The Game of Saturn/The Sola-Busca Tarot

kwaw

He identifies the deck's creator as Nicola di Maestro Antonio.

Patrick

Several artists have been suggested, but as of yet I don't think it can be said with any degree of confidence that the artist has definitively been identified -

For 'Nicola di Maestro Antonio' as Master of the Sola Busca Tarot see: I tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-alchemica tra Marche e Veneto all fine del Quattrocento', Pinacoteca de Brera 2012 (Reviewed by David Landau, Print Quarterly, XXXI, June 2014, pp. 216-219) -- (It was Andrea de Marchi who suggested Nicola di Maestro Antonio as the Master of the Sola Busca Tarocchi in a paper published in 1998 -- another of his essays on the subject also appeared as one of two essays in the catalogue for the Brera Museum exhibition in 2013 ( Il Segreto dei Segreti: I Tarocchi Sola Busca)*

The British Museum online catalogue displays a somewhat sceptical stance towards the attribution:

"The arguments proposing that the painter Nicola di Maestro Antonio engraved the tarot cards are not entirely convincing but they are here attributed to him for want of a better alternative and to reflect the most recent scholarship on the subject."

http://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...Text=playing+cards&page=6&sortBy=fromDateDesc



AN00037740_001_l.jpg


Also which might be of interest, The Master of the "Sola-Busca Tarocchi" and the Rediscovery of Some Ferrarese Engravings of the Fifteenth Century by Mark J. Zucker and published in Artibus et Historiae
Vol. 18, No. 35 (1997), pp. 181-194 is available to read for free from jstor (just register with jstor and you can read it as one of their three on the shelf for free scheme)

* Il Segreto dei Segreti: I Tarocchi Sola Busca (English version) is online here:

http://images.brera.beniculturali.it//f/Documenti/so/solabusca_english2
 

Patrick Booker

Scarlet Imprint are shipping pre-ordered copies. All UK orders are apparently in the post now, so I should get mine today or tomorrow.

Patrick
 

Patrick Booker

I have my book. Beautifully produced, as one might expect for a limited edition. A detailed analysis of the symbolic content of the cards, and certainly a book that requires careful attention, I think.

Patrick
 

KhonsuMes

Great to hear your initial impressions!

Looking forward to getting a copy here in the US in the next couple of weeks.
 

Patrick Booker

This is a detailed and scholarly investigation of the first Tarot deck to be fully illustrated. Adams argues that it is a neopagan manual of talismanic and astral magic of a dark and malevolent form, and relating to the the invocation of Kronos-Saturn. He sees this unique Tarot as primarily literary in nature, and calls it a 'Pandora's box'. Very much of the dark side of Renaissance magic, and providing much to ponder.

Patrick
 

garmonbozia

Most of the resources online for it are rather old and the websites are down. Im very interested in possible meanings for the major arcana, which I assume are related to the history/mythology of each of the characters represented. In any case its a beautiful deck.

This is a good little book on the Majors:
https://www.amazon.com/Tarocchi-busca-Storia-misteri-alchimia/dp/8897371272

It's also available directly from Il Meneghello for 16 euros. It also currently comes free with Il Meneghello's Sola Busca Majors deck.
 

garmonbozia

I have my book. Beautifully produced, as one might expect for a limited edition. A detailed analysis of the symbolic content of the cards, and certainly a book that requires careful attention, I think.

I saw mention on Giordano Berti's facebook page that the Scarlet Imprint book uses illustrations of the Mayer deck without permission.

If this is true, I think people here should be aware.
 

Patrick Booker

I saw mention on Giordano Berti's facebook page that the Scarlet Imprint book uses illustrations of the Mayer deck without permission.

If this is true, I think people here should be aware.

At one time, Scarlet Imprint were intending to use the images of the Mayer deck that Giordano Berti possesses, claiming that he did not hold copyright. Berti disagreed and claimed that he did in fact have copyright. I did not see any references to the book at this stage. Scarlet Imprint then issued this statement, claiming to have reached an agreement with the owners of the only complete set:

http://scarletimprint.com/2017/02/update-the-game-of-saturn-sola-busca-tarot/

This specifies that Adams' book uses the Brera images, and that their planned edition of the cards will also use these. Do you have any more recent information?

Patrick