Two brothers pattern of Tarot: Minchiate Tarot

Case : 136

The Minchiate Tarot is an early 16th century special deck of 97 playing cards used in the game, originating in Florence, Italy. It is no longer widely played. The deck contains an expanded suit of trumps to 40 cards and supplies the remaining cardinal virtue — Prudence — and inserts them with the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. This is the only deck to include all seven virtues. Minchiate decks come in two standard patterns, earlier and later, which coexisted for almost two centuries. Earlier Minchiate dates from the late 15th century. In this minchiate deck, however, in the suits of cups and coins, the "knaves" or "pages" (Italian fanti) have been replaced by "maids" (fantine). This pattern died out around 1900. The Later Minchiate pattern appeared around the early 18th century as a luxury edition. Around 1820, this pattern was redesigned to give it a flatter, plainer appearance with changes to a quarter of the trump and court cards. This pattern survived in Liguria until the 1930s.