This listing is for one Visconti-Sforza Pierpont Morgan Tarocchi Tarot Deck. These cards were the first "official" tarot card deck made, and it sets the standard and the original look of our modern decks. The cards have no titles, no numerical alphabetical allegories (since Comte De Mellet first established the infamous 22 Hebrew letters to the tarot, not Eliphas Levi), which makes their outlook more authentic, yet may be more complicated for a tarot beginner.
This new edition presents an 80-card deck with expanded guidebook in a deluxe, hinged box. The 60-page guidebook, by Stuart R. Kaplan, features color illustrations of the Tarocchi cards. The pack includes two bonus cards with portraits of Bianca Maria Visconti and Francesco Sforza. The 78-card deck is comprised of full-color facsimile reproductions of 74 extant, original Visconti-Sforza Tarocchi cards that have survived from the 15th century (Milan, Italy). Four cards have been meticulously recreated to replace those missing from the original deck; The Devil, The Tower, Three of Swords, and Knight of Coins. The cards, which do not have titles or numbering, depict daily life in medieval Milan through allegorical imagery.
The original cards are located in three different locations. Thirty-five of the original cards are located in the archives of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. Twenty-six extant cards are at the Accademia Carrara in Italy, and thirteen cards are housed at Casa Colleoni, in Bergamo, Italy.
The Visconti-Sforza Pierpont Morgan truly sets the standards and the origin of the past and present tarot cards. These cards were the first "official" tarot card deck made, and it sets the standard and the original look of our modern decks. They were made NOT for divination or mystical goals, but for simple gambling. These beautiful cards are larger than the size of our modern tarot, simply because the medieval necessity of fancy decorations surrounded that weighs more than convenient shuffling. A hole has been punched in all cards, and two of the cards (Tower and Devil) were added in the modern reproduction. However, it is quite possible that both missing cards were never there in the first place, due to the religious and political controversy that surrounds these gambling cards. By taking historically comparing these late 15th century cards to modern cards, one is able to appreciate the beauty and changes in detail that has been embedded in many of our modern tarot cards. Such as the Fool, that later tarot decks added a sun; the Hermit, has been replaced from holding an hourglass to a lantern; Coins became the Neo-Pagan pentacles; batons served as magical wands. Temperance was originally a female pouring water from one vase to another, yet became a nude female pouring waters to both sea and land in modern decks, and so on.
The cards have no titles, no numerical alphabetical allegories (since Comte De Mellet first established the infamous 22 Hebrew letters to the tarot, not Eliphas Levi), which makes their outlook more authentic, yet may be more complicated for a tarot beginner. Their background is a simple reddish brown/maroon color, and they must be shuffled from the sides rather than the top for convenience. In my opinion, these are the "true" and original tarot that many of us may be looking for. They set the standards and values to modern tarot decks and their designs. —Lloyd R. Belthazar, Aeclectic Tarot
Cards measurements: 3.625 X 6.875 inches, box measurements: 4 X 7.25 inches
