Ross G Caldwell
Mabuse said:It's interesting you bring up Bologna. I am curious as to what extant de Gébelin was influenced, if at all, by Bolognese taromancy.
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/index.php/Bolognese_Tarot_Divination#Three_sources_are_available:
Thanks for linking my article on tarotpedia! I hope to add some layouts to it soon.
I don't think de Gébelin was himself directly influenced by Bolognese taromancy. The tradition in Bologna is very secretive and hasn't really travelled. Also, the taromancy of Bologna has nothing to do with esoteric doctrines about Egypt or anything else; it is pure cartomancy.
Etteilla on the other hand seems to have been taught by cartomancers coming from Piedmont, and some of his meanings for his first cartomancy - with a 32 card regular pack, not a tarot pack - seem related in some indirect way to Bologna.
As far as I know, nobody knows - or has published - anything about regular cartomancy in Bologna - so this is difficult to check.
The important thing about de Gébelin is not that he introduced cartomancy or taromancy - it is clear that it existed earlier - but that he believed that the trumps of the tarot pack were designed millenia ago to convey an ancient and primordial philosophy, and that they were hidden during most of this time as a card game.