BSwett
I was adding my two cents regarding this Tarot in a different forum over in the Tarot Decks section, but thought I'd bring my opinions over here, where there's more elbow room....
I just got this deck, and I love it.
Regarding it's reading value, I haven't delve into that aspect of it yet, but I like it's voice, and I can already tell that we're gonna have a nice relationship. I shuffled it, drew three cards, and I like how it whispers it's message, gently, undemanding. A mere suggestion, a quiet opinion. An idea.
Not sure what I'm gonna do with Juno or Jupiter when they come up, but I have a feeling that it won't be too hard... Mythology's mid-wife and the God of thunder. Easy
Regarding it's history and peculiarities:
Haven't been able to find out much about the when and who, so I have some questions. If anyone can shed some light, much love.
Who was J.B. Benois and when was this deck originally printed? I saw the year 1808 somewhere but I'm still curious. I think Il Meneghello is pretty vague at sharing historical facts on their historical decks...
What do the letters F.I. printed in various cards mean?
Where is the original kept?
I found a site in french that looks like it has some good info, but my french, unfortunately, stayed in the 9th grade classroom were I last saw it.
http://secretsdutarot.blogspot.com/2013/04/les-tarots-de-besancon.html
One of the things that first impressed me was how similar some of the cards are to Piatnik TdM by Ignaz Krebs. Love discovering those bridges between different decks! The Sun has that same angular wall, The Moon has the round friendly face, and the Hermit wears pretty similar clothes.
Another super interesting detail of this particular deck, which I just discovered has been discussed before, are the pencil markings on some of the minors. This markings help unlock the fact that some of the majors are not the original (II, XI, XX). Le Fanu exposed this theory in an older post about the Besançon. I completely agree with this idea, and as I said before, it adds another layer of love, devotion and mystery to this deck. It's like a window or peep hole into it's DNA and gives one a true sense of the hands that once shuffled and played with it. It's real and alive!
Just like I recently saw in another of their Historical decks, Il Meneghello tends to show the edges of the original cards in their photocopies. It's a bit sloppy and it kind of bothers me a little, but on the one hand it really adds to that feeling of witnessing the true DNA of the cards; you can see the worn out old borders and I'm starting to appreciate it. But I wonder why? I can imagine that the originals are not very even and the whole process is a tricky handcrafted artisan job, but there's plenty other facsimile reproduction artists (Yves Marseillese, Sivilixi....) that are able to avoid this problem.
Well, at least the card stock they used on their Besançon kind of matches the buttery tone of the original. I wouldn't say the same for their Svizzera Tarot....
But yes; buttery gorgeousness to the max. I'm surprised we don't hear more about it. Love the un-laminated look and feel. The colors are so wonderful, and the faces, with eyes that recall Dodal are so friendly and soothing. The youthful Queen of cups! The handsome King of Batons with a mustache! The furry Devil, the gentle Hermit, the laughing Death! Wow. This quiet deck is easily shooting to the top of my favorite tarots list.
<3
(Word has it, that eltarot78 is working on a Besançon restoration! Yes!)
B.
I just got this deck, and I love it.
Regarding it's reading value, I haven't delve into that aspect of it yet, but I like it's voice, and I can already tell that we're gonna have a nice relationship. I shuffled it, drew three cards, and I like how it whispers it's message, gently, undemanding. A mere suggestion, a quiet opinion. An idea.
Not sure what I'm gonna do with Juno or Jupiter when they come up, but I have a feeling that it won't be too hard... Mythology's mid-wife and the God of thunder. Easy
Regarding it's history and peculiarities:
Haven't been able to find out much about the when and who, so I have some questions. If anyone can shed some light, much love.
Who was J.B. Benois and when was this deck originally printed? I saw the year 1808 somewhere but I'm still curious. I think Il Meneghello is pretty vague at sharing historical facts on their historical decks...
What do the letters F.I. printed in various cards mean?
Where is the original kept?
I found a site in french that looks like it has some good info, but my french, unfortunately, stayed in the 9th grade classroom were I last saw it.
http://secretsdutarot.blogspot.com/2013/04/les-tarots-de-besancon.html
One of the things that first impressed me was how similar some of the cards are to Piatnik TdM by Ignaz Krebs. Love discovering those bridges between different decks! The Sun has that same angular wall, The Moon has the round friendly face, and the Hermit wears pretty similar clothes.
Another super interesting detail of this particular deck, which I just discovered has been discussed before, are the pencil markings on some of the minors. This markings help unlock the fact that some of the majors are not the original (II, XI, XX). Le Fanu exposed this theory in an older post about the Besançon. I completely agree with this idea, and as I said before, it adds another layer of love, devotion and mystery to this deck. It's like a window or peep hole into it's DNA and gives one a true sense of the hands that once shuffled and played with it. It's real and alive!
Just like I recently saw in another of their Historical decks, Il Meneghello tends to show the edges of the original cards in their photocopies. It's a bit sloppy and it kind of bothers me a little, but on the one hand it really adds to that feeling of witnessing the true DNA of the cards; you can see the worn out old borders and I'm starting to appreciate it. But I wonder why? I can imagine that the originals are not very even and the whole process is a tricky handcrafted artisan job, but there's plenty other facsimile reproduction artists (Yves Marseillese, Sivilixi....) that are able to avoid this problem.
Well, at least the card stock they used on their Besançon kind of matches the buttery tone of the original. I wouldn't say the same for their Svizzera Tarot....
But yes; buttery gorgeousness to the max. I'm surprised we don't hear more about it. Love the un-laminated look and feel. The colors are so wonderful, and the faces, with eyes that recall Dodal are so friendly and soothing. The youthful Queen of cups! The handsome King of Batons with a mustache! The furry Devil, the gentle Hermit, the laughing Death! Wow. This quiet deck is easily shooting to the top of my favorite tarots list.
<3
(Word has it, that eltarot78 is working on a Besançon restoration! Yes!)
B.
Your excitement over your new purchase has me itching to pull it out and play with it.