Creating Visconti-Sforza Tarot Deck

By Elena Kryuchkova and Olga Kryuchkova

This book includes a description of the medieval deck of Visconti-Sforza tarot.
Each card has a description and the following aspects: business, medical, love, psychological. Also given are the features of this unique Tarot deck.
The book has a section in which there is a black and white image of cards for coloring. The reader can colorize the cards, give them energy, escape from everyday problems, and engage in creativity. Then, painted cards can be cut out and pasted onto cardboard - and thus get your own unique deck of cards, which you can use as an assistant in everyday life.
The book is intended for a wide audience with a primary interest in divination cards and tarot cards.

Note: take screenshots of images if necessary and print.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elena Kryuchkova
• Release date: May 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005259938

Elena Kryuchkova

Elena Kryuchkova started her creative path in 2012. She writes in different genres, such as: esotericism, fantasy, Slavic fantasy, sci-fi, dystopia, post-apocalyptic and others. Has several graphic works. A number of her novels were co-authored with Olga Kryuchkova.She is inspired by various fantasy and science fiction.Loves cats and draws.

Book preview

This book will focus on the Visconti-Sforza tarot deck and the creation of cards with your own hands.

Once, almost five hundred years ago, the deck was ordered to create the Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and his son-in-law, Francesco Sforza.

Now the name is used, as a collective, for expensive old Milan cards, which were drawn by hand in honor of important events in the life of Milanese rulers of the 15th century. Such cards were made of pressed cardboard; a thin layer of gesso (special primer) was applied to them. Then they were covered with gold leaf and silver, and then painted with tempera, special paint.

The name of the Visconti-Sforza tarot is also used for scattered cards. They are located in various museums and libraries, in various parts of the world.

Most of these decks currently have only one or two cards. In total, there are currently over two hundred and seventy of these cards in total. They are divided by appearance, size and other details. As a result, they are conditionally divided into 15 groups.

The largest of these groups includes the three most famous and complete decks of Visconti-Sforza tarot.

The first is the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza deck. It is also known as the Colleoni-Baglioni and Francesco Sforza deck. It lacks 4 cards out of 78: The Devil, The Tower, Knight of Coins and Three of Swords. Thirty-five cards from this deck are stored in Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. Another 26 cards are stored in the Accademia Carrara, and 13 cards are in the private collection of the Colleoni family in Bergamo.

These cards have a gold background for images, floral ornaments for the rest of the cards. Cards, unfortunately, are not numbered and not signed. But presumably, the deck was ordered to the artist on the day of the coronation of Francesco Sforza in 1450. Or, on the day of the decade of the wedding of Francesco and Bianca Maria Visconti in 1451.

The second deck is called the Cary-Yale Visconti-Sforza tarot, also known as the Visconti di Modrone set. It got its name from the collection of the Cary family, and is stored at Yale University Library in 1967. The deck dates from around 1466, it has 67 cards. Presumably, it could be a wedding gift from the third Duke of Milan, Filippo Maria Visconti, and Marie of Savoy.

The third deck is called Brera-Brambilla Visconti-Sforza, it is named after Giovanni Brambilla, who bought the deck in Venice in 1900. These cards have been at the Brera Gallery in Milan since 1971. It includes 48 cards, all of them have a golden background.

Other groups have even fewer cards. There is an assumption that the remaining small groups are not the remains of full decks, but samples that the artists showed, as an example, to their customers.

In the 20th century, Pierpont Morgan Bergamo and Cary-Yale were published in several reprint editions. The missing cards for them were created by modern artists.

This book describes the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza deck. It lacks four cards: The Devil, The Towers, Knight of Coins and Three of Swords.

The Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza tarot deck was published in the last century with redrawn and drawn missing cards. This book uses new images redrawn on the basis of old cards.

The Three of Swords card was made on the basis of combining the original Ace of Swords and Two of Swords cards.

The Devil and The Tower cards are redrawn on the basis of cards from the Thoth Tarot deck by Aleister Crowley and artist Lady Frieda Harris. The cards are slightly modified and supplemented with a background in the style of the Visconti-Sforza deck.

The Knight of Coins card is not in this deck. Therefore, instead of it, a card based on the Cavalier of Coins from the Cary-Yale Visconti-Sforza deck was redrawn. The card has been slightly modified and supplemented with a background in the style of this deck Pierpont-Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza.

Cards were redrawn based on old cards.

And, as mentioned earlier, the missing tarot cards will be supplemented by cards from other decks.

Cards can be used as a hint or advice, but you should not rely on them completely. Treat cards as advices. But never rely on cards completely.

0. The Fool

[The description of this card and other cards is made on the basis of site materials http://all-tarot.ru/taro-viskonti-rasklady-znacheniya-kart/]

Zero card. It is associated with a certain impulse and desire. At the same time, the card may indicate fear of the future, difficulties of choice.

Card description

The card depicts a young man. It portrays the Fool, the Jester. He is