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Tarocco Siciliano
In the previous
posts, I have introduced 2 of the 3 surviving Latin-suited tarot decks that are
still used for gaming in Italy, the Tarocco Piemontese
and the Tarocco Bolognese decks. Today, we are looking into the third one, the Tarocco
Siciliano.
Tarocco Siciliano
Tarocco Siciliano is originated from
the capital city of Sicily Island, Palermo. History of the deck can be dated
back to early 17th century. It is used to play Sicilian tarocchi
nowadays.
The deck is heavily influenced
by the Tarocco Bolognese and the Minchiate. Its trump suit follows mostly the
pattern of the Tarocco Bolognese, with exceptions of a few unique cards to the
deck. For example, trump 0 “Miseria” and trump 4 “Constanza” are unique to the
deck. Trump 14 “Vascello” is from the Minchiate. And Jupiter replaced the angel
to cast down judgement on Trump 20.
Both cards are unnumbered.
Below are the cards of the trump
suit, listed in order:
- 20 Jupiter (Giove)
- 19 Atlas (Atlante) or the Globe (Palla)
- 18 Sun (Sole)
- 17 Moon (Luna)
- 16 Star (Stella)
- 15 Tower (Torre)
- 14 Ship (Vascello)
- 13 Death
- 12 Time
- 11 Hanged Man
- 10 Wheel
- 9 Chariot
- 8 Love
- 7 Justice
- 6 Fortitude
- 5 Temperance
- 4 Constancy (Constanza)
- 3 Emperor
- 2 Empress
- 1 Mountebank (Bagotti) or the Young Men (Picciotti)
- (0) Destitution (Miseria) or Poverty (Poverta)
* Brackets indicate the card is not numbered.
The extinct Portuguese-suited
deck
The other 4 suits are the swords
(spade), the batons (bastoni), the cups (coppe) and the coins (denari).
However, the design is not totally Italian. The deck uses Spanish pips of
knobbly cudgels and straight swords like other southern Italian decks. It also
intersects the swords and clubs on the pip cards. This design is actually
called the Portuguese pattern. Portuguese-suited deck is now extinct and Tarocco
Siciliano is only surviving playing card deck that preserved the pattern.
Tarocco Siciliano produced today
is in a shortened form, with ranks 1 to 4 of the pip cards removed from each
suit, with the exception of Coins which have a 4. Therefore, the deck currently
uses 63 cards, one more than the Tarocco Bolognese. Some deck also contains the
1 of Coins. This card is mostly not used for gaming but for the tax stamp.
Is Tarocco Siciliano worth
buying?
Similar to the situations of Tarocco Piemontese & Tarocco Bolognese, you can play all tarot games with a deck of Tarot Nouveau. Tarocco Siciliano deck has less cards and lacks corner pips. However, if you want to play those traditional Sicilian tarot games in a more traditional way, you would like to play with a deck of Tarocco Siciliano. 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 |
3 to 4 |
|
Playing Time |
? |
|
Age |
? |
|
Year Released |
? |
|
Designer |
(Public Domain) |
|
Publisher |
Modiano |
|
Family |
Trick-taking |
|
Score |
? |
Specifications
|
Card size |
50mm x 83mm |
|
Deck size |
64 cards |
|
# of suits |
5 – Swords (spade), Batons (bastoni), Cups
(coppe), Coins (denari) & Trumps |
|
Details |
The deck is in Portuguese suit. Pip cards are
not numbered, valued from 5 to 10. The Coins also have a 4. The 4 face cards are
King (re), Queen (donna), Knight (cavallo) and female knaves (donne), all
being unlabeled. Trump consists of 21 cards, which bears similarity
to the trump suit of Tarocco Bolognese. Some deck contains
the 1 of Coins for taxation purpose. There are no Jokers. |
Game Play
Before I can find any video showing the game play of Mineo, please refer to the rules on Pagat:
https://www.pagat.com/tarot/sicilian.html
Where to buy?
Etsy.
Go back to the Lobby ...
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