It does sound like either a missing link between Gébelin/Mellet and The Etteilla Tarot, or someone who is trying to draw the parallels between the two.
Well, we already know that Etteilla's ordering of the cards is to an extent based upon the Gebelin/Mellet reversed reading of the sequence (in which rather than the raising of the dead they read judgement as the creation of man and woman for example).
Although it gives us a fool at XXI it does so in the context of a reversed ordering of the cards, so it still bears closely to its sequential relationship with the other cards (seen as 'paired' with the bateleur, after Junon/Papesse etc), so is very different still to Levi who divorces it from any standard sequential relationship. So it doesn't really bring us any nearer to explaining Levi's placement.
hi Stephen ,
on the plates of the Gebelin cards given by DDD after p. 148, presented there as from the edition 1781, you've clearly a "O" in connection to the Fool and and a "I" to the Bateleur.
Could it be, that the passage you're referring to, is just caused by missing editorial elegance, so just "meaningless"? (I don't see it for the moment)
In Gebelin the sequence reads allegorically in reversed order - going from XXI the world to Bateleur I and Fool 0.
The Etteilla petit, clearly influenced by Gebelin, follows a 'reversed' allegorical sequence too, but has also renumbered them in a (somewhat changed*) order of their sequential reading from 'I The World/Isis' to a combined, double card @ XXI with the bateleur on one end and fool on the other (see the picture) to reflect that. It is not an editorial mistake - the renumbering and reversal of sequence with 'doubling' of some cards is clear and consistent.
kwaw
* For example, the virtues are together in Etteilla's Petit, and judgment (as creation of man and woman) comes after the creation of the elements (sun, moon, stars = fire, water, air):
1. 'l'universe (=21. The World)
2. A double tableau card, one representing 'the second element of fire' and the other 'victory' - and it is under the sign of leo.
The first tableau is of the sun (= 19. The Sun) - emblematic of twins, the union of man and woman, two in one body, the androgine. Also includes symbol of taurus as 'the more ancient sign'. The second tableau is 'victory' holding in one hand the laurel crown and in the other the palm-leaf of triumph. The nine of hearts, placed at the corner, means for both subjects, victory, happiness and success in major operations. This card, even if it is surrounded by sinister cards, is a very good omen: the sun's rays penetrate everything.
3. The first element water (=18. The Moon) Under the sign of cancer.
This tableau represents the moon and terrestrial animals. The designers shows wild and domestic animals by the wolf and the dog. . . The seven of clubs designates the same subject . . . this card announces sinister things.
4. Stars. The third element air . . . under the sign of aquarius. (=17. The Star) The 8 of hearts, a happy augur.
5. Creation of Man and Woman, generation. (=20. Judgment)
The ancients regard Mankind as a child of the earth (the teeth as seeds of Cadmus, the thrown stones of Pyrrha). . . the 10 of clubs in a piquet pack.
6. Terrestrial paradise, wicked man and woman. (=16. House of God, adam and eve expelled from the garden of eden as in the minchiate)
7. Force Majeure, enterprise (=15.The Devil)
This tableau is the last of the first series (of gold). It shows the wicked spirit Typhon. . .
So in Etteilla's Petit Dames the Gebelin/Mellet's 'age of gold' = 1-7 (= TdM 21-15 with judgment moved) :
(1)21, (2)19, (3)18, (4)17, (5)20, (6)16, (7)15