The Sola Busca tarot is the earliest completely extant example of a 78-card

tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots ...

deck. It is also the earliest tarot deck in which all the plain suit cards are illustrated and it is also the earliest tarot deck in which the trump card illustrations deviate from the classic tarot iconography. Unlike the earlier Visconti-Sforza tarot decks, the cards of the Sola Busca are numbered. The Trump cards have Roman numerals while the pips of the plain suits have Hindu Arabic numerals.The deck was created by an unknown artist and engraved onto metal in the late 15th century. A single complete hand-painted deck is known to exist, along with 35 uncolored cards held by various museums. The deck is notable not only for its age, but also for the quality of its artwork, which is characterized by expressive figures engraved with precise contours and shading. Various theories have been suggested about who created the deck, but its authorship remains uncertain.

Composition

The Sola-Busca deck comprises 78 cards including 21 trumps (''trionfi'') plus the Fool (''Matte'') and 56 suit cards. There had been many previous decks structured in this way. The names and illustrations on the trump cards in the Sola Busca are somewhat idiosyncratic for its time.The departure from classic trump iconography in the Sola Busca is a trait shared by later French suited tarot decks such as the Bourgeois Tarot and the

Industrie und Glück ''Industrie und Glück'' (Early Modern German for "Diligence and Fortune") is a pattern of French suited playing cards used to play tarock. The name originates from an inscription found on the second trump card. This deck was developed during ...

Tarock decks. The characters depicted in the Sola-Busca cards include

Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar II ( Babylonian cuneiform: ''Nabû-kudurri-uṣur'', meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir"; Biblical Hebrew: ''Nəḇūḵaḏneʾṣṣar''), also spelled Nebuchadrezzar II, was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, rulin ...

and

Gaius Marius Gaius Marius (; – 13 January 86 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. Victor of the Cimbric and Jugurthine wars, he held the office of consul an unprecedented seven times during his career. He was also noted for his important refor ...

, the uncle of Julius Caesar. Trump cards loosely follow the rise and fall of the Roman Empire but also include members of the Roman Pantheon such as

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

. All the characters can be easily linked to their equivalents in the earlier and later, more standard, decks.

Painted deck

The complete painted deck is currently housed at the Brera Museum in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

. It can trace its provenance to the noble Busca-Serbelloni family. In the early 19th century the deck was owned by Marchioness Busca (born Duchess Serbelloni) of Milan. In 1907, the Busca-Serbelloni family donated black-and-white photographs of all 78 cards to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

, where they were likely seen by A. E. Waite and Pamela Colman Smith, inspiring the subsequent Waite-Smith tarot deck. From 1948, the deck was owned by the Sola-Busca family, from which it received its name. In 2009, the deck was purchased for by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and delivered to the Brera Museum.

Unpainted cards

Thirty-five unpainted cards are also known. The

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as wel ...

museum in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

owns 23, including all of the trumps except the first and last, Mato and Nabuchodenasor. The 20 trump cards originally belonged to Count Moritz von Fries, while the other three came from the Imperial Court Library. The

owns four unpainted cards, which it purchased from William and George Smith in 1845. Four unpainted cards are also housed in Hamburg and Paris.

Impact

The similarities between the artwork of the Minor Arcana of the Waite-Smith deck and Sola-Busca's plain suits has led some scholars to suggest that artist Pamela Colman Smith drew inspiration from the earlier work. Smith created the art for her deck two years after the acquisition of photographs of the Sola-Busca deck by the British Museum, and likely saw the cards on display there. Notable similarities include the Three of Swords card and the Ten of Wands card in the Rider deck, which is very similar to the Ten of Swords card in the Sola-Busca deck.

Research

In 1938, Arthur Mayger Hind described the Sola Busca Tarot in his ''Early Italian Engravings'' and supposed that the deck was engraved around 1490 and then hand-painted in 1491, as a result of reading some of the inscriptions on the cards. He also supposed that the deck was created for a Venetian client by Mattia Serrati da Cosandola, a miniaturist operating in Ferrara (the center of Tarot card production at the time). In fact, many inscriptions on the cards refer without any doubt to the Republic of Venice. In 1987, in the catalogue of a great Tarot exhibition realized at the Estense Castle of Ferrara, Italian historian Giordano Berti wrote a summary of all the research made up to that point by various scholars. In 1995 the Italian scholar Sofia Di Vincenzo, in her book titled ''Antichi Tarocchi illuminati. L’alchimia nei Tarocchi Sola-Busca'' (

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. Th ...

, 1995 and Stamford, 1998), argued that many images of the Sola Busca deck are related to themes of European

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world ...

as practised during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

. In 1998, the german publisher Wolfgang Mayer printed, for the first time, a faithful version of the 78 cards in a limited edition of 700 numbered copies. In 2012 the Pinacoteca di Brera organized the exhibition ''Il Segreto dei Segreti - I Tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-alchemica''. In the catalog, the possible author of the engravings, Nicola di Maestro Antonio, the possible inspirer, the hermeticist Ludovico Lazzarelli, the year and place of execution of the color version, Venice in 1491, are suggested. Furthermore, it has been established in an irrefutable way that the Sola Busca Tarot is linked to the hermetic-alchemical tradition. The key figure is the King of Swords, titled Alecxandro M. (

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

), who according to a legend, reported in the medieval book entitled ''Secretum secretorum'', was initiated into alchemy by his master, the philosopher

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical Greece, Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatet ...

. In addition to Alexander the Great there are other characters linked to the hermetic-alchemical tradition. The Knight of Swords, Amone, refers to

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label=genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label=genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, ...

Ammon Ammon ( Ammonite: 𐤏𐤌𐤍 ''ʻAmān''; he, עַמּוֹן ''ʻAmmōn''; ar, عمّون, ʻAmmūn) was an ancient Semitic-speaking nation occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in ...

, the mythical putative father of Alexander who welcomed him in the

Siwah Oasis The Siwa Oasis ( ar, واحة سيوة, ''Wāḥat Sīwah,'' ) is an urban oasis in Egypt; between the Qattara Depression and the Great Sand Sea in the Western Desert, 50 km (30 mi) east of the Libyan border, and 560 km (348 ...

. The Queen of Swords,

Olympias Olympias ( grc-gre, Ὀλυμπιάς; c. 375–316 BC) was a Greek princess of the Molossians, and the eldest daughter of king Neoptolemus I of Epirus, the sister of Alexander I of Epirus, the fourth wife of Philip II, the king of Macedonia a ...

, Alexander's mother, was known as a sorceress. The Knight of Cups, Natanabo, ( Nectanebo), was an Egyptian priest and magician. Prof. Gnaccolini, inspired by the study of Sofia Di Vincenzo, cites many other explicit alchemical allegories.

Trump suit

File:Sola Busca tarot card 00.jpg, 0 – Mato File:Sola Busca tarot card 01.jpg, I – Panfilio File:Sola Busca tarot card 02.jpg, II – Postumio File:Sola Busca tarot card 03.jpg, III – Lenpio File:Sola Busca tarot card 04.jpg, IV – Mario File:Sola Busca tarot card 05.jpg, V – Catulo File:Sola Busca tarot card 06.jpg, VI – Sesto File:Sola Busca tarot card 07.jpg, VII – Deo Tauro File:Sola Busca tarot card 08.jpg, VIII – Nerone File:Sola Busca tarot card 09.jpg, IX – Falco File:Sola Busca tarot card 10.jpg, X – Venturio File:Sola Busca tarot card 11.jpg, XI – Tulio File:Sola Busca tarot card 12.jpg, XII – Carbone File:Sola Busca tarot card 13.jpg, XIII – Catone File:Sola Busca tarot card 14.jpg, XIIII – Bocho File:Sola Busca tarot card 15.jpg, XV – Metelo File:Sola Busca tarot card 16.jpg, XVI – Olivo File:Sola Busca tarot card 17.jpg, XVII – Ipeo File:Sola Busca tarot card 18.jpg, XVIII – Lentulo File:Sola Busca tarot card 19.jpg, XIX – Sabino File:Sola Busca tarot card 20.jpg, XX – Nenbroto File:Sola Busca tarot card 21.jpg, XXI – Nabuchodenasor

Plain suits

Cups

File:Sola Busca tarot card 22.jpg,

Ace of Cups Ace of Cups is a card used in Latin suited playing cards (Italian, Spanish and tarot decks). It is the Ace from the suit of Cups. In Tarot, it is part of what card readers call the "Minor Arcana", and as the first in the suit of Cups, signifies ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 23.jpg, Two of Cups File:Sola Busca tarot card 24.jpg,

Three of Cups Three of Cups is the third card on the suit of Cups. In Tarot, it is part of the Minor Arcana. In some decks the suit is named Chalices instead. This card is used in game playing as well as in divination. Divination usage This card often car ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 25.jpg,

Four of Cups Four of Cups is a Minor Arcana tarot card. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games. In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, Tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinatory ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 26.jpg, Five of Cups File:Sola Busca tarot card 27.jpg,

Six of Cups Six of Cups is a Minor Arcana tarot card. History Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, Tarot cards came to be utilized primarily for divinat ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 28.jpg,

Seven of Cups Seven of Cups is a Minor Arcana tarot card of the suit of Cups. Rider–Waite symbolism Generally speaking, Waite describes these cups as ''strange chalices of vision''. They are all up on a cloud, which may reflect their ungrounded, impractic ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 29.jpg, Eight of Cups File:Sola Busca tarot card 30.jpg, Nine of Cups File:Sola Busca tarot card 31.jpg, Ten of Cups File:Sola Busca tarot card 32.jpg,

Page of Cups Page of Cups (or Jack or Knave of Cups) is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the " Minor Arcana" Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card gam ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 33.jpg,

Knight of Cups Knight of Cups is a card used in Latin-suited playing cards, including tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana". Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speaking c ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 34.jpg,

Queen of Cups Queen of Cups is a card used in Latin suited playing cards (Italian, Spanish and tarot decks). It is the Queen from the suit of Cups. In Tarot, it is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana". Tarot cards are used throughout much o ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 35.jpg, King of Cups

Coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 36.jpg,

Ace of Coins Ace of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the " Minor Arcana" The coins suit is often called " Pentacles" by tarot readers. Tarot cards are used throughout much ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 37.jpg,

Two of Coins Two of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana" Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speaking co ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 38.jpg, Three of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 39.jpg, Four of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 40.jpg,

Five of Coins Five of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana" Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speaking c ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 41.jpg, Six of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 42.jpg,

Seven of Coins Seven of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana". Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speakin ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 43.jpg,

Eight of Coins Eight of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana" Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarot card games. In English-speaking c ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 44.jpg, Nine of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 45.jpg, Ten of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 46.jpg,

Page of Coins Page of Coins (or Jack/Knave of Coins/Pentacles) is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the "Minor Arcana". Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 47.jpg, Knight of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 48.jpg, Queen of Coins File:Sola Busca tarot card 49.jpg,

King of Coins King of Coins is a card used in Latin suited playing cards (Italian, Spanish and tarot decks). It is the King from the suit of Coins. In Tarot, it is part of what tarot card readers call the " Minor Arcana". Tarot cards are used throughout much ...

Wands

File:Sola Busca tarot card 50.jpg, Ace of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 51.jpg, Two of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 52.jpg, Three of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 53.jpg, Four of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 54.jpg, Five of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 55.jpg, Six of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 56.jpg, Seven of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 57.jpg, Eight of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 58.jpg, Nine of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 59.jpg, Ten of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 60.jpg, Page of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 61.jpg, Knight of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 62.jpg, Queen of Wands File:Sola Busca tarot card 63.jpg, King of Wands

Swords A sword is a cutting and/or thrusting weapon. Sword, Swords, or The Sword may also refer to: Places * Swords, Dublin, a large suburban town in the Irish capital * Swords, Georgia, a community in the United States * Sword Beach, code name for th ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 64.jpg, Ace of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 65.jpg,

Two of Swords Two of Swords is a Minor Arcana tarot card. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English language, English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, Tarot cards came to be utilized primaril ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 66.jpg, Three of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 67.jpg,

Four of Swords Four of Swords is a Minor Arcana tarot card. Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play Tarocchi, tarot card games. In English language, English-speaking countries, where the games are largely unknown, tarot cards came to be utiliz ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 68.jpg, Five of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 69.jpg,

Six of Swords Six of Swords is a card used in Latin suited playing cards which include tarot decks. It is part of what tarot card readers call the " Minor Arcana" Tarot cards are used throughout much of Europe to play tarot card games. In English-speak ...

File:Sola Busca tarot card 70.jpg, Seven of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 71.jpg, Eight of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 72.jpg, Nine of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 73.jpg, Ten of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 74.jpg, Page of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 75.jpg, Knight of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 76.jpg, Queen of Swords File:Sola Busca tarot card 77.jpg, King of Swords

References

External links

{{commonscat, Sola-Busca tarot deck Tarot playing card decks