The first Italian tarot decks: a history quiz
A quiz on the Visconti-Sforza, Sola Busca, Minchiate and Bolognese decks: who commissioned them, what makes them unusual and where they are kept now.
- 5 questions
- ≈ 2 min
- +5 bronze keys for a flawless run
What were the first tarot decks like?
This quiz tests what you know about the oldest tarot decks, the ones made in fifteenth-century Italy. The first trump cards were luxury objects, hand-painted in tempera over gold for the ducal families of Milan and Ferrara. Not one of these decks survives complete, but single cards are kept in museums across Europe and America.
The most famous are the Visconti-Sforza cards, made for the dukes of Milan in the middle of the century. They are traditionally attributed to the workshop of the painter Bonifacio Bembo. The cards of these decks ended up scattered: some in New York, some in Bergamo, some in private hands, and a few arcana are missing altogether.
Beyond Milan: the other early decks
Italian tarot was never one single thing. The Cary-Yale deck, held at Yale University's library, has trumps you will not find in modern decks: Faith, Hope and Charity. Florence played Minchiate, with forty trumps and 97 cards that include the zodiac signs and the elements. Bologna settled on the 62-card Tarocchino, which people still play there today.
The Sola Busca deck from the late fifteenth century holds a special place. It is the oldest fully surviving 78-card deck, and even its number cards are scenes with figures. Four centuries later, Pamela Colman Smith saw photographs of these engravings while working on her own famous deck. Today the Sola Busca belongs to the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
How to take the quiz
Each run draws five random questions from a pool of twelve: patrons, painters, unusual trumps and old stories that turned out to be wrong, such as the Charles VI deck and the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi. Every answer comes with an explanation, and the run ends with a full review. A flawless run earns you Tayna keys.
These decks matter for practice too. They show that the order and names of the arcana were not handed down from above but took shape gradually, city by city. So differences between decks are not mistakes but living history, and a card means what generations of players and readers have seen in it.
All questions and answers
Open after you play: the full question set with right answers and explanations.
1. Who were the famous Visconti-Sforza cards painted for?
Right answer: The dukes of Milan
The decks were commissioned by the Visconti and Sforza dukes of Milan in the mid-1400s.
2. Which of these arcana is missing from the Visconti-Sforza deck?
Right answer: The Tower
The best-known set lacks the Tower and the Devil. Death, the Moon and the Fool survive.
3. The Visconti-Sforza deck is kept complete in a single museum.
Right answer: Myth
The cards are split: some at the Morgan Library in New York, some in Bergamo. A few are lost.
4. What is the late-1400s Sola Busca deck famous for?
Right answer: Scenes on number cards
It is the oldest fully surviving 78-card deck, and even its number cards are scenes.
5. How many cards are in the Florentine Minchiate deck?
Right answer: 97
Minchiate has 40 trumps, adding the zodiac, the elements and the virtues. That makes 97 cards.
6. Which unusual trumps appear in the Cary-Yale deck?
Right answer: Faith, Hope, Charity
The three theological virtues in this Milanese deck show the set of trumps was not yet fixed.
7. The Charles VI deck was painted for the French king in 1392.
Right answer: Myth
The legend was disproved long ago: the cards in Paris are Italian work from the 1400s.
8. Which painter are the Visconti-Sforza cards usually attributed to?
Right answer: Bonifacio Bembo
Bonifacio Bembo's workshop is linked to the cards by their style. The cards are unsigned.
9. The Mantegna Tarocchi is a real deck for playing tarot.
Right answer: Myth
It is a set of 50 engravings from the 1460s on muses, sciences and planets, with no tarot suits.
10. How many cards are in the Bolognese Tarocchino deck?
Right answer: 62
The twos to fives were removed, leaving 62 cards. People in Bologna still play it.
11. What covers the background of the Visconti-Sforza cards?
Right answer: Gold leaf
Gold leaf with a tooled pattern marked them as luxury objects, not everyday playthings.
12. You are at the Brera in Milan, facing a 15th-century tarot deck. Which one?
Right answer: Sola Busca
In 2009 the Italian state bought the Sola Busca deck for the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.