Scholarly books about tarot

hello, it's been a while since I've posted here and I've come back to seek your help.

right now I am studying art and I need some research for a project Im working on but there are so many books about "how to read tarot", that I cant find any I could cite for academic purposes.

so I need recomendationss on studies about tarot and depending on what I can find is the direction my project will take.

the type of books Im looking for could be about tarot's iconography, history, visual language, psychology or even philosophy. but if you have some other idea about a schoolarly book that could be applied to tarot let me know.

if any of you has any recomendation about where to start with carl jung's theories on symbols and archetypes, those would be most useful.

I hope you can help me.


(I apologise for my english, I havent practiced it in ages.)

I think it might be worth taking a look at "Tarot and Individuation: Correspondences With the Cabala and Alchemy." The author is Irene Gad. The book only covers the Major Arcana, but it does so in a very academic manner. It talks a lot about Jungian symbolism, psychology, archetypes of the collective unconscious, etc. Very philosophical and profound. Fascinating.

Hi,
Here is a link to a thread that I find useful concerning your question.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=216552

Especially the links in "Huck"s post.

Huck said:

There is a lot of good stuff, which hasn't been published in a book, but in the web.

For instance:
Franco Pratesi: "Playing Card Trade in 15th-Century Florence" has appeared as a book in December 2012 (a small book), but its 11 articles have been published in the web before as part of a series of articles written 2011/12.
Together with works written in 2013 these are 64 new articles.
http://trionfi.com/franco-pratesi

And Franco Pratesi proceeds with it ...
http://naibi.it

Andrea Vitali has published also a lot of new information ...
http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=5&lng=ENG

Click to expand...

Minotauro said:

......if any of you has any recomendation about where to start with carl jung's theories on symbols and archetypes, those would be most useful.......

Click to expand...

Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung.

A scholarly approach to Tarot requires a skeptical approach. This is the book for that: http://tinyurl.com/mevfxr5
This is a dryer read but an important one: http://tinyurl.com/ouw5nam
For Jung: http://tinyurl.com/o6y59s9

The title of the JMD book about the TdM is a bit misleading. It is mostly an iconographical analysis of the trumps, not a 'how to' book. It features the Flornoy reconstruction of the Noblet.

Metafizzypop said:

I think it might be worth taking a look at "Tarot and Individuation: Correspondences With the Cabala and Alchemy." The author is Irene Gad. The book only covers the Major Arcana, but it does so in a very academic manner. It talks a lot about Jungian symbolism, psychology, archetypes of the collective unconscious, etc. Very philosophical and profound. Fascinating.

Click to expand...

excelent I will leave this one for later, after I've read some more about jungs work. but this one will be really useful as it seems specifically takes some of jung's work and applies it to tarot.

LRichard said:

Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung.

Click to expand...

this one is perfect to start as the purpose of this book was to explain some of his concepts to the layman, and it seems to be the last book he wrote too. thank you very much!

and Im not sure what my aproach will be yet so I dont now what wuld be the best reference, but Im hoping this could later on turn into my thesis.

fyreflye said:

A scholarly approach to Tarot requires a skeptical approach. This is the book for that: http://tinyurl.com/mevfxr5
This is a dryer read but an important one: http://tinyurl.com/ouw5nam
For Jung: http://tinyurl.com/o6y59s9

Click to expand...

Im gonna leave that jung book for later, maybe if it does become my thesis subject , but the history of occult tarot seems great.

Im so glad I came back! , thank you all for your help.
I have a lot to read now, and even getting those books to my country will be hard. but please if you have any more ideas do tell. later on I will surely need even more.