The Bologna Addendum: When Tarot Grew Four Extra Trumps

Today's Lesson In the mid-15th century, tarot developed regional variations that most modern readers never encounter. The Tarocchino Bolognese, created in Bologna, Italy, stripped the deck down to 62 cards by removing the 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s from the suits—then did something bizarre. Rather than leaving the trump sequence at 21 cards plus The Fool, Bologna added four extra trumps between The Emperor and The Pope, creating a 25-trump sequence that no other tradition adopted. These extra cards—often called the "Angel" trumps or the "Four Moors"—existed purely for gameplay complexity in a city obsessed with tarot as a competitive card game, not divination. This modification reveals something crucial about tarot's history: the structure we consider sacred wasn't sacred to everyone. While French occultists in the 1700s were busy assigning mystical significance to the number 22 (Hebrew alphabet letters, Kabbalistic paths), Bolognese players had been happily using 25 trumps for centuries without any spiritual crisis. The deck worked because the community agreed it worked. When you encounter readers today who insist there's only one "correct" tarot structure, remember that Bologna's card-makers would have laughed at the question—they were too busy winning games with their four extra trumps to worry about…