"No.85 Carte di giuoco" (Piacentine pattern )-- Grimaud

"No.85 carte di giuoco italiane, tipo bologna"-- Grimaud, 40c.

Despite its name, the deck is what is known as the "piacentine" pattern. However, the maker's use of the designation is somewhat accurate, as the pattern is used around much of central and northern Italy, a region that encompasses both Piacenza and bologna.

Here is the rather elaborate box in which these cards come in:

 

Note the differences from the more standard Piacentine pattern -- the ace of swords ( top row, first from right), is straight. In the standard pattern, the sword is curved, and has a cherub perched in it ( see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.sg/search?q=piacentine )  

 

The ace of coins ( top row, first from right), is represented here as an eagle with a blank circle in it's chest. Although this may seem rather odd, in former times, the tax stamp ( to prove that the tax had been paid on this deck)  was stamped on the ace of coins. Hence, the makers left a blank space on the ace for this stamp. As the stamp had a coin-like design, when the stamp was impressed, the card looked more like a member of the suit.

However, when the card tax was abolished, there was no longer any need for such a stamp, and the card is left blank.

"Tarocco bolognese" (Dal negro)- part II

I shall procced to discuss the trumps of this deck.
The trump sequence used here is very unusual, and idosyncratic.

the top row of the above picture shows the lowest 6 trumps. from the left, are the Fool, the magician (operating a shell game) , and the four moors. The reason why I show only three cards, is that there are two copies of the middle of the three ( 4th from left). ( see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/tarocco-bolognese-dal-negro.html for history of the moors)

we then procced to the second row, and the trumps 12-16. The hanged man [12] is depited twice on the card, and so on to 16, the star

we now arrive at the top 4 trumps, " la Grànda "- the greats. The cards, are by tradition, not named, so the player is to deduce the rank from the image. the cards are, from L-R, the moon, the sun, the angel and the world. 

Tarocco bolognese , Dal negro- part I

Tarocco bolognese , Dal negro. 62 cards.
 the court cards of this deck are almost identical to the ones in the "primera bolognese " pattern http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/10/primera-bolognese-modanio.html, save with the addition of queens.

It would also be of interest that this pattern  was one of the first patterns to be double faced, ( c. 1800)

"Tarocco bolognese" (Dal negro) - introduction

The Tarocco bolognese or "tarocchino"  is the idosyncratic tarot deck, used in Bologna.
 It gets it's other name , tarocchino, ( little tarot) , from the fact that whilst a normal deck of tarot cards has 78 cards, this deck has only 62 cards. so what happened to the other 16 cards?

The reason for this is the absence of the number cards of 2-5 in each of the four suits , probably to make the game more interesting by eliminating useless lower ranks. This is especially telling, when you consider the games played with this deck place a heavy emphasis on scoring combinations of cards.

Another unusual feature of this deck is that the trumps 2,3,4 and 5 have been replaced by four Moors. why was this so? . Well, if you consider the fact that in the normal tarot, the aforesaid ranks are the popess, empress, emperor and pope,  you will not e surprised to hear that the depiction of these ranks greatly angered the papal authorities when they came to  hear of this. therefore, as a compromise, the makers printed the offending ranks as moors.

This also tells us something about the games played with the deck back then. If the fope, popess, emperor and empress were replaced with four [almost] identical subjects, We can infer that whatever game played with the deck treated the aforementioned series treated them as equal.
part I --- http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/tarocco-bolognese-dal-negro-part-i.html

Primera Bolognese ( modanio)

Primera Bolognese by modanio, 40 cards.
this pattern is one of the most interesting patterns. the 'primera' part is the name of an ancient game, known in english as prime....

You minght be wondering how the ace of swords ( 2nd pic, 1st row, 1st from left) came to become this shape. Well, Originally, the sword was a schimitar, (  a curvy sabre) which aquired a eagle's beak at its tip, and grew increasingly curvy, till the extent it looked like a question mark.
when the pattern became double faced, the bottom part of the schimitar was cut off, leaving us only with the curious top.
 Another feature that was lost when the cards became double faced, was the skirts of  the jacks of cups and coins, who were actually female. but, over the years, when this feature became forgotten, the jacks underwent a sort of ... sex change....