What's your fave tarot history theory?

LRichard said:

I'm mainly interested in when and where tarot assumed the form having the numbered trumps, as in the Marseille deck. Did that happen in Italy?

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Numbers were put on the cards in Italy in the 15th century, so yes.

For examples, see Kaplan Encyclopedia of Tarot volume I, pp. 125, 130-131; volume II, pp. 270-285. Some hand-painted cards also received numbers, like the so-called "Charles VI" Tarot (Kaplan I, pp. 112-116), and its sister the Catania or Castello Ursino deck (Kaplan I, p. 109).

The Sola Busca Tarot, with completely non-standard imagery, also has a fully numbered trump series.

Ross G Caldwell said:

Numbers were put on the cards in Italy in the 15th century, so yes.

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Thank you, Ross.

I think Tarot has a strong Cathar Gnostic Christian theme, so I go for that one. I can't look at a TDM deck without it shouting Gnostic Christian ideas, but this belief has been shot down time after time. Some say the Visconti clan had Cathar leanings.









Freddie