The Standard Hoyle: Tarot

tarotreseacher

I began reading an early edition of The Standard Hoyle, 1887. Under the game of Tarot, it had this to say which I found wonderfully ironic in that, while regarding the rules stated within the Hoyle book it is partly true, but in regard to the decks and use of them, and the name "tarot", it is anything but:

“Tarot has at least this much of interest in it, that it is among the very oldest of games of cards, there being positive evidence of its having been played in Italy at the close of the fourteenth century. Requiring special cards, it is not likely to be ever again much in vogue.”

Being from the United States I found this interesting:

“There are two methods of playing Tarot, either counting points or tricks. In the United States the point game is generally played, and four play. Twelve cards are given to each person, which is forty-eight cards, leaving six cards over.” (Hoyle notes earlier that there are 80, 78 and 54 card Tarot decks, the latter more commonly played in the United States. Hoyle goes on to note that in the United States “all latitude is permissible in Tarot.”

I highly recommend giving this a read, though Tarot is only a small portion of the book.
 

Huck

“Tarot has at least this much of interest in it, that it is among the very oldest of games of cards, there being positive evidence of its having been played in Italy at the close of the fourteenth century. Requiring special cards, it is not likely to be ever again much in vogue.”

Likely the authors had information about the idea, that Gringonneur in 1392 invented the Tarot cards. However, later research did overcome this idea.

The Gringonneur Case
http://trionfi.com/0/p/15/
 

tarotreseacher

That's great reading, Huck! I'm actually reading lots of references like this lately trying to find the earliest documented meanings for 15th century cards. Every time I find a new reference point that seems to have information, it's only inference from the existing culture and known symbolism of the time, rather than direct written evidence tied to the cards.

Thanks for that link!
 

Huck

That's great reading, Huck! I'm actually reading lots of references like this lately trying to find the earliest documented meanings for 15th century cards. Every time I find a new reference point that seems to have information, it's only inference from the existing culture and known symbolism of the time, rather than direct written evidence tied to the cards.

Thanks for that link!

hm, what do you know ...?
There are 14th century documents to playing cards, but not to Trionfi cards and not to Tarot, the first secure date is 1367, a prohibition in Bern. A lot of insecure documents are earlier than that (in Europe), a good part of these insecure documents (some are clearly "wrong documents") is from "around Bohemia". The current emperor Charles IV (reigned 1346-78) lived in Bohemia, perhaps this explains that.
None of these early documents gives structural information about the used decks.

Some structural information is given by John of Rheinfelden.
http://trionfi.com/0/p/10/
One of the described decks has 60 cards (4 suits with 5 courts) and the number cards are connected to professions. This should have been a "nobility deck".

A series of "nobility decks" documents are from the court of Wencelas of Brabant (1379-1383), a half-brother of the emperor Charles IV.

A rather full record is about the production of a single deck at the court of Mantova (1387). In the production 3 artists were involved, logically this deck was rather expensive.

Some talk (not identified document, as far I know) is about Valentina Visconti, who shall have brought a luxury deck to France for her marriage (1389).

There are lot of minor documents for 14th century, but no structural information beside from a Spanish deck (1384?), which shall have had 44 cards. Most of these were connected to prohibitions.

John of Rheinfelden's text is the one document with a lot of text. He gives 4 suits (possibly only for the 60-cards-decks):

jo-18.jpg

jo-19.jpg

(text from Arne Joenssen, "Schweizer Spielkarten", 1998; Joenssen still attempts to translate the text)

Joenssen (likely in the context of the 60 cards decks, but possibly of all the cards, that Johannes knew) notes 4 kingdoms, Babylonia, Persia, Macedonia-Greece and the Roman Empire.
Babylonia has the head of a man as symbol (possibly the well known suit-sign Coins), the Greek suit has Bells (a known suit sign in later German-Swiss decks), the Roman king has an eagle (possibly the suit sign Shields, also known in Switzerland). The fourth sign Johannes cannot recognize, he points to a picture, which is only documented in the extant texts by a "free place".

The Liechtenstein'sche Spiel had (later) probably 5 suits: Swords, Polo-Sticks, Cups, Coins, Shields. Polo-Sticks might have been difficult to identify, cause the game Polo possibly wasn't known very well in the region of Johannes. Possibly this was the unknown 4th suit sign.

Liechtenstein.jpg


John of Rheinfelden lived close to Switzerland.
 

tarotreseacher

Thanks, Huck. I just got access to an online research database, JSTOR, and I'm using lots of your keywords here to do some deep dives.
 

Huck

Thanks, Huck. I just got access to an online research database, JSTOR, and I'm using lots of your keywords here to do some deep dives.

You'll not find much ... it's easier, if you simply ask.

For Brabant 1379 for instance you've to find "Aexandre Pinchart" ...
https://books.google.de/books?id=Vi...epage&q=Alexandre Pinchart jeu cartes&f=false

For Mantova 1387 you need a specific article of the IPCS in the 1990s, the International Playing Card Society. It didn't spread very far.

For John of Rheinfelden, these articles are helpful.
http://trionfi.com/0/p/10/
http://pre-gebelin.blogspot.de/2009/01/tarot-and-dance-of-death.html
... see: Addendum at the bottom of the page

For Bohemia ...
http://trionfi.com/0/p/95/
.. but that's only a beginning.

This was once a good collection, but it's old of c. 2003-5 by Michael J. Hurst
http://www.luckymojo.com/tarot/tarothistref.txt