oldest known tarot deck - can anybody tell me?

hi!
as requested, i've moved this one over to the more appropriate historical forum. continue to enjoy your thread!

Catboxer, question on U.S. Games repro

I had one of the Visconti decks that U.S. Games distributed in 2000 with Atanassov as the artist...did yours come with a little white book or just black cards with instructions printed in white? I don't have the original box...Was the original publisher Lo Scarabeo or U.S. Games? I only know it by the following: Devil with the devouring face in the middle and the Tower with the fortress in flames, and the slightly thinner veined gold in the gilding overall. The backs are yellowish.
Just fyi, I prefer the newer 2002 Lo Scarabeo kit and use it at home...I replaced it after giving my original U.S. Games-distributed Visconti and also my Lo Scarabeo kit to a friend of my sister's. For both, I gave Spanish-language booklets that was kindly mailed to me by Lo Scarabeo.
The Lo Scarabeo kit that I saw in 2002 with English language book had a different devil, tower, thicker gold veining in front overall and a more greenish back. I'm doing this from what I could observe as large differences. Other people have listed additional differences that I haven't observed.
Mari H.

Mari:

I've got the U.S. Games version -- no little white book -- with instructions printed on the black cards. I haven't seen the Lo Scarabeo one, but I'd be interested in seeing the Tower and Devil.

Later on today I'll try scanning and posting the models Atanassov used for his Tower and Devil pictures.

If anyone does have the new Lo Scarabeo Visconti book and deck set, I still need pictures of the new Devil and Tower for my Visconti page. I'd really appreciate it if someone could scan them for me!

Felicity
--
http://home.attbi.com/~felicityk/tarot/visconti/

Re: Tarot de Paris

felicityk said:

Actually, I believe the anonymous Tarot de Paris is the oldest complete deck. It follows the Marseilles ordering. A limited edition reproduction was done by Grimaud, but it is no longer in print.

Click to expand...

I found a copy of this deck at:

http://www.playingcardsales.com/index.htm

The publisher of the " Tarot Jaques Vieville_
by Boechat Freres, 1984." (Tarot de Paris) is Héron S.A. in France.
I ordered a copy (22.00 dollars (US) plus shipping).
The deck has square edges as well.

I really love this style of illustration and execution! It has so much character. It reminds me of certain types of illustration I would do using Photoshop and Sketcher.

Just to clarify, the Jacques Vieville Tarot and the Tarot de Paris I spoke of are two different decks. I refer you again to a link I posted previously:

http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards59.htm

Felicity

Heavens!

You are indeed right! The Vieville is different from the Tarot de Paris. I was perusing several decks and had jumped to:

http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards61.htm

Which is part of the history of Parisian Tarot.

I am still getting the Vieville since I do like the illustration style very much.

Dark Eyes said:

Hi everyone,
Just curious, can anybody tell me what the earliest known Tarot deck was, and is there a deck very close to it that is available today ??

Click to expand...

It depends, what you interprete as a Tarot deck. The oldest Tarot deck known is the Michelino-deck, also called Besozzo-cards, painted by Michelino da Besozzo, described by Marziano da Tortona, commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti, between 1417 - 1425, some arguments speak for a dating in 1424, payed with 1500 ducatos. The deck exists only in the description of Marziano. The trumps were 16 Gods, the suits showed birds.

see: http://geocities.com/autorbis/marcello1.html

(later edited: now changed to http://trionfi.com/0/b/ )

Smiles...Autorbis webpage...

...this is a preliminary view right now, the links aren't active yet...but there's lot of things being gathered that I look forward to exploring.

I-Ching, hex. 61, line 2

"Ein rufender Kranich im Schatten.
Sein Junges antwortet ihm.
Ich habe einen guten Becher. Ich will ihn mit Dir teilen."

One of few places, where the I-Ching uses "I" and "you"