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A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and lifeAuthor: Michelle Johnston
A Podcast about Italy, travel, writing, books, gardens and food. Celebrates creative living, beautiful conversations and the journeys we need to make along the way. Interest in slow living, slow food, creativity, art, cooking, books and ultimately living the good life! Language: en-au Genres: Arts, Books, Places & Travel, Society & Culture Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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The Tarocchi Players - Renaissance Italy and the History of the Tarot
Episode 130
Friday, 6 February, 2026
"Around the middle of the fifteenth century, not so long after the first written references in Europe to cards of any kind, an artist named Bonifacio Bembo painted a set of unnamed and unnumbered cards for the Visconti family of Milan", Origins of Tarot, Seventy Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Tarot Journey to Self Awareness by Rachel Pollack Did you know that the roots of tarot have their beginnings in the north of Italy at the height of the Renaissance. The first playing cards emerged in the courts of the noble Milanese families and became a popular card game for entertainment and play.The Visconti Sforza, Bolognese Tarochini and the Minchiate Tarot cards were commissioned by the aristocratic families to be hand painted and designed by expert artisans. Played as a game called 'carte da trionfe' the tarot was purely a trick playing game in the height of the Renaissance. Today I discuss the Visconti and Sforza alliance in Milan, Cosimo de Medici patronising philosophers to transcribe the Corpus Hermeticum, the time of Renaissance Magic, the shift in art and philosophy, the move toward the mystical traditions and how the tarot eventually evolved into that of cartomancy, esoteric practice via secret societies and occult practitioners in England and France in the 18th and 19th centuries. To now be tethered to the mystery traditions and used as form of divination, fortune telling and spiritual practise. I also share a few personal revelations about the tarot system along the way. And lastly if you are in Italy it turns out there is some serendipity to this episode I discovered while writing my show-notes you can visit the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo (a quick train ride from beautiful Milano) for an exhibition that is on until June 2026, that covers the last seven hundred years of tarot. If only a patron would come calling to me! How I would love to see this exhibition! Enjoy this Episode xMichelleJohnston.life for the Show-notesA Writer in Italy InstagramSubstack - At My TableMichelle’s BooksMusical Scores by Richard Johnston© 2026 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and lifeMusic Composed by Richard Johnston © 2026Support the show
