Yesterday I heard the curator of the amazing "When the Moors came to Bologna exhibition." Don't hesitate to ask if you want an explanation of the title. In the late afternoon of 10th September 1725, the auditor of the much feared Torrone tribunal, together with two notaries stormed into four businesses in the centre of a Bologna typographer, the workshop of the playing cards of Giovanni Gabriele Nobili and the bookbinder and bookseller Pietro Cavazza. Every one of the people found inside these workshops was arrested and taken to the Torrone prison and interrogated.
In the city news spread quickly of the arrests and no one understood why.
After only two days, the pontifical legate released an edict in which he
explained that he intervened to condemn a pack of Tarot cards from Bologna
with a rule book, which had been in circulation for a short time. To
understand why this happened it is necessary to understand the political
and social situation in Bologna and to know the main protagonists. It was once thought that tarot cards were invented by the nobility because they made durable cards which have lasted until today unlike the ones used by common people which were of poorer quality. Tarot cards were make by printing all the images and then cutting out the back and front and sticking them together. The bolognese cards (see photos) were heraldic, and the ones with the chess board pattern, representing the anti-papal Pepoli family caused an uproar. Tarot cards were actually playing cards and as you can see from the instructions not simple at all to play. Each pack came with a book of instructions.