Tarocco Piemontese

The Fool.

The Tarocco Piemontese (Tarot of Piedmont) is a type of tarot deck of Italian origin. It consists of 78 cards: a trump suit of 22 cards, numbered from 0 to 21, and four 14-card side-suits, swords "spade", batons "bastoni", cups "coppe", and coins "denari", each with a king "re", queen "donna", knight "cavallo" and jack (unlabelled), cards numbered from 2 to 10, and an unnumbered card with an elaborate suit symbol which acts as the 1.

The order of the trumps, in most games played with this pack, is the Angel "l'angelo" (20), the World "il mondo" (21), the Sun "il sole" (19), the Moon "la luna" (18), the Star "le stelle" (17), the Tower "la torre" (16), the Devil "il diavolo" (15), Temperance "la temperenza" (14), Death "la morte" (13), the Hanged Man "l'appeso" (12), Strength "la forza" (11), the Wheel of Fortune "rota di fortuna" (10), the Hermit "l'eremita" (9), Justice "la giustizia" (8), the Chariot il "carro" (7), the Lovers "gli amanti" (6), the Pope "il papa" (5), the Emperor "l'imperatore" (4), the Empress "l'imperatrice" (3), the Popess "la papessa" (2), and the Pagat "il bagatto" (1).^[1] The Fool "il matto" (0) is played in the classic manner: it can beat nothing, but can always be played to a trick, relieving the holder from the obligation to follow suit.

The order of the cards in spades and batons is king, queen, knight, jack, 10, 9, ... 1. The order of the cards in cups and coins is king, queen, knight, jack, 1, 2, ... 10.

References