Scarce Italian playing card of depicting the rivers of South Europe

Anonymous.

I. Fiumi Principali di Europa si scaricano nel Mare Mediterraneo.
Bologna: Tipografia de' Franceschi alla Colomba?, c.1790. Engraved playing card, sheet 115 x 60mm, with red woodcut design on reverse.

Slightly trimmed, as issued.

A playing card representing the rivers that discharge into the Mediterranean Sea, with Neptune and six allegorical figures of rivers: the Rhône, Tiber, Ebro, Arno, Danube and Po.
This was one of 78 cards in a geographical game played following the same rules as tarocchi (tarot). It was the first of the 21 map trump cards ('The Magician' in a tarot pack). In this version the suits were North, South, Central and Islands, each with ten letterpress descriptions of counties in those regions and four court cards with a woodcut armorial and a letterpress text.
The woodcut pattern on the back of the card is a red flower design with the address 'Alla Colomba' (At the Dove). This was the address of Tipografia de' Franceschi in Bologna from the 1790s until at least 1860.


Stock ID : 24233