Desecrated
Major mistake in "Tarot - History, symbolism and divination" by Robert M. Place
Major mistake in "Tarot - History, symbolism and divination" by Robert M. Place
He writes
"in order to begin our understanding of the history of tarot it is useful to explore the medium in which it exists: Paper. As we will see in the next chapter eighteenth and nineteenth-century occultists popularized the notion that the tarot cards were first created in Egypt. But occultists were ignoring one of the basic physical facts about cards. Cards are made of paper and the ancient Egyptians did not have this material. "
"When one examines the nature of cards and their use in card games it is apparent the the invention of paper allowed the idea of a card to develop"
This is just wrong. Not only is it false, it's plain stupid.
The Egyptians had papyrus and this was spread to most civilizations.
An even earlier invention is clay tablets. These was also used in Greek magic and so was papyri. I'm not saying that tarot are from egypt, but they certainly had material for making cards. And so did other early civilizations before the 14 century.
But even before paper we had Parchment.
Parchment is a material made from processed animal skin and is very similar to paper.
"Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history. David Diringer noted that "the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC)"
Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in his time, the 5th century BC. And it was common throughout the entire Hellenistic period.
There is also a long tradition of religious icons on wood.
Velum also existed before paper and canvas was invented at around the same time.
--
I think the author had a brainfart.
I do agree that paper was an important invention and the movable printing press was absolutely part of printing cheap cards that could be distributed to the public. But to assume that tarot cards could not have been made before the invention of paper is a horrible argument.
Major mistake in "Tarot - History, symbolism and divination" by Robert M. Place
He writes
"in order to begin our understanding of the history of tarot it is useful to explore the medium in which it exists: Paper. As we will see in the next chapter eighteenth and nineteenth-century occultists popularized the notion that the tarot cards were first created in Egypt. But occultists were ignoring one of the basic physical facts about cards. Cards are made of paper and the ancient Egyptians did not have this material. "
"When one examines the nature of cards and their use in card games it is apparent the the invention of paper allowed the idea of a card to develop"
This is just wrong. Not only is it false, it's plain stupid.
The Egyptians had papyrus and this was spread to most civilizations.
An even earlier invention is clay tablets. These was also used in Greek magic and so was papyri. I'm not saying that tarot are from egypt, but they certainly had material for making cards. And so did other early civilizations before the 14 century.
But even before paper we had Parchment.
Parchment is a material made from processed animal skin and is very similar to paper.
"Writing on prepared animal skins had a long history. David Diringer noted that "the first mention of Egyptian documents written on leather goes back to the Fourth Dynasty (c. 2550–2450 BC)"
Herodotus mentions writing on skins as common in his time, the 5th century BC. And it was common throughout the entire Hellenistic period.
There is also a long tradition of religious icons on wood.
Velum also existed before paper and canvas was invented at around the same time.
--
I think the author had a brainfart.
I do agree that paper was an important invention and the movable printing press was absolutely part of printing cheap cards that could be distributed to the public. But to assume that tarot cards could not have been made before the invention of paper is a horrible argument.