MikeH
With lots of new information recently, it has been hard to stay on top of what is where on the old “Etteilla Timeline and Variants” thread. So I’ve been working on an updated timeline that gives links to sources and to where those particular sources have been discussed, including other threads, 10 or 12 of them. So if you know roughly the year for something Etteilla-related, you can just go to that year, which will have enough links to get to where you want to go. And of course you can see how things developed, to the extent that we know what came when.
There is so much material that it will take five posts, on account of ATF’s length limit. They divide as follows:
(a) 1738-1783. This is mostly old material, but filled out with links.
(b) 1784-1792. A lot happened in these nine years.
(c) 1793-1814.
(d) 1815-1840.
(e) 1841-present
I will try to update periodically. PM me if I don’t. Likewise if you see an error on my part. That would cut down on unnecessary posts. If you aren't satisfied with my response, or lack of response, then by all means write a post. And of course do so if you have new information, or something to discuss.
1738. Jean-Baptiste Alliette born (per burial certificate), by his account on 1 March in Paris (Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett [DDD], Wicked Pack of Cards 1996, p. 76), son of a caterer (“maitre rotisseur,” DDD p. 77) by the same name.
Before 1750. Divination with tarot cards is recorded in a manuscript of Bologna, Italy, It uses 35 of the 62 cards of the Bolognese Tarocchini deck, divided into 5 piles of 7 cards each, with short divinatory meanings listed for each of the 35. The manuscript was discovered by Franco Pratesi, whose article is at http://trionfi.com/pratesi-cartomancer (for the specific topic, go to “cartomancy list”). Another exposition is Ross Caldwell’s at http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy; he also has earlier examples of divination with playing cards, including a suggestive Italian literary example by Folengo, 1527, using tarot cards). For a timeline of other early uses of playing cards for fortune-telling, see https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/origins-of-divination-with-playing-cards/.
1751-1757. Compiler’s note: Historical information for this period is all from Etteilla or his immediate followers. DDD’s main source this period is a 1791 booklet of 45 pages that survives in only one copy, in a Parisian private collection (DDD p. 274, n 64). However, from the quotations and paraphrases they give, the wording is virtually identical to that in the LWB that accompanies the current Petit Etteilla deck published by France Cartes, the main difference being that Etteilla’s word “cartonomancie” is replaced throughout by the word “cartomancie”. This change was made, according to Depaulis in a personal communication with Kwaw of Dec. 2015, for a 1796 reprint of the book. For more details, see below, entries 1791a and 1796b. To document the French wording in what follows, the French part of the LWB will be used (it also contains an English translation). The relevant pages in DDD are pp. 96-98.
1751-1753. As recounted by Etteilla or a close follower endorsed by him, reported by DDD, and apparently reprinted in the Little White Book (LWB) to the currently published Petit Etteilla (title page at http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L8lolt5mrL4/ThPbfYRZnHI/AAAAAAAADbM/jcLB8pYSrII/s1600/petitTitley7.jpg; passage quoted is from LWB pp.9-10, http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aCLVuyuGnlU/ThPbvBSCJLI/AAAAAAAADb0/JzigHjyfYrU/s1600/petit8y9.jpg and http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAsCsXSH-Ow/VoRmFWa9LzI/AAAAAAAAHzM/bLuw5CG4kOs/s1600/Petit10et11.jpg)
1753. LWB pp. 10-12, for which see the previous entry, plus http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL0bXfKTCAk/ThPbjgG7ecI/AAAAAAAADbk/bMU3984vEdM/s1600/Petit12y13.jpg):
This account, from the current Petit Etteilla LWB, is at variance with DDD’s in one respect: they say it was the 9 of spades that for Etteilla deserved the meaning “victory”. (In the actual Petit Etteilla, Victory is the 9 of Hearts.) Either way, the passage dates Etteilla’s first writing on cartomancy to 1753. DDD p. 78 note that in his 1785 Philosophie des Hautes Sciences p. 116, he also speaks of 1753 as the date of his first writings. They also cite a statement by the editor of an “an V” (1796-7) book on cartomancy (see entry “1796-1797”), the editor says that he is simply “transcribing verbatim a short work of some folios which appeared at the end of the year 1771, under the title of Le Petit Etteilla.” DDD go on (all p. 98):
1757. Etteilla writes again, apparently a revised version of the 1753 work. as well as meeting his instructor in the tarot (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL0bXfKTCAk/ThPbjgG7ecI/AAAAAAAADbk/bMU3984vEdM/s1600/Petit12y13.jpg):
1759. Some information not from Etteilla: Two women in Marseille are sentenced to 8 days in prison for because they had “taken advantage of the simple-mindedness of several people and took money from them under the pretext of finding for them things stolen or lost, by the means of some packs of cards” (Ross Caldwell at http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy).
1760. First mention of Etteilla in the archives: Jean-Baptiste Alliette owes 600 livres to one Jean Langlois. (DDD p. 77)
1763. Jean-Baptiste Alliette and Jeanne Vattier are sued for a job certificate delivered to a young apprentice. They are said to be seed merchants (“Marchands grainiers”). Other documents from the same source confirm that Etteilla sold seeds at least until 1769. Jeanne Vattier is Etteilla’s wife. (DDD p. 77)
1763-1767. Etteilla has at least one child, Louis-Jean-Baptiste, the only child mentioned in his 1791 death certificate (DDD p. 76). The son is called a “merchant grocer” there.
1765. Casanova, in his memoirs (written 1789-1797 per Wikipedia, short of funds toward the end), writes of 1765 Russia where a 13 year old girl he had hired would read the cards to tell where he had been that night (http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy)
1767. Etteilla separates from his wife (DDD p. 77, no documentation). They surmise that he may have begun his card-reading activities then. They observe later that in Philosophie des hautes sciences of 1785, Etteilla says:
From 1768-69. Alliette engages in print selling, mentioned as such in a 1797 bibliography of current French literature, ‘Alliette, by anagram Etteilla, Print seller in Paris”. In 1768, three thieves steal some books and prints. Alliette's shop was inspected on 11 March 1769 and found to have some of the stolen prints. Alliette was proved innocent of wrongdoing (DDD p. 80).
1769-70. The Prussian national known only as Hisler studies with Etteilla in Paris. (Decker, The Esoteric Tarot 2013, p. 191.)
1770. Etteilla publishes Etteilla, ou maniere de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes par M*** (Etteilla, or a Way to Entertain Oneself with a Pack of Cards by Mr***) . It includes both upright and reversed meanings for a deck of 32 cards, plus a 33rd card, blank, called “Etteilla”. At the end he mentions ”les Taraux” in a list of methods of fortune-telling (DDD, p. 83). The book is reviewed in a couple of established journals.
1771. A “short work of some folios which appeared at the end of the year 1771, under the title of Le Petit Etteilla”, as reported by its reprinting editor in “an V” (1796) (DDD p. 98). No record has been found of such a book, nor does Etteilla ever refer to such a thing otherwise, according to DDD. They speculate that it might be the “Abrege” of 1753 referred to in the 1791 publication, reprinted 1796 changing the spelling of “cartonomancy” to “cartomancy”.
1772. Giuseppi Balsamo, an adventurer probably the same person later known as Count Allesandro Cagliostro, arrives in Paris from England (McCalman, The Last Alchemist, p. 32:
1772a. A small work, Lettre sur l’oracle du jour, gives, under the signature of one ‘Duchesse de ***, a flattering portrait of Etteilla (DDD, p. 79).
1772b. Etteilla publishes Le zodiac mysterieux, ou les oracles d’Etteilla (The mysterious zodiac, or Etteilla’s oracles). It is a collection of astrological predictions. According to a study by Halbronn in 1993, it was not real astrology (DDD p. 79). This work in an 1820 reprint by Gueffier jeune [the younger], rue Bourtebourg no. 12 (?) is digitalized at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622696.r=Etteilla. The 1772 frontispiece is at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Etteilla_Zodiaque_1772.jpg?1451519737126 (which I get from http://www.wikiwand.com/it/Etteilla).
1773a. New edition of Etteilla's 1770 book, indicating that he had attained some success. Digitalized at https://books.google.de/books?id=CI...cartes&lr=&as_brr=1&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false. There are colored engravings of several spreads as fold-outs in this book not part of the digitalized version, posted at http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=3068578&postcount=229
1773b. DDD p. 79:
1775. A print auction catalogue in Paris lists Alliette many times as a buyer (DDD p. 80).[/b]
1775. In England, S. Hooper, according to the name on some of the cards, makes a deck with many of the motifs found later in the c. 1790 deck and others (http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4546903&postcount=85)--and also earlier, i.e. the Minchiate Francesi. English works on playing cards were popular on the Continent, due to the popularity of Edmund Hoyle’s works, translated into French in 1761. For earlier English divinatory decks and uses of playing cards, see https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/origins-of-divination-with-playing-cards/.
1776. Alliette’s shop advertises in a directory. It says that he has traveled widely in the Provinces. (DDD p. 81) See also http://bibliotheque-numerique.inha....e-d-une-collection-d-estampes-montees-sous-v/, an advertisement of prints for sale by Etteilla.
1777-c.1780. Etteilla is in Strasbourg, settling as a “print-seller and bachelor, from Paris, legitimate son of Jean-Baptiste Alliette, burgess and caterer from there, and of Marie-Anne nee Bautray,” according to citizenship records there (he became a citizen of the city). He joins the guild for printers, print sellers, cardmakers, and book-binders. The guild record for 1781 lists him in “guild members no longer resident.” Etteilla himself verifies his stay in Strasbourg in a 1785 comment, saying that “when in Strasbourg, I was pleased to fix M. Cerbere’s youngest son’s birth chart” (DDD p. 82). He says that the best tarot cards are made there. But he objects to the cardmaker Jean-Baptiste Benoit’s removal of the “butterfly” on the “hieroglyph called the Star.” (Kaplan, vol. 2, reproduces the “Benois” deck, whose Star card has no winged creature. It is one of those decks that have replaced the Pope and has Benois producing in Strasbourg starting in 1780.)
1779-1780. In 1779, Cagliostro introduces his “Egyptian Rite” in Mitau (in what is now Latvia), from material gathered in London (an alleged manuscript by "Cofton," possibly, per McCalman p. 41, a "minor Oxford scholar of eastern religion named George Costard”), Leipzig (from Dom Pernety), etc. Then does the same in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and elsewhere, healing the sick and conducting seances. Sept. 1780, Cagliostro arrives in Strasbourg to much publicity, continuing to heal and gain adherents. (Source: Roberto Gervaso, Cagliostro, pp. 69, 82, 92; confirmed in McCalman.) Cagliostro’s popularity could have influenced Etteilla. Pernety is an alchemical writer referred to by Etteilla in his 2nd Cahier, 1785.
1781. Publication of vol. 8 of Le Monde Primitif by Court de Gébelin, claiming an Egyptian origin for tarot (essay on tarot uploaded at http://www.tarock.info/gebelin.htm; translated in Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, by J. Karlin). De Gébelin clams that the images reflect Egyptian ideas and allegories, and so constitute an “Egyptian Book,” just as Etteilla will two years later. The volume also includes an essay by le Comte de M*** [de Mellet] (same website and book), who goes so far as to call the tarot cards “The Book of Thoth,” just as Etteilla will, consisting of hieroglyphs and describing Thoth’s teachings on cosmogony, i.e. on the origins of the universe. For de Mellet the trumps start with the 21st card and proceed downwards. Etteilla will similarly start his sequence with four of the last five trumps, in his case identifying them with four of the first six days of creation in Genesis.
1782a. Etteilla publishes combination hislérique, Hisler's lotto system. (Decker, The Esoteric Tarot p. 191.)
1782b. Etteilla applies to the royal censor to publish his new work on the tarot. (DDD, p. 83). Of Etteilla’s application, DDD write (p. 83):
There is so much material that it will take five posts, on account of ATF’s length limit. They divide as follows:
(a) 1738-1783. This is mostly old material, but filled out with links.
(b) 1784-1792. A lot happened in these nine years.
(c) 1793-1814.
(d) 1815-1840.
(e) 1841-present
I will try to update periodically. PM me if I don’t. Likewise if you see an error on my part. That would cut down on unnecessary posts. If you aren't satisfied with my response, or lack of response, then by all means write a post. And of course do so if you have new information, or something to discuss.
1738. Jean-Baptiste Alliette born (per burial certificate), by his account on 1 March in Paris (Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett [DDD], Wicked Pack of Cards 1996, p. 76), son of a caterer (“maitre rotisseur,” DDD p. 77) by the same name.
Before 1750. Divination with tarot cards is recorded in a manuscript of Bologna, Italy, It uses 35 of the 62 cards of the Bolognese Tarocchini deck, divided into 5 piles of 7 cards each, with short divinatory meanings listed for each of the 35. The manuscript was discovered by Franco Pratesi, whose article is at http://trionfi.com/pratesi-cartomancer (for the specific topic, go to “cartomancy list”). Another exposition is Ross Caldwell’s at http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy; he also has earlier examples of divination with playing cards, including a suggestive Italian literary example by Folengo, 1527, using tarot cards). For a timeline of other early uses of playing cards for fortune-telling, see https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/origins-of-divination-with-playing-cards/.
1751-1757. Compiler’s note: Historical information for this period is all from Etteilla or his immediate followers. DDD’s main source this period is a 1791 booklet of 45 pages that survives in only one copy, in a Parisian private collection (DDD p. 274, n 64). However, from the quotations and paraphrases they give, the wording is virtually identical to that in the LWB that accompanies the current Petit Etteilla deck published by France Cartes, the main difference being that Etteilla’s word “cartonomancie” is replaced throughout by the word “cartomancie”. This change was made, according to Depaulis in a personal communication with Kwaw of Dec. 2015, for a 1796 reprint of the book. For more details, see below, entries 1791a and 1796b. To document the French wording in what follows, the French part of the LWB will be used (it also contains an English translation). The relevant pages in DDD are pp. 96-98.
1751-1753. As recounted by Etteilla or a close follower endorsed by him, reported by DDD, and apparently reprinted in the Little White Book (LWB) to the currently published Petit Etteilla (title page at http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L8lolt5mrL4/ThPbfYRZnHI/AAAAAAAADbM/jcLB8pYSrII/s1600/petitTitley7.jpg; passage quoted is from LWB pp.9-10, http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aCLVuyuGnlU/ThPbvBSCJLI/AAAAAAAADb0/JzigHjyfYrU/s1600/petit8y9.jpg and http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IAsCsXSH-Ow/VoRmFWa9LzI/AAAAAAAAHzM/bLuw5CG4kOs/s1600/Petit10et11.jpg)
As DDD note, the characterization of the suits is the same as de Mellet’s in 1781. The Bicetre was one of the places where the Marquis de Sade later was sent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicêtre_Hospital ). The Salpetriere was a prison for prostitutes, the mentally disabled, the criminally insane, and the poor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piti%C3...%A8re_Hospital).
1753. LWB pp. 10-12, for which see the previous entry, plus http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL0bXfKTCAk/ThPbjgG7ecI/AAAAAAAADbk/bMU3984vEdM/s1600/Petit12y13.jpg):
This account, from the current Petit Etteilla LWB, is at variance with DDD’s in one respect: they say it was the 9 of spades that for Etteilla deserved the meaning “victory”. (In the actual Petit Etteilla, Victory is the 9 of Hearts.) Either way, the passage dates Etteilla’s first writing on cartomancy to 1753. DDD p. 78 note that in his 1785 Philosophie des Hautes Sciences p. 116, he also speaks of 1753 as the date of his first writings. They also cite a statement by the editor of an “an V” (1796-7) book on cartomancy (see entry “1796-1797”), the editor says that he is simply “transcribing verbatim a short work of some folios which appeared at the end of the year 1771, under the title of Le Petit Etteilla.” DDD go on (all p. 98):
DDD think that what follows in the “an V” book, the “short work of some folios” is in fact the “Abrege de [Synopsis of] Cartomancie” of 1753. Whether it is the same as what appears in the modern LWB’s explanation of cartomancy is not clear. Only one section, called “Fragment d’Etteilla” (pp. 38-55 of modern LWB), is actually attributed to Etteilla. It says nothing about how to read the cards; instead, it is a very general account of the significance of card-reading in relation to the conduct of one’s life. Also, Etteilla does not claim that either this 1753 work or the 1757 that followed existed in a printed edition. In fact, Etteilla or his follower speaks of the “tyranny” that existed then, with its arrests and imprisonments (LWB p. 10). In 1770 he “opposed himself to the ignorance of fanaticism with as much force as reasoning and skill”. 1770 would seem to be the year of Etteilla’s first printed book, for which see entry 1770 below.
1757. Etteilla writes again, apparently a revised version of the 1753 work. as well as meeting his instructor in the tarot (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL0bXfKTCAk/ThPbjgG7ecI/AAAAAAAADbk/bMU3984vEdM/s1600/Petit12y13.jpg):
“Fates of the Saints” probably refers to one or more books of oracles that are selected by means of dice, each related to a particular saint. It is the medieval adaptation of earlier works in Latin and Greek that related various gods to each piece of advice. As to the “Piedmontese”, Etteilla says more about him in the 2nd Cahier, pp. 134-136. He was named Alexis, whom he met in Lamballe, Brittany. This Alexis, he tells us, was the grandson of “Alexis called Piémontese”. For the translation of this passage, see http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=2805500 post 130. “Alexis Piémontese” was the pen-name of an Italian physician, generally assumed to be Girolomo Ruscelli, (1520-1566), who was most famous for a book of remedies still in print in the 1790s, per Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexius_Pedemontanus).
1759. Some information not from Etteilla: Two women in Marseille are sentenced to 8 days in prison for because they had “taken advantage of the simple-mindedness of several people and took money from them under the pretext of finding for them things stolen or lost, by the means of some packs of cards” (Ross Caldwell at http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy).
1760. First mention of Etteilla in the archives: Jean-Baptiste Alliette owes 600 livres to one Jean Langlois. (DDD p. 77)
1763. Jean-Baptiste Alliette and Jeanne Vattier are sued for a job certificate delivered to a young apprentice. They are said to be seed merchants (“Marchands grainiers”). Other documents from the same source confirm that Etteilla sold seeds at least until 1769. Jeanne Vattier is Etteilla’s wife. (DDD p. 77)
1763-1767. Etteilla has at least one child, Louis-Jean-Baptiste, the only child mentioned in his 1791 death certificate (DDD p. 76). The son is called a “merchant grocer” there.
1765. Casanova, in his memoirs (written 1789-1797 per Wikipedia, short of funds toward the end), writes of 1765 Russia where a 13 year old girl he had hired would read the cards to tell where he had been that night (http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_history_of_cartomancy)
1767. Etteilla separates from his wife (DDD p. 77, no documentation). They surmise that he may have begun his card-reading activities then. They observe later that in Philosophie des hautes sciences of 1785, Etteilla says:
Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates, who Xenophon's Symposium characterized as "the hardest to get along with of all the women there are" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthippe).
From 1768-69. Alliette engages in print selling, mentioned as such in a 1797 bibliography of current French literature, ‘Alliette, by anagram Etteilla, Print seller in Paris”. In 1768, three thieves steal some books and prints. Alliette's shop was inspected on 11 March 1769 and found to have some of the stolen prints. Alliette was proved innocent of wrongdoing (DDD p. 80).
1769-70. The Prussian national known only as Hisler studies with Etteilla in Paris. (Decker, The Esoteric Tarot 2013, p. 191.)
1770. Etteilla publishes Etteilla, ou maniere de se récréer avec un jeu de cartes par M*** (Etteilla, or a Way to Entertain Oneself with a Pack of Cards by Mr***) . It includes both upright and reversed meanings for a deck of 32 cards, plus a 33rd card, blank, called “Etteilla”. At the end he mentions ”les Taraux” in a list of methods of fortune-telling (DDD, p. 83). The book is reviewed in a couple of established journals.
1771. A “short work of some folios which appeared at the end of the year 1771, under the title of Le Petit Etteilla”, as reported by its reprinting editor in “an V” (1796) (DDD p. 98). No record has been found of such a book, nor does Etteilla ever refer to such a thing otherwise, according to DDD. They speculate that it might be the “Abrege” of 1753 referred to in the 1791 publication, reprinted 1796 changing the spelling of “cartonomancy” to “cartomancy”.
1772. Giuseppi Balsamo, an adventurer probably the same person later known as Count Allesandro Cagliostro, arrives in Paris from England (McCalman, The Last Alchemist, p. 32:
The visit goes unnoticed except in court records. But the following is relevant to Etteilla. McCalman, p. 32, notes that in exchange for allowing a French nobleman access to his wife,
McCalman unfortunately does not cite his source, unless it is Photiedes, Les Vies de Cagliostro, p. 101f, his only reference for this period. Alexis, of course, was the first name of the “Piémontese” Atteilla claimed taught him about the tarot.
1772a. A small work, Lettre sur l’oracle du jour, gives, under the signature of one ‘Duchesse de ***, a flattering portrait of Etteilla (DDD, p. 79).
1772b. Etteilla publishes Le zodiac mysterieux, ou les oracles d’Etteilla (The mysterious zodiac, or Etteilla’s oracles). It is a collection of astrological predictions. According to a study by Halbronn in 1993, it was not real astrology (DDD p. 79). This work in an 1820 reprint by Gueffier jeune [the younger], rue Bourtebourg no. 12 (?) is digitalized at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k622696.r=Etteilla. The 1772 frontispiece is at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Etteilla_Zodiaque_1772.jpg?1451519737126 (which I get from http://www.wikiwand.com/it/Etteilla).
1773a. New edition of Etteilla's 1770 book, indicating that he had attained some success. Digitalized at https://books.google.de/books?id=CI...cartes&lr=&as_brr=1&hl=de#v=onepage&q&f=false. There are colored engravings of several spreads as fold-outs in this book not part of the digitalized version, posted at http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=3068578&postcount=229
1773b. DDD p. 79:
1775. A print auction catalogue in Paris lists Alliette many times as a buyer (DDD p. 80).[/b]
1775. In England, S. Hooper, according to the name on some of the cards, makes a deck with many of the motifs found later in the c. 1790 deck and others (http://tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=4546903&postcount=85)--and also earlier, i.e. the Minchiate Francesi. English works on playing cards were popular on the Continent, due to the popularity of Edmund Hoyle’s works, translated into French in 1761. For earlier English divinatory decks and uses of playing cards, see https://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/04/01/origins-of-divination-with-playing-cards/.
1776. Alliette’s shop advertises in a directory. It says that he has traveled widely in the Provinces. (DDD p. 81) See also http://bibliotheque-numerique.inha....e-d-une-collection-d-estampes-montees-sous-v/, an advertisement of prints for sale by Etteilla.
1777-c.1780. Etteilla is in Strasbourg, settling as a “print-seller and bachelor, from Paris, legitimate son of Jean-Baptiste Alliette, burgess and caterer from there, and of Marie-Anne nee Bautray,” according to citizenship records there (he became a citizen of the city). He joins the guild for printers, print sellers, cardmakers, and book-binders. The guild record for 1781 lists him in “guild members no longer resident.” Etteilla himself verifies his stay in Strasbourg in a 1785 comment, saying that “when in Strasbourg, I was pleased to fix M. Cerbere’s youngest son’s birth chart” (DDD p. 82). He says that the best tarot cards are made there. But he objects to the cardmaker Jean-Baptiste Benoit’s removal of the “butterfly” on the “hieroglyph called the Star.” (Kaplan, vol. 2, reproduces the “Benois” deck, whose Star card has no winged creature. It is one of those decks that have replaced the Pope and has Benois producing in Strasbourg starting in 1780.)
1779-1780. In 1779, Cagliostro introduces his “Egyptian Rite” in Mitau (in what is now Latvia), from material gathered in London (an alleged manuscript by "Cofton," possibly, per McCalman p. 41, a "minor Oxford scholar of eastern religion named George Costard”), Leipzig (from Dom Pernety), etc. Then does the same in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and elsewhere, healing the sick and conducting seances. Sept. 1780, Cagliostro arrives in Strasbourg to much publicity, continuing to heal and gain adherents. (Source: Roberto Gervaso, Cagliostro, pp. 69, 82, 92; confirmed in McCalman.) Cagliostro’s popularity could have influenced Etteilla. Pernety is an alchemical writer referred to by Etteilla in his 2nd Cahier, 1785.
1781. Publication of vol. 8 of Le Monde Primitif by Court de Gébelin, claiming an Egyptian origin for tarot (essay on tarot uploaded at http://www.tarock.info/gebelin.htm; translated in Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, by J. Karlin). De Gébelin clams that the images reflect Egyptian ideas and allegories, and so constitute an “Egyptian Book,” just as Etteilla will two years later. The volume also includes an essay by le Comte de M*** [de Mellet] (same website and book), who goes so far as to call the tarot cards “The Book of Thoth,” just as Etteilla will, consisting of hieroglyphs and describing Thoth’s teachings on cosmogony, i.e. on the origins of the universe. For de Mellet the trumps start with the 21st card and proceed downwards. Etteilla will similarly start his sequence with four of the last five trumps, in his case identifying them with four of the first six days of creation in Genesis.
1782a. Etteilla publishes combination hislérique, Hisler's lotto system. (Decker, The Esoteric Tarot p. 191.)
1782b. Etteilla applies to the royal censor to publish his new work on the tarot. (DDD, p. 83). Of Etteilla’s application, DDD write (p. 83):
