Ross G Caldwell
I'd like to start a thread on this topic, since I don't know much about it.
For instance, in the Appropriati games, sometimes one card would be chosen for a person and that card "read" for them. Other times, a random selecton of cards were used to make the story (like in Folengo, 1527).
We could add "Fortune-telling cards" (like Lenthall's) - does anybody know how they were used? Was it just a one-card draw, with the answer written on it?
In the early 18th century, a manuscript in Bologna describes putting 35 cards in 5 piles of 7 cards for the purpose of divination. No other information is given.
Etteilla says that between 1751 and 1753, card-reading started in France (normal cards), with the cards drawn and read one by one. He claims that he started using the whole pack laid out on the table by 1753.
Casanova in his 1790s memoires says that he saw his mistress (13 years old!), in the year 1765, reading the cards in a 5x5 "square" spread. No other description is given, but by his account there was a whole story present in the reading.
In 1781, the first practicable description of a method to tarot-card reading was given by the Comte de Mellet (presumed to be him, at least).
This is just for pre-19th century methods, of course. After Etteilla, all hell breaks loose with regards to reading methods.
One thing that interests me is the theory or logic behind layouts. I remember reading somewhere (in a few places actually) that there seems to be a connection between Solitaire games and cartomancy. The methods of the early cartomantic layout practices seem to bear this out - there is a mechanical procedure that picks your cards, a counting or pairing (except in the "one-card draw" presumably) method. It seems that in course of the 19th century, the layout itself became symbolic - each card in a layout was read according to its symbolic position in the layout. I think this is profound change from the earlier attested methods.
Ross
For instance, in the Appropriati games, sometimes one card would be chosen for a person and that card "read" for them. Other times, a random selecton of cards were used to make the story (like in Folengo, 1527).
We could add "Fortune-telling cards" (like Lenthall's) - does anybody know how they were used? Was it just a one-card draw, with the answer written on it?
In the early 18th century, a manuscript in Bologna describes putting 35 cards in 5 piles of 7 cards for the purpose of divination. No other information is given.
Etteilla says that between 1751 and 1753, card-reading started in France (normal cards), with the cards drawn and read one by one. He claims that he started using the whole pack laid out on the table by 1753.
Casanova in his 1790s memoires says that he saw his mistress (13 years old!), in the year 1765, reading the cards in a 5x5 "square" spread. No other description is given, but by his account there was a whole story present in the reading.
In 1781, the first practicable description of a method to tarot-card reading was given by the Comte de Mellet (presumed to be him, at least).
This is just for pre-19th century methods, of course. After Etteilla, all hell breaks loose with regards to reading methods.
One thing that interests me is the theory or logic behind layouts. I remember reading somewhere (in a few places actually) that there seems to be a connection between Solitaire games and cartomancy. The methods of the early cartomantic layout practices seem to bear this out - there is a mechanical procedure that picks your cards, a counting or pairing (except in the "one-card draw" presumably) method. It seems that in course of the 19th century, the layout itself became symbolic - each card in a layout was read according to its symbolic position in the layout. I think this is profound change from the earlier attested methods.
Ross