Editing Tarot (section)

===Early tarot decks===
{{Main article|Trionfi (cards)}}

[[File:Bembo-Visconti-tarot-arcanum-01-magician.jpg|thumb|upright|The magician from the Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Visconti-Sforza pack]]

The first documented tarot decks were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in [[Milan]], [[Ferrara]], [[Florence]] and [[Bologna]], when additional trump cards with [[allegorical]] [[illustration]]s were added to the common four-suit pack. These new decks were called ''carte da trionfi'', triumph cards, and the additional cards known simply as [[Trionfi (cards)|trionfi]], which became "trumps" in English. The earliest documentation of ''trionfi'' is found in a written statement in the court records of [[Florence]], in 1440, regarding the transfer of two decks to [[Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link=Franco Pratesi|title=In Search of Tarot Sources|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=2012|volume=41|issue=2|page=100}}</ref><ref>[[Pratesi, Franco]]. [http://trionfi.com/giusto-giusti Studies on Giusto Giusti] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224132027/http://trionfi.com/giusto-giusti |date=24 February 2021 }} at trionfi.com. Retrieved 4 February 2018.</ref>

The oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so decks of the [[Visconti-Sforza Tarot]] painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the [[Duchy of Milan]].{{sfnp|Decker|Depaulis|Dummett|1996|p=25}} In 15th century Italy, the set of cards that was included in tarot packs, including trumps, seems to have been consistent, even if naming and ordering varied. There are two main exceptions:{{sfnp|Dummett|1980|p=76-77}}

* Some late 15th-century decks like the [[Sola Busca tarot]] and the Boiardo deck had four suits, a fool, and 21 trumps, but none of the trumps match tarot ones. They seem to have been made on the model of tarot decks, but were voluntary departures from an established standard.
* The Visconti di Mondrone pack, one of the Visconti-Sforza decks, originally had a Dame and a Maid in each suit, in addition to the standard King, Queen, Knight, and Jack. Additionally, the pack includes three trump cards which represent the [[theological virtues]] of Faith, Hope, and Charity, and are not present in any other tarot deck of that era.

Although a [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] preacher inveighed against the evil inherent in playing cards, chiefly because of their use in gambling, in a sermon in the 15th century,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Steele |first=Robert |date=1900 |title=X.—A Notice of the Ludus Triumphorum and some Early Italian Card Games; with some Remarks on the Origin of the Game of Cards |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/archaeologia/article/abs/xa-notice-of-the-ludus-triumphorum-and-some-early-italian-card-games-with-some-remarks-on-the-origin-of-the-game-of-cards/A34B2D6CE28BBB7C72E7AB3C347102D6 |journal=Archaeologia |language=en |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=185–200 |doi=10.1017/S0261340900027636 |issn=2051-3186}}</ref> no routine condemnations of tarot were found during its early history.<ref name="DummettGame"/>