01-029 Tarocco Bolognese

01-029
Tarocco Bolognese

In the previous post, I have introduced the first of the 3 surviving Latin-suited tarot decks that are still used for gaming in Italy, the Tarocco Piemontese deck. Today, I am going to move on to the second and less common deck, the Tarocco Bolognese.

Tarocco Bolognese

Tarocco Bolognese is, as its name suggests, a tarot deck found in Bologna. It is used to play the game Tarocchini. The deck influenced the development of the Tarocco Siciliano and the obsolete Minchiate deck.

Bologna has a long history in tarot card gaming. The oldest surviving uncut sheet of tarot card found in Bologna can be dated back to late 15^th or early 16^th century. Oral history even dated game playing back to the middle of the 15^th century.

Tarocco Bolognese is developed on top of the regular Bolognese deck by adding queens, the fool, and an extra suit of 21 trumps. The deck is in Italian suit, consisting of 5 suits – the swords (spade), the batons (bastoni), the cups (coppe), the coins (denari), which are similar to those of standard Italian-suited playing cards, and the trumps. Nowadays, Tarocco Bolognese comes in a stripped deck, with ranks 2 to 5 removed. This brings the number of cards down to 62.

Pip cards of the swords, the batons, the cups and the coins,
with 2 to 5 removed from each suit.

The ace of coins is also for tax stamp.

The hierarchy of cards in the long suits (swords and batons) goes from King (highest), Queen, Knight, Knave, 10 to 6, and Ace (lowest). For the round suits of cups and coins it is King (highest), Queen, Knight, Knave, Ace, and 6 to 10 (lowest). 

Court cards of the four suits.

All pip cards and court cards are unnumbered.

Tarocco Bolognese vs Tarot of Marseilles

The 21 trumps and the fool card show a lot of similarities to those of Tarot of Marseilles. One may think that Tarocco Bolognese should be derived from there, which is similar to the case of Tarocco Piemontese. In fact, it is the other way round. Tarocco Bolognese has a much longer history than Tarot of Marseilles. The pattern has inspired many tarot decks in the Western part of Europe, including the Tarot of Marseilles.

However, the deck has undergone a few more modifications since the 14^th century. One of the major change took place in 1725. The imperial and papal trumps, having been of equal rank, were converted to four moors, two of which are identical. The trump suit of a modern Tarocco Bolognese deck consists of the following cards:

• (20) Angel (Angelo)
• (19) World (Mondo)
• (18) Sun (Sole)
• (17) Moon (Luna)
• 16    Star (Stella)
• 15    Lightning (Saetta)
• 14    Devil (Diavolo)
• 13    Death (Morte)
• 12    Traitor (Traditore)
• 11     Old man (Vecchio)
• 10    Wheel (Roda)
• 9      Strength (Forza)
• 8      Justice (Giusta)
• 7      Temperance (Tempra)
• 6      Chariot (Carro)
• 5      Love (Amore)
• (1=4)       four Moors (Moretti)
• (0)             Magician (Begato) 

* Brackets indicate the card is not numbered. 

The Fool and Trump 0, the Magician

The 4 moors. Technically trumps 1 to 4,
but they ranked the same in Tarocco Bolognese.

Trumps 5 to 16 are numbered.

The 4 highest trumps are not numbered.

Is Tarocco Bolognese worth buying?

Similar to Tarocco Piemontese, you can play all tarot games with a deck of Tarot Nouveau. Tarocco Bolognese deck has less card. Some of the games that require all 78 cards cannot be played with this deck. Also, most cards of the deck are unnumbered.

However, if you want to play those traditional Italian tarot games like Tarocchini in a more traditional way, you would like to play with a Tarocco Bolognese deck. The cards are beautifully printed and not expensive at all. So, it is up to you if you want to add this deck to your collection. But for just playing games, it is not necessary to buy.

General Information

Player	2 to 7
Playing Time	30 mins
Age	?
Year Released	1600?
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	Modiano
Family	Trick-taking
Score	? (Board Game Geek)

 Specifications

Card size	51mm x 107mm
Deck size	62 cards
# of suits	5 – Swords (spade), Batons (bastoni), Cups (coppe), Coins (denari) & Trumps
Details	The deck is in Italian suit. Pip cards are numbered, valued from 6 to 10 and aces. The 4 face cards are King (re), Queen (donna), Knight (cavallo) and Jack, all being unlabeled. Trump consists of 21 cards, which bears similarity to the trump suit of Tarot of Marseilles. In addition, there is a Fool card. There are no Jokers.

Game Play

Where to buy?

Etsy.

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