Where is the best place to find info on Tarot history?

... Please?

Well.. I think here on this forum!

I've put some links together that might be useful, here:
http://www.tarothistory.com/tarothistory.html

best,
robert

By the way, welcome to Aeclectic!

Also, is there specifically something you are wanting to know? If so, perhaps that will help us guide you to the information you are seeking.

best,
robert

In the case, that you speak of Tarot in 15th century, I recommend

http://trionfi.com
especially
http://trionfi.com/0/j/
where you find links to other sources, also (the Tarot Fragments of Michael Hurst are good, the page of Andy Pollett and some others)

Modern Tarot history in 18th/19th/20th century you better search at other paces. But trionfi.com has a Museum, where you can see a gallery of pictures of all centuries:

http://trionfi.com/0/s/

I am also interested in learning more about the history of tarot - thanks for the links- can anyone recommend any books that might be useful ?

There are a few books mentioned here:
http://association.tarotstudies.org/history.html

Personally, I would say the basics are:

The Enclopedia of Tarot Volume One and Volume Two by Stuart Kaplan.
These books offer hundreds of pictures and lots of information on the historical decks. Volume 3 and the new Volume 4 are concerned with recent decks.

Tarot Symbolism by Robert O'Neill concerns the symbolism, imagery, iconography of Tarot cards and is full of wonderful information. JMD, who is the Moderator of this forum, also is one of the founding members of the Association for Tarot Studies, which just republished the book, (It was out of print for many years).
http://association.tarotstudies.org/symbolism.html

A Wicked Pack of Cards: the origins of the occult tarot, by Decker, DePaulis and Dummett; and A History of the Occult Tarot: 1870 - 1970, by Decker and Dummett are very oriented to explaining how the decks turned from a game into a method of occult divination. Some people are bothered by their obvious prejudice against the occult use of Tarot, but I find them the best resources for understanding where and how so much of what we think of Tarot got introduced into the cards.

There are other books around that are more oriented towards mixing the esoteric and historic.. but I have not read them. I've heard nice things about:
The Tarot : History, Symbolism, and Divination by Robert Place.

Hope this helps.

best,
robert

Wanted to throw in a couple of books that I think did a nice job covering the History of Tarot, but were actually books about certain decks.

The first is Robert Place's "The Tarot of the Saints", which I thought gave an excellent overview of the many possible influences of Tarot, and is a nice deck as well.

The second is "Art and Arcana: Commentary on The Medieval Scapini Tarot" by Ronald Decker. Decker is one of the most respected Tarot Historians around, and his book to accompany the Medieval Scapini is full of interesting information. You can buy it seperately from the deck.

Third, the book that comes with the set of the Lo Scarabeo version of the gold "Visconti Tarots", book by Giordano Berti. Lots of good info about our earliest surviving examples of Tarot Decks.

best,
robert

Andy's Playing Cards site has a very informative section on historical Tarot cards:

Main site:
http://www.geocities.com/a_pollett/cardpgal.htm

Tarot card pages:
http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards3.htm

thanks, I will write those books down and see if I can find them anywhere

Thanks very much.