Oldest Tarot Books

Philalethes

Greetings,

I would like to find out what are the oldest books on or descriptions of the Tarot that were either originally written in English or that have been translated into English.

Thank you for your assistance.

- Philalethes
 

rwcarter

Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians (late 19th century/early 20th century) has been translated into English.

I know there are others, but they don't immediately come to mind and I'm at work while my books are at home.

Rodney

ETA: There's also Tarot of the Magicians by Levi
 

tarotbear

I would like to find out what are the oldest books on or descriptions of the Tarot that were either originally written in English or that have been translated into English.

Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians (late 19th century/early 20th century) has been translated into English.

I know there are others, but they don't immediately come to mind and I'm at work while my books are at home.

Just glancing at this thread (no expert here, BTW) and I think Philalethes should be aware that Tarot was probably mostly an 'oral tradition' so most published books on Tarot (or card divination) are less than 250 years old {pre-American Revolutionary War era}, no matter how old {500 years, plus} they tell us the cards are.
 

Barleywine

Apparently Donald Tyson translated Court de Gebelin's 1781 essay on tarot from Le Monde Primitif, but the link on Mary Greer's website gave me a server error so I couldn't take a look at it. Court de Gebelin's "Egyptian origins" theory has since been discredited, but the companion essay by le Comte de Mellet on reading the cards predated Atteilla's effort by a couple of years and included the first published tarot spread.
 

foolMoon

I scanned through my Tarot book shelves, and the oldest Tarot books are,

The Tarot of The Bohemians by Papus
Transcental Magic by Eliphas Levi (General Occult Book with Tarot Chapter in it)
A New Model of The Universe by Ouspensky (GOBWTCII)
 

Philalethes

Thank you all for the references, especially the two Renaissance tarot essays. It is somewhat dissappointing but certainly understandable to see that most of the early literature on the tarot issued from occult circles wherein superimposed attributions outweighed iconography in their interpretations.
 

Ruud

The Book of Thoth. 78 pages. Contained in the Great Library at Alexandra.

I wish there still existed copies.

:)
 

jean bosco

Thank you all for the references, especially the two Renaissance tarot essays. It is somewhat dissappointing but certainly understandable to see that most of the early literature on the tarot issued from occult circles wherein superimposed attributions outweighed iconography in their interpretations.

If you are interested in the iconography of the early tarot, then you could have a look on Robert O'Neill's Tarot Essays.
http://www.tarot.com/tarot/robert-oneill/tarot-symbolism


Or Jean Michel David
http://www.lulu.com/shop/jean-michel-david/reading-the-marseille-tarot/ebook/product-20823176.html
 

Philalethes

If you are interested in the iconography of the early tarot, then you could have a look on Robert O'Neill's Tarot Essays.
http://www.tarot.com/tarot/robert-oneill/tarot-symbolism


Or Jean Michel David
http://www.lulu.com/shop/jean-michel-david/reading-the-marseille-tarot/ebook/product-20823176.html

I have perused Robert O'Neill's tarot essays previously and found them to be very informative. It is a pity that copies of his out-of-print book are so expensive. I also bought the PDF of Jean Michel David's book. Thank you for the suggestion.