Utente:NRenzoni/Sandbox/minchiate fiorentine

Le Minchiate fiorentine sono un mazzo di carte da gioco nato a Firenze e noto fin dall'inzio del XVI secolo sebbene una citazione del Pulci del termine minchiate risalga al 14xx. originating in Florence, Italy. It is no longer widely played. Minchiate can also refer to the special deck of 97 playing cards used in the game. The deck is closely related to the tarot cards, but contains an expanded suit of trumps. The game was similar to a complexified tarocchi.

VII, Fortitude, from the minchiate deck, depicts a woman breaking a pillar.

History

Scholars generally believe that the tarot cards were invented around Florence and northern Italy circa 1440; they spread elsewhere in Italy early on. The minchiate represents a Florentine variant on the original game. The game was first known as germini and was later known as ninchiate in the 17th century.

The word minchiate comes from a dialect word meaning "nonsense" or "trifle". The word minchione is attested in Italian as meaning "fool", and minchionare means "to laugh at" someone. The intended meaning may be "the game of the fool", considering that the card "The Fool", also called "The Excuse", features prominently in the game play of all tarot games.

Deck

Minchiate Etruria and Fiorentine

The minchiate deck differs from the standard tarot deck in several particulars. The first and most obvious difference is that the trumps have almost doubled in number; there are 40 trumps in the minchiate, in addition to the unnumbered card the Madman, The Fool or the excuse.

The trumps of the minchiate deck, and their corresponding tarot of Marseilles cards and the esoteric Rider-Waite tarot deck are:

Card number	Italian name	depicted on the minchiate card	corresponding Minchiate Francesi card	corresponding tarot of Marseilles card	corresponding divination tarot card
(0)	Il matto	The madman	Momus	Le Mat (the madman)	The Fool
I	Papa uno; l'Uno; il Papino; Ganellino	Pope one; The trivial performer	(Mercury)	I Le Bateleur (the trivial performer)	1 - The Magician
II	Papa due; Granduca	Pope two; the Grand Duke	(Bacchus)	III L'impérarice (the empress)	3 - The Empress
III	Papa tre; Imperatore	Pope three; The Emperor; The Western Emperor	(Amor)	IIII L'empereur (the Emperor)	4 - The Emperor
IV	Papa quattro; Imperatrice	Pope four; The Empress (Fiorentine); The Eastern Emperor (Etruria)	(Venus)	V Le Pape (the Pope)	5 - The Hierophant
V	Papa cinque; Innamorato	Pope five; Love	Amor	VI L'amoureux (the Lover)	6 - The Lovers
VI	la Temperanza	Temperance	Temperance	XIIII Temperance	14 - Temperance
VII	la Forza	Fortitude	Fortitude	XI La Force (fortitude)	8 - Strength
VIII	la Giustizia	Justice	Justice	VII La Justice	11 - Justice
IX	la Ruota della Fortuna	Wheel of Fortune	Fortune	X La Roue de Fortune	10 - Wheel of Fortune
X	il Carro	Chariot	none	VII Le Chariot	7 - The Chariot
XI	Il gobbo; il tempo	Hunchback; time	Old age	IX L'Ermite	9 - The Hermit
XII	L'impiccato	The hanged man	none	XII Le Pendu	12 - The Hanged Man
XIII	la Morte	Death	none	XIII La Mort	13 - Death
XIV	Il Diavolo	The Devil	none	XV Le Diable	15 - The Devil
XV	la Casa del diavolo	The house of the Devil	none	XVI La Maison Dieu (the house of God)	16 - The Tower
XVI	la Speranza	Hope	Hope	none	none
XVII	la Prudanza	Prudence	Prudence	none	none
XVIII	la Fede	Faith	none	none	none
XIX	la Carità	Charity	Charity	none	none
XX to XXIII	il Fuoco, l'Acqua, la Terra, l'Aria	The four elements, fire, water, earth, air	Fire, Earth, Water, Air	none	none
XXIV to XXXV	la Bilancia,la Vergine,lo Scorpione,l'Ariete,il Capricorno,il Sagittario,il Cancro,i Pesci,l'Acquario,il Leone,il Toro,i Gemelli	The zodiac (Libra,Virgo,Scorpio,Aries,Capricorn,Sagittarius,Cancer,Pisces,Aquarius,Leo,Taurus,Gemini)	December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January	none	none
(XXXVI to XXXVIII, but usually unnumberred)	La stella, la Luna, il Sole	The star, the moon, the sun	The Star, the moon, the sun	XVII L'étoile, XVIII La Lune, XVIIII Le Soleil	17 - The Star, 18 - The Moon, 19 - The Sun
(XXXIX, usually unnumbered)	il Mondo	the World	the World	XXI Le Monde	21 - The World
XL	L'Angelo;Le trombe	The Angel;The trumpets	Renown	XX Le Jugement	20 - Judgment

The ace to ten and the court cards resemble their standard counterparts more closely. There are the four standard Spanish and Italian playing card suits of swords, batons, coins, and cups; these contain pip cards from ace to ten, and four court cards: a jack, a knight, a queen, and a king. In the minchiate deck, however, in the suits of cups and coins, the "knaves" or "pages" (Italian fanti) have been replaced by "maids" (fantine). The knights, mounted figures in the tarot of Marseilles and similar designs, are centaurs or sphinxes in many minchiate decks.

Significant differences exist also among the trumps between the minchiate subjects and their tarot de Marseille counterparts. As discussed below, the Papess and the Pope are absent from the minchiate trumps (at least no Pope nor Popess are depicted); instead, it contains a Grand Duke. The Etrurian minchiate also lack the Empress and instead depicts two different Emperors; a western and an eastern.

The standard tarot card The House of God, becomes the House of the Devil in the minchiate deck or Hellmouth; it depicts a nude figure fleeing a burning building. The Moon depicts an astrologer studying the moon instead of the tarot of Marseilles howling dogs and lobster. The card corresponding to the Hermit is often called Time, or the Hunchback; it depicts an elderly man on crutches. All four cardinal virtues and the three theological virtues don't appear in tarot, except in the very early tarot decks called the Cary-Yale Visconti tarot. The minchiate version of the Hanged Man is called the Traitor; he carries bags in his hands as he hangs upside down, a representation associated with treason in 14th-century Italy. The final card in the series is not the World, but an angel blowing trumpets.

Minchiate Francesi

The Minchiate Francesi, also called Minchiate de Poilly after it's attribution to engraver François de Poilly, refer to 3 different French decks utilizing the same set of engravings. The first has 42 numbered trumps, the second has 40 numbered trumps and Momus as an unnumbered card and lacks the first's "Le Chaos" card, the third has 21 numbered trumps and Momus as an unnumbered card. The intended game for the first deck is unknown, but the second appears to be intended to be played like the Italian Minchiate while the third deck appears to be intended for ordinary Tarot (despite still being called a Minchiate deck). The order of the motifs for the two latter decks have been rearranged compared to the first deck to more closely resemble their Italian counterparts. All three decks have the same 56 pips cards with French suits. The engravings share motifs with both the Italian Minchiate and the Tarot Nouveau as well as taking unique motifs from Roman Mythology.

42-trump deck order:

#1-5 Cosmological objects (Chaos, Sun, Moon, Star, World), #6-9 Elements (Air, Earth, Water, Fire), #10-13 Age (Youth, Infancy, Adolescence, Old age), #14-18 Senses (Taste, Smell, Touch, Sight, Hearing), #19-24 Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Charity, Hope, Strength, Renown/Judgement), #24-30 Gods (Mercury, Bacchus, Amor, Venus, Momus, Fortune) #31-42 Months/Zodiac (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December).

40-trump deck order:

Momus, #1-4 Gods (Mercury, Bacchus, Amor, Venus), #5-9 Virtues (Prudence, Charity, Justice, Hope, Strength), #10 Fortune, #11-14 Ages (Old age, Youth, Adolescence, Infancy), #15-19 Senses (Taste, Touch, Smell, Hearing, Sight), #20-23 Elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air), #24-35 Months/Zodiac (December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January), #36-39 Cosmological objects (Star, Moon, Sun, World), #40 Renown/Judgement.

21-trump deck order:

Momus, #1 Mercury, #2 Amor, #3-8 Virtues and Fortune (Hope, Strength, Fortune, Justice, Charity, Prudence), #9-12 Age (Old age, Youth, Adolescence, Infancy), #13-16 Elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Air), #17 Star, #18 Moon, #19 Sun, #20 Renown/Judgement, #21 World.

Game

The game spread from Florence to the rest of Italy and to other areas of Europe including France. By the 18th century, minchiate had overtaken the original game of tarot in popularity in Italy. Paolo Minucci published a commentary on the game in 1676, and the game is described in detail by Romain Merlin in Origine des cartes à jouer, published in Paris in 1869. The game was still played in Genoa in the 1930s, but its popularity declined in the late 19th and early 20th century.

The game, like other tarot games, is a trick taking game in which points are scored by capturing certain cards and sets of cards. The lowest five trumps (Daddy, Grand Duke, Western Emperor, Eastern Emperor, Lover) were called papi, "popes", even though "Le Pape" (The Pope) does not appear among the minchiate trumps. The highest five trumps (Star, Moon, Sun, World, Trumpets) were called arie ("airs") and have a special high scoring value in the game.

Tarot

While the game of minchiate died out during the early 20th century, in more recent years the minchiate has become the subject of further speculative interest. It is related to the tarot, although the expanded set of trumps added to the minchiate does not shed any light on what the tarot deck was originally intended to signify.

In 15th-century Florence, at least, the tarot was thought to contain religious, allegorical, and cosmographical symbols. Justice, Strength, and Temperance were three classical "cardinal virtues" depicted in the more familiar tarot trumps. The minchiate supplies the remaining cardinal virtue — Prudence — and also includes the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. The Sun, Moon, Star, and World figure in the tarot de Marseille trumps; the minchiate completes the series by adding all the zodiac signs and the four classical elements.

Although no divination system using this pack of cards ever existed in previous centuries, and because of this allegorical and cosmological content, in recent years tarot occultists have proposed systems of divination and cartomancy that use the minchiate deck. In Charles Godfrey Leland's book 1890 book Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, an incantation is given that mentions the use of "40 cards", which are renamed in the spell as 40 gods who are being invoked to compel the goddess Laverna to do the caster's bidding. Paul Huson has speculated that these 40 cards are the 40 trumps of the minchiate deck. He has also pointed out that Leland's book Etruscan-Roman Remains in Popular Tradition (1892) contains a spell that is cast with tarocco cards, to invoke Janus.

Minchiate decks

The Italian publisher Lo Scarabeo offers a reproduction of the "Ancient Minchiate Etruria", an engraved minchiate deck that originally appeared in 1725.

The Italian publisher Il Meneghello offers a reproduction, in regular and mini sizes, of the "Minchiate Fiorentine", a woodcut minchiate deck that originally appeared circa 1820.

The late tarot artist Brian Williams (died 2002) published a modern edition of the minchiate deck, which accompanies his book referenced below.

Artist Constante Constantini, through Italian publisher Solleone, has published two different modern minchiate decks:

• Minchiate Fiorentine: modern redrawing of a woodcut design
• Nuove Minchiate Fiorentine: modern redrawing

See also

• Tarot card games

Books

• (EN) Dummett, Michael: The Game of Tarot (U. S. Games, 1980) ISBN 0-7156-1014-7
• Huson, Paul: The Devil's Picturebook (G. P. Putnams Sons, 1971, BackInPrint, 2003) ISBN 0-595-27333-5
• Huson, Paul: Mystical Origins of the Tarot (Destiny Books, 2004) ISBN 0-89281-190-0
• Williams, Brian: The Minchiate Tarot (Destiny Books, 1999) ISBN 0-89281-651-1
• Thierry Depaulis: Le Tarot Révélé (Musée Suisse du Jeu, 1993) ISBN 978-2-88375-013-5

References

Web sites of interest

• The Minchiate at Andy's Playing Cards
• Early notes about the Minchiate
• Regeln des Minchiatta-Spiels Rules for the minchiate game (in German)
• Images from Fiorentine minchiate deck
• Titles of and images from French minchiate deck