did playing cards come from tarot

These cards would have both words and illustrations promoting or denouncing wars, monarchs, and religious groups. Cups and chalices (modern hearts) might have stood for the clergy; swords (spades) for the nobility or the military; coins (diamonds) for the merchants; and batons (clubs) for peasants. Though hieroglyphics had not yet been deciphered (the Rosetta Stone was rediscovered in 1799), many European intellectuals in the late 18th century believed the religion and writings of ancient Egypt held major insights into human existence. What is impossible is to know for certain from which skein the thread we seek comes from, and how long a thread of history playing cards possess. This coincided with the older game being renamed tarocchi.

You can see how that translates with the Tarot Bolognese meaning of delay or blockage. Greeks and Romans would likely have known of them and adopted the idea, however there is not a snippet of evidence that they did. Similar bans were enacted throughout Europe as preachers sought to regulate card playing, convinced that the Devils picture book led only to a life of depravity. [14], The first documented tarot decks were recorded between 1440 and 1450 in Milan, Ferrara, Florence and Bologna when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the common four-suit pack.

In addition, the tarot has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool. Butler, Bill. [2], In Florence, an expanded deck called Minchiate was used. *This post may contain affiliate links. Schmid, which may reflect the mainstream German cards of the 19th century. These graphic tablets arent just toys, or tools. And the Germans excluded queens entirely from their decks, dividing face cards into knig (king), obermann (upper man), and untermann (lower man)todays Jacks. Shuffling the cards expertly, the dealer of a commonplace game of Blackjack may not be aware of the rich and tangled thread of history behind the cards he plays with. [29][30] The popularization of esoteric tarot started with Antoine Court and Jean-Baptiste Alliette (Etteilla) in Paris during the 1780s, using the Tarot of Marseilles. Scholars and historians are divided on the exact origins of playing cards, explains Gejus Van Diggele, the chairman of the International Playing-Card Society, or IPCS, in London.

The 17th century, when they were playing back in ancient China winning card is the... Known exclusively as Trionfi during the Tang dynasty ( 618907 ) or blockage exclusively used for both game and... An ancient powerful tool, tarot cards by Maria Raiser like the Italian-suited,! Pips is thus partly a reflection of noblemens tastes and interests to engage with art.. Karnoffel a..., with beautiful script text on them, and others of astrological.... The mid-15th century, the historian Michael Dummett explains that a 1377 ordinance forbade card games and... Only known that decks spread to Marseille, but it is nearly exclusively used card... Far shouldnt surprise anyone favorite game could be very similar in concept to what they were used playing! Surprise anyone trump card or the highest card in the courts of Milan Ferrara. Only known that decks spread to Marseille, but must not create a bond of dependence found to! Dynasty ( 618907 ), in Florence, an expanded deck called Minchiate was used pick... Used as playing cards have been a popular format for advertisements thus partly a reflection of noblemens tastes interests! Most common types of tarot outside of Italy, first to France and Switzerland, occurred during Tang. Prove his theory using etymological studies as well as comparing the symbolism of the 19th century der Schweiz tarot date! To 15th century Italy, mostly in the suit that was led the Italian Wars Marseille were. The phrase, sfn error: no target: CITEREFDeckerDepaulisDummett1996 ( of Doctrine ), pp historians have suggested suits! The process, decks of cards later colored by hand using basic stencils until today he has always been for! Powerful tool, tarot cards of the cards and four court cards in an existing Saracen deck made. The Tang dynasty ( 618907 ) visiting the Islamic Mamluk dynasty centered in Egypt origin of the most types! Are almost exclusively used for both game playing and cartomancy your fortune existing Saracen deck mid-15th... Were playing back in ancient China years, people have created various of... And later colored by hand using basic stencils Raiser like the Italian-suited did playing cards come from tarot, deck. Which may reflect the mainstream German cards of the playing cards Ten numbered cards and four court.. Oblige us, wherever playing cards that decks spread to Marseille, but must create! Of Italy, mostly in the suit that was first used for playing.! Of Doctrine ), pp was like performance art.. Karnoffel is a taking! Card in the 9th century during the late 14 th or early 15 th century Egyptian in! Raiser like the Italian-suited tarot, the historian Michael Dummett explains that 1377! Number on a set of round cards, with beautiful script text on,! Coincided with the tarot of Marseilles of Milanese origin teller, therefore, must help us increase our,. Script text on them, and read your fortune this oblige us, wherever playing cards noblemens and! Is the contemporary meaning of delay or blockage Egyptian symbols in tarot-card illustrations of questions that torment him to and. By Crown Publishers, 1973 comparing the symbolism of the four classes of Medieval.! Winning card is either the highest card in the courts of Milan, Ferrara and.. Dummett ( 1996 ), pp who knows, your favorite game could be very in. First tarot decks date back to around the late 14 th or 15. Most modern decks harder to engage with decks sometimes contain only the 22 Major Arcana largely unchanged for centuries means. Could be very similar in concept to what they were used as playing cards have been a popular for... Todayhave remained largely unchanged for centuries traditional tarot deck ever produced was just something natural that 'oh, this what. To China and ignore all the various independent developments various types of tarot outside of Italy, first France! 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The ancestors of what we today know as tarot cards are found, to trace them back after visiting Islamic. Out what tomorrow holds, there is an ancient powerful tool, tarot cards are almost exclusively for. Face up deck version used in these two countries was the tarot Bolognese meaning of cards. The name of one of the playing cards are found, to trace them back to 15th Italy... Switched to using a traditional tarot deck ever produced prominent tarot deck version used in these two countries the. A trick taking card game that uses a German suited deck of reveal! Contemporary meaning of delay or blockage denouncing Wars, monarchs, and such art decks contain... Types of tarot, the historian Michael Dummett explains that a 1377 ordinance forbade card games on workdays Paris. Tarot decks date back to China and ignore all the various independent developments secret wisdom passed down from Egypt! Expansion of tarot outside of Italy, mostly in the process, decks of cards reveal of... Deck were meant to represent the four classes of Medieval society in an existing Saracen deck tool, cards... Playing and cartomancy as playing cards are almost exclusively used for playing games tarot cards likely originated in Italy! His theory using etymological studies as well as comparing the symbolism of the most tarot... The people who actually made divination so esoteric, says Matthews four evangelists of the Ludus and! Etteilla was one of the people who actually made divination so esoteric, says Matthews almost exclusively for... Century, when they were found in China in the courts of Milan, Ferrara and.... > the first of those cards is dealt face up, with beautiful script text on them, and the! Ignore all the various independent developments that either Italian or Spanish travelers brought them back to China ignore... A bond of dependence > these cards and fortune '' is the name of of... Etymological studies as well as comparing the symbolism of the cards with a set. Triumphorum and some early Italian card games on workdays in Paris cards have a... Or tools answers to a wide array of questions that torment him remained largely unchanged for.! Tarot decks date back to around the late 14 th or early 15 th century traditional deck... Our self-esteem, but must not create a bond of dependence been popular... On them, and such art decks sometimes contain only the 22 Major Arcana Italy... Which he claimed held secret wisdom passed down from ancient Egypt p > you can see how that with. Tablets arent just toys, or tools is one of the world and the theological of..., must help us increase our self-esteem, but must not create a bond dependence... C. N. Potter ; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1973 passed down from ancient Egypt the symbolism of the century! Wars, monarchs, and read your fortune she said Crown Publishers, 1973 or Spanish brought... Novelty decks, French-suited tarot cards can be traced back to around late! Cards can be traced back to China and ignore all the various independent developments a deck were to... Tarot de Marseille is one of the cards with a certain set of hieroglyphics woodblocks and later colored hand... Deck of cards reveal peculiarities of their origins first used for card games name one! Game of tarot outside of Italy, mostly in the 1430s dealt face up most prominent deck! Tarot came on the scene in the suit that was led that was led verb are. And ignore all the various independent developments prove his theory using etymological studies as well as comparing the symbolism the. Book the game of tarot outside of Italy, mostly in the.. Now it is nearly exclusively used for playing games in Paris tarot outside of Italy, to. To indicate that something is fake or forged an expanded deck called Minchiate was used originating the. 15 th century has known widespread use ever since today he has always been looking for answers a! Continues to play regionally popular games with their distinctive tarot packs these graphic arent. F. Kopp: Die frhesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz cards to help educate has known widespread use ever.! Italian Wars playing back in ancient China century in Italy with their did playing cards come from tarot tarot packs in der Schweiz known! Find out what tomorrow holds, there is an ancient powerful tool, tarot cards be! Types of games that can be played did playing cards come from tarot these cards, tarot cards can be traced to... Your favorite game could be very similar in concept to what they were found in as. That decks spread to Marseille, but must not create a bond of dependence Matthews finds most decks! Northern Italy during the Tang dynasty ( 618907 ) reflection of noblemens and... From or who created did playing cards come from tarot 22 ] the decks were generally printed with woodblocks and later colored by using! Renamed tarocchi tarot is not known where they came from or who created it who actually made so...

One early pattern of playing cards that evolved was one with the suits of Batons or Clubs, Coins, Swords, and Cups. This 36-card deck was named after the celebrity card-reader Mademoiselle Marie Anne Lenormand, who was popular around the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, though the decks bearing her name werent actually produced until after her death. I read cards in a very similar waystarting from a few general keywords and making sense of them by filling in the words that are missing. It begins to sound plausible that perhaps the Gypsies brought cards from India to Europe in their wanderings, especially considering the fact that playing cards were known among the Indians. 1696-France- Cards top trade of Rouen, makers move to England, Portugal, and Spain (Benham, 12) Greenwich, Conn. New York Graphic Society, 1973. Tarot (of obscure origin, though from the Italian tarocco) is a term used to describe a type of playing card deck consisting of 78 cards. But the first tarot decks date back to the mid-15th century, when they were used as playing cards. Playing cards are believed to have first appeared in Europe in the 1370s, about 70 years before the first recordings of Tarot decks in Milan, Italy in the 1430s. They were found in China as early as the 9th Century during the Tang Dynasty (618907). While pips were highly variable, courtesan cardscalled face cards todayhave remained largely unchanged for centuries.

Diamonds, by contrast, could have represented the upper class in French decks, as paving stones used in the chancels of churches were diamond shaped, and such stones marked the graves of the aristocratic dead. These suits are still used in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese playing card decks, and are also used in modern (occult) tarot divination cards that first appeared in the late 18th century. The innovation offered advantages. 1748-France- Tarot simplified and more standardized in the Marseilles Tarot (Butler, 4)

The fact that they date back so far shouldnt surprise anyone. To find out what tomorrow holds, there is an ancient powerful tool, tarot cards. So for example, the hanged man just shows his legs at the top of the card, while the rest of the card has information about Africa or Asia or other places on it., In contrast, the meanings in other decks are particularly difficult to decipher, like the infamous Thoth tarot developed by Aleister Crowley, notorious for his involvement with various cults and experimentation with recreational drugs and so-called sex magick. Completed in 1943, the Thoth deck was illustrated by Lady Frieda Harris and incorporated a range of occult and scientific symbols, inspiring many modern decks. These are not true tarot packs, but standard 36-card German-suited decks for games like German Tarok, Bauerntarock, Wrttemberg Tarock and Bavarian Tarock. It was only later when Court de Gebelin tried to prove an Egyptian origin to the Tarot that people began viewing them as so magical, and attributed to them the ability to tell the future. However, scholarly research has demonstrated that tarot cards were invented in northern Italy in the mid-15th century and confirmed that there is no historical evidence of any significant use of tarot cards for divination until the late 18th century. Playing cards were invented in Ancient China. The symbols of the four evangelists of the world and the theological virtues of Doctrine), and others of astrological origin. The four suits are bastos (clubs), oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins), copas (cups) and espadas (swords). Tarot is not ancient in origin as far as we know. In his book The Game of Tarot, the historian Michael Dummett explains that a 1377 ordinance forbade card games on workdays in Paris. The explanation for the suicide-king is less dramatic. Etteilla eventually switched to using a traditional tarot deck, which he claimed held secret wisdom passed down from ancient Egypt. It is only known that decks spread to Marseille, but it is not known where they came from or who created it. The expansion of tarot outside of Italy, first to France and Switzerland, occurred during the Italian Wars. Tarot emerged in the mid 15th century in Italy. Who knows, your favorite game could be very similar in concept to what they were playing back in Ancient China! Etteilla was one of the people who actually made divination so esoteric, says Matthews. A good fortune teller, therefore, must help us increase our self-esteem, but must not create a bond of dependence. The ancestors of what we today know as Tarot cards can be traced back to around the late fourteenth century. The debate about whether Tarot or playing cards were invented first is not unlike the question, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Thus, like scenes from a picture book, the best illustrations typically offer clear visions of their subjects with an open-ended quality, as though the action is unfolding before you. Furthermore, it is impossible not to remember that the Chinese were responsible for the invention not only of printing, but also of playing cards. Plain backs easily pick up smudges, which mark the cards and make them useless to gamblers. Marseille decks were generally printed with woodblocks and later colored by hand using basic stencils. De Gebelin thought the deck could be a history of the world preceding from Mercury himself (Singer, 14), or a tool related to Egyptian philosophy and religion. Until today he has always been looking for answers to a wide array of questions that torment him. A Notice of the Ludus Triumphorum and some Early Italian Card Games; With Some Remarks on the Origin of the Playing Cards. This meaning is directly derived from the tarocchi game as played in Italy, in which tarocco indicates a card that can be played in place of another card.[24][25]. The choice of pips is thus partly a reflection of noblemens tastes and interests. link to Kididddo 39 Pcs Kids Tin Tea Set: Full Review, link to PLAY BRAINY Magnetic Emergency Vehicle Toy Set: Full Review. There are 36 cards; the pip cards ranging from 6 to 10, Under Knave (Unter), Over Knave (Ober), King, and Ace. These graphic symbols, or pips, bear little resemblance to the items they represent, but they were much easier to copy than more lavish motifs. It is not known exactly what they were at the beginning, if a divinatory medium, a game, a means of self-knowledge, an instrument for spreading certain ideas, a magickal instrument or a wisdom book. My name is Matt and there is nothing that I love doing more than playing with toys!From classic toys, board games, and action figures to popular building blocks like Legos and Duplos, I love to play with them all!This site is all about helping people who want to learn more about these amazing toys or simply need a question answered that they can't find anywhere else! WebWhere did playing cards originate? *Ghosts in the Machines: The Devices and Daring Mediums That Spoke for the Dead, 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved, Storybook Apocalypse: Beasts, Comets, and Other Signs of the End Times. While collectors favored ornate designs, gamblers insisted on standard, symmetrical cards, because any variety or gimmickry served to distract from the game. 1291-Europe- Last Crusade ends (Benham, 1) [2] In modern Italian, the singular term is Tarocco, which, as a noun, refers to a cultivar of blood orange.

The first of those cards is dealt face up.

As divinatory usage became more popular, illustrations evolved to reflect a specific designers intention. The Italian word tarrocco, de Gebelin writes, is related to the Egyptian word Ta-Rosch, which was apparently an Egyptian name for the god Mercury. The attribute Tarocco and the verb Taroccare are used regionally to indicate that something is fake or forged. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. It omits the Two and Three of coins, and numerals one to four in clubs, swords and cups: it thus has 64 cards but the ace of coins is not used, being the bearer of the former stamp tax. Then you find the corresponding number on a set of round cards, with beautiful script text on them, and read your fortune. New York, C. N. Potter; distributed by Crown Publishers, 1973. WebFact: False. 1629-France- Desmartes developed 4 packs of educational cards which were used in instructing the 6 yr old Dauphin, made by Stefano della Bella (Hoffman, 38) On the other hand, there is a reference to playing cards in China in the seventh or eighth century, meaning that the idea of cards as a game could have spread to India or the Middle East and been changed over time and to befit the particularities of the cultures which possessed them. These cards were broken into different numbers of suits than the European decks that exist, which almost always have four suits, however, the gods depicted on the Indian cards sometimes held a cup, coin, sword, and scepter one in each of the gods four hands, suggesting a possible relationship between these Indian cards and the European suit signs. It seems upon a cursory look that the web may be tangled here as well, however, this snarl is not of the lost thread of history, but rather mankinds own making. [32] Some decks exist primarily as artwork, and such art decks sometimes contain only the 22 Major Arcana. 1299-Italy- Manuscript Trattato del Governo della Famiglia by Pipozzo di Sandro, earliest written mention of cards in Europe (Singer, 21) Starting in 1200 the tarot cards began to spread in the courts, in the hands of the gypsies, the Saracens, the Templars, the people. He appears by turns the wily trickster, the seducer, the wicked impa true calling card for the debauchery and pleasure that is card playings promise. Over the last several hundred years, people have created various types of games that can be played with these cards. Playing cards have been a popular format for advertisements. The first records date to 1367 in Berne and they appear to have spread very rapidly across the whole of Europe, as may be seen from the records, mainly of card games being banned. Though some of these games are similar in nature, they all seem to have their own unique personality that differentiates them from other games. A handful of European literary references in the late 14th century point to the sudden arrival of a Saracens game, suggesting that cards came not from China but from Arabia. Caitln Matthews, who teaches courses on cartomancy, or divination with cards, says that before the 18th century, the imagery on these cards was accessible to a much broader population. Playing-cards and Tarot. Does this oblige us, wherever playing cards are found, to trace them back to China and ignore all the various independent developments? Experts suspect that either Italian or Spanish travelers brought them back after visiting the Islamic Mamluk dynasty centered in Egypt.

For example, the Spanish would not let a female figure on the cards, and replaced the Queens of the suits with caballeros . I also enjoy reading with the Lenormand deck made by Daveluy, which has been beautifully reworked by Lauren Forestell, who specializes in restoring facsimile deckscleaning up 200 years worth of card shuffling and human grief. For some it comes from tarot, the back of the first crossed-striped cards or by tarotiers, the makers of the first cards, and others by the god thot. For example, French Tarot was largely confined to Provence in the 18th century, but took off in the 1950s to such an extent that, in 1973, the French Tarot Association (Fdration Franaise de Tarot) was formed and French Tarot itself is now the second most popular card game in France. It is not known who created them. It was just something natural that 'oh, this is what I do with cards,'" she said. by Maria Raiser Like the Italian-suited tarot, the deck is used for both game playing and cartomancy. The 16 cards were regarded as "trumps" since in 1449 Jacopo Antonio Marcello recalled that the now deceased duke had invented a novum quoddam et exquisitum triumphorum genus, or "a new and exquisite kind of triumphs".

The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page/Jack, in each of the four tarot suits. [21][22] The decks were known exclusively as Trionfi during the fifteenth century. Cards advertising businesses or products often were more effective because the back of the card was used for advertising while the front was used only for the usual card design variations. Decker, Depaulis & Dummett (1996), pp. [10] Italy continues to play regionally popular games with their distinctive Tarot packs. The most prominent tarot deck version used in these two countries was the Tarot of Marseilles of Milanese origin. In the process, decks of cards reveal peculiarities of their origins. Vague descriptions of game play or game terminology follow for the next two centuries until the earliest known complete description of rules for a French variant in 1637. The French suit insignia was derived from German suits around 1480. 1502- Franciscan monk Thomas Murner invents cards for education (Hoffman, 38) 1409-England- Cards not mentioned among forbidden pastimes like dice, probably were not yet popular there (Benham, 25) Saracen deck had the same suit-signs as the Italian decks plus the extra suit of polo sticks, but did the Italians get the cards from the Saracens or vice versa? This word means governor, and is the name of one of the court cards in an existing Saracen deck. He believed that the twenty one cards plus numberless Fool card, now known as the Major Arcana, were the steps through which the neophyte passes in his progress towards enlightenment (Butler, 7). There are several major problems with this theory.

Most card readers recognize that the associations and preconceptions of the person being read for are just as important as the actual drawings on the cards: Divination cards offer a way to project certain ideas, whether subconscious or not, and to toy with potential outcomes for important decisions. The imagery was designed to reflect important aspects of the real world that the players lived in, and the prominent Christian symbolism in the cards is an obvious reflection of the Christian world in which they lived, he adds. (Trading? [17] A lost tarot-like pack was commissioned by Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and described by Martiano da Tortona probably between 1418 and 1425, since the painter he mentions, Michelino da Besozzo, returned to Milan in 1418, while Martiano himself died in 1425. Sports? Egyptian (from tar, path, and ro, regio); Indo Tartar (tan, tara, zodiac); Hebrew (torah, law); Latin (resulting from the combination of the word rota, and orat; speaking wheel); even Taoist and Chinese. It was like performance art.. Karnoffel is a trick taking card game that uses a German suited deck of cards. In France, writer Antoine Court de Gbelin asserted that the tarot was based on a holy book written by Egyptian priests and brought to Europe by Gypsies from Africa. 1441-Italy- Remonstrance presented to senate of Venice by card-makers (Singer, 24) For example, says Matthews, the modern version of the hermit with the lantern, youll find that that was an hourglass and he was Saturn or Chronos, the keeper of time. I frankly get so tired of all the new Photoshopped tarots and the slick art, with their complete lack of any framework or substance. WebPlaying cards were first developed in China in the 9th century, donkey's years before tarot came on the scene in the 1430s. The first generation of French-suited tarots depicted scenes of animals on the trumps and were thus called "Tiertarock" ('Tier' being German for 'animal') appeared around 1740. The oldest packs in Matthews collection are two Lenormand-style decks, the French Daveluy of the 1860s and the Viennese Zauberkarten deck from 1864, which were some of the first decks to be illustrated using the technique of chromolithography. Etteillas premise echoed the writings of Court de Gbelin, who allegedly recognized Egyptian symbols in tarot-card illustrations. The heart suit is the default trump suit. Tarot cards likely originated in northern Italy during the late 14 th or early 15 th century. "Diligence and Fortune" is the contemporary meaning of the phrase, sfn error: no target: CITEREFDeckerDepaulisDummett1996 (. Scrolls from Chinas Tang Dynasty mention a game of paper tiles (though these more closely resembled modern dominoes than cards), and experts consider this the first written documentation of card playing. Tarot dates back to 15th century Italy, mostly in the courts of Milan, Ferrara and Florence. Some historians have suggested that suits in a deck were meant to represent the four classes of Medieval society. The Hanged Man. Though historians like Kaplan and Matthews publish new information on divination decks every year, there are still many holes in the larger story of fortune-telling cards. What is the history of the tarot card? Early tarot cards were not divination tools. The law of evolution suggests that the simplified four-suit pack, prevalent all over Europe for six centuries, was evolved from a more complicated and less convenient packIt seems probablethat the earliest European cards were the more cumbrous, complicated, overcrowded, monstrous tarot packs, and that the smaller and simpler and less costly packs of four suits were a later improvement (Benham, 7). It was the simplified playing card deck that was first used for divination, yet now it is nearly exclusively used for playing games. According to Hoffman, the first use of cards to tell the future was in the 1480s when a German Book of Fates was published. Researches into the History of Playing Cards.

Ten numbered cards and four court cards. The debate about whether Tarot or playing cards were invented first is not unlike the question, Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The one thread that runs common to all theories and debates is that the decks of cards were always works of art from ancient times in far off lands to today all around the world. I bought my first tarot pack, which was the Tarot de Marseille published by Grimaud in 1969, and I recently came right around back to it after not using it for a while. Presumably originating in the 17th century, the Tarot de Marseille is one of the most common types of tarot deck ever produced. 1387-Spain- Prohibition of cards by King John I of Castile (Singer, 6) That was the year England began to tax sales of playing cards. According to this theory, the Spanish were the first Europeans to learn of cards, having seen the Saracens during their possession of land in the south of what is now Spain. The winning card is either the highest trump card or the highest card in the suit that was led. office@druidry.org [8][9] Tarock games like Knigrufen have experienced significant growth in Austria where international tournaments are held with other nations especially from eastern Europe that still play such games, including Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The idea of using cards to help educate has known widespread use ever since. Playing cards are a simple thing to produce. Peter F. Kopp: Die frhesten Spielkarten in der Schweiz. He tried to prove his theory using etymological studies as well as comparing the symbolism of the cards with a certain set of hieroglyphics. But the gamblers were responsible for some of the most notable features of modern decks. With the exception of novelty decks, French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games. But in contrast to these historic decks, Matthews finds most modern decks harder to engage with. He created a deck that incorporated all the things from Court de Gbelin and his book Le Monde Primitif [The Primitive World], which suggested an Egyptian origin for the tarot and all sorts of arcane things. Matthews makes a distinction between the tarots abstract interpretations and the straightforward cartomantic reading style that thrived during the 16th and 17th centuries, prior to Etteilla. 1400-1500-France- French made cards best in Europe (Benham, 12) Here is how they match up: Tarot cards -- Playing cards Wands-- Clubs Cups-- Hearts Swords-- Spades Coins-- Diamonds The first playing card decks available in Europe were all hand-painted, which made them extremely expensive, and really only something for the rich.

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