Giordano Berti - Tarot Historian, Preservationist and Deck Creator

Artists and Creators in conversations about their work
Post Reply
Joan Marie

Giordano Berti - Tarot Historian, Preservationist and Deck Creator

Post by Joan Marie »

If you want to talk about creating Tarot decks, there are few people who have more stories to tell than Giordano Berti. A renowned authority on the topics of Esotericism in Art and the History of Tarot, Giordano has also been directly involved with the creation of several decks, writing storyboards and working with publishers and artists to bring us some of the most popular cards available today.

He is also avidly involved in curating and re-issuing historical Tarot decks, most notably, the 15th–century Sola-Busca Tarot. In 2014 Giordano Berti created the project "Rinascimento" devoted to the faithful reprinting and re-issuing of historic Tarot, Sibyls and Playing cards.

Giordano is also a prolific writer authoring several articles for historical magazines and numerous books including, History of Witchcraft, History of Divination, History of Tarot, Dictionary of Mystics, Prayers of all the World, The Eastern religions in the Western World, The Other World and Afterlife, and many more. He also collaborated on four encyclopedias: The Tarot: Art, History and Esotericism (Barcelona-Milan 2001-2003); Divination Cards (Barcelona-Milan 2003-2005); Playing Cards and Divination Decks (Milan 2005-2006); and Keys and secrets of Tarot (Barcelona 2005-2006).
Giordano Berti has also published various narrative experiments based on the use of Tarot as a symbolic point of reference.

You can imagine how pleased and excited I was when he agreed to be interviewed for the Eclectic Tarot Forum. For him to share his expertise with us is a great gift.

I realised quickly that an interview with Giordano can get quite involved very fast. My first question to him was one I thought would be simple, something just to get the ball rolling, I asked him what were the 10 decks he wrote storyboards for. I expected a list. What I got was a story that wove like a tapestry, covering a period of years when Giordano lived in an almost constant state of creative inspiration, intense research and the successful realisation of some of the Tarot world's most favorite decks.

The answer to my first "simple question" has become Part 1 of this interview and Giordano has assured me that he will share with his new Eclectic friends many other secrets of his professional and intellectual history linked to Tarot.

I want to thank Giordano for his generosity sharing his time and vast experience with me, and with all of us at Eclectic.

See Part 1 of my interview with Giordano Berti Here

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
Hide post links
Show post links
User avatar
theFeeLion
Global Moderator
Posts: 648
Joined: 05 Jul 2017, 02:41
Location: Away with the faeries...

Re: Giordano Berti - Tarot Historian, Preservationist and Deck Creator

Post by theFeeLion »

What an exciting treasure trove of information! I'm looking forward to reading all of the instalments :32(2):
Come faeries take me out of this dull world. For I would ride with you upon the wind and dance upon the mountains like a flame. - W B Yeats

May you touch dragonflies and stars, dance with faeries and talk to the moon. - Unknown

Beginners Tarot Club

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
Hide post links
Show post links
User avatar
Serpentwand
Global Moderator
Posts: 1090
Joined: 05 Jul 2017, 11:05
Location: Cheshire, England

Re: Giordano Berti - Tarot Historian, Preservationist and Deck Creator

Post by Serpentwand »

That's a very informative interview. I didn't know about this job of storyboard writing and doing it for a number of decks with different themes has required an impressive amount of research. I also like the idea that Giordano has been able to concentrate on the ideas, meanings and symbols of the cards without having to actually paint them himself, that he's been able to collaborate with artists and so stick to his own special skills.

Link:
BBcode:
HTML:
Hide post links
Show post links
Post Reply