Editing Tarot (section)

==History==

===Playing cards and early tarot-like games===
Tarot cards, then known as ''tarocchi'', first appeared in [[Ferrara]] and [[Milan]] in northern Italy, with the Fool and 21 trumps (then called ''[[Trionfi (cards)|trionfi]]'') being added to the standard Italian pack of four suits: [[batons (suit)|batons]], [[coins (suit)|coins]], [[cups (suit)|cups]] and [[swords (suit)|swords]].{{sfnp|Decker|Depaulis|Dummett|1996|pp=28, 31}} Scholarship has established that early European playing cards were probably based on the [[Playing card#Egypt|Egyptian Mamluk deck]] invented in or before the 14th century, which followed the introduction of paper from Asia into Western Europe.<ref name="wopc">[https://www.wopc.co.uk/history-the-history-of-playing-cards/early-history-of-playing-cards ''Early History of Playing Cards''] at wopc.co.uk. Retrieved 21 November 2022.</ref> By the late 1300s, Europeans were producing their own cards, the earliest patterns being based on the Mamluk deck but with variations to the [[suit symbol]]s and [[court card]]s.<ref name="wopc" />

The first records of playing cards in Europe date to 1367 in [[Bern]] and they appear to have spread very rapidly across the whole of Europe, as may be seen from the records, mainly of card games being banned.<ref>Peter F. Kopp: Die frühesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz. In: Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 30 (1973), pp. 130–145, here 130.</ref><ref>Hellmut Rosenfeld: Zu den frühesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz. Eine Entgegnung. In: Zeitschrift für schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 32 (1975), pp. 179–180.</ref><ref>[[Detlef Hoffmann]]: Kultur- und Kunstgeschichte der Spielkarte. Marburg: Jonas Verlag 1995, p. 43.</ref> Little is known about the appearance and number of these cards, the only significant information being provided by a text by [[John of Rheinfelden]] in 1377 from [[Freiburg im Breisgau]], who, in addition to other versions, describes the basic pack as containing the still-current 4 suits of 13 cards, the courts usually being the King, Ober and Unter ("marshals"), although Dames and Queens were already known by then.

An early pattern of playing cards used the suits of batons or clubs, coins, swords, and cups. These suits are still used in traditional [[Italian playing cards|Italian]], [[Spanish playing cards|Spanish]] and Portuguese playing card decks, and are also used in modern (occult) tarot divination cards that first appeared in the late 18th century.<ref>[[Donald Laycock]] in ''Skeptical—a Handbook of Pseudoscience and the Paranormal'', ed [[Donald Laycock]], [[David Vernon (writer)|David Vernon]], [[Colin Groves]], [[Simon Brown (author)|Simon Brown]], Imagecraft, Canberra, 1989, {{ISBN|0-7316-5794-2}}, p. 67</ref>

A lost tarot-like pack was commissioned by Duke [[Filippo Maria Visconti]] and described by Martiano da Tortona, probably between 1418 and 1425 since the painter he mentions, [[Michelino Molinari da Besozzo|Michelino da Besozzo]], returned to Milan in 1418, while Martiano himself died in 1425. He described a 60-card deck with 16 cards having images of the [[List of Roman deities|Roman gods]] and suits depicting four kinds of birds. The 16 cards were regarded as "trumps" since, in 1449, [[Jacopo Antonio Marcello]] recalled that the now deceased duke had invented a ''novum quoddam et exquisitum triumphorum genus'', or "a new and exquisite kind of triumphs."<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link=Franco Pratesi|title=Italian Cards - New Discoveries|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1989|volume=18|issue=1, 2|pages=28–32, 33–38}}</ref> Other early decks that also showcased classical motifs include the [[Sola Busca tarot|Sola-Busca]] and Boiardo-Viti decks of the 1490s.<ref name="DummettGame"/>

===Early tarot decks===
{{Main article|Trionfi (cards)}}

[[File:Bembo-Visconti-tarot-arcanum-01-magician.jpg|thumb|upright|The magician from the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza pack]]

The first documented tarot decks were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in [[Milan]], [[Ferrara]], [[Florence]] and [[Bologna]], when additional trump cards with [[allegorical]] [[illustration]]s were added to the common four-suit pack. These new decks were called ''carte da trionfi'', triumph cards, and the additional cards known simply as [[Trionfi (cards)|trionfi]], which became "trumps" in English. The earliest documentation of ''trionfi'' is found in a written statement in the court records of [[Florence]], in 1440, regarding the transfer of two decks to [[Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link=Franco Pratesi|title=In Search of Tarot Sources|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2012|volume=41|issue=2|page=100}}</ref><ref>[[Pratesi, Franco]]. [http://trionfi.com/giusto-giusti Studies on Giusto Giusti] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224132027/http://trionfi.com/giusto-giusti |date=24 February 2021 }} at trionfi.com. Retrieved 4 February 2018.</ref>

The oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so decks of the [[Visconti-Sforza Tarot]] painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the [[Duchy of Milan]].{{sfnp|Decker|Depaulis|Dummett|1996|p=25}} In 15th century Italy, the set of cards that was included in tarot packs, including trumps, seems to have been consistent, even if naming and ordering varied. There are two main exceptions:{{sfnp|Dummett|1980|p=76-77}}

* Some late 15th-century decks like the [[Sola Busca tarot]] and the Boiardo deck had four suits, a fool, and 21 trumps, but none of the trumps match tarot ones. They seem to have been made on the model of tarot decks, but were voluntary departures from an established standard.
* The Visconti di Mondrone pack, one of the Visconti-Sforza decks, originally had a Dame and a Maid in each suit, in addition to the standard King, Queen, Knight, and Jack. Additionally, the pack includes three trump cards which represent the [[theological virtues]] of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and are not present in any other tarot deck of that era.

Although a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] preacher inveighed against the evil inherent in playing cards, chiefly because of their use in gambling, in a sermon in the 15th century,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Steele |first=Robert |date=1900 |title=X.—A Notice of the Ludus Triumphorum and some Early Italian Card Games; with some Remarks on the Origin of the Game of Cards |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/abs/xa-notice-of-the-ludus-triumphorum-and-some-early-italian-card-games-with-some-remarks-on-the-origin-of-the-game-of-cards/A34B2D6CE28BBB7C72E7AB3C347102D6 |journal=Archaeologia |language=en |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=185–200 |doi=10.1017/S0261340900027636 |issn=2051-3186|url-access=subscription }}</ref> no routine condemnations of tarot were found during its early history.<ref name="DummettGame"/>

===Propagation===
[[File:Tarot-cary-collection-ita-sheet-3s-c1500..jpg|thumb|upright|The ''Cary sheet'', a partial uncut sheet of Milanese ''tarocchi'', {{circa}} 1500]]

Because the earliest tarot cards were hand-painted, the number of the decks produced is thought to have been small. It was only after the invention of the [[printing press]] that mass production of cards became possible. The expansion of tarot outside of Italy, first to France and Switzerland, occurred during the [[Italian Wars]]. The most prominent tarot deck version used in these two countries was the [[Tarot of Marseilles]], of Milanese origin.<ref name="DummettGame" />

While the set of trumps was generally consistent, their order varied by region, perhaps as early as the 1440s. [[Michael Dummett]] placed them into three categories. In [[Bologna]] and [[Florence]], the highest trump is the [[Judgement (Tarot card)|Angel]], followed by the [[The World (Tarot card)|World]]. This group spread mainly southward through the [[Papal States]], the [[Kingdom of Naples]], and finally down to the [[Kingdom of Sicily]] but was also known in the [[Savoyard state]]s. In Ferrara, the World was the highest, followed by [[Justice (Tarot card)|Justice]] and the Angel. This group spread mainly to the northeast to Venice and [[Prince-Bishopric of Trent|Trento]] where it was only a passing fad. By the end of the 16th century, this order became extinct. In [[Milan]], the World was highest, followed by the Angel; this ordering is used in the [[Tarot of Marseilles]]. Dummett also wrote about a possible fourth lineage that may have existed along the Franco-Italian border. It spread north through France until its last descendant, the Belgian Tarot, went extinct around 1800.{{sfnp|Dummett|1980|p=387–417}}{{sfnp|Dummett|McLeod|2004|p=13–16}}

In Florence, an expanded deck called ''[[Minchiate]]'' was later used. This deck of 97 cards includes [[astrology|astrological]] symbols and the four elements, as well as traditional tarot motifs.<ref name="DummettGame" /> The earliest known mention of this game, under the name of ''germini'', dates to 1506.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link1=Franco Pratesi|title=1499-1506: Firenze|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2015|volume=44|issue=1|pages=61–71}}</ref>