Tarot and Minchiate of Florence

	Rosenwald sheet (uncut sheet fragment, ?Florence c.1500)	Minchiate "Etruria" 1725	Minchiate Fiorentine older pattern, c. 1790	Minchiate Fiorentine later patern, c. 1820
I - Il Bagatto
VII - La Fortezza
XXXVII - La Luna
XXXIX - Il Mondo
Cavallo di Spade

Tarot spread to Florence some time in the 15th century. The early Florentine designs are probably those seen on the Rosenwald sheet. Even at this early date, some of the distinguishing features can be seen: the knights are centaurs, the World shows a winged angel surmounting the Earth, and the virtues are given unusual star-pointed halos. In the "feminine" suits of cups and coins, the pages (fanti), are replaced by maids (fantine). The original practice in tarot and related games was that lower-numbered cards outranked higher-numbered ones in the feminine suits; the different court card designs reflected this difference. As in the other patterns in the southern tarot tradition, the Angel is the highest card, the virtues are grouped together, and Fortitude is shown with a column rather than a lion.

In about 1530, a new game was created in Florence. It was called Minchiate or Germini or Gallerini, and included an expanded set of trumps. The original tarot trumps (with the exception of the Papess) were all retained, but between the Devil's House (Tower) and the Star were added 20 new trumps: the additional virtues Hope, Prudence, Faith, and Charity; the four elements Fire, Water, Earth, and Air; and then the twelve signs of the zodiac, in jumbled order. The complete trump sequence of the Minchiate is shown here:

I the Juggler	XI the Hunchback (or Time)	XXI Water	XXXI Pisces
II the Grand Duke	XII the Hanged Man	XXII Air	XXXII Aquarius
III the Western Emperor	XIII Death	XXIII Earth	XXXIII Leo
IV the Eastern Emperor	XIV the Devil	XXIV Libra	XXXIV Taurus
V Love	XV the Devil's House	XXV Virgo	XXXV Gemini
VI Temperance	XVI Hope	XXVI Scorpio	XXXVI the Star
VII Fortitude	XVII Prudence	XXVII Aries	XXXVII the Moon
VIII Justice	XVIII Faith	XXVIII Capricorn	XXXVIII the Sun
IX the Wheel of Fortune	XIX Charity	XXIX Sagittarius	XXXIX the World
X the Chariot	XX Fire	XXX Cancer	XL the Trumpets

The Minchiate cards are also notable in using a rather non-standard manner of depicting the pip cards in the suit of swords. Most Italian-suited cards show curved swords, as in the Tarot de Marseille. The Minchiate, like playing cards in the Portuguese style (and like the Visconti-Sforza cards), uses straight swords.

The first five cards are called papi (popes), although there is no pope among them. The five highest cards are called arie (airs), and are often left unnumbered but colored red to signify their high rank. In the 18th century, a fancy engraved deck was produced (the "Etruria" shown here), which modified some of the designs. It became a prototype for many later decks, but the older pattern persisted in competition with it. (Compare the four Bagatto cards shown here.)

We know something of the game of Minchiate from early published descriptions and rule books, the oldest being a commentary by Paolo Minucci in 1676. As in most tarot games, the highest and lowest trumps are counting cards, worth points when captured. In the Minchiate, though, many other trumps are also counting cards: the papi, the Chariot, Death, Fire, the zodiac signs from Capricorn to Gemini (but, oddly, excluding Sagittarius), and each of the arie is worth 10 points.

Minchiate was a very popular game, eventually supplanting the 78-card tarot not only in Florence, but throughout most of Italy. It was played as far away as France (it is described in detail by Romain Merlin in Origine des cartes à jouer, published in Paris in 1869). and continued to be played in Genoa until the 1930s.

The additional trumps of the Minchiate offer some indirect evidence about how the meaning of the tarot symbols were perceived in 16th-century Florence. The tarot trumps Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice were clearly seen as virtues, since the Minchiate designers added the remaining four to complete the set. The sequence overall must have been viewed as basically cosmographic, since the addition of the elements and zodiacal signs reinforce the theme of fundamental components in the structure of the universe. Game-playing considerations probably dictated that the new cards be inserted en bloc, disrupting the original tarot sequence as little as possible. The Minchiate designers, though, placed the new cards in the most logical place in the sequence, from a cosmographic perspective. The signs of the zodiac are arrayed next to the Star, representing the celestial spheres, and the four elements of the sublunar world are arrayed below them. Allowing for the difficulty caused by the inclusion of Prudence, the Minchiate sequence also arranges for the theological virtues (Hope, Faith, and Charity) to appear higher than the cardinal virtues, as they do in the Tarot of Mantegna and in Christian allegory generally.

Like other Italian regional tarots, the Minchiate of Florence celebrates civic pride. The graceful, artistic designs recall the role of Florence as the center of Renaissance art. (Compare the Minchiate designs with contemporary Tarot de Marseille cards, and the relative sophistication of the Minchiate artwork becomes apparent.) The highest card, the Trumpets, transforms the Angel of the Last Judgment into a symbol of Fame, as she floats over the Florentine skyline with trumpets sounding, sometimes even bearing the Medici banner and motto.

Although the game of Minchiate died out early in this century, and the Minchiate deck escaped the interests of the occultists who popularized the tarot for divinatory and mystical purposes, in recent decades the Minchiate has attracted the attention of some talented artists. Costante Costantini designed a set of Minchiate cards in 1980, and created simplified designs for a special dinner menu in 1981, which were used for a curious board-and-card game published by Solleone in Milan. In 1999. tarot artist Brain Wiliams created a new set of sensitively rendered Minchiate cards, published by Inner Traditions. Perhaps this is the beginning of a "Minchiate Renaissance"?

Ancient Minchiate Etruria, nice reproduction by Italian publisher Lo Scarabeo, readily available.

Minchiate Fiorentine, reproduction of a 19th-century deck, descended from the Etruria. Hard to get currently, but can be found by a dedicated hunter. A miniature version was printed by Il Meneghello and included in a set of five miniature Italian decks.

Minchiate Francesi, reproduction of a curious French-suited Minchiate pack from the 18th century, which does not follow the traditional Minchiate designs, even in the trumps. The trumps do have allegorical imagery, however, including such subjects as the five senses and some traditional Minchiate holdovers, such as the signs of the zodiac (retitled as the months of the year) and the virtues. The suits (court cards) each stand for a different continent. Published by Solleone.