Trionfi

The trionfi, or carte da trionfi, are the earliest documented tarot decks, which appeared in the courts of northern Italy (Milan, Ferrara, Bologna) in the first half of the fifteenth century. The name, meaning “triumphs”, referred to the series of allegorical cards added to an ordinary deck. The word tarocchi took over in the early sixteenth century and would become “tarot” in French. Often hand-painted for noble families, these decks had no known divinatory function at the time.