Historical question on decks with and without pips

Lee

Hi, folks --

For those who are interested, here is a link to a great article which I found on James Revak's site (http://jwrevak.tripod/com). It concerns a Russian Etteilla deck from 1861 with illustrated minors.

I'm not that knowledgeable about these things, but from what I understand, Etteilla was the first person to create Tarot decks specifically for fortune-telling purposes. He used his own numbering system and changed much of the Marseilles symbology, and several Etteilla-type decks were published. However, the pip cards were unillustrated.

The exciting thing about this Russian deck is that, unlike other Etteilla-type decks, the minors are actually illustrated with scenes which embody Etteilla's divinatory meanings for those cards. This is important, because if this is true, then the Rider Waite deck is *not* the first Tarot deck to have minors with scenes which illustrate divinatory meanings. (I'm not counting the Sola Busca we discussed in earlier posts, because I don't think those scenes were specifically meant to illustrate divinatory meanings).

Here's the link to the article (unfortunately the scans of the cards are only in black and white, because James Revak only had access to someone's scans of a photocopy):


http://jwrevak.tripod.com/ett/ett_in_1.html

-- Lee
 

jmd

Thanks for those links, Lee.

It is probably worth-while reiterating that neither the Sola-Busca nor the Eteilla are true Tarot, but are rather decks influenced by it. Alliete (Eteilla) would undoubtedly disagree, as he viewed his deck a correction to its 'true' design.

Nonetheless, both these decks have been very influential, as the Sola Busca influenced the Waite-Smith deck, and the Eteilla has been quite influential in esoteric continental Europe.

With the Sola-Busca currently in print, it is probably really worth-while getting a copy. I personally don't believe it will stay in print.
 

Zhritza

Diana said:
Please, please! NEVER TRADE YOUR MARSEILLE DECK!!! :p

okay! jeez... No, but really, you don't have to worry because it's been buried in my apartment somewhere for many months. ;) Once I find it, I'll be all happy to have it back and will want to study it and everything, so it's safe, I promise.
 

zorya

thanks for the great link lee!
i would LOVE to have the russian deck, *sigh*. the tarot egyptien (c.1870) they compare it with is gorgeous.
 

Zhritza

Hey all, there's a mint condition Sola Busca up for trade in the US/Canada trading forum...