Jeu de la Princesse

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 09 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Diana	09 Mar 2003
I don't recall ever seeing this old historical deck discussed on Aeclectic. It's called Le Jeu de La Princesse. Here is the link where I found it: http://membres.lycos.fr/tarobat/mesjeux/princessetarot/princessetarot.htm Unfortunately for non-French speakers, the site doesn't have an English version. But if you click on the underlined purple words, you can see some of the cards.

Macavity	09 Mar 2003
It's an Etteilla type, Non? I'm sure on some of my recent travels looking at Etteillas the images seem (vaguely) familiar - but can't place them. Fwiw, I just LOVE the Fool's "flying" cat! - You can almost hear the "crunch" of that leg :D I think the artwork of these are particularly appealing in their delicate simplicity. I'd love to know more about the origins of these various "Jeu de ???" decks I keep coming across. I could imagine a French parallel with Victorian England, where such passtimes were the "approved activities" for young ladies... doubtless to advertise their marriageability? ;) I wonder if these too come complete with "divinatory method" like the (well Grimaud anyway) Etteilla? And how exactly that fits in with (French?) Tarot generally... Macavity

firemaiden	09 Mar 2003
Chic!! I love the savage cat, and the "faux devin" - it certainly goes with the idea of the fool being the real trickster and the magician being the trick trickster!

Pollux	09 Mar 2003
Yeah, Etteilla, that is very similar to the Magician in Alliette's deck. Mh... not that I am not fond of historical decks, but Etteilla and Wirth really put me off... Probably if there were more reading matter in my tongue I could overcome this. Diana please, translate some important bits from there, I can't read french at all... *feels ignorant*

Cerulean	09 Mar 2003
Mark Filpas has one version posted, it may be Ancient Italian Cartomancy... http: www.spiritone.com/~filipas/Masquerade Another version is the Ancient Esoteric Italian deck from Lo Scarabeo, both in a light pink box or a dark brown box with greenish tinting. The latest is the dark brown box and I believe a LWB is enclosed. It is labelled as an Etteila deck. http://www.loscarabeo.com/catalogo/files/esoteric.htm It is pretty, but puzzling. Sometimes when I look, there's a few scans on James Revak's site on Etteilla decks. The problem is I don't know which title to search by--here's a search engine to James Revaks site. http://www.villarevak.org/misc/search.html I'll try to add links later. This French version posted is very pretty. Mari H>

Diana	09 Mar 2003
Pollux: are there any bits that seem particularly interesting to you? The whole thing is actually very interesting and would take me a long time to translate. So if you can just pick out a couple of things, I'd gladly do it.

Kiama	09 Mar 2003
I'm really interested in this deck... Is it in print anywhere? And hey, I surprised myself when reading that website... I'm not spoken French or read it since I was 16, and I understood most of what that site said! (And given that in French classes at GCSE you aren't taught any Tarot vocabulary, etc, I'm very proud of myself!) Kiama

Kaz	09 Mar 2003
lovely deck, and yes, its an eteilla type. this lady has an interesting website, and a nice collection of old decks. ~kaz

The Jeu de la Princesse thread was originally posted on 09 Mar 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.