Calvino's "The Castle of Crossed Destinies" (1973), like you've never seen it before...
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The Castle of Crossed Destinies [ Ссылка ]
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"Italo Calvino, (born October 15, 1923, Santiago de las Vegas, Cuba—died September 19, 1985, Siena, Italy), Italian journalist, short-story writer, and novelist whose whimsical and imaginative fables made him one of the most important Italian fiction writers in the 20th century." ([ Ссылка ])
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"The Castle of Crossed Destinies, semiotic fantasy novel by Italo Calvino, published in Italian in 1973 as Il Castello Dei Destini Incrociati [Capital added]. It consists of a series of short tales gathered into two sections, “The Castle of Crossed Destinies” and “The Tavern of Crossed Destinies.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
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"Tarots: the Visconti pack in Bergamo and New York. A critical examination by Sergio Samek Ludovici; text by Italo Calvino, translation by William Weaver. (Parma: Franco Maria Ricci, 1975). This work was originally published in Italian as Castello dei [D]estini [I]ncrociati. It reproduces the surviving cards from a Tarot pack that was created in Italy in the fifteenth century for the Visconti family. [...] [B]y publisher Franco Maria Ricci, limited edition [of] 3000 [# 729/3000]. A deluxe edition, bound in black silk with gilt titles, printed on hand-made Fabriano papers. Tarot illustrations laid down on the top board; all housed in a slipcase. [...].

From the esteemed Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci—who brought us Luigi Serafini's famed and mysterious Codex Seraphinianus in 1981—comes a remarkably beautiful discourse on the oldest Tarot card deck known: the 15th-century Visconti-Sforza.

The Visconti-Sforza tarot deck had a significant impact on the visual composition, card numbering and interpretation of modern decks. The surviving cards are of particular historical interest because of the beauty and detail of the design, which was often executed in precious materials and often reproduce members of the Sforza and Visconti families in period garments and settings. Consequently, the cards also offer a glimpse of [life of the nobilities] in Milan, which the two families called home since the 13th century. When commissioned by Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and by his successor Francesco Sforza, the cards were still known as Trionfi ("triumphs", i.e. trump) cards, and used for everyday playing.

The text surrounding the faithful reproductions of the original cards is, in effect, a short novel by Italo Calvino, commissioned by renowned Italian publisher Franco Maria Ricci for this edition: it concerns a group of travellers who are struck dumb and can communicate their stories only through Tarot cards, recounted and described by a narrator. (Calvino went on later to "complete" the story in a second part, built around another deck of Tarot, published in 1973.)

The remaining original cards of the deck are dispersed today: [A] number of the cards are in the Pierpont Morgan Library, another group at the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, and others in a private collection, so Ricci's book is the only place where all existing cards are brought together."

(Source: Vintage Memorabilia [ Ссылка ])

NOTE --

Various reproduction versions of this tarocchi cards have, since the publication of this book in 1975, became commercially available. Sadly (depending on your point of views) they have mainly been geared towards esoteric use, with additional cards created or re-created (depending on your point of views) in order to fit later formats (with The Devil and The Tower added for example).

(Production note: This clip was originally uploaded in March 2018. I have re-edited it. This is a re-upload. Sorry for the choppy editing. This is my **first** attempt with audio track on iMovie. I am yet to know what I am doing).

Soundtrack: YouTube audio stock

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