Visconti B Tarot Deck Fragment

About the Deck

(aka Pierpont Morgan Bergamo Tarot Deck) One of the earliest Tarot Decks, the Pierpont Morgan Deck is entirely gilded, with fine paintings upon it.

It is estimated to have been produced around 1451 or 1452, possibly for a triumphal event in 1453.

Provenance

Italy, c. 1452.

According to Many Schools of Thought

A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings

Fortitude. This is one of the cardinal virtues, of which I shall speak later. The female figure is usually represented as closing the mouth of a lion. In the earlier form which is printed by Court de Gebelin, she is obviously opening it. The first alternative is better symbolically, but either is an instance of strength in its conventional understanding, and conveys the idea of mastery. It has been said that the figure represents organic force, moral force and the principle of all force.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Upright

Equilibrium, Balance, Justice

Reversed

Bigotry, Want of Balance, Abuse of Justice, Over-severity, Inequality, Bias.

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Justice.