Osvaldo Menegazzi: The Last Hand-Made Tarot Master in Milan

Osvaldo Menegazzi, one of Italy's last master cardmakers, has been running Il Meneghello in Milan since 1974. His publishing house reprints antique playing cards and tarot decks in limited, numbered editions, creating over 100 decks in nearly 50 years. Menegazzi blends tradition and innovation, notably reviving the 15th-century Visconti Brambilla deck and creating the Tarocchi di Hokusai. Initially known as Trionfi, tarot originated in Renaissance courts of the Visconti and Este families around the mid-15th century, merging Arabic playing cards (Minor Arcana) with 22 Trionfi (Major Arcana). Tarot was used for divination only from the late 18th century. Il Meneghello started in via Fara, now operates in corso di Porta Ticinese. Menegazzi's editions are held in card museums in Paris, Stuttgart, and Madrid. Christina Dorsini, his granddaughter and art historian, notes the company reprints traditional tarot and proposes new decks like the Masonic one and the Hokusai deck. Contemporary artists inspired by tarot include Emanuele Luzzati, Renato Guttuso, Salvador Dalí (who designed cards for the James Bond film Live and Let Die), and Niki de Saint Phalle, whose Tarot Garden is celebrated in an upcoming exhibition in Capalbio.