View Full Version : Sola Busca
catboxer
10-05-2002, 08:02
There has been some talk about this deck lately, and I thought it deserved a thread of its own. The Sola Busca is a 78-card deck, but it's not a tarot. The "Il Matto" (Fool) card is somewhat conventional, but after that there are no trumps as we know them. Cards I-XXI are all pictures of warriors with names like Panfilio, Postumio, Mario, etc.
These cards have gained attention here recently because the pips are illustrated with scenes, and this is the only deck so constituted prior to Pamela Coleman Smith's Rider-Waite pictures in 1909. Smith used some of the pictures from the Sola Busca, such as the ten of swords, as models for her work.
Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the original cards is no longer known. They were in the possession of the Sola Busca family of Milan when they were featured in a book, "Early Italian Engravings," in 1938. Since then both the family and the cards have vanished.
These cards were produced for an aristocratic clientele. The artwork is skilfully rendered and the technique sophisticated. They were made in the late 15th century in northern Italy, but no one knows exactly where. They were printed from engravings, then hand colored later. They would have been very expensive. Some of the pictures are gruesome; probably the most famous is the three batons, which shows the decapitated head of a cherub transfixed by the three batons, and the lips closed by a metal ring.
This was obviously a device for gaming (tarocchi). Our only access to the cards today is through the photographs in the book which is by A.M. Hind. The cards are currently available through Lo Scarabeo, but who knows for how long?
(Catboxer)
Thanks for the info Catboxer!
My tarot knowledge had a big void on the history of the cards!
Hmmm lo scarabeo you wrote?
Will this become number 25 of my collection? I have not one historcal deck that's a good reason to order not? ;)
Hi all,
US Games also publishes a Sola Busca deck. This is a very strange deck! I have not spent much time with it. I don't connect with it very well so far. I have found that some decks take time for me to connect with so I will continue to look at these cards from time to time. There does seem to be a bit of a mystery about their history.
Cerulean
07-06-2003, 19:52
to my studies...Sola Busca or Illuminating Ancient Tarots. Giordano Berti calls it the "Warrior's Tarot" in the book by Sofia Di Vincenzo. Tea's Tomb shows cards and has links to the introduction of the book in the book/deck set:
http://sword.lightspeed.bc.ca/hilander/
The book's introduction by Giordano Berti is interesting and I really agree with most of his opinions...my bias, though. I agree with Berti that the 19th century card reproduction--if that what he is discussing---does not seem like Cosme Tura's work*.
I like Cosme Tura's work in context of Ferarra's Schifania frescos and his odd Madonnas, etc.. I see allusions to the Gothic style, but the expressions on the faces of the cards seem different from the Tura murals and other paintings. I see a lot of humor in the Sola Busca cards.
I like the 1996 Tarot of Maria Matteo Boiardo seen at Mark Filpas pasteboard Masquerade. To me, the 1996 reproduction is closer to Tura and unlike the 19th century reproduction Sola Busca.
http://www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade/Reviews/boiardo.html
It's a little strange about the allusion to Maria Matteo Boiardo in the back of the book and the triumph poem. It's hard to find more than brief notes in English about his construction of the human passions poem into a gaming suit. Many of the English texts available now about Boiardo aren't about this poem. But I'm still reading and learning about him.
Maybe one could see the minors of the "Warrior Tarot" as a further joke about knights from the Round Table gone awry.
Mari H.
*Although it's a little difficult to know if all of Berti's points were translated correctly. A sentence of Berti's that reads "the so-called tarot cards attributed to Alessandro Sforza, in reality attributed to Duke Borso, or one of his sons," runs counter to other sources. Historians citing quotations of the Pope noted Duke Borso's unusual celibacy. In those times, many Italian families, including the D'Este, acknowledged practically all illegimate offspring. I know of one historian supposedly researching the Modena archives who corrected fictionalized and other mistakes in attributions of daughters to Borso. Borso's heir switched from a nephew (Niccolo di Leonello) to Ercole through interesting family circumstances. Darn, another point to research..
.
falconwing
08-06-2003, 05:32
...thanks for giving so much useful information on this "weird" deck. I have received it from Magusbook.com some days ago and have to admit I looked through it once, couldn't connect with it at all and just put it back into the box....I do like the idea of something like a "Warrior Deck" but hm...forgive my ignorance, I just don't know how to really _read_ with these cards...seems, it's not "my" deck...
Falconwing
Cerulean
08-06-2003, 18:34
I checked through the afterward by Marisa Chiesa and wanted to mention a guess from my partial translations and small study of Matteo Maria Boiardo. My guess is they are referring to a gaming structure they developed after reading MM Boiardo's poem. They are using either the Sola Busca or a Piedmontese deck to play with a gaming structure suggested by the allegorical tarocchi poem---but you have to read this closely. If you were unfamiliar with Maria Matteo Boiardo, you'd think the actual poem contents and the cards of the Sola Busca were very similar.
The Sola Busca cards has different characters and suits.
The Tarocchi poem of Matteo Maria Boiardo and the 1996 tarot deck reproduction agrees with sources such as Gertrude Moakly and the often cited 1888-99 studies by Rudolph Renier on Boiardo's work. The poem is about human passions and names characters from the Bible and Greek mythology, but the names on the Sola Busca differs from the Tarocchi poem.
My example is the Queens.
MM Boiardo queens:
Suit of Love Queen-Venus (Greek)
Suit of Hope Queen-Judith (Bible)
Suit of Jealousy Queen-Juno (Greek)
Suit of Fear Queen-Andromeda (Greek)
Sola Busca Queens:
Queen of Pentacles-Elena
Queen of Chalices-Polisena
Queen of Swords-Olinepia
Queen of Wands-unnamed
I am going by what is written or painted on the card.
The book is of value to me because of the Berti text, which I will share with a study group. Berti suggested the 'unscholarly work' would raise questions, which is fine. I already have small questions and perhaps after further research, I can tell how Marisa Chiesa reached her conclusions or if Berti is misquoted or is right about Borso D'Este having sons.
The Ferrara text in Berti's introduction is of most interest to me and his bibliography. The bibliography of Sofia Di Vincenzo suggests reading of 'Osho Zen' style, alchemists, Oswald Wirth and references as early as 1912.
This to me is a contrast, as I'm trying to trace more information about Boiardo and D'Este family from scholars that have citations that go back to 1475 from archives of Ferarra, Modena and Rome. Dukes and Poets by Edmund Gardner is one source. He is often referenced by contemporary Boiardo scholars such as Jo Ann Cavallo and Charles Stanley Ross
Best wishes,
Mari H.
WolfSpirit
15-06-2003, 16:09
Originally posted by catboxer
Some of the pictures are gruesome; probably the most famous is the three batons, which shows the decapitated head of a cherub transfixed by the three batons, and the lips closed by a metal ring.
This unsettling card can be seen here at aeclectic in the deck section - it is the Lo Scarabeo edition.
The VIII card has a man holding a baby in a fire I think ? That is what it looks like to me.
Interesting deck from a historical point of view, I don't think I would find any use for it though. But thanks for all the info catboxer, I learnt a lot from your post.
DoctorArcanus
16-04-2005, 09:48
The VIII card has a man holding a baby in a fire I think ? That is what it looks like to me.
Card VIII http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/_img/solabusca-01311.jpg represents Emperor Nero (Nerone in Italian).
According to Michael J. Hurst, Nero famously blamed the fire on Christians, and tortured them to death as entertainment, being the first ruler to initiate persecution of Christians. (Tacitus wrote: "Their death was made a matter of sport; they were covered in wild beasts' skins and torn to pieces by dogs; or were fastened to crosses and set on fire in order to serve as torches in the night.") http://www.geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/Fragments/SolaBusca.html
This is one of the few Sola Busca cards whose meaning is more or less clear to me :)
Marco
Here are the images you've been talking about on AT: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/sola-busca/
Love
Sulis xx
DoctorArcanus
16-04-2005, 11:34
I would like to share my interpretation of the Sola Busca deck. My goal is finding a good way to read with this deck. I like the images a lot, and I am really fascinated by the depth of the symbols and the mystery of this deck (which seems to have disappeared during the first half of the XXth century).
I really hope you all curious tarotists to share your ideas about how to read with this deck.
I will start by writing down how I connect Sola Busca trumps and Major Arcana. About many cards, I follow the suggestions of Michael J. Hurst http://www.geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/Fragments/SolaBusca.html
00 Fool - O MATO ("matto" means "fool" in Italian)
01 Magician - I PANFILIO (numbers matching and figures compatible)
02 High Priestess - XI TULIO (for the connection between Marcus Tullius Cicero and the Art of Memory)
03 Empress - (*)
04 Emperor - XVIIII SABINO (Sabino is the most regal of the crowned figures)
05 Hierophant - XV METELO (as suggested by Hurst)
06 Lovers - VI SESTO (numbers matching and figures compatible)
07 Chariot - VII DEOTAURO (numbers matching and figures compatible)
08 Strength - XIIII BOCHO (represents a giant warrior)
09 Hermit - XVIII LENTULO (as suggested by Hurst)
10 Wheel Of Fortune - X VENTURIO ("ventura" means "fortune")
11 Justice - V CATULO (as suggested by Hurst)
12 Hanged Man - IIII MARIO (because of his strange -almost suspended- position)
13 Death - II POSTUMIO (as suggested by Hurst)
14 Temperance - III LENPIO (for the presence of a water bowl)
15 Devil - VIII NERONE (for the presence of flames)
16 Tower - XX NENBROTO (as suggested by Hurst)
17 Star - XIII CATONE (a star is present on the card)
18 Moon - XII CARBONE (the moon is present on the card)
19 Sun - XVI OLIVO (the sun is present on the card)
20 Judgment - XVII IPEO (as suggested by Hurst)
21 Universe - XXI NABUCHODENASOR (numbers matching and figures compatible)
(*) The remaining trump card, VIIII FALCO, represents a kneeling king. I could not imagine a way of connecting this card to the Empress. I interpret FALCO to represent Humility and/or Faith in Higher Principles.
Marco
Unfortunately, the whereabouts of the original cards is no longer known. They were in the possession of the Sola Busca family of Milan when they were featured in a book, "Early Italian Engravings," in 1938. Since then both the family and the cards have vanished.
There is more than one old version of the Sola-Busca, compare Kaplan Encyclopedia II (Kaplan stays more vague about this point in Tarot Encyclopedia I, just telling there, that the Sola Busca is the only complete Tarocchi deck of 15th century).
The different versions are not totally identical.
See: http://trionfi.com/0/j/d/solabusca/index.html
also Kaplan II, p. 297 ff.
NightWing
16-04-2005, 23:46
I've read through this thread with considerable interest. However I'm not at all sure why this 78-card deck (once used for the game of Tarrochi) is not a Tarot. Can anyone tell me exactly why the Sola-Busca deck is NOT tarot, given that there are so many decks out there with tremendous variations in the Majors imagery, or even numbers of cards, that are? I mean, is the LS Dragons Tarot a tarot? How about the Swiss 1JJ deck? The Fey Tarot? Or the Navigators Tarot...? What about the Transformational Tarot? The Golden Tarot? What variations are "permissable"? Which are not? (And just who decides?) Thanks to whoever can clarify this.
Moongold
17-04-2005, 00:12
I have the Lo Scarabeo Sola Busca which I bought at a sale without realising what I had purchased.
It is a facinating deck in it's own right and I have used it for personal meditation.
It is interesting also in that Pamela Colman Smith reportedly based imagery for the RWS deck on some of these images - three swords in particular.
The Marseille influence is evident in some of the cards. 3 Coupes has vines connecting the coupes. 3 Batons is extraordinary and 10 Coupes is quite witty, as is 10 Deniers.
Every image has something quite special, especially if youknow even a little about the RWS and Marseille decks. The connections are amazing.
Moongold
I've read through this thread with considerable interest. However I'm not at all sure why this 78-card deck (once used for the game of Tarrochi) is not a Tarot. Can anyone tell me exactly why the Sola-Busca deck is NOT tarot, given that there are so many decks out there with tremendous variations in the Majors imagery, or even numbers of cards, that are? I mean, is the LS Dragons Tarot a tarot? How about the Swiss 1JJ deck? The Fey Tarot? Or the Navigators Tarot...? What about the Transformational Tarot? The Golden Tarot? What variations are "permissable"? Which are not? (And just who decides?) Thanks to whoever can clarify this.
There is no true Tarot, there are just definitions, what a "true Tarot" is or should be and these definitions differ from speaker to speaker and opinion to opinion.
The Sola-Busca Tarocchi definitely has the structure (1+21 + 4x14) of a "common Tarot" (whereby "common" is usually meant as traditional in the sense of the Marseille Tarot in a specific set of motifs and a specific row between them), but it also definitely doesn't use the common motifs (and of course also not the the row of these motifs).
Nonetheless it's one of the oldest "Tarot" games and it's row and it's motifs are possibly even older than the Marseille pattern.
... :-) Art is free, and when an an artist in his freedom decides to call this or that composition of motifs a "Tarot", than this action is a fact ... and when a spectator of the action decides, that this new created composition differs from that, what he understands himself as Tarot, then that's the freedom of opinion of the spectator ... and also a fact.
Tarot is just a name, like John or Jack. Completely different persons could be called John or Jack.
DoctorArcanus
18-04-2005, 09:03
In my personal opinion, Sola Busca is a tarot deck.
My tentative definition of tarot:
"any deck designed to play a tarot game, or designed with a different goal but with the same basic structure as decks designed to play tarot".
Such basic structure is: Fool + 21 other Trumps + 4 suites each including 10 pips and 4 Court Cards.
RWS, Crowley's Book of Toth, Marseille, Visconti-Sforza are all tarot decks, according to this definition. Even if cards have different subjects in different decks.
Sola Busca is a tarot deck according to this definition.
All the definitions of tarot that I find meaningflul include the four decks above as well as Sola Busca.
Of course, what is meaningful to me might not make sense for somebody else! :)
Marco
NightWing
25-04-2005, 16:56
I want to express my appreciation and gratitude for the two posts above, which help to clarify the meaning/definition of "Tarot". Thank-you both.
BrightEye
04-06-2006, 07:37
does anyone read with this deck and want to share their experiences? i tried a couple of times and because i don't know anything about the historical background of the majors, i read intuitively. worked very well.
FearfulSymmetry
05-06-2006, 20:12
I've been using it for a few months now and like it a lot. It's realy unconventional but still feels tarot-y to me. The history of the people isn't necessar to use it but is like the icing on the cake.