3. Florence

The British Museum's website (https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=minchiate) has just one woodcut deck for Florence that it says is complete; it has "Poverino" written on the backs, and its BM object number ends in 41. Actually, it has two cards for Charity, very similar but not identical, and none for Leo, so that we only see 96 cards. The BM also has another "Poverino," very similar, with 31 cards extant, but lacking all the trumps, and another of 34 cards but lacking backs. The 96 cards of the first deck conform in every respect to a complete deck with "Meschino" backs shown in its entirety in volume 2 of Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot (pp. 262-266); it is not in color, and it is hard to make out the lines beneath the blocks of color, in the book black or gray, including those for Leo. Colored but low-resolution reproductions of 13 of the cards, plus backs, are in the 2006 Christie's auction house catalog of the Kaplan collection. All three decks have tax stamps on Aries, indicating their manufacture in the period 1781-1800. Here are the ones I am talking about, plus a couple more; I will call them the "Poverino" group, of which the first, with its cards in color online, is the most accessible. The number cards in Coins have heads.

P1.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-41. 97 cards “Poverino” and Medici-Lorraine arms on backs. Tax stamp on Aries, monogram on Libra.

P2. Stuart Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol. 2, pp. 262-266. Impoverished man and “Meschino” (impoverished man) on backs. Tax stamp on Aries, monogram on Libra. 97 cards shown. Colored versions of 13 plus back, Christie's catalog, Historic Cards and Games: the Stuart and Marilyn Kaplan Collection, 21 June 2006, p. 105, https://askalexander.org/display/22146/Christie's+New+York:+Historic+Cards+and+Games:+The+Stuart+and+Marilyn+Kaplan+Collection+Wednesday+21+June+2006/107?pw=Christie%27s. Tax stamp on Aries, monogram on Libra.

P3.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-43. 31 cards. “Poverino” on back with “group of women, children, and a cow.” The trumps are only II and III. Unbearded King of Cups and Coins, requisite animals on 3 and 4 of Cups and 4 of Coins. Aries and Libra missing.

P4.  DSM [Deutsches Spielkartenmuseum] 1360 (Tarot, Tarock, Tarocchi, p. 117). 93 cards, 9 shown, all similar to P1. Forward-facing elephant. Aries not shown, but said to have tax stamp, as well as monogram on Libra.

P5.  https://museotik.euskadi.eus/coleccion/-/autoria-poverino/titulo-tarot-florentino-minchiate/objeto-baraja/museotik-ca-64356/. Museo Fournier "Poverino." 9 cards plus back, all similar to P1.

P6.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-50. 34 cards. Backs have standing female figure, no words. But “similar to deck number ending 43,” the cataloger observes. It has 5 trumps: Justice, Hope, Prudence, Charity, Aries. Tax stamp on Aries, forward-facing elephant, unbearded King of Coins, monkey on 4 of Cups. 3 of Cups  missing. Interlocking Swords. Identification with P-subtype only tentative.  

P7. Yale University, shown by Pratesi at https://www.naibi.net/A/14MINC.pdf. 2 cards only: King of Cups and 3 of Swords, but with "Poverino" backs.

Two other decks online, each with 96 cards, have the word “Etruria” on their backs; each is missing one trump, not the same one. Their cards look very similar, including odd little details like forgetting to put the infants suckling the wolf on the 3 of Swords. They also have the word “Giglio” on the card of Cancer; this practice of putting the name of a trademark corresponds to that of the short-lived “Republic of Etruria” of 1805-1807; the decks would have been 1806-1809, allowing for some lag to the system that came next. A partial deck without backs, conforms in every detail to the others. So these three can be treated as one. I will call this the "Etruria" group. Either of the 96 card decks will do for purposes of comparison.  Here are the decks I am talking about (ignoring three decks in the DSM catalog pp. 118-19 with no pictures):

E1.   https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-38. 96 cards, missing trump XVII. Backs with Andromeda and “Etruria.” Florence skyline in black. Lion-like animal, no banderole, on 3 of Cups; right-facing elephant on 4 of Coins. Coins have 8 pointed stars.

E2.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-74. No backs, 57 cards. Unbearded King of Cups, monkey on 4 of Cups.

E3.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-36. 96 cards, arms of Spain with in escutcheon of France impaling Medici. Right-facing elephant on 4 of Coins, Coins are 8 pointed stars, Lily on 2 of Coins. Lion-like animal, “carte fine” on banderole. XXX Cancer has “Giglio” written on bottom, X Chariot has “Viva”. Florence skyline.

Eight decks have been reduced to two. However, there are lots of dissimilarities between the two groups: numerous trumps, as we will see, as well as heads (Poverino) vs. eight-pointed stars (Etruria) in the 2-10 of Coins; on the 4 of Coins the elephant is also portrayed differently. That is, the Poverino decks’ elephant faces forward and the Etruria elephant faces to the right. Moreover, while it is true that there is "lion-like animal" on the three of cups and a monkey looking at a mirror on the 4 of Cups, there are differences in how these animals are shown. Below, the three cards on the left are the Etrurias, the ones on the right the Poverinos.

As you can see, the "lion-like" animal in the Etruria becoms more like a llama or a sheep in the Poverino, while the monkey in the Etruria is off-center to the left compared to the very centered monkey in the Poverino. The biggest difference, of course, is in the elephant: right-facing, with a peaceful-looking rider in the Etruria, forward facing with a sword-wielding rider in the Poverino.

How can we expect ot find a "standard pattern" among such differences? Only if the differences are systematic, i.e. extending to other cards. For example, the eight-pointed stars are in all the 2-10 in the suit of Coins, and likewise for heads in the Poverinos. There can other systematic differences as well. We have to look and keep track of what the differences are in various decks. Although it is hard to say which of the woodcut 3 of Cups resembles the engraved more, the Poverinos seems to borrow their designs for the 4 of Cups and 4 of Coins from the earlier engraved pattern (at left, from BM 34). The same is true in the trumps. Below are some examples: first, the earlier version of the "later minchiate pattern," from a pre-1750 deck on Gallica, then the Poverino's same trumps, taken from the complete deck at the British Museum, and beneath them the Etruria decks' versions of the same cards.
The Poverino Love simply reverses right and left of the engraved. The Poverino Strength has added something mysterious at the bottom of the card. The Hanged Man's awkward bending of the arms at the elbows in the Poverino resembles the engraved, as does his less strained leg position. On the Tower card, the lady's gestures and cloth around her middle come from the engraved, as well as the posture of the man behind her. On Libra, that the two animals both face right comes from the engraved. On Sagittarius, the lower animal faces right on both. On Gemini, both rather Rubenesque women face us.

The Etrurias' way of portraying these figures is different. Cupid''s foot is close to the lady's head; Strength faces forward; the Hanged Man's arms hang down straight until the wrist and the legs form a cross; the lady naked and the man grabbing at her head, the two Libra animals facing opposite directions, the small animal on Sagittarius facing left, and the Gemini's bodies turned toward each other and thinner; perhaps one is even male.

In the above examples, the engraved is rather easy to distinguish from the Poverino; however, there may have been woodcut versions of the engraved pattern where it would have been more difficult. The two patterns ln other respects are quite different, obvious from other cards which the Poverino modified or did not take from at all, the majority of the deck in fact. 

Likewise, it is also easy to distinguish the Etruria from the Poverino in the cards so far, except perhaps in the case of the Tower. Others are more subtle, or break the rule so far established. 

In Scorpio, the animal's legs, four per side, point up at the ends in the engraved and Poverinos; in the Etrurias, they are five per side and point down. Also, the top of the body in the Poverinos is round, like the engraved, while the Etrurias have feelers. In Pisces (first below), the engraved and Poverinos have a duck in the bottom center of the card; in the Etruria, it has moved to the right side. Again the early engraved is on top (I have switched to an 1806-7 reprint, whose bright colors make for better visibility), then Poverino, then Etruria, with Pisces in the first column, then continuing. In the second column, the engraved and Poverino Time (Old Man) have an arrow in the top left corner piercing an hourglass, while the Etruria has something not hitherto seen in the tarot-derived images: a circle cut by lines through the center rather than the hourglass. In other respects, however, it is more similar to other decks attributed to Florence, in its longer beard and more hunched appearance, where the Poverino is more similar to the engraved. But neither woodcut has the ragged and meager clothing of the man in the engraving. In Fire - the rule-breaker - it is the Etruria card that is similar to the early engraved, in that the animal faces right instead of left.

On Prudence, the Poverino shares one feature with the engraved not shared by the Etruria: the snake is partly in the lady's lap; it is even more so in the engraved. 

In the next case, Air, the Poverinos also shares just one feature with the early engraveds: the animal at the bottom, whatever it is - an otter? - is not the lizard of the Etrurias.

Earth is similar to Air in that mainly the animal remains, between the engraved and the Poverino, is Earth (first below). The engraved has two deer next to a body of water. It is the same in the Poverino, but they
are at the bottom of the card, hardly visible. Instead, there is a greater prominence given to man-made structures on the right, left, and center. The paint makes it unclear whether they are topped by church steeples or flag poles. In the Etruria, the lines are stronger: it is clear that the left side has a steeple and the right a flag pole. Meanwhile, the two animals are no longer deer but more like wolves.

On other cards, there is some relationship between the engraved and the woodcuts, and the Poverinos and  neither is closer to the engraved than the other. The woodcut World cards present the same basic scene as the engraved, but the masculine angel standing on a circle with a map of Europe has become a feminine angel in both woodcut versions, with squarish buildings inside. The marks left by the stencils do not correspond well to the lines left by the block.

On the Water card, all three decks present a
ship, but whereas the engraving has a large ship, a whale in the foreground, and no people visible, the other two present a singled-masted one with a person on each side. What they look like is unclear in the Poverino, which presents the typical case. The main other difference is in the mast, defined by more diagonal lines on theleft than on the right, crossing the mast lower down.
 

Papa I is always a sleight of hand artist performing tricks with two children observers. Again it is the two woodcuts that are similar. In the Poverino the performer holds something rectangular in his hand, probably a playing card, while in the Etruria that hand belongs to the child to his right and the hand just ends with a bunch of shading. A similar configuration is seen in the Gallica Colomba deck, where it is clearly the same playing card held by the central figure in the Poverino, of which a clearer version is the Correr.

The two woodcut Aries cards (first below) both have the
standing ram and one other of its species, in a smaller image; but  the resemblance ends there. There isn't much difference between the two
woodcuts: less of an arch to the lamb's back in the Poverino, points on the two staffs, and a staff that goes all the way down to the lamb, as opposed to part way in the Etruria.

On Cancer, the Poverino turns the protrusions meant to be the crab's front into just three; on the Etruria, it is just one, and bigger, while capturing the patterns on its back missed by the Poverino.

Virgo has a lady holding a palm frond in all three, but the woodcuts have the characteristic trees on either side, perhaps slightly smaller in the Etruria, and the lady has less exposed flesh. An odd feature of the Poverino is the white spot on the lady's middle, punctuated by what appears to be her navel. This does correspond to the engraving, or it is from damage to the card. The Meschino version, whose cards are much the same as the Poverino, at least has color there. 

On Leo, both woodcuts are similar to the engraving, but they treat the lion's haunches differently, the Poverino enlarging them and the Etruria going the other way. Other Florentine Leos are like the Etruria, e.g. BM 37. Another feature, this one pertaining to both woodcuts, is the elongated diamond shapes on the ground, as though suggesting clouds. Taurus has a similar pattern on its woodcuts. In this case the woodcuts, both very similar, are quite different from the engraving, which is a naturalistic bull in a naturalistic setting.

Faith is even more disparate: the tablet of the law held by the lady in the engraving  (http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05115/d0511518.jpg) has little in common with  (Poverino, first at right(,the short stick topped by perhaps a cross, maybe within an oval, or a kite-shaped rhombus (Etruria, first in second row. In this case the third deck on the BM site thought to be a Poverino, BM 50, shows an image that is either different or less damaged than the more complete BM 41, revealing an oval.

Two more more need mentioning, again quite different from their engraved versions the Etruria (on top this time) ha Papa III clean-shaven, while the Poverino, like most others, has him bearded, e.g. the Correr, bottom. Papa IIII is unbearded on both, but the orbs are different. I at least cannot make out on the Poverino the division into three parts that is present in the Etruria. There may be none at all on the Correr. The BM deck ending in 37 is missing Papa III, but its Papa IV is precisely the same as the Correr, except for some shading on the left side - but again, I cannot tell if there is a horizontal line. Unfortunately, none of the Colombas or Fortunas online or in catalogs have a Papa IV, at least one that is visible.

So there are quite a few variations in Florence, although some seem to be limited to one producer, either of the Etruria or the Poverino decks.

Let us turn to the number cards. In the suit of Swords, it is the Etruria with which care must be taken, this time not only to distinguish them from the interlocked sword-hilts, which is sometimes not easy due to the added paint, and from the engraveds, but also from Bologna's, which also have separate sword-hilts. Below are some easy examples (I will save the harder ones, and Bologna, for the next section): first the Poverino's 3 and 4, with interlocking sword-hilts on the 4, then the Etruria, and then the early engraved (actually, Lo Scarabeo's reproduction of an 1806-1807 reprint of the pre-1750 original, downloaded from http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks07/d05115/d05115.htm). 

You will have noticed that the Etrurias omit the two infants below the wolf of the 3. This is a drafting error that occurs in all the Etrurias. Also, the engraved reverses the animals right to left. It does that in every instance except the 2. Oddly enough, a few of the decks with interlocked swords have the same reversed orientation - and yet also have the right-facing elephant, which is not in the engraved at all. I have found three decks online with this property, they are numbers 3, 4, and 7b in the next list, which is comprised of incomplete decks, most with some trumps and showing one or another of De Giorgio’s criteria; the exception is 7b, with number cards only. For future reference, I give the Poverino 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2, as some of the decks to be considered later may not have the 3 or 4, or consistently follow one or the other pattern. The Etrurias are similar, except for the separated hilts.

The other suits are quite similar between the Poverinos and the Etrurias, except of course for the 4 of Coins. The only difference is that the Poverinos have heads on their Coins, like the early engraveds, while the Etrurias have 8-pointed stars. Also, the Etrurias feature a lily in the middle of their 2 of Coins.

We come to an odd conclusion. The Poverinos' trumps, around 10 of them, are similar to the early engraveds, whereas those trumps in the Etrurian are different. The Poverinos' Coins are similar to them, too, including the elephant on the 4. On the other hand, in the suit of Swords, it is the Etrurias that resemble the early engraveds and not the Poverinos, which have interlocking Sword-hilts. But the early engraveds' little animals, in all but the 2 of Swords, are reversed right to left in both decks compared to the early engraved. 

What would be most different from the early engraveds would be a deck composed of the Etruria's trumps, except Fire, and the Poverinos' suit cards. The natural question is, would such a deck constitute a standard from which both decks depart, each based on the standard but also borrowing from the early engraved pattern in their own way? To answer that question, one would have to look at many other decks, starting with those sharing at least one of De Giorgio's cards.

Here are ten decks with one or more of De Giorgio's cards (my numbers, all beginning with D for "De Giorgio cards present"), accompanied by my notes on the cards that vary between Poverino and Etruria: 

D1.  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-37. 51 cards, 22 of them trumps. Medici arms and "Firenze" on backs. Interlocking Swords, animals on 2, 4, and 5 like Poverino, heads on Coins. Beardless King of Coins and 3 of Cups. Animal on 3 of Cups like Etruria. 4 of Cups and 4 of Coins missing. Etruria's Love, Strength, Air, Pisces. Poverino's Papa I (the playing card is especially clear), Fire. No Faith. Time has Poverino's hourglass but has the extreme stoop of the Etruria, with his shoes at at the left edge of the robe. (This is the standard for Time I will use in the next section.) Papa IIII's orb not divided into three parts and has shading on the left side only.

D2. http://a.trionfi.eu/WWPCM/decks05/d02057/d02057.htm. 14 trumps shown, no suit cards. Medici arms and "Firenze" on backs. Etruria-type animals on 3 and 4 of Cups, 4 of Coins, Trumpets missing. Tax stamp and Aldini signature on Water.  Etruria's Prudence, Air, Libra, Sagittarius, Gemini. Poverino's Papa I, Fire. No Time or Faith.

D3. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-0510-1009-1073. 65 cards. “Alla Fortuna” below Medici arms. Tax stamp on Aries. Lion and Monkey in Cups like Etruria, but monkey more in center. Interlocking Swords, animals like Poverino. 4 of Coins, King of Cups and Coins all missing, Heads on Coins. Etruria Love, Hanged Man, Prudence (wide midriff), Faith, Air, Pisces. Poverino Fire, Gemini. Masculine, striding Devil. Time same as D1.

D4. Stuart Kaplan, Encyclopedia of Tarot vol. 1, p. 51, 97 cards extant. 24 cards shown online in archive.org; 13 cards plus backs shown in color in Christie's catalog, p. 106, https://askalexander.org/display/22146/Christie's+New+York:+Historic+Cards+and+Games:+The+Stuart+and+Marilyn+Kaplan+Collection+Wednesday+21+June+2006/108. "Fortuna" on backs. tax stamp of the Kingdom of Etruria (existed 1806-7) reportedly on trump XXX (Cancer). Florence skyline on Trumpets. No number cards shown except Ace of Batons. All cards shown conform to Etruria design except that Papa I is that of the Poverino, the Fire animal faces left, Time like D1 (sever stoop, shoes near left edge), Papa III bearded, Papa IIII's orb upper half colored, no line from woodblock visible, no hand visible on Tower lady's head. I cannot make out the scene in the circle on the World. The object on Faith might be an oval, but the line is faint. So the trumps follow my hypothesis of what the standard deck would look like. If the suit cards have interlocking Swords, as suggested by D1 and D3 above, this would be the only complete standard minchiate identified (although the Correr at least has all forty trumps). Current whereabouts unknown.

D5.  https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105109802.r=jeucart%20minchiate?rk=150215. 72 cards. Medici arms with “Colomba” below (not Bologna's "Alla Colomba," as Gallica titles the deck). The website says “Bologna?” but the deck is clearly of the Florence type. Unbearded Kings of Cups and Coins, monkey as in Etruria, lion stepping with right hand leg. Florence skyline; the 4 of Coins is missing; interlocking Sword hilts. The small animals in Swords are reversed right to left compared to the Poverino and Etruria. The Coins have heads. Etruria Papa I (but with playing card in child's hand), Strength (with bottom half of column and outline of shield), Hanged Man, Tower, Faith (rhombus), Prudence, Air, Sagittarius. Fire animal faces left, fire only behind. P1 Gemini. D1 Time.

D6. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n/f90.item (Depaulis 1984). Also DSM 885, on p. 115. “Alla Fortuna,” 93 cards. In DSM catalog: Florence skyline but no other De Giorgio criterion-cards either place. No suit cards shown. Etruria Strength (with bottom of column and lion face), Hanged Man, Tower (but man's hand not clearly on head), Prudence. D1 Time.

D7. DSM B1023, p. 110 of their 1988 catalog Tarot, Tarock, Tarocchi. Also pictured in Monzali 2021 part 1 (see notes to my section 1), and Depaulis 1984 (likewise), but in a mirror image. Uncut sheet, allegedly 17^th century. Unbearded King of Cups. No distinguishing trumps, no number cards except Aces.

D8a, D8b, D8c. Romaine Merlin, Origine des Cartes a Jouer, plates 13-19 of 1869 edition in Google Books. He attributes them to the Museo Correr, Venice. He has separate entries in his Table of Illustrations for the trumps, all 40, plates 13-16, and the courts plus number cards plus Fool and back, plates 17-19. Since the number cards have different dimensions from the courts, Fool, and trumps, they must be considered from a separate deck. Hence D8a: trumps; D8b: courts and fool; D8c: number cards. (The back has different proportions yet.) They are all uncolored line drawings, with no dotted borders. However, the Correr website's photos of 10 trumps show dotted borders. All like Etruria except: Time like D1; Faith has oval; Fire like Poverino; stocky, masculine-looking striding Devil; Papa IIII's orb is blank inside; no hand on head in Tower. Courts: all 16 shown (plus 2 from a non-minchiate deck). Kings of Coins and Cups unbearded. Number cards: Interlocking Sword hilts, animals reversed right to left compared to the Poverino, animal on bottom of 8 of Swords unrecognizable as an animal. Coins with heads and right-facing elephant, monkey like Etruria, lion stepping. Merlin's selection of what number cards to show seems to indicate that he knew which the important ones were, unlike anyone else showing selected cards.

Merlin's drawings are reproduced in two sources (1) Catherine  Hargrave, A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming (originally Boston 1930), pp. 229-231, in archive.org. She gives no source and omits the two non-minchiate court cards. (2) The 40 trumps only: Detlef Hoffmann, The Playing Card, an Illustrated History, opposite p. 16, same uneven reproduction as Hargrave, whom he says is his source. Another source, not for the drawings but for reproductions of the actual cards, the first ten trumps, see N4 below.

D9.  DSM catalog, p. 118, B 1355. “Poverino” on back, but cards shown not like other Poverinos. Etruria Lion on 3 of Cups. “Delpieve” and “Francia” on Hanged Man, dating the deck to c. 1810 or later. Love, Strength, and Hanged Man are only trumps, all like Erturia. No Coins shown.

D10. https://museotik.euskadi.eus/coleccion/-/autoria-doni-aldini/titulo-tarot-florentino-minchiate-paragone/objeto-baraja/museotik-ca-64694/#. "Paragone" on backs. Right-facing elephant on 4 of Coins (with heads). Sun, Taurus similar to Etrurias. 9 cards plus back shown. Notes say "Doni." [sic: it should be "Dom."] Aldini signature on Water.

D11. https://museotik.euskadi.eus/coleccion/-/titulo-tarot-florentino-minchiate-all-sorte/objeto-baraja/museotik-ca-63283/. 9 cards plus "All' Sorte" back. A few cards have "Fortuna" backs. Right-facing elephant (with heads) and interlocking sword-hilts on 10 of Swords, with short-eared animals. "Zanobetti Francia" on all trumps and courts, so ca. 1808-1814.

D12. https://askalexander.org/display/22146/Christie's+New+York:+Historic+Cards+and+Games:+The+Stuart+and+Marilyn+Kaplan+Collection+Wednesday+21+June+2006/106?pw=Christie%27s. Christie's catalog, p. 104. Card maker "Agostini" on all trumps and courts, Christie's says. They date it to c. 1775, but this is surely wrong, as the printing of the card maker on the cards wasn't done until between 1807 and 1815, per Monzali. 60 cards extant, 13 shown plus back (with no words). Unbearded king of Cups. Forward-facing elephant (with heads on Coins), small animal on Sagittarius faces forward. Papa IIII unclear, but top half colored.

D13.  Christie's catalog, p. 104 (same link as D12). 95 cards extant, 13 plus backs (no words) shown, Christie's says, "Poverino (?)." Cards do resemble Poverinos: both animals face forward on Libra, small animal faces right on Sagittarius. Time is like Poverinos. No number cards in suits.

There are also many decks whose features in various cards match one or other of the ones of the foregoing and not those of Bologna or elsewhere. Below, I use N for "No De Giorgio present."

N1. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-0510-1074-1081. "Colomba" backs, 19 cards. Swords animals reversed compared to Poverino and Etruria, joined sword hilts, heads on Coins. Etruria Strength (with bottom of column, shield, and face), Hanged Man, Libra, Pisces.

N2.  Pratesi, https://www.naibi.net/A/14MINC.pdf.10 cards,“Poverone" backs.Tax stamp on Water, signature Aldini. 3 of Swords not reversed. Etruria Libra, Strength (with bottom of column, shield and lion-face). Heads on Coins.

N3. DSM B 561 (p. 116 of catalog). 3 cards shown out of 97. "Poverone" on back, tax stamp on Aries, XXX has "Carte di Etruria," dating cards to 1806-1807 or a little later. Poverino Libra. Third card Cancer.

N4. https://www.archiviodellacomunicazione.it/sicap/lista/any:minchiate/?WEB=MuseiVE. Museo Correr, Venice, first 10 trumps only online, plus a back independently. Etruria Love, Strength (with face, bottom of column and shield). All identical to those in Merlin, except colored. See above for Correr Papa III and IIII. Web description: "40 carte dei tarocchi numerate con numeri romani e accompagnate dal libretto con le istruzioni per giocare al 'giuoco delle minchiate." It is to be wondered if the "40 cards of tarocchi numbered with Roman numerals" refers to all the cards in that deck that they have - in which case the court cards and Fool are considered of a different deck as well as the number cards and the back - or if they are referring just to the trumps, which in Italian are called tarocchi.

N5. https://museotik.euskadi.eus/coleccion/-/titulo-tarot-florentino-minchiate-paragone/objeto-baraja/museotik-ca-50624/. "Paragone." 9 cards plus back. World card female on top, hills and castles in circle. Interlocking sword hilts. Papa III bearded

N6. Keller (The Cary Collection of Playing Cards at Yale University, 1981, vol. 2, pp. 42 for descriptions, online at Beinecke Library site, vol. 4 for pictures, not online). ITA 50. 3 cards shown, 41 extant. 8 of Swords (interlocking hilts barely visible, animal not reversed). Etruria Sagittarius. Other card Scorpio.

N7.   Keller ITA 51. 3 cards shown out of 77 extant. Etruria Tower, Prudence. Other card King of Swords, unbearded.

N8.   Keller ITA 52. 3 cards shown, out of 33 extant: Etruria Gemini and Pisces. Other is Taurus.    

N9. Keller ITA 53. “Poverone” back, 10 cards extant. Water (stamp with Aldini signature), Temperance, Earth, so no distinguishing cards.  The 1988 DSM catalog identifies some of its B 1242 (p. 118, no pictures) with this deck, by its backs, but with no other distinguishing information, but saying other cards of B 1242 are darker, with "Etruria" back. 

N10. Keller ITA 54, 93 cards extant. Stamp on XXIII (Air), he says. Etruria Gemini. Others Taurus and Star.

N11.   Keller ITA 62, 90 cards extant. Stamp on XXIIII (Scorpio), "c. 1840," he says. Cards shown: Ace of Swords, Maid of Cups, Cancer with stamp. So no distinguishing cards.

N12. DSM A 242 (p. 116). Stamp on Cancer (XXX), "Fortuna" on backs. Interlocking Swords, animals not reversed on 4 of Swords. Other card 2 of Batons.

From all these I think some conclusions can be drawn. Most decks have Etrurian trumps on all but Papa I, Papa III, Papa IIII, Time, Tower, Faith, Fire, Libra, and Gemini. The Etrurian Time is unique, and so is the Poverino, in a different way. Fire uniformly follows the Poverinos. Faith and Gemini sometimes follow one, sometimes the other. Papa III and IIII follow Poverino. This suggests a standard followed by most decks of Erturia Trumps except those mentioned, and Poverino Trumps on Papa III and Papa IIII. The other four mostly but not always follow the Etrurias.

The result is that the standard for the trumps is Etruria except that Poverino is the standard for Papa III, Papa IIII, Fire, and Libra. For Time the standard is D1. Several trumps remain variable: Papa I, Faith, and Gemini are the clearest. To these we can also add Strength, because the front-facing Strength with a face at the bottom,sometimes includes the bottom half of a column, a shield, and/or a more lion-like face and mane. The Tower, even with the woman naked, sometimes has the man's hand on her head and sometimes not. Also, while most decks show a thin, feminine-looking Devil, two have a more masculine-appearing one. In all cases they are shown in mid-stride; the engraved Devil is standing. Eighteen variations have been reduced to six, the rest confined to one producer or woodblock.

One odd result is that two decks with "Poverone" on their back have an Etruria-style Libra before 1781 and a Poverino-style Libra after that. There may be other such cases, with other trumps, in extant decks not yet revealed. My sample is too limited to rule out other decks that depart in other ways from the Etrurias in the direction of the early engraved

As for the number cards, interlocking sword-hilts continue to be associated with mostly Etruria trumps. If these are the standard, then so are those suits of Swords, as are the Poverino-style Coins with heads. But the right-facing elephant of the Etruria, despite the eight-pointed stars in their Coins, goes with the standard trumps. Thes 4 of Coins follows Etrurias with one exception, D13, which has the Poverinos' Libra and Sagittarius. The 3 of Cups often follows Etruria, but some have the lion stepping. The 4 of Coins sometimes follows Etruria, sometimes is ambiguous. Since the Padovano suit of Coins (16th century, not a minchiate) has a floral design, it is not safe to rule out a floral design in Coins for Florence.

Except for the uniquely skewered fox on Libra, the Merlin and the Correr is better as a standard model, combining the ten online with the other thirty in Merlin, than the Etruria. Even better might be the "Fortuna" I labeled D4, if we could see more of the cards. One could add the cards of D1-D3 and D5, but it's still not very complete - most unfortunately, no Swords are shown. The right-left reversals in Swords seen immaterial. However, the 8 of Swords should have a recognizable animal, not a lump as in all three of the woodcuts (but not the early engraved) that are reversed compared to the Poverino. (Below: Merlin, Gallica "Colomba," BM 1081, BM 34 (engraved), BM 41 (Poverino).

Merlin's pictures of the Correr's Devil, Tower, Faith, Gemini, and Trumpets also have alternative expressions. The Devil can be more or less masculine-looking, bu always striding. The Tower can have the man's hand on the woman's head or not. Faith holds variously shaped objects on their sticks. Gemini can be facing each other or both forward. Trumpets almost always shows the Duomo's dome, unlike Merlin's. The other variations are probably confined to one producer. It is nice that nineteen variations have been reduced to six (or five, if Merlin's Trumpets is unique).

 It is now a matter of identifying the subjects in Bologna that differ from their Florentine counterparts and vice versa, all or much of the time, integrating these differences with the exceptions, and in the process expanding what I have just summarized.

APPENDIX TO THIS SECTION

I also looked at the minchiates produced in other cities. Lucca’s has the elephant (facing left) and the two other suit-animals, but also bearded kings of Coins and Cups. They have other differences, too. Liguria's are closer to Florence's standard. Pieces of uncut sheets of a minchiate were found recently in a book-binding in rural Liguria dating from ca. 1700 according to the professional book restorer who found them. The binding is of a notebook, with handwritten entries starting 1750. The sheets show unbearded Kings of Coins and Cups, the usual animals in Cups and Coins (right facing elephant), and its other cards similar to the corresponding cards of Florence, although the skyline on Trumpets is neither Florence's nor Bologna's. See “Roselle” at https://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=23735#p23735. Surprisingly, these sheets' cards have dotted borders, meaning they were already on the woodblock, something not known in Florence until the 19th century according to Monzali. Some of the same images and additional ones, undotted, are found in the DSM catalog, p. 121, their B 1603, 3 sheets of 20 cards said reproduced in 1969 from a source said to be 18^th century. The catalog reports that “Nel Finale” appears on the Ace of Batons, which would be Finale Ligure, in Liguria close to where the book was found.

There is also a 98 card 1896-1914 Genoese deck reproduced in Il Mondo in Mano, the 2019 catalog of an exhibition in Catania, on pp. 48-49. It is surprisingly similar to the other in many cards. It shows an unbearded King of Coins, along with the typical animals on the 3 and 4 of Cups and th 4 of Coins, although the elephant faces left, and many other cards similar to the ca. 1700 sheets.  

And finally there is DSM 1985-234, 98 cards, "2nd half of 19th c." 9 cards shown. Similar to the 1896-2014, with a left-facing elephant and reversed but interlocking animals on the 8 of Swords.

So we have:

L1. uncut sheets in book binding ca. 1700 by report, incomplete, no Swords number cards. Left facing elephant on 4 of Coins, heads on Coins, beardless King of Coins. Etruria-type Strength (face at bottom, possible shield). More cards in Tarot, Tarock, Tarocchi, p. 121, with Etruria-type Hanged Man (except "IIX"), Death (Death one leg), D1 Time. Masculine striding Devil with breasts

L2. 1896-1914. Right-facing animal on 3 of Cups, left facing monkey 4 of Cups, left-facing elephant 4 of Coins. Reversed left to right 2 and 3 of Swords, just bird on bottom of 3 of batons. Unbearded King of Coins. Etrurian Tower, Prudence, Fire, Air, Pisces, Gemini, Aries. All feet present on Death. Masculine, naked Devil, small breasts. 

L3. "second half of 19th c."Temperance, Death, World, Trumpets, and elephants, overlapping with previous look identical to L2. Reversed 8 of Swords, Etruria Time.

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