Catelin Geofroy, 1557, Lyons

le pendu

The Catelin Geofroy

With the Geofroy, we are looking at a Tarot deck that was created probably within one hundred years of our earliest Tarot decks. It's about 50 years after the Cary Sheet and other early decks/sheets.

It is the first deck to be numbered similarly to the Tarot of Marseilles.

It is, like the Tarot of Paris, generally considered by scholars as a "fanciful tarot".


Some images:
geofroy_1.jpg
geofroy_2.jpg
geofroy_3.jpg
geofroy_4.jpg
geofroy_5.jpg
geofroy_7.jpg
geofroy_9.jpg
geofroy_12.jpg
geofroy_13.jpg
geofroy_14.jpg
geofroy_16.jpg
geofroy_20.jpg
 

Elven

Hi le pendu!!

I like the look of these cards - the colours are rich - but seem to only to stem fom a few basic blendings - the reds are very prevelant.

Im not a mad Marseilles reader - although I do have a few decks - so I was wondering when you said ..

le pendu said:
It is, like the Tarot of Paris, generally considered by scholars as a "fanciful tarot".

Why is it considered fanticiful?

Also - the sceptre the High Priestess holds looks like a key to the battlement/armoury/kingdom to me! LOL!!
Blessings
Elven x
 

firemaiden

Oh wow, is that the devil card with the chicken feet, and the person with a violin? Violins and devils go waaaaaay back. I love this.
 

le pendu

firemaiden said:
Oh wow, is that the devil card with the chicken feet, and the person with a violin? Violins and devils go waaaaaay back. I love this.

I think it is actually The Tower!

Here we see the devil leading souls.. to Hell I assume...

Be carefull FireMaiden... THIS is what your musical choices may lead you to!

best,
robert
 

le pendu

Tarot Hermit has this to say about the deck:

Geofroy, Catelin: a 16th-century French cardmaker who produced a luxury deck with nonstandard suit signs. The trump sequence, apparently, follows the odering of the Tarot de Marseille, making this deck the earliest example of the Marseilles ordering.
http://www.tarothermit.com/glossary.htm

Andy's Playing Cards has this to say:
A 16th century French deck now partially extant, known as Tarot of Catelin Geofroy, features the 22 usual trumps, but the four suits are pheasants, lions, parrots and monkeys, almost in the fashion of the German cards: basically, a blend of classic tarot and hunting cards.
http://a_pollett.tripod.com/cards.htm

Another Aeclectic thread discussing the deck:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=16762
 

le pendu

Elven said:
I like the look of these cards - the colours are rich - but seem to only to stem fom a few basic blendings - the reds are very prevelant.

What I love is the Purples. Like the Tarot of Paris... this deck has that wonderful color that is missing (as far as I know) from later decks.

Elven said:
Why is it considered fanticiful?
I think that is a general term for "non-standard"... in other words.. it doesn't follow that general pattens of early patterns as far as we know.

Elven said:
Also - the sceptre the High Priestess holds looks like a key to the battlement/armoury/kingdom to me! LOL!!
It seems to be the "Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven" to me... like what we usually associate with the Pope or St. Peter. I'll have to check, but I think that the Tarot of Paris also has the Popess holding the Keys.

best,
robert
 

le pendu

One of the most intersting cards is the Hanged Man. It is so similar to the "Swiss" TdM that I have to wonder how the pattern was passed on to the Swiss.

Here is a comparison between the Geofroy on the right and the "Swiss" on the left:

lependu.jpg


Why/How did the Swiss Tdm acquire this image????

best,
robert
 

Elven

They looked like they traced it!!!

Blessings
Elven x
 

firemaiden

Wow, you are right about the Hanged Man! It looks like they traced it.

Oh yes, I see now, that is the Tower card, which like "La Foudre" in the Tarot de Paris, borrows from Arcane XV to show the devil, leading souls to hell. WOW!
 

firemaiden

Now that I'm thinking about it, although we say the deck has "non-standard" suit signs - you could say, these "non-standard" suits were "here first" - at least in terms of being incorporated into an allegorical series of cards. I'm remembering now Tom Tadfor Little's web page: Marziano da Tortona: Inventor of the Tarot?-- some see the deck that astrologer, Marziano (Martian!) di Tortano invented for Duke Philippo Maria Visconti of Milan in 1420 as some as a precursor to the first tarot.

Instead of the ordinary suits of swords, coins, staves, and cups, the new deck was to have suits representing virtues, riches, virginities, and pleasures. The suit signs were appropriate birds: eagles, phoenixes, turtles (turtledoves?), and doves.