Candida Martinelli's Italophile Site Shops at: Zazzle & PrintFection
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Italian Playing Cards - Tarot - Tarocchi | 
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The Golden Tarot of Botticelli, Alida's most beautiful offering.
Alida is an on-line store based in The Republic of San Marino. They ship Italian playing cards (Tarot, Regional, Historical) all over the world. The cards are reasonably priced, and shipping is fast (airmail) and very reasonably priced! I think the cards are too beautiful to play with and should all be framed. I feature many of them here on this page. Click through to their store (in Italian and English) to view they're full, beautiful selection.
Tarot Deck of Venice
Tarot decks are often themed, and sometime have very unique themes. Alida even offers one based on the movies of Italian director Dario Fo!
The Monna Lisa Tarot Deck
Tarot Deck of the Angels
African-American Tarot Deck
Leonardo's Inventions Tarot Deck
The Circle of Life Tarot Deck
The highly symbolic, and classic, Tarot of Marseille
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IntroductionPlaying cards began where paper began: in China. They started with representations of the domino symbols. Cards moved roughly via India, Persia, Egypt, and then on to Europe. The earliest decks where commissioned from artists, who hand painted the suits onto card stock. That meant they decks were expensive and generally exclusive to the wealthy. Along with board games, they were popular gifts for princes to offer allies. Playing cards take off in Europe in the 1400s. That coincides with primitive paper and a printing process that transferred an image to paper using ink on a wooden stamp (woodcut). The ink image was then painted by hand to create a colored deck. Early decks only survive in fragments, mainly because they were made of paper, and well used by players. Even today's decks, coated in plastic, don't last forever. Just think how many decks your own family has gone through.
Regional Cards and GamesRegional variations exist in most places, but none so much as in Italy (nearly one official deck per region). This is likely due to Italy's late unification, and the popularity of card playing. Certain games are even linked to certain regional decks. Generally speaking, the Italian card deck has 40 cards (1-7 and 3 face cards). But in the North of Italy, the standard 52 card French deck is common. The Neapolitan and Sicilian are probably the best known Italian regional cards outside of Italy, because of the large number of emigrants from those areas.
I explain the most common Italian card games on separate pages on this site:
Tarot Cards - TarocchiTarot cards were even more popular in Europe in the earliest card days (the late 1400s) than the other types of card deck, and they were specifically used for trick-taking card games. In Italy, they were called Triomfi (Triumphs), which was later used for the Trump cards in trick-taking games. The early decks were custom made for princes, and varied much in design. The earliest recorded commission of a custom Triomfi deck was for the Visconti of Milan. This deck is based on the original.
Almost as soon as they were used for game-playing, Tarot cards, Tarocchi, were used for fortune-telling. But today, the card-playing Tarot cards often differ from the fortune-telling Tarot cards. Game cards clearly detail a card's suit and value. Fortune-telling cards often feature elaborate images related to the fortune-telling meaning of a card.
The Tarot game deck is a 78 card deck:
Tarot Card GamesTarocchi, or Tarot or Tarock, is a card game that is still played in Europe. It is a standard trick-taking game:
But in Italy, it is mainly the Tarocco Bolognese Ottocento that is still played, and Pagat has a wonderful page dedicated to that complex game. Tarocco Bolognese (or Tarocchino, because it has only 62 cards, instead of the full 78 cards)
Tarot Cards for Predicting the FutureThe fortune-telling deck is the same as for Tarot card games, but is often more elaborate in it's decoration. The fortune-telling deck is a 78 card deck:
For those of you interested in the names and meanings of the Major and Lesser Arcana cards, I suggest a visit to Wikipedia: Tarot Reading Tarot cards are often valued solely for their artistic qualities. Some decks are sold as works of art, and include only the 22 Major Arcana cards, suitable for framing.
The Golden Tarot of Botticelli
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Oswald Worth's Major Arcana Tarot Cards
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Some of Alida's Special Decks
Mestieri dell'Uomo
Musici e Strumenti
Musicali
Jeu de Drapeaux
And Alida carries the double deck boxed sets by Piatnik that shape the face card figures in historical guise, like this one, called Glorious America (from their Bridge Collection).
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