Sicilian tarot, part 3

Sicilian tarot, part 3- the trumps:
the Sicilian tarot's trumps are quite unusual. for starters, instead of the pope at trump 5,  we have temperance. likewise, as I have stated in the introduction, the highest trump is marked 20, and depicts Jove.
Sometime after its introduction into Sicily, some figures of the tarot deck, viz; the devil, and the tower were judged to have been offensive ( apparently, by the duchess  Rosalia Caccamo), and were replaced by more innocuous counterarts: the devil was replaced by a ship (taken from the minchiate deck) However, the reason why the tower was censored was because, according to reports,  it originally depicted a person being dragged down to hell......

However, strangely, some other subjects escaped censorship:. take 11 for example, "the hanged man" in most tarot decks, the figure is suspended from the foot. However, in this deck, the unfortunare is depicted quite graphically strung by his neck!. Also, on 19, the sun, we see 2 men [ cain &abel?] , one about to club the other.  also, no 13, death , escaped censorship altogether.

for part 2, see http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/sicilian-tarot-part-2.html

part 1- http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/sicilian-tarot-tarocco-siciliano.html



 for another review of this deck , see: http://pasteboardmasquerade.com/Reviews/sicilian.html

Sicilian tarot, part 2

Sicilian tarot, part 2- the court cards:
the courts of the Sicilian deck are very interesting. For starters, the knaves are female. this mirrors the ancient portugese cards, where the jacks in the suits of cups and coins were female.
in the suit of batons, observe the knave. she is holding a parrot. innocuous, you may say, but in former times, the parrot was a dragon....

see part 1 http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/sicilian-tarot-tarocco-siciliano.html
part 3 - http://anthonylesq.blogspot.com/2011/12/sicilian-tarot-part-3.html