN:     
Type: Papus-Wirth
Reference: Decker/Dummet A History of the Occult Tarot p. 185-187

Le Tarot Magique

Creator(s): Frédéric Lionel
Date: 1980, 1982
Country: Germany
Publisher: Aurum 
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 3-59108179-5    
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.329-332



 




Notes:
Frédéric Lionel was a prolific writer on philosophical and esoteric subjects. His  cards were originally published in 1980 by the French publishing house Editions du Rocher to accompany the book Le Tarot Magique. In 1982, the German publisher Aurum issued the cards with a German edition of Lionel 's book, entitled Das Spiel der Spiele: Tarot.

The Roman numerals in the upper left-hand corner represent the symbolic quality of the card, while Arabic numerals in the upper right-hand corner indicate the cards' representative stages along the path of initiation. Neither numbering system follows traditional tarot numbering.

Most of the cards have the conventional titles (exeptions are The Divine Mistress / The Master instead of High Priestess / Hierophant and Serenity replacing Strength).The artwork is abstract and geometrical, consisting of line drawings with some regions coloured with watercolour.

The images as a composition look like the sigils found in magical manuscripts. They are constructed from various elements. There are a number of Egyptian images, like the eye of Ra or the Ankh, also appearing are the Chinese Ying-Yang, astrological signs, constellations and planets.The design of each card represents an abstraction of the idea of each arcana.

Sacred India Tarot

Creator(s): Rohit Arya, Jane Adams
Date: 2011
Country: India
Publisher: Yogi Impressions
Number of Cards: 82
ISBN: 978-81-88479-78-8 
Type: RWS
Reference: artist's page

Notes:
Rohit Arya works and writes in India, and Jane Adams is an artist in the UK; they started to work on the project in 2001, exchanging images and ideas by email.

The Sacred India Tarot combines Tarot and Indian mythology. The Major Arcana depict the archetypal forms of the gods and goddesses of India. Initially, the project was called the Hindu mythology, Tarot, but the name was changed because the cards also draw plenty of Jainism and Buddhism.

The Suit of Staves (Wands) is inspired by the Indian epic Ramayana. The love story of  Shiva and Parvati is shown in the suit of Lotusses (Cups). The Suit of Arrows, based on themes from the Bheeshma episode of the Mahabharata. The author uses arrows instead of swords, because Indian myth is primarily an archer culture, swordsmanship being mythically of no account. The Suit of Disks (Pentacles) depict scenes from the life of the Buddha.


The allocation of the elements to the Cards in the Sacred India Tarot is:

Page - Air

Knight - Fire

Queen - Water

King - Earth

Staves (Wands) - Fire

Arrows (Swords) - Air

Lotuses (Cups) - Water

Discs (Pentacles) - Earth

The deck comes with 4 extra cards. There are two "blessings" cards called Ganesha and Babaji and there are alternative death and world cards.  The accompanying book provides information on the background of the Indian gods and goddess forms. The cards are in a box in the insert, which contains an image of Babaji, which can be pulled out and used as an altar.

Rumi Tarot

Creator(s): Nigel Jackson
Date: 2009
Country: USA
Publisher: US Games
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-0-7387-1168-3 
Type: RWS
Reference: aeclectic

Notes:
The Rumi Tarot has a traditional structure: 78 cards, traditional titles (with exception of the High Priestess, which becomes the Priestess, and Strength which becomes Fortitude), the four suits are entitled Swords, Cups, Staves and Coins, with the Court cards entitled King, Queen, Knight and Page. The minor arcana show a mix of both pip styling and small RWS-like scenes. 

The images are based on Rumi and Sufi beliefs, some of the features of the Rumi Tarot court cards are taken from the fifteenth-century cards of Mamluk design. Each card  has a verse from Rumi at the bottom.

The suits of the Minor Arcana symbolize the four Aristotelian elements and are corresponding to the alchemical mysteries of the Sufi path.  The basic positioning of the Trump figures and elements looks like in RWS Tarots, but everything from costume to architecture is Arabic.

The original paintings for the cards, done in tempera, are the same size as the cards themselves, also for the Minors, done in miniature portrait style.  The background color for the Major Arcana is blue, for the Minor Arcana and Court Cards it is green.

The box set comes with the 312 page companion book and a black organdy pouch. The book gives some history and background on Rumi and Sufism, offers a complete guide to the Tarot’s divinatory meanings, and also associates one of the 99 names of God with each card.

Tarot de Louttre B

Creator(s): Marc-Antoine Bissiere
Date: 1981
Country: France
Publisher: Grimaud 
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:    
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. III, pp.320, 323

Notes:
Louttre B is the pseudonym of the French painter Marc-Antoine Bissiere (1926-2012). The deck was published in 1981 by Musee des Arts Decoratifs in cooperation with Grimaud on the opening of an exhibition called "Antique Playing Cards - A Collectors Dream". The cards originally were part of a book called "Le Tarot des familles", which was printed in a limited edition of only 75 copies. The book contains hand painted engravings of the cards with explanations.

The deck shows no human figures, but only the objects taken from Tarot de Marseilles. The images of this deck play with symmetry in various aspects. The three cards, where the symmetry of Roman numbers allows it, have mirror-inverted images. That leads to the first impression, that both The Emperor and The Lovers have number VI and Sun and Fool both have number XXI.

La Force (Strength) has no explicit number, but the number XI is part of the image.

Card titles are in French. The suits are d'Epee, Baton, Coupe, and Deniers. The courts are Valet, Cavalier, Reine, and Roi.  The backs are reversible. The 78 cards plus titlecard and a French only lwb came in a lidded cardboard box.