View Full Version : Spanish Tarot (Fournier)
BrightEye
02-05-2007, 19:21
I just got this deck in a trade. It's my first Marseilles-style deck and I know nothing about it. Why is it a Marseilles deck if it's a Spanish Tarot? As you can tell, I'm quite green when it comes to TdM, so any information will be most welcome. (I read the thread on the High Priest - that was VERY technical!)
It's only "Spanish" because the titles are bilingual, I think. It's a reproduction of a Northern Italian deck, it seems.
BrightEye
02-05-2007, 20:43
It's only "Spanish" because the titles are bilingual, I think. It's a reproduction of a Northern Italian deck, it seems.
Oh, I remember reading that now. Thanks for reminding me. I rephrase my question then: Why is it a Marseilles deck if it's from Northern Italy?
Laura Borealis
26-12-2010, 03:28
(coming to this very late, I know)
It's called Spanish because the publisher (Fournier) is Spanish; because the Ottone, the original deck that it's based on is in the Fournier Museum in Vitoria, Spain; and as noted, the titles are in Spanish. It may have some graphic similarity to the early Spanish Baraja decks but I'm really not sure about that.
Marseilles is a style; not all Marseilles decks come from Marseilles or even France. In this thread (http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=68526), le pendu identifies the Ottone deck as a TdM type 1 (based on a five card sample). :)
I've been really enjoying this deck, lately!
The bright colors and wonky figures really seem very alive and talkative, to me.
BrightEye, I hope that you will enjoy having it, and that the TdM will open up exciting new adventures in reading for you, as it did for me!
Don't be scared away by the historical technicalities.. I love reading those threads, but really I find that they rarely affect my readings.
Instead, I use a combination of my own ideas about suit and number, and look at the pips the same way that I saw shapes in clouds when I was a kid... this vine looks like a snake, that one like a ribbon; that flower looks like a vulva, that one reminds me of a tomato, these crossing swords look like a gate, these crossing swords suggest a waffle, and so on. ;)
Check out Enrique Enriquez's 'Eye Rhymes' threads, if you haven't already.
I really love his methods!
Though often there's an emphasis on historical scholarship for those who are fond of the historical decks, for me that's only a small part of the attraction. The beauty of them, to me, is in their freedom, that we can layer systems on if we choose to-- or not. They have no overtly apparent agenda, and so there's so much room to just intuit and play! I love that!
Though often there's an emphasis on historical scholarship for those who are fond of the historical decks, for me that's only a small part of the attraction. The beauty of them, to me, is in their freedom, that we can layer systems on if we choose to-- or not. They have no overtly apparent agenda, and so there's so much room to just intuit and play! I love that!
so true :)
Though often there's an emphasis on historical scholarship for those who are fond of the historical decks, for me that's only a small part of the attraction. The beauty of them, to me, is in their freedom, that we can layer systems on if we choose to-- or not. They have no overtly apparent agenda, and so there's so much room to just intuit and play! I love that!I think they have that nice combination of historical obscurity, which appeals to the nerdy academic in me and then genuinely sophisticated expressiveness. I like that balance. But it is the sheer expressiveness which usually wins the day, as most of what we think we know is speculation. The only truth, the only thing I feel I can lay my hand on my heart and say for certain is that they are profoundly expressive. And they can be read like old master engravings/woodcuts/portraits...
Oh and btw, I think this deck originated from the Piedmontese tradition. But I could be wrong.