Sola Busca concise bibliography.

Earliest documentary attestation ZANI 1802, extended descriptions and reproductions from HIND
1910/1938 to ZUCKER 2000.

Cards from the set are held in five locations:

1. A complete set of 78 cards now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, bought in 2009 from the Sola family.
Coloured. Apparently not online at the Brera. Reproduced in facsimile several times in the last 20
years. All are viewable in good quality on the English Wikipedia article page “Sola Busca tarot”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_Busca_tarot

Information sheet from the 2009 exhibition at the Pinacoteca di Brera: https://pinacotecabrera.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05/document9.pdf
For the complete catalogue of the exhibition see number 15 below.

2. Four cards in the collection Dutuit, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris. Uncoloured engravings.

Reproduced in DEPAULIS 1984 no. 11 (pp. 48-49)

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n/f55.item

All four cards at the Petit Palais:

https://www.parismuseescollections.paris.fr/fr/recherche/type/oeuvre/auteur/Nicola%20di%20Maestro
%20Antonio%20d%27Ancona

3. 23 Cards at the Albertina Museum, Vienna. Uncoloured engravings. All online:

https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/#/query/c9da52e2-5962-4ab9-b2f8-34cefa1f36cd

4. Four cards at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Not online at the website. All four are reproduced in
ZUCKER 2000, number 14 below, nos. 2407.025, 2407.026, 2407.027, and 2407.028 (pages 90-94).
Two are reproduced in HOFFMAN 1973 (number 8 below), and two in the article at number 13 below,
ZUCKER 1997.

5. Four cards at the British Museum, London. British Museum description page for their four cards,
Museum number 1845.0825.485
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1845-0825-485
Images not online. Shown in HIND 1938 and ZUCKER 2000.

Attribution of the engravings to Nicola di maestro Antonio da Ancona is due to Andrea DE MARCHI
in 2012, published in the exhibition catalogue of GNACCOLINI 2012, pp. 61-73 (number 15 below).

Bibliography.

1.
Pietro ZANI, Materiali per servire alla storia dell'origine e de' progressi dell'incisione in rame e in
legno... Parma, 1802, pp. 71-72:

“Dello stesso Artefice ho anche osservato in Napoli un altro Giuoco di carte non compito, alcune di
queste nel Gabinetto dei Signori Terres, e alcune altre in quello di D. Cicco de' Luca, alte; pollici e 6
linee, large 2 e 4 con una piccola cornice. Nella classe dei Danari il Re porta il titolo R. FILIPO, la
Regina ELENA, ed il Cavallo SARAFINO. Il Re di Coppe ha: LVCIO CECILIO. R., e la Regina
POLISSENA.”
https://books.google.fr/books?id=0PhRXZ-
SwM0C&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false

2.
Leopoldo CICOGNARA, Memorie spettanti alla storia della calcografia, Prato, 1831, pp. 161-163,
and plates XII and XIII (in second link).
https://books.google.fr/books?id=lLY-
AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false

Version with plates, XII (p. 162 of viewer), XIII (p. 166 of viewer)
https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008533164/page/n165/mode/2up
Pages 64-65 for relevant text.

3.
Johann David PASSAVANT, Le peintre-graveur, tome V, Leipsic, 1864, pp. 127-132
Cards from the Albertina, Vienna, described.
Scrolling page:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/passavant1864bd5/0085/scroll
Main page:
https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/passavant1860ga

4.
William Hughes WILLSHIRE, A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British
Museum, London, 1876, pp. 77-78 (I. 3)
https://books.google.fr/books?
id=cR8oAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false

5.
Arthur Mayger HIND, Catalogue of Early Italian Engravings, London, 1910, pp. 257-272
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ucbk.ark:/28722/h2rv5g&view=1up&seq=325

6.
Wilhelm Ludwig SCHREIBER, Die ältesten Spielkarten und die auf das Kartenspiel Bezug habenden
Urkunden des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts. 1937, p. 105.

“Ein vollständiges Tarockspiel (je etwa 145 x 75) war in der Sammlung der Marchesa Busca, einer
geborenen Herzogin Serbellini, in Mailand (note: Sieben Karten sind abgebildet bei Cicognara, tav. XII
und XIII; weitere Abb. In Jeux de cartes tarots, pl. 81. Vgl. Passavant V, p. 127 ff.). Eine Karte trägt
den Vermerk : “Col permesso del Senato Veneto nell'anno ab urbe condita MLXX”, was auf 1491
weisen würde, wenn man die Gründung der Stadt auf 421 ansetzt. Ich möchte aber, da bei allen
Figuren, wie bei den französischen um die Wende des Jahrhunderts, Namen stehen, mich der Ansicht
jener anschließen, welche, wie es auch historisch zutreffender ist, 453 als Gründungsjahr annehmen,
also 1523 als Entstehungsjahr bezeichnen. Alle Karten haben Doppeleinfassungslinien. - Einzelne
Karten dieses Spiels scheinen sich auch in der Albertina, dem British Museum und in der früheren
Sammlung Durazzo zu befinden, doch äußerte schon Passavant Bedenken, ob essich nicht teilweise um
Wiederholungen handle. Ebenso gelangte ein fast vollständiges Spiel bei der Dublettenversteigerung
der Fürstl. Waldburg-Wolfeggschen Sammlung durch Gutekunst 1902 auf den Markt.”

7.
Arthur Mayger HIND, Early Italian Engraving, London, 1938 [facsimile reprint Martino Publishing,
2006], vol. I, pp. 241-247; vol. IV, plates 370-389.

8.
Detlef HOFFMAN, The Playing Card, An Illustrated History, Editions Leipzig, 1973, p. 20 and figure
22b, p. 81 for note on figure 22b, two cards from Hamburger Kunsthalle, Inv. No. 49,289 and 49,287.

9.
Stuart KAPLAN, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, volume I, 1978, pp. 124, 126-127 (trumps illustrated).

10.
Stuart KAPLAN, The Encyclopedia of Tarot, volume II, 1986, pp. 297-302 (suit cards and some trumps
illustrated).

11.
Thierry DEPAULIS, ed., Tarot: jeu et magie, catalogue of the exhibition held at the Bibliothèque
nationale de France, Paris, 17 October 1984 to 6 January 1985; Bibliothèque nationale, 1984, number
11 (pp. 48-49).
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6532698n/f1.item

12.
Michael DUMMETT, Il Mondo e l'Angelo. I tarocchi e la loro storia. Bibliopolis, 1993, pp. 188-189.

13.
Mark ZUCKER, “The Master of the 'Sola-Busca Tarocchi' and the Rediscovery of Some Ferrarese
Engravings of the Fifteenth Century,” Artibus et Historiae, vol. 18, no. 35 (1997), pp. 181-194.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1483546?seq=1

14.
Mark ZUCKER, The Illustrated Bartsch, volume 24, part 3, Early Italian Masters; Abaris Books, 2000,
pp. 63-152 (number 2407).

15.
Laura Paola GNACCOLINI, ed., Il segreto dei segreti. I tarocchi Sola Busca e la cultura ermetico-
alchemica tra Marche e Veneto alla fine del Quattrocento, catalogue of exhibition at the Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan, 13 November 2012 to 17 February 2013, Skira, 2012.

16.
Timothy B Husband, The World in Play: Luxury Cards 1430-1540, catalogue of exhibition of the same
name held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, January 20, 2015, through April 17,
2016; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, pp. 24, 26.
Page 26, figure 19, “Attributed to Nicola di Maestro Antonio. Sola-Busca Tarot, Under Knave of Coins,
Italian, Ferrara, ca. 1490. Engraving, painted in Venice, 5 ¼ x 2 7/8 (14.2 x 7.4 cm). Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan”
Mentions in passing, associated with school of Tura

F HARCK, “Die Fresken im Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara,” Jahrbuch der Preußischen

Kunstsammlungen, V (1884), pp. 99-127
https://www.digizeitschriften.de/dms/toc/?PID=PPN523141572_0005

Miscellaneous

Timothy B Husband, The World in Play: Luxury Cards 1430-1540, catalogue of exhibition of the same
name held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, January 20, 2015, through April 17,
2016; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015, pp. 24, 26.
Page 26, figure 19, “Attributed to Nicola di Maestro Antonio. Sola-Busca Tarot, Under Knave of Coins,
Italian, Ferrara, ca. 1490. Engraving, painted in Venice, 5 ¼ x 2 7/8 (14.2 x 7.4 cm). Pinacoteca di
Brera, Milan”