Dotti’s Tarocco Italiano

Tarocco Italiano
Teodoro Dotti, reprint by Il Meneghello in 1985

This is a reproduction of a Tarocchi pack originally printed by Teodoro Dotti circa 1845. This particular reprint was published in 1985 as a limited, numbered edition of 2500 by Il Meneghello. The cards are printed on a thick, laminated stock, reproducing crisp lines and sensitive coloring. The discolorations of the original paper are also captured, or possibly simulated. The title card for this deck shows the name as Tarocco Italiano, although this deck is also known as the Teodoro Dotti Engraved Tarot.

Teodoro Dotti was a major playing card manufacturer in Milan, Italy during the middle of the nineteenth century. He and his son Edoardo published many decks based upon these designs, though most of these were woodcut decks as opposed to metal engravings. An engraved deck such as this one would have cost more because of the skill and time required for the finer lines.

Dotti and Son, however, were not the only game in the town of Milan. Ferdinando Gumppenberg had established himself as a major Milanese card maker well before Teodoro Dotti, and in fact had published several decks while Dotti was yet a boy. One of Gumppenberg’s most popular decks was a Lombardy pack now known as the Soprafino Tarot. The designs were engraved by the artist Carlo Dellarocca and published by Gumppenberg circa 1835. Dellarocca’s engravings were unique and extremely detailed, making it a popular luxury deck as well as the envy of subsequent cardmakers.

The deck by Dotti is dated circa 1845, perhaps later, making it almost certain that Teodoro’s deck is a blatant copy of the Dellarocca designs. The similarities between the two decks are obvious, though there are many stylistic differences. Teodoro and Gumppenberg would go on to produce a number of engraved and woodcut versions of their decks. It is interesting that this professional competition was continued between Teodoro’s son, Edoardo, and Gumppenberg’s son-in-law, Lattanzio Lamperti, who took over the business around 1847.

It is hard not to make comparisons between the Dellarocca and Dotti decks. One notable difference between them is in the craftsmanship of the designs. The Dotti pack is beautifully engraved and finely detailed, but in my opinion takes a close second to Dellarocca’s work. The Dellarocca figures are more elegant and the crosshatch shadings are slightly more consistent.

On the other hand, the Dotti pack shows some beautiful differences. The face of the Regina di Bastoni, shown above, is perhaps the most beautiful in the deck, and is much more refined than the Dellarocca counterpart. All of the Dotti court cards, in fact, are beautifully drawn. Also shown above are Il Bagatto, Gli Amanti and La Ruota della Fortuna, which are very close to the Dellarocca designs. The cobbler of Il Bagatto shows the addition of a slip of paper hanging over the edge of his table and appears to be inscribed with the numbers ’1 24 65’. Perhaps it refers to players’ scores at a gaming table, and to Italian games such as Tali (in which four inscribed tali, or bones, were dropped onto a gaming table) or Tropa (in which dice would be thrown into the narrow neck of a glass jar).

The urn on La Ruota della Fortuna is likely a reference to the incense burned during ‘the casting of lots’, and the animal on the wheel’s side may allude to the blood sacrifice offered during this ritual. Older images of The Wheel of Fortune and of the goddess Fortuna were certainly the iconographic sources behind early examples of this trump, but the Dellarocca and Dotti versions included additional layers of symbolism. The wand held aloft by the uppermost figure may refer to the knobbed staff carried by ancient rune casters. The objects pouring from the cornucopia could actually be ‘lots’ or flat pebbles in both versions of this card, although they could be grain as well. The symbolism of the cornucopia itself is connected with legends of ancient oracles, such as that of Delphi. According to Greek myth, Hermes learned the divinatory art of casting lots with dice while inside the Corycian cave, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. Hermes’ dice, the bones of the demon Typhon, were taken from this cave. The name ‘Corycian’ was probably derived from its shape being that of a corycus: a large leather bag filled with flour, figs and grains.

Trump XIV has the unusual title of L’Intemperanza instead of the usual La Temperanza. This probable misspelling was copied onto a few subsequent decks. Le Stelle, La Luna and Il Mondo do not match the beauty of the Dellarocca engravings. The Dotti versions attempt to bring the images back toward the earlier Marseilles designs.

A closer view of both versions of Le Stelle shows stylistic differences as well as design similarities. The bird on the branches of the tree appears in the older Marseilles decks, and gains in status in these newer designs. Roger Tilley, in his A History of Playing Cards, believes that this symbol stands for the legend of the Peridexion. The Peridexion was a tree whose fruit nourished the birds who sat on its branches. The birds would not leave its shade, because the shadow from this tree was feared by the dragons and serpents who preyed upon the birds. This legend was one of many which were compiled into the popular Greek bestiary Physiologus, which was widely circulated during the Middle Ages.

Il Meneghello did a beautiful job reproducing this historical deck. If you like these scans then you won’t be disappointed by the actual cards, because fine illustrations such as these lose clarity on a computer screen. This limited edition can usually be found at Alida.

Review by Mark Filipas, 7/28/00