Translation: Naiara Hernández Cortés
The Tarot of Mantegna and the arcane wisdom of the Renaissance
We travel to Ferrara in northern Italy to discover this strange deck of cards.

Context
We are in Ferrara, northern Italy, where the d’Este family rules. And this clan is very unique: they all believe in astrological predictions and have followed the birth of the Tarot since the first decks of this type appeared in Milan (with the famous Visconti-Sforza Tarot at their head). Long history short, the lords of Ferrara liked hidden things.
It is believed that the person who conceived this tarot was Ludovico Lazzarelli, a poet and philosopher with knowledge of astrology and alchemy. Undoubtedly, these elements are in Mantegna’s deck.
The nickname of Mantegna came later, as this deck was never called that in its time. This was given in the 18th century because it was thought to have come from Andrea Mantegna’s prolific engraving workshop, which coincides in place and date. But that is not true.
Composition

It is a deck of 50 cards divided into five suits named with the letters A, B, C, D, and E or S (depending on the versions) and all the cards are named and numbered from 1 to 50. And they are all major arcanes or triumphs, as they were known at the time.
The lowest suit (E or S) is formed by the conditions of man. From the Miser we go to the Servant, from there to the Craftsman, and then comes the scale of nobility with the Duke, the King, the Emperor and the Pope.
The D-suit is Apollo and the nine muses, whose influence and inspiration should help man on the path of life.
In the same way, in suit C, which is that of knowledge, with the trivium and the quadrivium, the knowledge of language and mathematics also helps man in his development.
These are followed by the Christian virtues, the Cardinals and the Theological virtues, which perfect man and his spiritual life.
We arrive at the end, at suit A, that of the planets or Macrocosm, at the point opposite to the conditions of man or Microcosm. Here we have the seven planets, with the Sun and the Moon, plus the Mobile Prime, which is the force that allows the motion of the globe, and the Prime Cause, which would be all creation.
Correspondences

One of my propositions in the book is that the number 7 is hidden in each of the suits. And seven are the degrees of initiation of some mystery religions of Antiquity that were recovered in the Renaissance. So, we would have a kind of initiation game, in which the player has to overcome the Miserable and the Servant and get to the Craftsman, which is the card of initiation. From there on are the seven degrees of personal growth.
In the suit of the Muses, there are seven that carry a kind of astral globe and which relate to the planets through the music of the spheres. In the suit of knowledge, the trivium and the quadrivium add up to seven. Theological and Cardinal virtues also make seven. And finally, the planets are seven.
The presence of this number is not accidental. Maybe there’s a numerological key behind this strange deck.

Its relationship with the history of art

I hold the hypothesis that, among other things, Mantegna’s Tarot is a collection of allegorical images. It is the beginning of a tradition that will follow Alciato’s emblematic tarot and the Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia. That is, repertoires of images with a specific meaning that were used as examples for artistic creations that contain different meanings.
Not in vain, Albrecht Dürer took Mantegna’s Tarot and copied it. Thanks to this, the imagery of this deck expanded throughout Central Europe and some of its images can be found in places like the Black Cathedral of Brasov.
OpenEdition le sugiere que cite este post de la siguiente manera:
Dr. Pedro Ortega (25 de noviembre de 2024). El Tarot de Mantegna y la sabiduría arcana del Renacimiento. El blog de Tartalo. Recuperado 14 de abril de 2026 de https://doi.org/10.58079/12rci

