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The Agnolo Hebreo Devil Card
The most unique single reproduction card in my collection is the Devil card printed by Agnolo Hebreo (Angelo the Jew) shortly after 1500 and now residing in the British Museum. It was undoubtedly part...
View ArticleInterview: Sherryl Smith and Justin Michael
Here’s a Youtube video of Justin Michael and myself in conversation a few months ago. In the first 30 minutes, I talk about my 50+ years involvement with tarot and how our understanding of tarot...
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Budapest Bounty: Three Recreations of an Ancient Tarot
I’ve always been intrigued by the few remnants of fifteenth-century block-printed decks that still exist. They hold tantalizing clues to the early days of tarot, so I’m thrilled that there are three...
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Edoardo Dotti Tarot Published by Giordano Berti
Attention, lovers of the Soprafino tarot. This elegant deck published by Giordano Berti is an essential. I’m completely enchanted by the graceful lines, rich colors, and smooth, sturdy cardstock. The...
View ArticleTarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: Piedmont Decks
Celebrating my website’s tenth anniversary: 174 blog articles and 42 website pages on tarot history, reading with non-scenic pips, and decks of historic significance. Throughout the summer, I’m going...
View ArticleTarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: The Soprafino Style
Celebrating my website’s tenth anniversary: 174 blog articles and 42 website pages on tarot history, reading with non-scenic pips, and decks of historic significance. Throughout the summer, I’m going...
View ArticleTarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: The Visconti-Sforza Tarot
Celebrating my website’s tenth anniversary: 174 blog articles and 42 website pages on tarot history, reading with non-scenic pips, and decks of historic significance. Throughout the summer, I’m going...
View ArticleTarot-Heritage Tenth Anniversary Roundup: Odds and Ends
Winding down my website’s tenth anniversary summer celebration. Even here in sunny Santa Barbara, where weather rarely happens, I can feel a subtle shift in the air as we head toward autumn. To finish...
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Marco Benedetti’s Personal Visconti
The Visconti-Sforza deck is a hybrid mash-up of sixty-eight original cards painted by Bonifacio Bembo about 1450, six cards that were created by a different artist around 1475, and four cards that are...
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A Fiorentine Minchiate Restored by Marco Benedetti
Announcing a Fiorentine Minchiate deck produced by Marco Cesare Benedetti of Rome, Italy. The strong lines, rich colors and expressive faces make this limited edition deck very readable. Before I get...
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Reading Minchiate Cards with Brian Williams
This is turning out to be Minchiate Month! Marco Benedetti just published a restored and recolored Fiorentine Minchiate which I reviewed here last week. A few recent videos feature this deck. Links to...
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Gerard Bodet Tarot Restored by Sullivan Hismans
The Gerard Bodet Tarot restored by Sullivan Hismans (Tarot Sheet Revival) may be the oldest complete Rouen-Brussels deck we have. Around the year 1500, tarot migrated from Italy to France and entered...
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Tarocco Bolognese Dalla Tore with Rivoltini
For over four centuries, every Italian playing card was handcrafted with rivoltini borders. These are created by gluing backing paper onto the card, folding the four sides over to the front, then...
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Celebrating the Tarot de Marseille Type I
Tarot de Marseille Type I is having its moment in the sun, thanks to several card makers who are recreating these rare decks from museum originals. As far as I know, there are only nine complete, or...
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The Happiest Tarot Decks
I want start 2024 by showing off the happiest tarot decks in my collection. Let’s face it, some of the people in our pre-20th century decks can be rather grumpy, if not downright mean looking. I must...
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I Tarocchi del Mitelli by Marco Benedetti
Today I’m celebrating the artistry of Giuseppe Maria Mitelli along with Marco Benedetti’s luxurious new edition of Mitelli’s tarocchino. I’ll begin by describing Benedetti’s deck; then, I’ll give some...
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Etteilla: The First Modern Card Reader and His Reconstructed Decks by Marco...
Let’s celebrate Etteilla, the eighteenth-century cartomancer who laid the groundwork for our contemporary tarot reading practices. After writing numerous books on divination, seeing clients, running a...
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Loving Pierre Madenié
Hundreds of decks have passed through my hands during my fifty years with tarot; and I’ve been reading with a few that I really love for decades. But I never became instantly infatuated with a deck...
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Marco Benedetti’s Personal Madrone Deck
Marco Benedetti’s restored Visconti di Modrone deck is a magic carpet ride to a late medieval world of elegant lords and ladies and knights in shining armor. A world where fabulously wealthy...
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Vachier: The Oldest Documented Tarot de Marseille
A flurry of excitement rippled through the tarot world in early 2023 when a previously unknown Tarot de Marseille, dated 1639, was auctioned in Paris. This very special deck is the earliest documented...
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