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.

Celtic Tarot (Gaudenzi)

Creator(s): Giacinto Gaudenzi, Saverio Tenuta
Date: 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-0738700137  
Type: RWS
Reference:  Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 267, 268

  




Notes:
The Celtic Tarot is illustrated by two different  artists. The Major Arcana were created by Gaudenzi in a style that is found in book illustrations. His work appears to be pen and ink colored with watercolors. The Minors Arcana are by Tenuto and recalls comic book art. The Majors were originally released in 1994 as an art deck under the name of Tarochi Celtici, and the Minors were added some years later and the deck re-released.

The Major Arcana's images are from Celtic folklore and fairytales. The Minors are based on the Rider Waite symbolism with the suits being attributed to Irish tribes. Wands represent the Fomori, Pentacles are the Tuatha De Danaan, Swords are the Ulaid, and Chalices are the Fianna. The deck attributes Wands to Air and Swords to Fire. The Court Cards follow the traditional pattern- Knave, Knight, Queen King.

The deck comes with a LWB that briefly explains the legends associated with each Major Arcana card.

Stone Tarot

Creator(s): Alison Stone
Date: 2000
Country: USA
Publisher: self-published
Number of Cards: 78+1
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 176, 177





Notes:
Alison Stone is a poet, artist, and Wiccan High Priestess. The cards in the Stone Tarot Deck are reproduced from original oil paintings by Alison Stone and the deck is distributed through her web site.

Most of the trumps are based on Italian or Marseilles designs, without occult details such as in the Waite and Crowley decks. The numeric cards are pips, illustrated using arrangements of the four suit symbols.

The deck follows the classical tarot naming and numbering tradition with one minor variation; it is gender balanced. For two of the Minor Arcana suits, the Page is a male and the rider on the horse is a female (Amazon). For the other two suits, the Page is a female and the rider is a male (Knight). The deck has an additional blank card for those who incorporate that into their readings.

The sheet that comes with the deck has very little background information,  it only offers brief interpretations for every card.

Ancient Tarot of Bologna

Creator(s): Giacomo Zoni
Date: 1780*, 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-8883-950414   

Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 672, 673

  

 

Notes:

The facsimile deck with the misleading title Ancient Tarot of Bologna is an elegantly drawn Marseilles tarot created by Giacomo Zoni in the city of Bologna and first published in ca 1780 for export to Lombardy. It is not a tarot with Bologna Pattern. 

Even though the deck is ceated in Italy by an Italian for Italians, the card names are in French. 

The first Lo Scarabeo edition from 1995 doesn't have the blue dots. The old edition is slimmer than the current LS decks. That's why they added the dots - to have the cards as wide as the standard LS are right now.

The woodcuts are simple and elegant, but the heavy-handed stencilled color obscures much of their detail.

Ancient Tarot of Lombardy

Creator(s): Ferdinando Gumppenberg
Date: 1810*, 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-3927-808836   
Type: Milanese
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, p. 674

Notes:

Lo Scarabeo issued the facsimile titled Antichi Tarocci Lombardi first in 1995 as a twenty-two card miniature deck with square corners and  back design with a green-gold pattern and later as a full seventy-eight-card deck. The full deck has rounded corners, the first edition has a white back with red pattern, the second edition from 2000, which I have, has backs in  blue and white with the Sun card image.

The original  for this facsimile used the same black plates (except for the Death card) as the original for  Solleones Tarocco Neoclassico Italiano. This is  evidenced by the same scratches and etching anomalies appearing in both reproductions. The Lo Scarabeo edition is printed on a coated playing-card type stock, while the Solleone edition was printed on uncoated stock.

In this edition two different tax stamps are on the Ace of Swords, they date from the Austrian restoration of Lombardy. The top one is for 25 centesimi and was in use from 1816 to 1818, the other is for 60 centesimi and was in use from 1818 to 1823.

The Ancient Tarot of Lombardy  recreates the original Lombardy design that was inspired by neoclassical art. As such, the Major Arcana titles are in Italian, while the Minor Arcana pips bear no titles.

Bosch Tarot

Creator(s): Alexandrov Atanassov
Date: 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 9783933939142
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 250-251






Notes:
The Bosch Tarot by A. Atanassov is based on the work of Hieronymus Bosch, a Dutch painter who lived from 1450-1516.

Atanassov has taken key figures and scenes from Bosch's works and modified them to fit the tarot, he has also added suit symbols to the scenes in the minor arcana . Many of the scenes of the cards are pieces from Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights".

The backs are six art pieces in two rows and three columns and the same six inverted on the other side and therefore they are reversible. 

Madru - Das Baum Tarot

Creator(s): Frederik Hetmann, Tilman Michalski  
Date: 2000
Country: Germany
Publisher: Königsfurt Urania
Number of Cards: 22
ISBN: 3-933939-31-3   
Type: RWS
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, pp. 92, 95



 
Notes:
The deck is based on a German book "Madru - oder der Große Wald" that translates to 'Madru - or the Great Forest'. There is a tree assigned to each card, the assignment is inspired by the Celtic alphabet of trees (in which various trees are matched with letters of the ancient celtic alphabet). Each card shows a person dressed in or merging with a particular tree. A Hebrew letter accompanies the person.

The backgrounds of the cards are white, each card is numbered in Roman numerals at the top, and the card title and its tree is typed at the base. Card backs show green diagonal prints of trees in winter, on white.

The cards  are packaged in a  plastic container. Instead of a LWB ten extra cards are included with instructions, spreads, keyword meanings and a bibliography  in German only.

Ancient Tarot of Liguria Piedmont

Creator(s): Giovanbattista Guala
Date: 1860* reprint 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 9783927808720
Type: Piemontese
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 678-679







Notes:
Lo Scarabeo published the first reproduction of this deck as "Antichi Tarocci Divinatori" in 1995 with divinatori meanings in Italian added at the bottom of each card. It included a title card and nine instruction cards in four languages. The edition publisahed in 2000 has a LWB instead of the presentation cards and titles in English, French, German and Italian instead of the divinatory meanings. The original deck belongs to a private collection in Turin.

Giovannbattista Guala worked in Ghemme, a Piedmont town. He made the deck around 1860 from woodblooks and coloured using stencils.

The original numbering of the Major Arcana was in Roman numerals, in the upper left hand and lower right hand (reversed position) corners of the card. The reprint has additional a Roman number in the middle of the bottom of the card.

The suit names are: Bastoni (Wands), Coppe (Cups), Spade (Swords), Denari (Pentacles). For the suits of Wands and Swords the cards two through ten also have the original number in Roman numerals on the top left hand corner and bottom right hand corner (reversed). The reprint has an additional number in the middle of the bottom for all four suits.

On all of the Court cards appeares the printers name and, with the exception of the Page, they carry the title in Old Italian across the bottom. The printers name also appears on the Major Arcana Il Pazzo, Il Bagatto and Il Mondo and on the Two of Cups.

The printers stamp appears on each of the card (in some cards it is more visible than in others). It is a printers stamp and no tax stamp, because the stamp does not indicate value. It is a round stamp of a four part coat of arms topped by a crown.

Classical Tarots

Creator(s): Carlo DellaRocca
Date: 1835* reproduction 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Sarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:
Type: Marseilles
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 676-677








Notes:
Ferdinand Gumppenberg was trained in German print shops before immigrating to Milan in 1809, he was able to introduce the German tradition of commissioning decks from well-known illustrators and engravers. In 1835 he commissioned a deck from the engraver Carlo Dellarocca. As the most elegant and refined Italian deck of its time, it quickly became known as i tarocchi sopraffini, the super-fine tarot.

Dellarocca was a highly regarded Milanese engraver/illustrator who learned his craft from Giuseppe Longhi, a prominent engraver and professor of art. Dellarocca was not as famous as his teacher, so his life has not been well documented. His birth date is unknown, most references say he died some time after 1824, so it’s possible that the plates he engraved for his tarot cards were not used until after his death.

The pip cards are delicate and refined. The court cards conform to tradition, but they have more individuality and personality than most decks. The tax stamp and Gumppenberg’s and Dellarocca’s names are on the King of Rods card. The tax stamp shows the steel crown of Lombardy and the crown of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I, symbols of the Austrian Empire, which ruled Lombardy at the time. The initials "F.I." stand for Franz I, Austrian ruler. "C.70" is 70 centesimi, the rate at which the deck was taxed. The tax stamp was valid from November 1, 1823, to January 26, 1840.


There are several unique features of Dellarocca’s deck design: The Bagatto is a cobbler standing in front of a work table strewn with the tools of his trade. There’s a jug on the table and the cobbler hoists a large glass of wine. The Lover stands between his sweetheart and a king who rests his hand on his shoulder. The young man’s clothing announces his divided loyalties. He wears tights and pouffy pants, but also a helmet and armored corselet. He seems to be torn between love and duty.Justice’s body is tilted slightly, as is her sword and scales. She has an eye in the center of her collar.The Hermit carries a little open flame in a holder instead of a lantern.The Strength card is more dynamic than the traditional Tarot de Marseilles image. The woman straddles the lion with a fierce expression on her face. One of her bare feet presses down on the lion’s back. The lion’s front leg is raised and he is resisting her efforts to pry his jaws open.
The skeleton on the Death card is sweeping up symbols of human pride and vanity like jewelry, a bishop’s miter, books, artist’s palette, weapons, and medals. The card is not labeled to avoid using the word “Death”.The Devil card has several symbols commonly associated with him: the trident, ass’s ears, snaky hair, a furry skirt, clawed feet, monsters and hell fire.

The Moon retains the towers and dogs from the TdM, but the scene is an estuary and one of the towers is a lighthouse. The dogs seem to be in a walled garden, and a boiled lobster rests on a large silver platter on the ground.On the Sun card, a carefree young couple dances in a walled garden under a bright sun that is burning away the last of the clouds.

Tarot of Casanova

Creator(s): Luca Raimondo
Date: 2000
Country: Italy
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN: 978-8883951411
Type: other
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. IV, pp. 250, 258-259








Notes:
An erotic tarot based on Casanova's life in Venice. Women are the sex objects in this deck; there are plenty of naked woman shown, but male nudity is nearly non-existent.  Most cards show men and women in various hetero sexual positions, dressed  in the fashions of Casanova's time. The Aces are still-life images of Venetian canals and buildings, while all courts but the Queens are solitary and fully dressed men.

Tarocco Bizzarro

Creator(s): Franco Bruna
Date: 2000 
Country: Italy 
Publisher: Dal Negro 
Number of Cards: 78 
ISBN:
Type: Piemontese 
Reference: Dal Negro








Notes:
Italian caricaturist Franco Bruna, who was known for his caricatures of local politicians and celebrities re-interprets, with an ironic twist, the classic symbology of Tarot cards from the Piedmont region.