Tarocco Bolognese

The Tarocco Bolognese is a tarot deck found in Bologna and used to play the game of tarocchini. It is a 62 card Italian suited deck that influenced the development of the Tarocco Siciliano and the now obsolete Minchiate deck. It is one of the oldest decks in continual use, dating back to at least the 15th century, and its oldest surviving uncut sheets, from the late 15th or early 16th century, are held in the Rothschild Collection in the Louvre. The deck expanded an earlier Bolognese deck by adding queens, the Fool and an extra suit of 21 trumps, and later dropped ranks 2 to 5 to shrink from 78 cards to 62. Its designs left traces in decks in France and Belgium, and tarot games in Piedmont show its influence.