Mathieu Conver 1790 Tarot

The Mathieu Conver 1790 Tarot offers a rare glimpse into the refinement of the Tarot de Marseille during the late 18th century. Published by Rinascimento – Italian Style Art, this faithful facsimile is accompanied by new research from Giordano Berti, with consultation by Alfredo Mazzara, exploring how the Conver workshop fits within the broader evolution of Marseille printing. Their study proposes that the Conver family, active in Marseille at the end of the 1700s, may have inherited and re-engraved earlier wood-blocks from the long French cardmaking tradition. While the exact origins of those designs remain uncertain, they clearly reflect a continuum of imagery that had been developing for over a century. In this light, the familiar Conver pattern—beloved by readers and collectors today—stands as a culmination of that lineage, preserving and refining motifs that came to define the classic Marseille style. This edition does not claim to rewrite tarot history but rather invites readers to reconsider long-held assumptions about the Conver deck’s originality and chronology. Through its high-fidelity reproduction and detailed research booklet, it celebrates the deck as both a beautiful, historically meaningful facsimile and a contribution to the ongoing conversation about the Marseille tradition’s rich and layered heritage.