Italian renaissance woodcut playing cards

Block B1

The preseved fragments make up two largely complete uncoloured sheets, both covering at least part of every card. Both suffer very similar losses, including the top half of the upper row, a narrower strip on the right edge, and parts of the top half of the third row. Together they cover enough of every card to securely identify them.

Both fragments are located in Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa. They seem to not only be from the same woodblock, but to have been treated in very similar manners upon being discarded. The only images available to me exhibit significant geometrical distortion which is not easily corrected for. I have therefore straightened out each card individually or in small groups and reassembled them here. The images above link to higher resolution versions of this work.