Book size cm 17 x 24 - 512 pages with coloured illustrations
isbn 978-88-99841-85-0
An Italian Legacy
from the Renaissance - History Art
Symbology Literature
edited by Andrea Vitali & Michael S. Howard
Appendix
Museo Internazionale dei Tarocchi
This monumental work of 512 pages is 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.
Nothing
like Bologna and the Tarot 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. Together with essays
by other authoritative experts, the result is a unique compendium of
information, drawn from original 15th-19th 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sources, for the most part unpublished since their own time, now translated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).
· Selected
tarocchi appropriati, delightful literary works assigning the Triumphs
(‘major arcana”) to various personages: noble ladies (in Pavia, Ferrara, and
Bologna), church activists, street prostitutes, etc.
·
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.
·
New information and insights on the meaning and origin of
the word tarocco (tarot in France). Likewise for the presence of
the Magician - called El Bagatella early on - in the procession of the Triumphs, situating it
and other cards as steps on a “mystical ladder.”
·
Comparison of an 18th century Bolognese
cartomancy document with a previously unassociated early divination system by Etteilla
and the cards of both, leading to new conclusions.
·
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.
·
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.
·
The production of Tarot cards in Bologna and the
difficulties card makers faced.
· “Pentagonal
numbers” as an organizing principle for the Tarot sequence.
