Tarocco Siciliano. Modiano, Italy. Stripped playing-tarot deck, Latin suited, 65 single-headed cards. Size: 51mm x 84mm.
Deck make-up:
Trumps: 1-20 (+ miseria, unnumbered).
Coins: 4-10, foot jack (female), mounted jack, queen, king.
Clubs, cups, swords: 5-10, foot jack (female), mounted jack, queen, king.
Extras: joker, title cards x2.
The tarocco Siciliano is a tarot deck found in Sicily and is used to play Sicilian tarocchi. It is one of the three traditional Latin-suited tarot decks still used for games in Italy, the others being the more prevalent tarocco Piemontese and the tarocco Bolognese. The pack was introduced into Sicily from the mainland (probably from Rome) around 1663. The deck was shortened from 78 cards during the 18th century.
This deck is known for its female jacks (that are sometimes referred to as maids). The deck is the only surviving tarot deck to use this unique way of intersecting the swords and clubs – this was copied from the Portuguese pattern which later became extinct.
Click on any card to explore the design.
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Card image size, below:
The trumps have some interesting changes from those regularly encountered. As the lowest trump, we have a character called miseria (misery) – this is the only trump to be named. Two other standard trumps – the popess and the pope – are missing. To fill in, an unusual one is added at number 4: la costanza (constancy). The joker/fool (below) is added in to act as the highest trump. Meanwhile, the ship is a benign replacement for the devil, which apparently offended some sensibilities (the figure of death didn't, it seems!)
The pack leaves the 4 of coins in, whereas it is removed from the other suits. Note also the aforementioned female lower jack.
The crossed-sticks idea (taken from a Portuguese pattern) can be detected filtering through to, for example, Japanese kabufuda packs, where decks using this same sort of design were introduced by Portuguese merchants to the isolationist Japan.
The joker/fool (left) is used as the highest trump. The third card is the remnant of the ace/1 of coins, and was kept to hold the tax stamp even though it is no longer is used in play.