The Archive · The Visconti-Sforza Tarot · Plate 3 of 78
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Major Arcana · II

The Popess

A woman in a plain grey-brown habit sits with a closed book in her lap and the papal triple crown on her head. Often linked to Sister Maifreda da Pirovano, a relative of the Visconti elected pope by the Guglielmite sect and burned in 1300; the link is a family legend scholars still argue over.

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The Empress
Nearby in the deck
King of CoinsThe FoolThe MagicianThe PopessThe EmpressThe EmperorThe Pope
More in the Archive The Cary-Yale Visconti TarotThe Charles VI TarotThe Cary Sheet Notes: gold on cards, then and now
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