WARNING: All the essays are protected by copyright. None of them may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or storage, without written permission of the Le Tarot Association.
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Some iconological discoveries made by Professor Andrea Vitali concerning the Hanged Man and Tower cards were introduced by him in 1987 on the occasion of the exposition, Cards of the Court. Tarot. Games and Magic in the Estense Court, a large exhibition about Tarot on an international level held in Ferrara at the Estense Castle. In 1994 he introduced other discoveries, on Temperance, Stars, Moon, Sun, and World, in the circumstance of the exposition Tarot: Art and Magic, at the Civic Archeological Museum of Bologna. Both were exhibitions for which Prof. Andrea Vitali curated the historical-scientific project and the selection of documents. Along with the iconological essays, presented here concerning all 22 Triumphs, are essays on history, literature, the game of tarot from the 15th to 18th centuries, and articles on topics of a symbolic nature. The Host Essays section presents essays written by members of the Association and other leading experts. Currently there are some essays only in Italian.
The English translations in the section "Andrea Vitali’s Essays" were revised to start from February 2012 by tarot researcher Michael S. Howard, to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks.
Below are "Andrea Vitali's Essays" arranged according to the topics discussed. Depending on the content, essays have been placed under different topics. To read about the iconographic and iconological aspects of the 22 Triumphs, please refer to "Andrea Vitali’s Iconological Essays".
To access to the essays click on the titles in the list on your left or on those below.
History of the Tarot
The Prince, inventor of the Ludus Triumphorum
In Bologna of the first years of the 15th century
The History of the Tarot
From its origin to the present day
Bologna and the invention of the Triumphs
Triumphs, Tarots and Tarocchini in Bologna from the XV to the XX century
Symbolic Suits
The meaning of the suits in Renaissance playing cards
Tarots: History, Art, Magic
A selection of images from the catalogue
The Order of the Triumphs
In ancient tarot cards and in XVIth century documents
Triumphs, Trionfini and Trionfetti
Between Game and Literature
Tarotica - 1584
The Quaternary of the Tarot between Mysticism and Game (In Italian)
The Origin of Aces
A suggestive hypothesis about the origin of suits in numeral cards
El Bagatella which is the symbol of sin
Regarding the Bagatto as the first card of the Triumphs
Folly and 'Melancholia'
Sensible and senseless folly in the procession of the Triumphs
From 'Barocchi' to 'Tarocchi'
The evolution of the term 'Barocco' into 'Tarocco'
A bagatello mouse
Three documents of the XVIth century on the 'bagatello' word (In Italian)
Sigismondo Malatesta and the Triumphs
A golden world
About the meaning of Tarot
The meaning of the word 'Tarocco'
The name of the game with the Triumphs, taken from the card without number
The meaning of the word Tarocco in the Renaissance and in modern interpretations
Taroch: vulgar Latin
Zanitonella by Folengo and the vulgar Tuscan
Taroch: nulla latina ratione
With Barbarian rite, whitout relationship to the Latin, now they call it taroch
Taroch - 1494
The "Frotula de le dòne" by Giovan Giorgio Alione
Rochi and Tarochi
A fascinating hypothesis regarding the etymology of the word Tarot
Tharocus Bacchus est
From the myth of the God of Orgies the origin of the word Tarot
Theroco Wind
The wind that leads to madness (XVIth century)
A 'Cavaleyro' taroco (XIIIth century)
A vain and foolish Cavalier in a cantiga of Pedr'Amigo de Sivilha
Tarot means Fool
Literary documents from our essays (In Italian)
A tarocco in the form of a jester
As described in a work by Tommaso Buoni in 1605 (In Italian)
‘L’Epulone’ by Frugoni - 1645
Whoever does not have the Moon, the Sun and the World is a Tarocco (In Italian)
Ascanio Errante - 1640
The crazy reasoning of a dog with the surname Tarocco (In Italian)
Minchiate between Game and Literature
Minchiate in Literature
From the XVth to the XIXth century
Farsa Satyra Morale
"Sminchiata" means stuff for fools
Treatise on the Game of Minchiate
A document on the Game of Minchiate dated to 1716
Del Minchione
Where we talk about stupid, mad and waster men (In Italian)
Ganellini seu Gallerini
The game of Minchiate in Genoa, Rome and Palermo (XVII - XVIII)
Del 'Minchionare' e della 'Minchionaggine''
Stories of cunning and stupidity (In Italian)
May cancer come to Goffo and to Tarocco
New documents between history and literature from the XVIth to the XIXth century
Una guerresca partita a Trionfi (A warlike game of Triumphs)
Two compositions by Giovanni Petrei - XVIth century (In Italian)
Il cane di Diogene (Diogenes' Dog)
A satirical-literary text byFrancesco Fulvio Frugoni (1687) (In Italian)
De lo istituire il figlio d'un Principe - 1542 (On the education of a Prince' s son -1542)
Three games to teach heirs apparent: chess, sbaraglino and tarot (In Italian)
Tarot and Literature
Tarot in Literature I
The most important documents
Tarot in Literature II
The most important documents
Tarot in Literature III
The most important documents
Tarot in Literature IV
With texts and reports on the passion of famous authors for tarot
La Cassaria by Ariosto
The game of tarot in the comedy "La Cassaria" by Ludovico Ariosto
Tasso and the Tarot
Now I’m tired and I want to play tarot
Symbolic Suits
The meaning of the suits in Renaissance playing cards
Triumphs, Trionfini and Trionfetti
Between Game and Literature
Il Malmantile Racquistato
A general who loved tarot too much
Giordano Bruno and the Tarot
At this cursed game I cannot win, because I have a terrible memory
My Heart has become a Taroch
The Order of Triumphs in a Villanelle of the XVI century
Taroch: vulgar Latin
Zanitonella by Folengo and the vulgar Tuscan
Taroch: nulla latina ratione
With Barbarian rite, whitout relationship to the Latin, now they call it taroch
Taroch - 1494
The "Frotula de le dòne" by Giovan Giorgio Alione
Writing and Quarreling
The "Taroccare" verb from Giulio Cesare Croce to Giosuè Carducci
Giulio Cesare Croce and the Tarot
The Magician never comes to me, nor the World, or even the Fool
Ruzante, the Peasant
Bagatelles, traitors and triumphs in card games in the works of Angelo Beolco
Il Malcontento
Tarot in a Caprice dated to 1547 by Luigi Tansillo (In Italian)
Sorian Days
The invention of a noble holiday in chess, billiards and Tarot
Taroch in Milan in the XVIth century
On a Cheribizo and a manufacturer of playing cards
The Sermons of Giusti
Giovan Batista Giusti and the Prince of the Tarot
The Game of Final Bagatt
In praise of the Delightful Game vulgarly called Bagattultimo
Odi et Amo
Of Love and Hate for the 'Game of Tarot
Gente che tarocca
Swearing and yelling in Literature (In Italian)
El Bagatella which is the symbol of sin
Regarding the Bagatto as the first card of the Triumphs
De Rege Scaccorum, de Imperatore Tarocorum
Playing cards and tarot if useful for scholars and courtiers to pass the time
May cancer come to Goffo and to Tarocco
New documents between history and literature from the XVIth to the XIXth century
Aretino's Letters
The letters of Aretino to Padovano, manufacturer of playing cards in Florence (In Italian)
Delle lodi alla Furfanteria (In praise of scoundrelism)
The scoundrel tarot by Iacopo Bonfadio (1538) (In Italian)
Triompho of the nobles women of Cesena
Together with a love poem with tarot. From Vatican Apostolic Library (In Italian)
Like a 'Fool of the tarot' of Carducci
Or, Italy is not awake
Diavoli tarocchi e altre storie
Devils like tarots and other stories. Tarot on pages of literature from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century (In Italian)
A sonnet in Modenese dialect of the sixteenth century
In olden times good children did not play tarot
On Tuscany Eloquence
Those who play tarot do not deserve laurels (In Italian)
Grotesque Tarot - 1587
Tarot in the "De' Grotteschi" by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo (In Italian)
Against the tarot
Invectives and abandonments (In Italian)
The craziness of the wise - 1641
Tarot in "Il Lambertaccio" by Bartolomeo Bocchini (In Italian)
Tarocchi and Tarocchini between Game and Literature
Tarot in Literature I
The most important documents
God doesn't mind Tarocchino
A Game for the relief of poor humanity and a game of fashion
I Tarocchini nel Settecento
In literary texts, essays and satires (In Italian)
Dialogi Piacevoli - 1539
Nicolò Franco, adversary of Aretino and friend of himself
Tarocchino in rhymes, satires and in a holy life
In winter at the fire a tarot game (In Italian)
Nihil in hoc mundo mutat - 1589
Nobles go crazy in Triumph as in the tarot game (In Italian)
17th century Miscellany
Marchelli - Ricci - Sarpi - Banchieri (In Italian)
Tarot and Madness
The Hospital of Incurable Madman
Tarot and madness
Mundus Alter et Idem
Tarot and utopia
The Theatre of Brains
Playing cards and gambling
Wise Madness, Pleasant Madness
The Order of Triumphs in a work about madness dated to 1607
Folly and 'Melancholia'
Sensible and senseless folly in the procession of the Triumphs
I Paradossi del Lando
A praise to the inventor of the Tarot (1543) (In Italian)
Vanity and Madness
Vanitas vanitatis et omnia vanitas (In Italian)
Tarot and Gambling
Playing Cards and Gambling
Genera ludorum fortunae a dyabolo inventa sum
Saint Bernardino and the Cards
Regular cards and Triumphs in the chronicles about the life of the Saint
Allowed Triumphs, Forbidden Triumphs
Two new documents
Laudabiles et Vituperabiles
Praiseworthy and blameworthy games in the sermons of Roberto da Lecce, XVth century
Triumphs in the Bonfire of the Vanities
Girolamo Savonarola and the Piagnoni in Florence in 1497
Remedy of Game-Players
Three sorts of forbidden games at the beginning of the sixteenth century
I Tarocchini nel Settecento
In literary texts, essays and satires (In Italian)
Folly and 'Melancholia'
Sensible and senseless folly in the procession of the Triumphs
De Rege Scaccorum, de Imperatore Tarocorum
Playing cards and tarot if useful for scholars and courtiers to pass the time
The illicit skill of cheaters
The world of cheaters in real-life stories and tricks of the trade
Officium Lusorum
Mass of the Gamblers
Cursed be thou, old she-wolf
Avarice: the sin of greed of players, prostitutes and moneylenders (In Italian)
Of the passion of gambling
Character and portrait of the gambler in France and Italy of the 19th century
Tarot and Game
Ludere ad Triumphos
Cum Deo et in Ecclesia
Symbolic Suits
The meaning of the suits in Renaissance playing cards
Taroch in Milan in the XVIth century
On a Cheribizo and a manufacturer of playing cards
De Ludo in Statutis
A collation of Statutes on the game (In Italian)
Games and Magic in Ferrara
On a manufacturer of tarot cards, on games and repressive laws, on witches and magic
I Tarocchini nel Settecento
In literary texts, essays and satires (In Italian)
De Rege Scaccorum, de Imperatore Tarocorum
Playing cards and tarot if useful for scholars and courtiers to pass the time
The illicit skill of cheaters
The world of cheaters in real-life stories and tricks of the trade
May cancer come to Goffo and to Tarocco
New documents between history and literature from the XVIth to the XIXth century
Trastulli della villa - Trastulli di Corte
Between tarot and chess, the game in Adriano Banchieri and at the Courts (In Italian)
Fuori i Tarocchini dai Monasteri !
When the nuns were playing cards all their possessions (In Italian)
De viribus quantitatis
Triumphs in a Mathematical guess by Luca Pacioli (In Italian)
Il Giuoco dei Tarocchi: un simbolo dell'Humana Vita
By Francesco Fulvio Frugoni - 1669 (In Italian)
Tarot between Magic and Inquisition
The Conjuration of the Tarrocco
A magic ritual in sixteenth-century Venice
Tarot and Inquisitors
In the Serenissima and Trentino, between "witches" and "Diabolical Priests"
Games and Magic in Ferrara
On a manufacturer of tarot cards, on games and repressive laws, on witches and magic
El Bagatella which is the symbol of sin
Regarding the Bagatto as the first card of the Triumphs
A clownish sermon (1529)
Instead of the sacred mysteries, a talk on how to play Triumphs
Carnival and Tarot
Matti de Trionfi
Carnival and Folly
Tarot and symbolic world
The Mystical Staircase
The mystical journey toward Knowledge
Symbolic Suits
The meaning of the suits in Renaissance playing cards
Castel del Monte
The number eight and Christian mysticism
Nativitas
The Feast of Sol Invictus
The Aristotelian Telescope
Sharpness, Symbols and Tarot
Emperor Moon and Pope Sun
The thesis of the Church on the superiority of the Pope
Tarotica - 1584
The Quaternary of the Tarot between Mysticism and Game (In Italian)
El Bagatella which is the symbol of sin
Regarding the Bagatto as the first card of the Triumphs
Folly and 'Melancholia'
Sensible and senseless folly in the procession of the Triumphs
Christ, the great gambler
A cantata "For the birth of Our Lord" of Baroque Naples
Porca fortuna. la Fortuna da Dante a Cellini
Slut Fortune: Fortune from Dante to Cellini. In addition to a rhyme on the Wheel of Fortune in the seventeenth-century Milanese dialect (In Italian)
Tarot and Neoplatonism
The astral origin of the soul
A Neoplatonic myth in the iconography of a few cards of the Triumphs
Tarot between Music and Musicians
Christ, the great gambler
A cantata "For the birth of Our Lord" of Baroque Naples
I won. Played Tarot
Mozart’s Salzburg days
Trastulli della villa - Trastulli di Corte
Between tarot and chess, the game in Adriano Banchieri and at the Courts (In Italian)
'Taroccare' in the eighteenth century opera booklets
Playful dramas, intermezzi, comedies, dramatic actions and farces (In Italian)
'Taroccare' in the ninenteenth century opera booklets
Playful, heroic-comic, semi-serious and funny dramas, melodramas, comedies and farces (In Italian)
Tarot manufacture and manufacturers
Far Carte nel Settecento
Art and technology in the manifacture of the cards (In Italian)
Taroch in Milan in the XVIth century
On a Cheribizo and a manufacturer of playing cards
Tarot and Cartomancy
The Castle of Malpaga
Game of Triumphs or Cartomancy with Triumphs?
Il Torracchione Desolato
A card- reading sorceress in a poem of the XVIIIth century
An enigma in 'Orlando Furioso'
From a verse in a poem, an hypothesis on the existence of cartomancy in the XVth century
Predicting the future with the Tarot
Significance and potential of tarot as divinatory symbols
Satires and Paradoxes
I Paradossi del Lando
A praise to the inventor of the Tarot (1543) (In Italian)
Men against Women
The Tarot in the seventeenth century between Satire and Antisatire
Tarot and stories of lived lives
A poor Artist of the sixteenth century
A painter become decorator of Tarot
The Twelve Words of Truth
A soldier who goes to Mass with a deck of cards in the pocket of his trousers
The renunciation of "Tarrocchi"
In the Resolutions for the Spiritual Exercises of Benedetto Ludovico Giacobini (1676)
God doesn't mind Tarocchino
A Game for the relief of poor humanity and a game of fashion
El Bagatella which is the symbol of sin
Regarding the Bagatto as the first card of the Triumphs
Playing Tarot in Delight - 1554
Laura Dianti in the game of tarot at the Delight of the Verginese
Winckelmann and Tarocchino
Winckelmann's compliments to the 'Society of the Tarocchino' of Dresden
The illicit skill of cheaters
The world of cheaters in real-life stories and tricks of the trade
May cancer come to Goffo and to Tarocco
New documents between history and literature from the XVIth to the XIXth century
A clownish sermon (1529)
Instead of the sacred mysteries, a talk on how to play Triumphs
Leonardo and the Cards
The world of card players between persevering and redeemed (from the XVth to the XIXth century) (In Italian)
Of the passion of gambling
Character and portrait of the gambler in France and Italy of the 19th century
About a joke in fifteenth century
Which tells of card games, of three friends, and of one of these who belived be blind (In Italian)
Tarots in exhibition at Milan in 1872
The Visconti di Modrone and Brambilla tarocchi, as well as a sonnet on the Bagatto
Tarot widnesses of a conspiracy
In defense of Pallavicini Visconti, Bishop of Alexandria
Crimes and Tarots
Tarocchini in the Criminal Archive of Bologna (In Italian)
La Tarocchiera
A 'delight' where to play tarot (In Italian)
On a blind priest who was playing tarot
And famous doctors who loved that game (In Italian)
Lorenzo Pignoria e i Tarocchi - 1614 (Lorenzo Pignoria and the Tarot - 1614)
An eternal need for knowlige (In Italian)
Un omicidio nella Bologna del '700 (A murder in Bologna in the eighteenth century)
For debts in the game Tarocchini game (In Italian)
About the Hanged Man in tarot and elsewhere (See also the Iconological Essay regarding this topic)
The Traitor
Hanging by one foot
A Gang of Traitors
On the Penalty of the infamous, or the Hanged Man
Saint Taraco
About Christian martyrs hanged for a foot or for both upside down (In Italian)
Commmedia Nuova - 1545
Cupid, traitor, hanging for a foot (In Italian)