Tarocco Bolognese. Modiano, Italy. Stripped playing-tarot deck, Latin suited, 62 cards. Size: 51mm x 107mm.
Deck make-up:
Trumps: 0-20.
Coins, clubs, cups, swords: ace, 6-10, foot jack, mounted jack, queen, king.
Extras: joker.
The tarocco Bolognese (found in and around Bologna) is one of the oldest patterns still in use and actually predates the tarot de Marseille by over a century. The pack is used to play a series of related (rather complicated) trick-taking games grouped under the umbrella title of tarocchini – the most popular of which are probably ottocento and terziglio. The cards are informally known as "long cards" due to their shape.
The deck certainly existed in (more or less) its current form by the end of the 15th century. The deck was initially a full 78-card tarot, but in the early 16th century it was "stripped", with ranks 2 through 5 removed.
At one point, the deck had (either two or all four of) its jacks as females, but this was later changed.
In 1725, four of the more contentious cards (popess, empress, emperor and pope) were replaced by order of Papal Legate by four new cards called "the Moors", deemed to be equal in rank with each other. The Moors idea was based on a feature taken from a "geographical tarot" originally invented by Canon Luigi Montieri. It has been suggested this idea was a move to avoid declaring the emperor in Rome (who ranked ahead in the original order) to be superior to the Pope. Despite the Moors appellation, the characters are not nowadays black or even dark-skinned. At one time, they were featured wearing turbans and holding spears. Sometime after this, the figures developed much paler complexions, though the Moors name stuck.
In the second half of the 18th century, the deck became double-headed – an early example of this change.
Apparently, The tarocco Bolognese is also the earliest tarot deck to be used in fortune-telling, predating de Gébelin and Etteilla by at least thirty years.
The fool is not considered a trump in this pack as it already has a trump numbered 0 (the magician) which is in the place usually occupied by the fool. Thus, effectively the trumps stop one shorter (with number 20) than usual.
Click on any card to explore the design.
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Card image size, below:
Note the wheel of fortune card is not truly symmetrical (the two figures at the sides are not the same).
(NB The duplication of one of the Moor cards here is intentional – that's the way the pattern is.)
The ace here would have originally held the pack's tax stamp.
