Ross Caldwell

Two italian authors of the 16th century interpret the symbolism of the tarot deck. These texts are translated here for the first time. Deux auteurs italiens du 16e si cle interpr tent le symbolisme du jeu de tarot. Ces textes sont ici traduits en anglais pour la premi re fois.

The oldest Tarot deck. Tractatus de deificatione sexdecim heroum is the only known work by Marziano da Sant'Alosio, better known as Marziano da Tortona, secretary to the duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti. It describes the structure and symbolism of a new kind of card game with a new kind of cards. In addition to four suits of number cards headed by a king, the deck has a fifth suit, the deified heroes of the title, which serve as trump cards in the game. This set of permanent, ranked trumps, is nowadays associated with Tarot, which had not been invented when Marziano wrote. Therefore, as the first deck to have this feature, it has been justifiably described as the oldest known Taro