Richard
I have a simple question. What is a "Tarot de Marseille"? Does the term have any specific denotation? Is it merely a fashionable term applied to pips decks?
Which of the fun, colourful Marseille variants do you enjoy?
Barleywine
A fair question. I'm no tarot historian (Yves is the one to ask), but I prefer a fairly narrow definition limited to a small number of French designs from a specific historical era - and possibly their immediate antecedents. Everything else that's "new work" and not a faithful restoration of an original deck would seem to be "in the Marseille style." "Pip" decks in general might better be described as "TdM-inspired" (or maybe just artistically lazy).
From Wikipedia:
"The name Tarot de Marseille is not of particularly ancient vintage; it was coined at least as early as 1889 by the French occultist Papus (Gérard Encausse) in Chapter XI of his book le Tarot des bohémiens (Tarot of the Bohemians), and was popularized in the 1930s by the French cartomancer Paul Marteau, who used this collective name to refer to a variety of closely related designs that were being made in the city of Marseille in the south of France, a city that was a centre of playing card manufacture, and were (in earlier, contemporaneous, and later times) also made in other cities in France.
In deference to the common appellation 'Marseille' for the style and in recognition that the deck appears in other places, the term '"Marseille-style"' is at times also used."
Philistine
Very much agreed. Although the current vogue for calling anything with pips TdM or even "TdM-inspired" is where I think the confusion begins. Consider that there is a parallel Italian tradition of tarrochi, which of course would not rightly be called Tarot de Marseille nor -inspired.
To answer the original topic, my favorite colorful Marseille variant is the Flornoy Noblet. Scrumptious colors and graphical lines result in a riot of cartoonish quasi-psychedelia.
Barleywine
This is most likely what I meant by "antecedents." My French (never very good) isn't up to the task of viewing this, so I'll have to stick with what the English-language historians have to say.
"The recent documentary "Les mystères du Tarot de Marseille" (Arte, 18 dévrier 2015) claims that the work of Marsilio Ficino can be credited as having inspired imagery specific to the Marseilles."
I took a look at the Flornoy Noblet. Very nice!
Philippe
Interesting question. Let's take for instance the 5 "Tarots de Marseille" depicted below by their bateleur :
bateleurs a by PhilBeDaN, sur Flickr(the number 2 is a facsimile, the others are pics of the originals)
Of these 5 tarot decks, 3 were made in Marseilles (1,4 & 5). Now if you consider the cardmakers only 2 were born in Marseilles (4 & 5). And if you consider their ancestry, not one comes from a family originated from Marseilles (but the Rhône department for 2 & 3 and the Isère department for 1,4 & 5). So Marseilles is indisputably a center of production but might not be the place where this type of french tarot started.
Richard
Thanks for the clarifications of the term Tarot de Marseille. I mainly wanted to be sure that my understanding of the term was not too "purist" or narrow, and apparently it is not.
An interesting modern variant is the Millennium TdM by Wilfried Houdouin, who collaborated with Yves on the Pierre Madenié 1709. The full deck should be completed some time this year.
An interesting modern variant is the Millennium TdM by Wilfried Houdouin, who collaborated with Yves on the Pierre Madenié 1709. The full deck should be completed some time this year.
GlitterNova
Not colorful but definitely very fun-- I'm a sucker for the sweet smiling faces of the Rolla Nordic Tarot.
http://www.albideuter.de/html/rolla_nordic_verschieben.html
Technically you were supposed to color in the cards yourself so I guess you could make it as colorful as you like. This deck just screams for a reprint... I doubt many people would want to take a marker or colored pencil to their vintage decks. I surely wouldn't!
http://www.albideuter.de/html/rolla_nordic_verschieben.html
Technically you were supposed to color in the cards yourself so I guess you could make it as colorful as you like. This deck just screams for a reprint... I doubt many people would want to take a marker or colored pencil to their vintage decks. I surely wouldn't!
baconwaffles
This is beautiful. I had never heard of this deck.
Richard
Really nice. I'd love to have one to color.
GlitterNova
Same here! Think of how much coloring for adults has become popular, reprinting this deck would be a no-brainer! US Games holds the copyright to this deck and I've considered writing them an email about it.
Also here's a better link: http://www.albideuter.de/html/rolla_nordic
