Overview

The evolution of tarot is best understood not as a single, unbroken lineage of 78 cards, but as a diverse, wildly creative family tree of historic decks, each reflecting the artistic, cultural, and intellectual preoccupations of its specific time and place. Before the rigid standardization brought about by the Tarot de Marseille or the esoteric revisions of the 19th century, the Renaissance courts of Italy produced a stunning variety of tarocchi games and allegorical card systems. This article surveys the major historical decks that preceded, paralleled, or wildly diverged from the modern tarot structure—including the Visconti di Modrone, the revolutionary Sola Busca, the massively expanded Minchiate of Florence, and the fascinating regional variants of Bologna, Sicily, and Piedmont—tracing a rich visual journey through the centuries.

The Visconti di Modrone: Expanding the Court

While the Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo deck is the most famous of the Visconti-Sforza family of cards, it was not the only one commissioned by the Milanese court. The Visconti di Modrone deck (also known as the Cary-Yale deck, as the surviving 67 cards are housed at Yale University) offers a fascinating glimpse into the structural fluidity of the early tarot.

A Six-Figure Court: Created around 1441, this deck diverges significantly from the standard 78-card structure we recognize today. Its most notable feature is a massively expanded court. Instead of the familiar four figures (Page, Knight, Queen, King), the Visconti di Modrone suits feature six court cards: a male and female Page (Knave/Maid), a male and female Knight, and a Queen and King. This structural variation suggests that the rules and composition of the Tarocchi game were still in a state of experimental flux during the mid-15th century, before settling into the standardized four-person court.

The Theological Virtues: The surviving trump cards from this deck also differ from later standards. Notably, it includes the three theological virtues—Faith, Hope, and Charity—which are entirely absent from the standard 22 Major Arcana (though the cardinal virtues of Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance remain). The inclusion of these Christian virtues underscores the deck’s function as a mirror of medieval and Renaissance moral philosophy, intended to instruct as much as to entertain.

The Sola Busca: An Alchemical Masterpiece

Of all the historical decks, the Sola Busca Tarot (created in Ferrara or Venice around 1490) is perhaps the most revolutionary, visually striking, and intellectually dense. It is the earliest known tarot deck to be printed from copper engravings rather than hand-painted or printed from woodblocks, allowing for unprecedented detail, shading, and expressive linework.

A Cast of Classical Heroes: The trump cards of the Sola Busca completely abandon the familiar allegories of the Pope, the Emperor, or the Wheel of Fortune. Instead, they feature a cast of heroes, warriors, and leaders drawn from Roman history and biblical antiquity, such as Alexander the Great (Alexander), Nebuchadnezzar (Nabuchodenasor), and the Roman statesman Cato (Catone). The deck reads less like a standard cosmic allegory and more like a humanist meditation on power, history, and military virtue, likely designed for a highly educated, elite circle of Renaissance intellectuals. Furthermore, many scholars identify deep alchemical symbolism woven throughout the imagery, suggesting it was created for practitioners of Hermetic philosophy.

The First Illustrated Minor Arcana: The Sola Busca’s most significant and lasting innovation, however, was its treatment of the Minor Arcana. It is the very first complete deck to feature fully illustrated scenes on all the pip (numbered) cards. Instead of simply showing three swords or four cups arranged in a geometric pattern, these cards depict dynamic, often violent or enigmatic interactions between classical figures.

This visual storytelling in the Minor suits was entirely forgotten for four centuries, until black-and-white photographs of the Sola Busca were acquired by the British Museum and exhibited in London in 1907. There, they profoundly and directly inspired the artist Pamela Colman Smith during her creation of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck in 1909. Arthur Edward Waite had provided Smith with detailed instructions for the Major Arcana, but gave her broad creative freedom for the Minor Arcana. Seeking a way to make the pip cards readable and evocative, Smith drew heavily on the Sola Busca’s revolutionary approach.

The visual borrowing is unmistakable in several key cards. The Sola Busca’s Three of Swords—depicting three blades piercing a heart-shaped shield—is the direct visual ancestor of the iconic RWS Three of Swords, transforming a geometric arrangement into a universal symbol of sorrow. The Ten of Swords in the Sola Busca shows a figure struck from behind by multiple blades, which Smith adapted into her famous depiction of absolute ruin and betrayal. Even the Ten of Wands, showing a figure burdened by a heavy load of staffs, finds its compositional roots in the Sola Busca. By adopting this illustrative method, Smith bridged the gap between the esoteric tradition of the Golden Dawn and the artistic innovations of the Italian Renaissance, forever changing how modern readers interact with the Minor Arcana.

The Mantegna Tarocchi: A Cosmos in Cards

The Mantegna Tarocchi (created in Ferrara or Venice around 1465) is a fascinating historical anomaly. Despite its name, it is neither a true tarot deck nor was it created by the artist Andrea Mantegna. It consists of 50 exquisite copperplate engravings, divided into five distinct groups of ten cards.

An Educational Encyclopedia: The Mantegna cards were not designed for a trick-taking game or for divination, but rather as an educational tool—a visual encyclopedia of the Renaissance universe. The five series represent a hierarchical ascent of knowledge:

1. The conditions of humanity (from Beggar to Pope).
2. The nine Muses and Apollo.
3. The liberal arts and sciences.
4. The cosmic principles and virtues.
5. The spheres of the planets and the divine realm.

Influence on Tarot Symbolism: While structurally different from a standard 78-card tarot deck, the Mantegna engravings share a deep iconographic resonance with the tarot trumps. Both reflect the humanist desire to categorize the cosmos and map the human journey. The intricate, classically inspired imagery of the Mantegna cards undoubtedly influenced the visual vocabulary of card-makers across Italy, serving as a masterclass in Renaissance allegory.

The Minchiate Fiorentine: The Astrological Expansion

As the game of tarocchi spread south from Milan and Ferrara, it adapted to local tastes. In Florence, the intellectual center of the Renaissance, the deck underwent a massive, elaborate expansion, resulting in the incredibly popular game of Minchiate.

A 97-Card Deck: First documented in the early 16th century, the Minchiate deck consists of 97 cards. It retains the standard 56 Minor Arcana cards but drastically expands the trump sequence from 22 to 41 cards.

Astrology, Elements, and Virtues: The Florentines, deeply invested in Neoplatonism, astrology, and esoteric philosophy, felt the standard 22 trumps were insufficient to map the cosmos. To the traditional allegories, they added cards representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac, the four classical elements (Fire, Water, Earth, Air), and the remaining virtues (including Prudence, Faith, Hope, and Charity).

The Minchiate trumps offer a comprehensive, encyclopedic map of the celestial and moral universe, reflecting the synthesis of Hermetic thought and civic humanism that characterized Florentine intellectual life. The game was highly complex and remained incredibly popular among the Tuscan nobility for centuries, even spreading to France and Germany before eventually fading from use in the late 19th century.

Regional Variants: Bologna, Sicily, and Piedmont

While Florence expanded the deck, other Italian regions altered the structure and iconography to suit their specific gaming preferences and political realities, resulting in distinct regional traditions that survive to this day.

The Tarocco Bolognese: In the university city of Bologna, players chose to condense the deck. Invented in the early 16th century, the Tarocchino (little tarot) deck removes the twos, threes, fours, and fives from the four suits, reducing the deck to 62 cards. This condensation made for a faster, more aggressive trick-taking game. Notably, in 1725, the papal authorities governing Bologna objected to the depiction of the Pope, Popess, Emperor, and Empress. To appease the Church, these four cards were replaced with four unnumbered cards depicting Moorish figures (the “Mori”), demonstrating how tarot imagery was frequently adapted to navigate local political and religious sensitivities.

The Tarocco Siciliano: In Sicily, a unique 64-card deck evolved that utilizes Spanish suit symbols (which feature differently shaped cudgels and swords than the northern Italian decks). The Sicilian trumps feature entirely unique local archetypes. For example, the Popess is replaced by Miseria (Destitution or Poverty), and the Devil is replaced by La Nave (The Ship). This deck remains in use today in specific Sicilian towns for a highly complex local trick-taking game.

The Tarocco Piemontese: In the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, card-makers adopted the imagery of the French Tarot de Marseille but heavily adapted it for local gameplay. In the late 19th century, the Piedmontese deck introduced double-ended (reversible) cards—where the image is mirrored top and bottom—so players wouldn’t have to turn the cards right-side up in their hands, a purely mechanical innovation that nonetheless changed the visual landscape of the deck.

Legacy and Influence

Studying these historic decks reveals a vital truth: the structure and imagery of tarot were never fixed, absolute, or divinely ordained in a single form. From the expanded courts of the Visconti di Modrone to the illustrated pips of the Sola Busca, and from the astrological cosmos of the Minchiate to the condensed gameplay of the Bolognese and Sicilian variants, the cards were constantly adapting to the cultural currents and practical needs of their environment.

When we view the modern 78-card tarot as the most successful survivor of a wildly diverse family of Renaissance card systems, we gain a richer appreciation for its flexibility. The historic decks remind us that the archetypes we work with today are the distilled result of centuries of artistic experimentation, intellectual inquiry, and cultural evolution.

Reflection

Engaging with the imagery of historic tarot decks is like walking through a museum of the Renaissance imagination. It invites us to recognize that the symbolic language of tarot is not a rigid dogma handed down intact from antiquity, but a living, highly adaptable vocabulary. When we understand the artistic innovations of decks like the Sola Busca or the astrological depth of the Minchiate, we expand our own interpretive boundaries. These historical variations remind us that tarot has always been a mirror of the human mind—capable of expanding, condensing, and reimagining the cosmos to meet the psychological and cultural needs of the present moment.