It's a good month for serious books on the history of tarot & esp. Italian tarot!
Not only do we have Berti's forthcoming book I mentioned yesterday, but we also have shipping this month from the Museo dei Tarocchi a wonderful English-language scholarly history of tarot in Bologna by Italian tarot & Renaissance culture expert Andrea Vitali.
Of course tarot was created first in Northern Italy in the early-to-mid 15th cent. as an aristocratic past-time. While there's lots of reliable historical information about tarot in Milan, Florence & Ferrara in English, there's been less info on the importance of Bologna.
And this despite the fact that the Bolognese retained the game of tarocchi long after it had largely died out in other regions. Finally a good history of Bolognese tarot, its traditions, documents, cardmakers & deck examples is coming to us in English!
Many beautiful antique Bolognese decks exist, esp. TdMs, since the city once had a thriving export-oriented card economy.
https://www.museodeitarocchi.com/store/product/f-098-bologna-the-tarot
#tarot #tarothistory #tarotart #italiantarot #tarotdemarseille #bologna #bolognesetarot #tarocchi
F 098 BOLOGNA & THE TAROT
<p style="text-align: center;"><b>P</b><b>RESALE</b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Book size cm 17 x 24 </span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">about 490 pages with coloured illustrations</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-14">An Italian Legacy from the Renaissance - </span></i></b><b><i><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-14">History Art Symbology Literature</span></i></b> </p> <p style="text-align: center;">edited by Andrea Vitali & Michael S. Howard</p><p style="text-align: center;">Appendix Museo Internazionale dei Tarocchi</p> <p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35);"><b>Shipping in November 2022</b></span></span><br><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35);"><b>SPECIAL OFFER € 43,00 instead of € 48,00<br></b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35);"><b>(The </b></span></span><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35);"><b>offer is valid until 15 November 2022)</b></span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(99, 36, 35);"><b></b></span></p><p><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">This monumental work of about 490 pages is </span></span><a><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">enriched by hundreds of illustrations, mostly in color: cards, artworks, and documents. 1000+ footnotes provide both transcriptions of the original sources and, where available, where to find them on the Internet. These testimonies from Bologna and elsewhere in northern Italy create a history of interest not only to Tarot enthusiasts but to anyone wanting to know more about Italian literature, art, and popular culture.<br></span></span></a></p><p><a> </a></p><p><a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Nothing like </span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bologna and the Tarot</span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> has ever been published in English and probably never will be again. The result of forty years of books, exhibitions, etc., by Andrea Vitali and ten years of collaboration with Michael Howard on translations, the focus is on Bologna, highlighting the city as one of the chief reference points for the birth of the Tarot</span><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">.</span></b><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Together with essays by other authoritative experts, the result is a unique compendium of information, drawn from original 15</span><sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">th</span></sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">-19</span><sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">th</span></sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> century sources, for the most part unpublished since their own time, now translated into English by the editors. Here are some highlights (out of sixteen chapters overall).</span></a></p><p><a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> · Selected </span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">tarocchi appropriati,</span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> delightful literary works assigning the Triumphs (‘major arcana”) to various personages: noble ladies (in Pavia, Ferrara, and Bologna), church activists, street prostitutes, etc. </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· Numerous selections from Bolognese authors on Tarot themes, applying the cards and the game to the most varied situations, from love and war to politics and joke medical prescriptions. </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· New information and insights on the meaning and origin of the word </span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">tarocco</span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (</span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">tarot </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">in France). Likewise for the presence of the Magician - called </span><i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">El</span></i> <i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bagatella </span></i><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">early on - in the procession of the Triumphs, situating it and other cards as steps on a “mystical ladder.” </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· Comparison of an 18</span><sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">th</span></sup><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> century Bolognese cartomancy document with a previously unassociated early divination system by Etteilla and the cards of both, leading to new conclusions. </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· Analysis of the clothing in the hand-painted “Charles V” Tarot, providing unique insights into the fashions of different cities and pointing to Bologna-Ferrara as a likely region of origin. </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· Recently published documents on the origin and symbolism of the “Equal Papi” rule, whereby in Bologna the two Imperial and two Papal cards all had the same title and rank. </span><br><br><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· The production of Tarot cards in Bologna and the difficulties card makers faced. </span></a></p><p><a></a><a><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">· “Pentagonal numbers” as an organizing principle for the Tarot sequence. <br> </span></span></a></p><p><a><span class="wysiwyg-font-size-16"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>For this special offer, </b></span></span></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>advantageous shipping costs:</b></span></p><p><a></a><a></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>Europe € 15.00</b> instead of € 28.45; <br><b>United States € 25.00</b> instead of € 40.30; <br><b>rest of the world € 30.00</b> instead of € 50.90</span></p><p><a> </a></p>
