The Oldest Tarot Cards & Where to Find Them

Updating the list of the oldest surviving standard tarot packs

Nov 28, 2024

Starting with the lists provided in Michael Dummett’s The Game of Tarot and Il mondo e l'angelo as well as Stuart Kaplan’s The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. II I have attempted to create an updated catalog of the surviving tarot cards from the XV and early XVI centuries. I have scoured the internet and auction sites for cards that have surfaced since those old books were written, did I find them all? Let me know in the comments! But surely this most of them.

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Florentine Packs

Rothschild-Bassano
What’s left of the Rothschild pack consists of 31 Cards kept in the Louvre along with another card at the Museo Bassano del Grappa typically thought to belong with them.
Only one trump from this pack survives: the pope.
Recent scholarship believes that this deck was the work of late gothic artist Giovanni dal Ponte (1385~1437) or someone else from his workshop familiar with his techniques.1

Charles VI or Gringonneur Tarot
17 Cards in the French National Library: Valet of Swords, The Fool and 15 Trumps
Once thought to be the oldest tarot pack based on a payment King Charles VI made to an obscure painter named Jacquemin Gringonneur in 1392, now believed to be of Florentine provenance.
A Florentine astronomer is depicted on the Moon card2:

D’este Tarot
16 Cards in the Cary Collection at Yale University Library,
an even mix of court cards and trumps.
These cards are believed to have been from the personal deck of Duke Ercole d’Este based on the presence of his and his wife’s coat of arms on the court cards.

Alessandro Sforza Tarot
15 cards kept at the Museo Civico at Castello Ursino in Catania.
Originally tied to Alessandro Sforza, Count of Pesaro, because of an heraldic device found on the shield of one of the court cards however other lords including the Estensi also used this device. This deck is now thought to be as old as 1428 from handwriting on old legal documents used as filler found inside one of the cards.3

The Palermo Pair
2 cards kept at the Palazzo Abatellis discovered sometime around 2016. These cards were also found to contain fragments of old handwritten documents from the late 1420’s. These cards probably are from the same pack as the ones at Castello Ursino however I am unsure if that has been officially determined. 4

Museo Correr Cards
4 Numeral cards featuring the Florentine pattern.

Turin Fire Deck
The remains of a pack that was badly damaged in the 1904 Turin fire.
There were 24 Cards before the fire and 15 cards after.
This pack shows an art affinity with the Rothschild cards but also has this pattern on the ace of coins of a hound chasing a rabbit similar to a motif found in later Bolognese packs.

Milanese Packs

Visconti-Modrone
67 Cards in the Cary Collection at Yale University Library
11 Trumps, 17 Court Cards, 39 Pips
This is the oldest of the 3 main Visconti-Sforza packs and thus long thought to contain the oldest known tarot cards. All 3 of these packs were painted under the guidance of master artist Bonifacio Bembo at this workshop in Cremona.
The Visconti-Modrone pack boasts 3 unusual trumps - Faith, Hope and Charity - the 3 theological virtues. There are also 2 additional Female court cards, the damsel and mounted lady, leading to speculation that this deck may have had 6 court cards and possibly even have had 5 suits of 16 cards. This pack is thought to have been created between 1442-1447 from the presence of a coin featuring Duke Filippo Maria Visconti that was only issued in the last decade of his reign.5

Brera-Brambilla
A collection of 48 cards kept in the Brera Pinacoteca containing only 2 triumphs: the emperor and the wheel of fortune. This deck has the same ducat featuring FM Visconti that the Modrone pack had on its coins suit.

Pierpont-Morgan Bergamo
The most complete of the ancient tarot packs consists of 74 cards split between The Morgan Library in New York, The Accademia Carrara in Bergamo and the private collection of the Colleoni Family.
Only 4 cards from this pack are missing: The devil and the tower (if they indeed were ever part of this deck) as well as the two of swords and three of batons. The presence of various heraldic devices tie this deck to Francesco Sforza, the successor of Filippo Maria Visconti.6

Then there is the matter of the 6 cards not painted by Bonifacio Bembo that were added later and believed to have been created sometime around 1490. These cards are typically thought to have been replacements for worn out or lost cards. Art historian Leopold Cicognara in his 1831 book Memorie Spettani La Storia Della Calcografia attributed the art on these cards to Antonio Cicognara, an obscure painter known for a couple of church frescoes, and commissioned by Cardinal Ascanio Maria Sforza. This book was considered the authority at the time the Morgan Library acquired their cards and they still attribute Antonio. Art historian Gertrude Moakley and others have since looked over the sources Leopold based this claim on and found them to be spurious. The cards are now attributed to an unknown artist working out of Bonifacio Bembo’s workshop.7

Rosenthal Cards
A collection known only in pictures consisting of 23 cards in a private collection whose current whereabouts are not publicly known.
Nearly a century ago, a top collector declined to purchase these cards because he thought that they might have been forgeries. Dummett cites the presence of the bishop pictured on an ace card as a possible attempt to establish these cards as being from the same pack supposedly painted by Antonio Cicognara for Cardinal Sforza.8

Tozzi /Von Bartsch Cards
A collection of 13 cards that once belonged to Piero Tozzi of New York in the 1950’s however their current whereabouts are not publicly known.
The figures on these cards look tired and have heavy eyes. The wheel of fortune card features the ladder heraldry of the Della Scalla family of Verona. The initials “A.C.” on the base of the king of swords lead to this pack also being attributed to Antonio Cicognara at one point. The Visconti motto “A Bon Droyt” is present on the 5 of swords and there is a card featuring the Milan Biscione thought to have been an insert or an extra joker.9

Loose Fool Card
This card was sold on auction in 2018. The blurb on the auction listing speculated that it may have been from the same artist who painted the temperance card in the Tozzi collection, whom they suspected to be one of the Zavatarri and not Bonifacio Bembo.10

Cochi Collection
5 cards Michael Dummett described in Il Mondo that were displayed in an exhibition at Estensi Castle in Ferrara in 1986.
Fournier Museum Cards
5 cards acquired by the Fournier Museum in 1974 from a dealer in Milan.
The Visconti Motto “A bon droit” is spelled with an “I” thus these cards are thought to have been created later than the cards that spell the motto with a “Y”. These cards are known to have black card backs. Dummett cited Ronald Decker stating that the 3-tiered tower was a heraldic device of the Gonzaga family of Mantua.11

Loose Justice Card
A card sold in auction last summer featuring a black card back and similar in size to the Tozzi collection and the cards in the Fournier Museum. From her eyes, I think she matches up better with the Tozzi artist.

Victoria & Albert Museum Cards
A collection of 4 cards kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London that were purchased from a dealer in Milan sometime before 1915. The scroll coming out of the death bishop’s mouth reads ‘Son Fine’. The Fountain on the ace card features the motto ‘Nec Spe Nec Metu’ meaning ‘without fear, without hope’ attributed to Isabella d’Este, the Marchioness of Mantua. Beside the fountain we find a shield bearing the arms of the Colleoni family of Bergamo.12

Lombardy II
4 cards in a private collection described by Stuart Kaplan in his 2nd Encyclopedia.

Bonomi Cards
A collection of 5 cards sold together on auction in 2008 which included a new card, the 2 of cups, that had not been previously included on Stuart Kaplan’s list.13

Fournier Papess & Marzoli J Batons
2 cards in different collections thought to have been from the same pack. The papess differs from the other Fournier cards as she has a red card back. Stuart Kaplan came to possess the J of Batons by 1986 and sold it in 2006. It was sold again in 2013 and is now known as the Ortiz-Patino Tarot Card.14

Biedak K Cups
A card that once belonged to a Biedak of Los Angeles who had first acquired it from an English antique shop for 15 shillings. Stuart Kaplan acquired this card sometime between 1978 and 1986 and then sold it in 2006.
Michael Dummett speculated in The Game of Tarot that this card belonged with the previous pair we discussed but seems to have dropped that theory in his later books.15

Ferrell Diavolo
A card kept in the Hesburgh Library at the University of Notre Dame that features the Milan Biscione and has a reddish brown card back. This card could be a possible match with many of the other packs on this list.

Lombardy III
A jack of coins in an anonymous collection that was included by Stuart Kaplan in his list of the surviving Visconti-Sforza cards.

Andreoletti J Coins
A small card featuring an unusual reversed jack of coins and is a possible match with the smaller Guildhall pair.

Guildhall J Batons and World
The smaller of the 2 pairs that were once kept at the Guildhall Library but are now in the collection of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards. Both pairs are said to have been found together in an old chest in Seville. The first card features a man hunting an exotic bird with a crossbow and a knobby baton design found more often on Spanish card suits. Dummett however felt the overall design of this card seemed more German than anything.16

Guildhall Aces
The Ace of cups has a checkered floor like the death bishop from the Victoria & Albert Museum. The card with the Sun and the sword is thought to be an ace of swords. The motto on this card altogether reads ‘Mia Vim Vi’ which roughly translates to my power or my energy. Perhaps with the time serpent around the sword the motto is meant to mean ‘Patience is my strength’ or maybe ‘Time is on my side.’

Goldschmidt Cards
9 cards kept at the Spielkartenmuseum in Leinfelden. They are of a similar size and also have the knobby batons like the smaller Guildhall pair. A few of these cards feature the checkered floor design seen on some of the previous packs and fragments. On the bottom row, only the pope card is apparent while the other 3 are a mystery. The toothy fish is thought to be a rework of the Milan Biscione but is also similar to a design used by the Dauphin of France.

Hannover Jacks
A pair of jacks kept in the Landesmuseum Hannover hand-painted with a style similar to the Zavattari and featuring a Milan Biscione. Since these are both court cards it is possible that they were not from a tarot pack at all.

Poland Cards
2 cards: a queen of cups and a cavalier of coins kept at the Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie along with a chariot kept at La Musee Francais de la Carte a Jouer and a queen of coins in a private collection. The Polish cards were displayed along with the French Chariot at an exhibition in 2022 that was presided over by Thierry Depaulis, one of the foremost experts on old tarot cards. The exhibit featured a big poster of the queen of coins so it is probably safe to assume these cards have been determined to be from the same pack.17

Christie’s Cards
A 9 card lot sold on auction at Christie’s in 2008 that was described as being from the Lombard School. The auction blurb cited an expert who dated these cards to the 15th century. This set is a size match for many of the packs except the cards feature a Moor’s head on their backs. The wording on the auction was unclear (perhaps machine translated) but seemed to state that six of these cards were from 19th and 20th century and compared them to the Rosenthal, Victoria & Albert and Von Bartsch cards. Perhaps a few of these cards were from the 15th century but the lot as a whole didn’t seem to command a 15th century price.18

Stuart Kaplan Vol. II featured a list of 271 Visconti Sforza cards from 15 different packs.
Starting with that figure we can subtract the 23 cards Kaplan called Lombardy which Dummett stated had been outed as fakes by 1993 when he wrote Il Mondo. Then I subtracted the Rosenthal cards as they were rejected by a top collector nearly a century ago. Next I added in the Guildhall Batons that Kaplan omitted and married it to Andreolotti card. I added 2 cards to the Tozzi collection: the loose fool and justice cards. After that I Included the new 2 of cups in the Bonomi cards that wasn’t mentioned in these old books. Lastly, I added the Ferrell Diavolo to one of the existing packs.
This gives us the conservative estimate of 235 cards from 13 different packs.

Now if you wanted to add all the cards that Dummett included as 15th century hand painted Milanese that Kaplan excluded from his list of Visconti-Sforza packs you end up with something like 252 Cards from 21 packs. This figure can go up to 261 Cards from 22 Packs if you include the 9 questionable cards from Christie’s. Then If you want to add back in the Rosenthal cards and not marry any of the loose cards to existing packs you get the all inclusive total of 284 cards from 24 packs.

Bologna

The Agnolo Hebreo Devil Card
One single card remnant at The British Museum is the oldest known devil card. The text on the card back roughly translates as “the loser scratches his ass”, a phrase expressing frustration.19 This is a very gothic depiction of the devil, we see a similar design on the Rothschild Sheet (below).

Uncut Sheets

There are 4 uncut sheets which include tarot trumps that were discussed by Dummett in The Game of Tarot.

Metropolitan/Budapest Sheets
There are 3 sheets kept at either the Metropolitan Museum in New York or the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts. All of these sheets might be in Budapest now as their website had pictures of everything and the ones at the Met were marked not on display however I am not totally sure how that works. These sheets are numbered and the cards are in Dummett’s type B ordering. Between the 3 sheets, 20 out of the 21 standard trump cards can be found. The artwork on these sheets is typically attributed to an anonymous Ferrarese artist.

Rosenwald Sheet
An uncut sheet containing 21 trumps cards and 3 queens that is kept in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. These cards feature 3 of the virtues in a row and the angel as the highest trump making this a type A deck. A notable feature of this sheet is the mashup of the fool and the mountebank.

Rothschild/ Beaux Arts Sheets
2 sheets kept in different museums obviously intended for the same pack. Many of the designs on these cards match up with what we see in later Bolognese decks.
Cary Sheet
One sheet of uncut cards kept in the Cary Collection at Yale University Library that possibly contains fragments of 18 trump cards and 2 pips. This sheet is the oldest known example of the Tarot de Marseilles pattern.

Non-Standard Packs

There are at least 2 non-standard packs from the 15th century. First there is the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi thought to have been created around 1465, while it is neither Mantegna nor tarocchi, this pack typically get discussed in tarot literature. Then there is the Sola Busca, the oldest complete 78 card tarot deck, believed to have been created in 1491. Both of these packs vary greatly from everything else discussed in this article and will be the subject of future posts.

Then there are 2 non-standard decks from the early 16th century. In the first episode of Tarot Mysteries we discussed the Viti-Boiardo deck which was themed around a famous poem. In the Leber collection at the Rouen library there is another non-standard deck similar to the Boiardo deck themed around the classical gods instead of the usual tarot motifs.

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The Oldest Tarot Cards & Where to Find Them

Updating the list of the oldest surviving standard tarot packs

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