Description

The Cary-Yale Visconti Tarot is a faithful reproduction of an original Italian fifteenth century tarot deck. The deck has the 67 cards that are still in existence in Yale University’s Cary Collection of Playing Cards, plus recreations for 19 missing cards. This Visconti deck is also unusual because it has male and female Knights and Pages in the court cards.

The first major deposit of playing cards in the Yale Library was in 1945, when Mrs. Samuel H. Fisher gave her extensive collection. This group of material documented five centuries of the development of the playing card. The earliest items in this gift were engraved German cards from the fifteenth century.

The great leap forward, the acquisition that gave Yale a prominent place in the study of playing card history, occurred two decades later. Melbert B. Cary, Jr., was, by profession, an importer who indulged his passion for fine printing by establishing and running the Press of the Woolly Whale (the archives of which reside in the Beinecke Library). Another of his passions, collecting playing cards, was developed in partnership with his wife, Mary Flagler Cary. They collected together until his death in 1941, after which Mrs. Cary continued adding judiciously to the assemblage of examples from around the world. Following Mrs. Cary’s death in 1967, the collection was presented to Yale, along with funds for its maintenance. The Visconti Tarot is one example from many in the Cary Colelction of Playing Cards.