I Tarocchi del Buongustaio

Published May 17, 2024 Updated May 17, 2024

A less-than-serious set of major arcana on a gourmet theme, with designs by Cosimo Musio.

1996 Italy Lo Scarabeo Cosimo Musio Food & Cooking Humour Tarot

There are several fun aspects to this pack. The traditional titles usually found on the major arcana have been abandoned. Instead, there is a gourmet theme (“buongustaio”), running more or less in order from the preparation of the food right through to the end of the meal. The artist, Cosimo Musio, has had fun devising clever and very finely executed images of cooks, waiters and waitresses, gourmands and gluttons, and even kitchen staff washing dishes. The card titles and the accompanying leaflet with text by Edoardo Ballone are in Italian. Unusually, in my set at least, the backs of the cards can be peeled away, allowing the ‘cards’ to be fixed to an alternative surface. See the box

I Tarocchi del Buongustaio with designs by Cosimo Musio, published by Lo Scarabeo, Turin, Italy, c1996 I Tarocchi del Buongustaio with designs by Cosimo Musio, published by Lo Scarabeo, Turin, Italy, c1996 I Tarocchi del Buongustaio with designs by Cosimo Musio, published by Lo Scarabeo, Turin, Italy, c1996

Above: I Tarocchi del Buongustaio with designs by Cosimo Musio, published by Lo Scarabeo, Turin, Italy, c1996. 22 cards + leaflet in Italian, in two-part sleeve. Size: 60 x 95 mm.

See the leaflet

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By Roddy Somerville

Member since May 31, 2022

Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.

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