Visconti-Sforza Tarot

The Visconti-Sforza tarot is a set tarot cards from the 15th century and it is one of the oldest known Tarot Decks. It had a significant impact on the visual composition, numbering and interpretation of modern playing cards

Visconti-Sforza Tarot is used to describe fifteen incomplete decks, now are all in different museums, private collectors and libraries around the world. 

It is not a complete deck, no complete package is known.  

The remaining cards are particularly historical interests

Among the unique items in the Cary Collection of Playing Cards are fascinating remnants of early Italian tarot packs.




 The tarot, originally a game of uncertain origin, came to be associated with fortune-telling, or cartomancy, several centuries after its appearance in central Europe in the late fourteenth century. Perhaps the most beautiful surviving example of this form is the Visconti tarot, sixty-seven particularly extragant handpainted cards with gold, silver, and miniature Renaissance portraiture.

The Collection

Originally commissioned in the 15th century by the Viscontis, a Milanese family that dominated the cultural life of northern Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, this deck is one of the oldest sets in existence






. The cards are attributed to Bonifacio Bembo, an Italian fresco artist who flourished between 1447-1478. The deck includes eleven trump cards, six court cards, including the King, Queen, Male Knight, Female Knight, Male Valet, and Female Valet, as well as the unusual addition of the three




Theological Virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. The unique addition of the female knight and valet may be an indication that this set was intended to be used by a female member of court.

History of the Collection

The first major deposit of playing cards in the Yale Library was in 1945, when Mrs. Samuel H. Fisher gave her extensive collection. This group of material documented five centuries of the development of the playing card. The earliest items in this gift were engraved German cards from the fifteenth century.

The great leap forward, the acquisition that gave Yale a prominent place in the study of playing card history, occurred two decades later. Melbert B. Cary, Jr., was, by profession, an importer who indulged his passion for fine printing by establishing and running the Press of the Woolly Whale (the archives of which reside in the Beinecke Library). Another of his passions, collecting playing cards, was developed in partnership with his wife,






Mary Flagler Cary. They collected together until his death in 1941, after which Mrs. Cary continued adding judiciously to the assemblage of examples from around the world. Following Mrs. Cary's death in 1967, the collection was presented to Yale, along with funds for its maintenance.








 The Visconti Tarot is one example from many in the Cary Colelction of Playing Cards.

The remaining cards are of particular historical interest because of the beauty and details of their composition, often made ​​of precious materials and possibly reproducing family members Sforza and Visconti in clothes and vintage frames. Consequently, it offers a glimpse of the aristocratic life in Milan , the city of two families from the xiii th century. At the time of their order by Philippe Marie Visconti ,Duke of Milan , and his successor Francesco Sforza , the cards are simply known as " trionfi "(" triumphs ", that is to say" strengths ") and are used for regular play 4 .

Hand-painted, gold and silver tarot cards, ca. 1428-1447.

The cards are made ​​of cardboard, hand-painted in bright colors on a gold background often or silver. Some details are also golden approximate the cards illuminations and miniatures medieval. They are significantly larger than the contemporary maps: between 170 and190 m long by 80 to 90 mm ​​wide.

The remaining cards are grouped into three main sets:

Pierpont Morgan: 74 cards (20 assets, 15 figures, 39 values);

Cary-Yale: 67 cards (11 assets, 17 figures, 39 values);

Brera-Brambilla: 48 cards (2 additions, 7 figures, 39 values).

Visconti-Sforza Tarot" is used collectively to describe fifteen incomplete decks, now scattered in various museums, libraries and private collections worldwide 3 .



No known complete package. The remaining cards are of particular historical interest because of the beauty and details of their composition, often made ​​of precious materials and possibly reproducing family members Sforza and Visconti in clothes and vintage frames.






Consequently, it offers a glimpse of the aristocratic life in Milan , the city of two families from the xiii th century. At the time of their order by Philippe Marie Visconti ,Duke of Milan , and his successor Francesco Sforza , the cards are simply known as " trionfi "(" triumphs ", that is to say" strengths ") and are used for regular play 4 .

The cards are made ​​of cardboard, hand-painted in bright colors on a gold background often or silver. Some details are also golden approximate the cards illuminations and miniatures medieval. They are significantly larger than the contemporary maps: between 170 and190 m long by 80 to 90 mm ​​wide.

The remaining cards are grouped into three main sets:

Pierpont Morgan: 74 cards (20 assets, 15 figures, 39 values);

Cary-Yale: 67 cards (11 assets, 17 figures, 39 values);

Brera-Brambilla: 48 cards (2 additions, 7 figures, 39 values).

This game, also known under the designation "Colleoni-Baglioni" and "Francesco Sforza," occurred around 1451 5 . Originally composed of 78 cards, there are currently 74 contains 20 assets (originally 22) Figures 15 (originally 16) and 39 values ​​(40 originally). The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York owns 35, the Carrara Academy of Bergamo are 26, the 13 remaining cards are in the private collection of the Colleoni family in Bergamo 6 . Missing cards are the Devil , the Tower , the rider of denier and three of sword .

The cards are made ​​of cardboard with rounded corners; it measure 173 × 87 mm 7  The strengths and figures have a gold background, while values ​​are cream colored with a pattern of flowers and vines. The figures of sticks wear silver clothes and a long stick, terminated at each end by a large container except that of the king , which ends thus only at the top.






Figures for cuts wear golden clothes embellished with sun ray and coat; Each figure has a large chalice. The figures of the swords are equipped with full armor and carry a big sword. The figures denier wear clothes decorated with blue ribbons wrapped around circular suns; the rider is the only one not wearing a ducal crown.

The first known traces the game back to the xvii th century, when the account Ambiviani sells 74 cards at the Donati family, who in turn sells to Alessandro Colleoni in the late xix th century. The Colleoni family sells 26 to Count Francesco Baglioni, who bequeathed them to his death at the Carrara Academy.

This game is named after the collection of the Cary family, absorbed by the library of Yale Universityin 1967; it is also known as the "Visconti di Modrone." It is dated around 1466 8 . Some researchers9 have suggested, however, that they could be the oldest of all the cards, perhaps commissioned byFilippo Maria Visconti at the beginning of the project. 67 cards have survived: 11 assets, 17 figures and 39 values.





Given the distribution of the game Pierpont Morgan, it was suggested that the total number of cards during its production was projected at 86, but this proposal does not unanimous.According to Giordano Berti, the game occurred between 1442 and 1447, because the cards denier door and the obverse face of the gold florin introduced in 1442 by Philippe Marie Visconti and retired to his death in 1447.

Cary-Yale game is the only Western package with six different figures: the traditional kings , ladies , horsemen and footmen are complemented by maids and bridleways.

The cards measure approximately 189 × 90 mm ​​. The assets have a gold background, values ​​a silver background.

This game is named after Giovanni Brambilla, who acquires card Venice in 1900 10 . Since 1971, it is the catalog of the Pinacoteca di Brerain Milan. Apparently ordered Bonifacio Bembo by Francesco Sforza in 1463, it remains 48 cards, only two assets: the Emperor and the Wheel of Fortune .

The cards measure 180 × 90 mm ​​6 . The figures are a gold background, values ​​a silver background. The remaining seven figures are thehorseman and servant of cutting , the rider and the valet denier , the rider, the valet and the lady of stick . All values ​​have survived, with the exception of four denier.

you can find the
The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards on Amazon.co.uk  and more detailed info about the cards if you can find the book by Michael Dummett, The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards , G. Braziller,1986