"Whatever you think of the predictive power of tarot cards, the story of how humanity has produced them and put them to use provides a fascinating cultural history of the last 500 years or so. We've featured a variety of tarot decks here on Open Culture, mostly from the past century: decks designed by Aleister Crowley, Salvador Dalí, and H.R. Giger, as well as one featuring the characters from Twin Peaks. But today we give you the oldest extant example, and a highly distinctive one for reasons not just historical but aesthetic: the Sola-Busca tarot deck, dating from the early 1490s, which L'Italo Americano's Francesca Bezzone describes as '78, beautifully illustrated cards, 22 major arcana and 56 minor arcana, engraved on cardboard and hand painted with tempera colors and gold.' ..."
Open Culture
Mystery and history of art merge together in the Sola Busca tarots
W - Sola Busca tarot
2009 August: Tarot, 2018 June: Tarot Mythology: The Surprising Origins of the World's Most Misunderstood Cards
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