Tarocchino Bolognese is one of the oldest variants of tarot. Some of the stories connected with Prince Fibbia tend to attribute to it a date of origin which is near to the very introduction of cards in Europe. Unfortunately, however, very few documents have been preserved which are earlier than the first edition of the fundamental book "Istruzioni necessarie..." printed in Bologna in 1754. On the other hand, Tarocchino Bolognese is a fortunate exception among the many tarot variants, which are now almost completely forgotten. It is still played and precisely in same places where it was introduced four or five hundred years ago. Moreover, the fact that the game is based on the use of a reduced pack - the numeral cards from 2s to 5s being absent - has the fortunate consequence that the cards of Tarocchino Bolognese have not been implied in the recent revivals of cartomantic fashions.
Prof. Dummett, in particular, has recently emphasized with usual comprehensiveness the local character of the game; the necessity in old times to memorize the whole sequence of the triumphs, which only recently and only in part show numbers; the conservative aspect of the cards and of the rules of playing, and so on.(1) In recent years we have some description of Tarocchino Bolognese in game magazines,(2) in books of card games,(3) a new reprint of the above mentioned ancient book,(4) and the edition of a pack, sponsored by Banca Popolare di Bologna e Ferrara, published together with a book by Laghi(5). Further editions are expected or are already in the press. The last mentioned book is a further evidence, if one yet was needed, of the peculiar character of Tarocchino Bolognese: it is clearly written in order to describe a game still well and alive, without any particular reference to its past, however renowned. Indicative of the present situation is a sentence in the foreword, «Il tarocco sopravvive in quelle strade dove il tempo si è fermato: le case sanno ancora di tagliatelle, senti parlare in bolognese, la notte non fa paura perché c’è luce e la gente si conosce;...»
The literary documents about the game are few; practically all of them derive from Bologna. Moreover, no witness remains for those cards being used for different aims, except for the renowned facts of 1725 related to Montieri’s pack and its persecution.(1) Also modifications of the standard pack, such as the renowned Tarocchino by Mitelli, appeared relatively seldom.
Therefore, apart from the printed sources, other documentary evidence seems to be necessary in order to obtain a more detailed picture of the historical development of Tarocchino Bolognese. Due to its strictly local character, any further document or handwritten evidence has to be searched for in Bologna and not elsewhere. However, in the secular history of Tarocchino Bolognese, so rich of traditions and so poor of documents, it is not easy to find out something new. In particular, I will not be able in the following to present anything useful to clarify its origin or else its first diffusion. I intend, however, to report and briefly discuss some documents still preserved in the University Library of Bologna and already indicated in the catalogues of Italian manuscripts(6), although they generally consist in loose sheets. Thus, a Latin list of the triumphs of the end of the 16th century will be first commented on, then will be discussed, mainly schemes of Tarocchi Appropriati, two sonnets quoting tarot cards with political aims, a list used for fortune telling, and a complete set of rules. Moreover, two further witnesses for Tarocchi Appropriati will be described coming from Archiginnasio.
Let us begin with the Latin list. As known, several encyclopedic treatises exist, where the triumphs are listed in order, without any reference to associated personages and the like; such are the well known lists from Steele’s manuscript, Citolini’s and Garzoni’s texts, and so on. To these lists, commonly reported in the histories of cards, one can be added which is contained in a manuscript by the known scientist Ulisse Aldovrandi (1522-1605), Misc.A.21.II. The list is in Latin, but it entirely corresponds to that by Garzoni: MUNDUS, JUSTITIA, ANGELUS, SOL, LUNA, ASTRUM, IGNIS, DIABOLUS, MORS, LAQUEO SUSPENSUS, SENEX, ROTA, FORTITUDO, AMOR, CURRUS, TEMPERANTIA, PAPA, PAPISSA, IMPERATOR, IMPERATRIX, MIMO, STULTUS. It had already been published in a booklet(7) precisely devoted to that part of the codex describing games. However, since the booklet was printed for a wedding occasion and is relatively scarce, it escaped due attention by many scholars, except for Dr. Chicco, who found in it and in the codex essential information, for instance, on the early history of Italian draughts.(8) Since in several points Aldovrandi explicitly quotes Garzoni’s book, it must be assumed that the date of the text is in the 1590s and that the whole material derives from earlier printed documents. It appears, however, surprising that Aldovrandi does not report the actual sequence of Tarocchino Bolognese, as if it were not yet distinguished from usual tarot. In fact, for other games, and also for children games, the author pays considerable attention to the local popular habits. In any case, some years later, Justice can be deduced from the Bolognese edition of the Barzelletta(9) already to occupy a low position, as typical of the A order.
To obtain an ordered list of the triumphs for Tarocchino Bolognese we have to pass to following centuries. One list of Tarocchi Appropriati dated 1668 should be preserved, which I was not able to find out: «Due anni appresso si definivano alcune dame colle carte del gioco dei tarocchini. Donna Cristina di Nortumbria era battezzata come l’angelo e la Contessa Palmieri Fava come il diavolo».(10) Three such compositions are still preserved in the University Library, which appear to derive, however, from the 18th century, see below.
A different kind of exercise is tackled in the following document, a sonnet (MS 3937 Caps. 102.33:)

Here the 22 triumphs are again listed in order, but the list occurs among the verses of a sonnet with a particular political aim: to censure Techeli’s behavior in the war between the Holy Roman and the Ottoman empires. It is known that Imre Tököly, named King of Hungary by the Turks, contributed to the siege of Vienna in 1682 but, after several defeats of the Ottoman army, he took refuge in Istanbul in 1687, wherefrom he continued his conspiracies against the Habsburgs. Although the date of the composition is not recorded, the occasion should be the rejecting, in 1683, of the Ottoman army after the siege of Vienna: together with this sonnet other compositions are preserved on that same subject.
As for some Pasquinate, we have the names of the triumphs inserted in the verses. In this particular case, however, they are stated in order and they are all present. The fact that Pope is mentioned only once may correspond to the equivalence of the four Popes in the play; naturally, Popes and not Moors since the known facts of 1725 had not yet caused those figures to be changed. In particular, it is natural to suspect that this poem represents an example of a typical kind of compositions which might be double-minded. First, an exercise in which strong limits are put to the phantasy of the poet in order to increase the difficulty of the composition. Secondly, although nowhere explicitly stated, the composition could then be used as a mnemonic aid for memorizing the triumph sequence, which, it must be recalled, was not marked by numerals on the cards.
Let us now examine the three examples of Tarocchi Appropriati. The first one is written on a sheet without any comment and seems derived from a familiar sphere (MS 3905/6 Caps. 73.19:)

The second one was also mentioned by Frati; (10) it applies to the canons of S.Pietro, the Bolognese Cathedral, and it is completed by short Latin sayings applied too to each personage (MS 3938 Caps. 103.25:)

The third one is the longest of them all and it presents some peculiarities deserving comment. It is written on four large-sheet-pages, now bound together with other documents of the 18th century; the provenance is stated to be from the miscellaneous collection of apothecary Ubaldo Zanetti. There is the usual list of Tarocchi Appropriati but, after that, a key is provided with the reason why that attribution has been done for each of the ladies, whose names are again written together with those of their respective fathers, husbands and fathers in law. The comments in the key are usually spiteful. The facts that the surnames are those of the most famous Bolognese families and that they are provided with the titles and names of the relatives should allow an exact date to be suggested around mid 18th century. Below, the extensive title and the bare list are reported (MS 83.9:)

From a specific point of view, it is important to remark that the order is here also indicated by numbers but they cannot correspond to any number typical of the triumphs since the list is written in descending order. This fact clearly confirms how, contrary to minchiate, the triumphs were certainly not distinguished with numerals by the players, even in the XVIII century.
In all three cases, we are in the field of Tarocchi Appropriati reported in an ordered sequence. The sequences follow, as expected, Dummett’s A order and they are among the few witnesses to this series. Earlier documents of A type sequence derive from Minchiate cards, where the numbers were directly printed on the images, and from I Germini, the known Florentine composition of about 1550, which underwent several printings up to recent times. It may be noted the mention of the four Mori, indicating everywhere a date after 1725, and their unusual position in the case of the canons where they are lower than the Fool itself. In most cases the documents preserved together with the lists appear to derive from the first half of the century, so that they were probably composed before the appearance of the printed texts about Tarocchino.
Another sonnet may be worth mentioning, although the information for the game is very limited (MS 3935 Caps. 100. 22, p.57:)

Several words appear as technical terms of the game; for instance, scartand, arfidadura, marz, sminchinarn, and tond. The main interest of the sonnet, however, lies in the fact that it belongs to a typical field of poetical allegories using cards: real wars represented by a few playing princes or kings. That procedure is very old and many examples can be found of such poems or pictures, particularly with Prime as the game representing the battle field. Here we have Tarocchino playing that rôle, a very unusual example for that pack. Moreover, the text is here written in old Bolognese dialect and the writing itself is not very clear. Thus, I suspect that about 20% of the exact meaning gets lost in each step while transferring from the handwritten text to the printed one, then from Bolognese to Italian, at which point I prefer to stop.(11) The general matter is clear, and the reference is very plausibly to Fredrick the Great, King of Prussia. In particular it must likely be related to the Seven Years’ War, especially to its first battles, such as that of Rosbach in 1757. However, it might be advisable for any English speaking reader wishing to understand every detail to find a Bolognese-English interpreter, possibly while checking the handwriting in the University Library!
It may be interesting for the experts of cartomancy to compare with the traditional associations between cards and their meanings the following list, preserved in a loose sheet (4029 Caps. 119.R.) A shortened notation is used for the cards, with D for denari, C for coppe, B for bastoni and S for spade; R for re, Q for regina, C for cavallo, F for fantesca, here considered in the feminine (however, the card is actually called fante for bastoni, and instead of the likely FS a second fantesca di denari is erroneously written).

Footnotes:

  (1) M.Dummett, The Game of Tarot. London 1980, 315-337.
  (2) See, for instance, D.Scorzoni "Il tarocchino bolognese..." in Pergioco vol.5, n. 5-6, 1984, p.89-90.
  (3) G.Dossena, Giochi di carte italiani. Mondadori, Milano 1984, pp.136-147.
  (4) Istruzioni necessarie per chi volesse imparare il giuoco dilettevole delli tarocchini di Bologna. In Bologna Per Ferdinando Pisarri 1754 - Arnaldo Forni, Bologna 1984.
  (5) G.F.Laghi, Il gioco dei tarocchi bolognesi. Bologna 1983.
  (6) L.Frati "Indice dei manoscritti italiani della R. Biblioteca Universitaria di Bologna" in G.Mazzatinti, A.Sorbelli, Inventari dei manoscritti delle Biblioteche d’Italia, Vol. 15,17,19,25,27 Forlì 1909-Firenze 1923. Even more books of the same series by A.Sorbelli and other librarians describe the manuscripts of Archiginnasio: 30, 32, 36, 40, 43, 47, 65, 66, 69, 100, 102. On the whole, we have a description of the Bolognese funds which is by far more detailed than usual for Italian libraries. These catalogues were my only source for finding in the two mentioned libraries the items here described.
  (7) L.Frati, La Tavola Metodica dei Giuochi di Ulisse Aldovrandi. Bologna 1904.
  (8) A.Chicco, in ARCI-Dama-Scacchi (1978) 10.
  (9) Barzeletta sopra del Giuoco nella quale si narrano tutti i vitii che nascono del giuocare. Stampata in Verona, e ristampata in Bologna per Vittorio Benacci. University Library of Bologna: 3878. Caps.51, tom.IX.
(10) L.Frati, La vita privata di Bologna..., Bologna 1900, p.184.
(11) (Per far una partita a tarocchino / i tedeschi, i francesi e i moscoviti / contro al re di Prussia si misero un dì a tavolino / con il pensiero di ricavarne un’acquavite. // Lui, che stima i giocatori poco meno d’un "sin"/ alzò per far lui le carte la sua mano dritta / e scartando a quel re, che gli era vicino / gli fece un rifiuto che sta scritto.// Lui ha la presunzione di andare avanti / e di poter portare un marcio a tutto il mondo / a forza di questi prussiani belli ed eleganti. // Ora cacciano a sminchionare da cima a fondo / Signori alleati, bisogna badare al suo cattivo gioco / guardatevi negli occhi, e lasciatelo però al piatto.)
(12) In the contribution by P.Marsilli to same exhibition and catalogue (pp. 95-110), three out of the ten items here described are also reported and briefly discussed. I found, however, no reason to modify my present communication, which was ready several months before the Ferrarese exhibition and which - having been marked among the last works in the series - appears so late in the press due to the publication times of the journal.
(13) If I am right, it may be observed how some utilizations of tarot outside of the common game and belonging to the literary domain can indeed be considered as reversed: an utilization of literary matter into the tarot game.

Bolognese Cards "Alla Colomba", early 18th century