Sherryl
Book Suggestions
In response to Nisaba's cry for a booklist, here are some recommended books that focus on the 15th and 16th centuries.
Sherryl Smith
Bandera, Sandrina. Brera: I Tarocchi, Il Caso e la Fortuna. Electa, Milano, 1999
Very large color reproductions of the three hand painted decks from Milan. Best illustrations I’ve seen – the detail is wonderful. Text is in Italian, but the book is worth it for the illustrations. Illustrated essays on related art and literature of the period and on tarot in the context of the late gothic and the court at Milan.
Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot. Duckworth, 1980
Has 108 pages in two different sections that discuss the early development of the deck, early names for the cards, and various orders of the trumps; 16 pages of speculation on what the earliest card game was like; 14 pages discussing decks in 16th and 17th century France including early TdM and Vieville; 6 pages on the Tarrochini (Tarocchi Bolognese); 10 pages on Sicilian decks; and 36 pages of plates, mostly black & white. The rest of the 600-page book is excruciating detail on every game played with every known variant of the Tarot and Tarock deck.
Huson, Paul. Mystical Origins of the Tarot. Destiny, 2004
Origin of playing cards in Arabic Mamluk cards, origin of tarot imagery in medieval popular culture such as mystery plays, Petrarch’s Triumphs, and dance of death; TdM’s origins in Milan. His discussion of how sequences of trumps such as the Devil, Tower and Star illustrate of scenes from mystery plays is very compelling. He discusses the iconography of all 78 cards and gives a range of divinatory meanings from Pratesi in 1750 to Etteilla to the Golden Dawn. Spreads and other information on cartomancy. Very accessible book loaded with information.
Kaplan, Stuart. Encyclopedia of Tarot. Volume II is the one to get for early Tarot.
Moakley, Gertrude. The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family: An iconographic and Historical Study. NY Public Library, 1966
Aunt Gertie, the accidental tarot historian, is the mother of realty-based tarot history. She puts tarot in the context of its times and the tradition of triumphal processions. Black & white illustrations.
Olsen, Christina. The Art of Tarot. Abbeville Press.
Color pictures of all the cards extant from these decks: Brera (Brambilla), Carey Yale, Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo, Charles VI, Ercole d’Este, Caitlin Geoffrey, Parisian, Mitelli, and at least a dozen more from Etteilla to the Po Mo.
Vitali, Andrea and Giovanni Berti. Tarocchi: Arte & Magia. Edizioni Le Tarot.
Text in Italian but with loads of color illustrations of art related to tarot iconography.
Williams, Brian. The Renaissance Tarot. US Games.
This book accompanies his deck, but you can buy it separately. It has his line drawings of the trumps from the woodblock sheets of cards from around 1500. He puts the trumps in the context of art and mythology as it was understood in the 15th century. Lots of line drawing illustrations of related art.
www.Trionfi.com.
Go to the Iconography section then to “old motifs/articles” to read articles by Andrea Vitale, Bob O’Neil, and Tom Tadfor Little on each trump.
Put this on your Christmas wish list:
Tarots: The Visconti Pack in Bergamo and New York. Text by Italo Calvino. Published by Franco Maria Ricci, Milan, 1975.
Oversized hard back book (9 x 14 inches) made of soft gray-green handmade paper. Limited edition of 3,000. With the book open you see the text of Calvino’s Castle of Crossed Destinies on the left page and a full-size color print of a Visconti-Sforza card laid in and centered on the right side. A short discussion of the card is inset on the left-hand page. Several short scholarly essays in the back of the book. The cover is embossed in gold with two cards laid on (mine has the Fool and Queen of Swords – I wonder if each cover is different)? The book is housed in an elegant, sturdy black cardboard box.
Happy Reading!
In response to Nisaba's cry for a booklist, here are some recommended books that focus on the 15th and 16th centuries.
Sherryl Smith
Bandera, Sandrina. Brera: I Tarocchi, Il Caso e la Fortuna. Electa, Milano, 1999
Very large color reproductions of the three hand painted decks from Milan. Best illustrations I’ve seen – the detail is wonderful. Text is in Italian, but the book is worth it for the illustrations. Illustrated essays on related art and literature of the period and on tarot in the context of the late gothic and the court at Milan.
Dummett, Michael. The Game of Tarot. Duckworth, 1980
Has 108 pages in two different sections that discuss the early development of the deck, early names for the cards, and various orders of the trumps; 16 pages of speculation on what the earliest card game was like; 14 pages discussing decks in 16th and 17th century France including early TdM and Vieville; 6 pages on the Tarrochini (Tarocchi Bolognese); 10 pages on Sicilian decks; and 36 pages of plates, mostly black & white. The rest of the 600-page book is excruciating detail on every game played with every known variant of the Tarot and Tarock deck.
Huson, Paul. Mystical Origins of the Tarot. Destiny, 2004
Origin of playing cards in Arabic Mamluk cards, origin of tarot imagery in medieval popular culture such as mystery plays, Petrarch’s Triumphs, and dance of death; TdM’s origins in Milan. His discussion of how sequences of trumps such as the Devil, Tower and Star illustrate of scenes from mystery plays is very compelling. He discusses the iconography of all 78 cards and gives a range of divinatory meanings from Pratesi in 1750 to Etteilla to the Golden Dawn. Spreads and other information on cartomancy. Very accessible book loaded with information.
Kaplan, Stuart. Encyclopedia of Tarot. Volume II is the one to get for early Tarot.
Moakley, Gertrude. The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family: An iconographic and Historical Study. NY Public Library, 1966
Aunt Gertie, the accidental tarot historian, is the mother of realty-based tarot history. She puts tarot in the context of its times and the tradition of triumphal processions. Black & white illustrations.
Olsen, Christina. The Art of Tarot. Abbeville Press.
Color pictures of all the cards extant from these decks: Brera (Brambilla), Carey Yale, Pierpont Morgan-Bergamo, Charles VI, Ercole d’Este, Caitlin Geoffrey, Parisian, Mitelli, and at least a dozen more from Etteilla to the Po Mo.
Vitali, Andrea and Giovanni Berti. Tarocchi: Arte & Magia. Edizioni Le Tarot.
Text in Italian but with loads of color illustrations of art related to tarot iconography.
Williams, Brian. The Renaissance Tarot. US Games.
This book accompanies his deck, but you can buy it separately. It has his line drawings of the trumps from the woodblock sheets of cards from around 1500. He puts the trumps in the context of art and mythology as it was understood in the 15th century. Lots of line drawing illustrations of related art.
www.Trionfi.com.
Go to the Iconography section then to “old motifs/articles” to read articles by Andrea Vitale, Bob O’Neil, and Tom Tadfor Little on each trump.
Put this on your Christmas wish list:
Tarots: The Visconti Pack in Bergamo and New York. Text by Italo Calvino. Published by Franco Maria Ricci, Milan, 1975.
Oversized hard back book (9 x 14 inches) made of soft gray-green handmade paper. Limited edition of 3,000. With the book open you see the text of Calvino’s Castle of Crossed Destinies on the left page and a full-size color print of a Visconti-Sforza card laid in and centered on the right side. A short discussion of the card is inset on the left-hand page. Several short scholarly essays in the back of the book. The cover is embossed in gold with two cards laid on (mine has the Fool and Queen of Swords – I wonder if each cover is different)? The book is housed in an elegant, sturdy black cardboard box.
Happy Reading!
