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Posts tagged ‘Tarocchino Bolognese’

Oct 21

Mitelli and Barattini: Two Generations of Tarocchino Bolognese

Bolognese Hanged Man

About 1660, Count Filippo Bentivoglio of Bologna commissioned a luxurious tarocchino deck from artist and copper engraver Giuseppe Mitelli. Over 140 years later, in 1803, his descendent, Count Luigi Bentivoglio, hired engraver Francesco Barattini to create a faithful copy of his ancestor’s deck in wood block. This is unique in tarot history: two generations of the same family commissioning two versions of the same tarot deck. We are privileged to have reproductions of both the Mitelli and Barattini decks by the same card maker, Marco Benedetti of Rome. Let’s take a close look at Barattini’s deck and how it differs from the original Mitelli.

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Mar 7

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Tarocco Bolognese Dalla Tore with Rivoltini

For over four centuries, every Italian playing card was handcrafted with rivoltini borders. These are created by gluing backing paper onto the card, folding the four sides over to the front, then gluing the borders down. Now, for the first time in over a century, we can obtain a tarot deck made with this labor-intensive, traditional method.

For this production, Marco Benedetti has reprinted his Dalla Torre Tarocco Bolognese, which was published in 2020. He added hand-crafted rivoltini borders, and packaged the deck in his signature custom-made wooden box. This deck is a partially restored facsimile of a nearly complete 17th-century Tarocchini in the Bibliothèque Nationale Française.

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Aug 3

Tarocco Bolognese Al Mondo

The Al Mondo Tarocchino is one of very few Bolognese-style decks to survive from earlier centuries with all cards intact. This deck comes to us from a narrow slice of time—after 1725 when Bolognese decks were required to have four Moors, and before the 1760s when double-headed figures became standard. The British Museum has the only copy of the Al Mondo deck in existence. Marco Cesare Benedetti has obtained the rights to reproduce twenty facsimiles. See deck details and purchasing information at the end.

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Nov 22

Tarocchi Mitelli package
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The Tarocchino Bolognese of Giuseppe Mitelli Published by Giordano Berti

The Tarocchino Bolognese engraved by Giuseppe Mitelli is a unique treasure. Just as the Visconti-Sforza deck was a luxury item commissioned by an aristocrat from a prominent artist in Cremona, this exceptionally beautiful deck was commissioned around 1660 by Count Bentivoglio of Bologna from a prolific Bolognese artist. Read more

Sep 21

Tarocchi Fine dalla Torre
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Tarocchi Fine dalla Torre

The Museo dei Tarocchi near Bologna, Italy has given us many highly creative art decks. Now they have produced an historically significant bolognese tarocchi based on an original that rests in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

Bologna has its own unique tarot tradition that dates back to the early sixteenth century, and possibly earlier. The order of the trumps is slightly different, and pips two through five of each suit have been removed to make a shortened deck that was very popular for card games back then. Some trump cards have distinct imagery: the Fool as a street musician playing a drum and horn, the Three Magi on the Star card, and a woman with a spindle for the Sun are just a few examples. The Aces are very distinctive as well. In the early 18th century the deck took its present form when the Empress, Emperor, Papesse and Pope were changed into the four Moors and the trump and court cards became double-headed. Read more