Cary Sheet / Tarot de Marseille decks / Visconti decks

catboxer

The Cary Sheet

In the interest of preserving the factual nature of this discussion, it might be wise to briefly review some fundamentals of history. This might help us maintain the encouragingly high level of the exchanges, and their reliance on documentation and legitimate references.

First off, neither tarot cards nor playing cards of any kind were known in Europe prior to 1375, the approximate date that the 52-card playing deck arrived in Italy from somewhere in the Muslim world (Spain, Egypt, or the Levant), possibly through the port of Venice. Thus it is ahistorical to speak of 12th, 13th, or even 14th century tarot cards.

There was apparently a gestation period between the time playing cards, with their suits of sticks, swords, coins, and cups, and their twelve (all male) court cards appeared, and the first evidence of what might unmistakably be called tarot cards. The court of Filippo Maria Visconti, third Duke of Milan, seems to have been the center of some of the most important of this developmental activity. Some time between 1410 and 1425, the Duke gave Marziano da Tortona, one of his secretaries and tutors, 1500 gold pieces to commission a hand-painted deck of playing cards, artist unknown. The result was a singular deck which contained suits of birds (and maybe one of turtles), and whose court cards were images of gods. The deck is lost, but da Tortona wrote a book to accompany them, which explains the intended symbolic significance of the gods' pictures, and the book is still in Paris's Bibliotheque National. This pack may have been a predecessor of the tarot.(1)

A second development was the appearance of the Cary-Yale, or Visconti di Modrone deck, which is probably the first pack which could definitely be called a tarot. Still, it does not follow the pattern later standardized by the Marseilles decks. Nearly all recognized tarot historians believe this deck was painted as a wedding present, and the Cary-Yale trump that most interests them is Love, as it appears to be a straightforward representation of a wedding. Ron Decker and Stuart Kaplan both believe it shows the marriage of Francisco Sforza to Duke Filippo's illegitimate daughter and only child, Bianca Maria Visconti, in 1441.(2)

Only with the advent of the Visconti-Sforza deck in about 1450 do we see a tarot that adheres to a recognizable and familiar pattern.

Any assertions that the Marseilles pattern preceded the Visconti decks does not stand up, as there are no Marseilles decks that can be dated earlier than the early 17th century. The well-established pattern the Marseilles tradition has promulgated almost certainly originated in Milan, which was occupied by French
armies at various times during the 15th century. Numerous experts have identified a fragmentary uncut sheet of Italian woodblock cards from about 1550 as representative of the type of cards that would have been the parents of both the trump sequence and iconographic elements of which the Marseilles Decks consist. This is the Cary Sheet, currently housed at Yale University, and it contains six whole trumps, twelve partial trumps, and two partial pips from the suit of wands.(3)

If you have read through this dry and boring recitation of facts without your attention flagging, you deserve a medal. Such catalogues of sequences certainly don't take us on any flights of imaginative fancy, but I feel they are sometimes necessary if the integrity of the conversation is to be maintained, as we all search for a better understanding of our chosen subject.

Catboxer

Notes: (1) Little, Tom Tadfor: "Marziano da Tortona: Inventor of the Tarot?" at www.tarothermit.com Kaplan, Stuart, "Encyclopedia of Tarot," V. II, pps. 285-287.
(2)Dummett, Michael, "The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards" (1986), pps. 11-12. Kaplan, "Encyclopedia," V. I, pps. 67 and 89.
(3) Ibid., V. II, pps. 285-287. Ron Decker et. al., "A Wicked Pack of Cards," pps. 45, 46, and 268n8.
 

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Cerulean

A parallel usage of a similar historical tarocchi game shows up in Ferrara. It only adds to the evidence that about 1470, these games had more popular appeal among courtiers:

http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards27.htm

Arranged marriages between the D'Estes nobility and the Milanese Visconti-Szforza lines also can explain some of the courtly growth of the arts and gaming in popularity.
I have a fondness for these historical cards, as they led me to study Renaissance art topics in more detail.
Thanks for the topic!
Mari H.
 

jmd

Wonderful thread, and quite timely, catboxer and Mari_Hoshizaki.

With reference to a pack of cards, there is certainly no historical justification to mention dates earlier than early 15th century.

However, when discussing a deck such as the Marseilles, there are always multiple layers of investigation taking place. One is the historical.

Another is the investigation of the iconography used, and here, we do need to go back to earlier centuries, for the world of the fifteenth (and sixteenth and seventeenth) was imbedded in the artistic, philosophical, political and religious artifacts of former times.

Furthermore, it may also be the case that certain representations were not considered in isolation, but in groups (examples which come to mind include the cardinal virtues, the theological virtues, the stages of alchemical transformation/transmutation, the planetary bodies, and, as a different example, the prints of Melancoli I and St Anselm which apparently Dürer only ever gave as a pair). Thus, to discuss Strength/Fortitude could not have but lead to discussions of Temperance, but to talk of Temperance must also have lead to its opposite, and henceforth the Devil, which it too would have lead to discussions of the Resurrection of the body, and Christ's own transfiguration. Here is where one transcends the demands of history, and enters the mind-set of the mediaevalist - and, hopefully, also our own, being ever mindful of the valuable gifts provided by the historical bedrock.
 

jmd

For the sake of future ease of reference, the thread The Marseilles birth and influences also begins to discuss in various details the Cary Sheet, and Huck links thereon one of the best renditions of the Cary Sheet, direct from the Yale library.

I would also like to again pick some points earlier made and, for the sake of clarity, make comment.

catboxer states, with the preferred and dominant view, that 'neither tarot cards nor playing cards of any kind were known in Europe prior to 1375, the approximate date that the 52-card playing deck arrived in Italy from somewhere in the Muslim world'. Strictly, all we can say is not that no playing cards were known, but rather that we do not know, nor have evidence for, playing cards being in existence in Europe prior to the date given. Also, as Europe includes Moorish Spain, it is as likely to have been introduced there at least as easily as in Venice.

Further, however, there was (and is) a long and established trading port at Marseille. A port which had long connections also with North Africa, and from and into which cards could certainly have as easily been introduced.

This does move a little away from the Cary Sheet... for its design certainly suggests that, as at least similar cards were found in the Milanese region, they were there too at the time - whether by importation or local make.

The relatively early reference to the word 'Taraux' in the Lyon region now also having been made public adds to further possibilities for the Cary Sheet.

Could it be, for example, that it originates from Lyon? Whether as a centre of card production for a predominantly Milanese market or not is not as relevant, at this stage, as the question itself.

Also, there still stands that question, which will undoubtedly remain unresolved, as to whether Marseille-like woodcut cards, regularly re-printed and annually, perhaps, discarded, possibly predate Visconti individually hand-painted works of art.

If earlier cards were in existence prior to the 14th century in Europe, then of course the likelihood of finding relics is low. Much evidence points to there possibly not being cards - including the necessary apparent lack of paper production. These are not, however, either closed questions, nor ones which will necessarily go in the way Dummett suggests.

In not only evidence, but in its understanding, naming in particular ways may lead to cul-de-sacs. Continuing to name is the Cary sheet is open. To say, following Dummett or anyone, that it displays a Milanese pattern already limits and directs possible investigations.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Good remarks Jean-Michel

One correction (and hint ;-)) : Taraux is in the Avignon region, not the Lyon region.

Happy hunting!

Ross
 

jmd

Thankyou... I stand corrected, and wonderful find, by the way!

In my post, I did rather confuse your recent find of an early reference to 'Taraux' in the Avignon region, with the large number of card printers later known to have been around in, I seem to recall, especially the Lyon district - two regions which are not only quite distinct, but far further afield from each other than they appear from my current location ;)
 

Ross G Caldwell

An hypothesis...

... on where the name "taraux" comes from.

jmd said:
Thankyou... I stand corrected, and wonderful find, by the way!

In my post, I did rather confuse your recent find of an early reference to 'Taraux' in the Avignon region, with the large number of card printers later known to have been around in, I seem to recall, especially the Lyon district - two regions which are not only quite distinct, but far further afield from each other than they appear from my current location ;)

Look at this map -
http://www.gard-provencal.com/vv/tharaux.htm

Note the town "Tharaux" - in 1550, it was spelled "Taraux".

Look at this history of the name here -
http://www.chez.com/giorgiomat/Germer_Durand/Tharaux.htm

A dictionary tells me the name is proabably celtic in origin (like
most of these old little French towns). It might relate to a mythical
founder called "Taravus", or to the root "Tar-", which is the same
as "Tor" and "Taur", which means "strength" and of course "bull."
There are several towns in France with names like this - the most
striking is "Tharot", south of Paris.

But this one does not concern me.

Look at the first map again. Note the next town to the north, St.
Jean de Marejols. This town is about 2km from Tharaux. Both towns are in the diocese of Uzés, about 60km from Avignon, where a large card production was going in the 15th to the early 16th century (around 30 master cardmakers from 1441-1518, more if you count apprentices). It is in Avignon, in 1507, that the earliest use of the term "taraux" cards is found.

(note: I have since learned that there is an earlier reference in Avignon in 1505 - still perfectly within our time-frame).

Most of the cardmakers in Avignon have their original towns noted. Several are from the Diocese of Uzés, and all are active at the same time around 1507. The biggest cardmaker in town at that time was Jean Fort, or "le Fort" - "the Strong." (Sforza means "the strong" also - like, perhaps, "Taraux"). One cardmaker married a woman from St. Jean de Marejols. He is not heard from again after 1502, but wives are noted as taking over cardmaking when their husbands die. So we have, in 1507, the quite likely possibility that someone who knows a town called "Taraux" is making "taraux" cards.

Could they be a pun on the name "le Fort" - "Sforza" - "the Strong" - Hence "Strong cards" (since the trumps are stronger than the rest) - Taraux?

(naturally, I'll be looking into this theory when I have a chance to
travel to Tharaux and Avignon - maybe there is a tradition there).

Ross

(references: H. Chobaut, "Les Maitres-Cartiers d'Avignon du XVme Siècle à la Révolution", in *Provence Historique, t. VI fasc. 22, octobre-décembre 1955, pp. 5-82; "La carte à jouer on languedoc des origines à 1800", Toulouse, Musée Paul Dupuy, 1971; editor "R.M." alludes to a reference to "naips" in Barcelona in 1310; also notes that no makers of tarots are known west of the Rhône (p. 10), quoting d'Allemagne. Also reminds me that the name "Napier" means the same as "Cartier").
 

jmd

Well... a warm thankyou again.

I also see that last year's discovery of the word 'taraux' from 1505 is also now becoming public...

On a more personal note, it is surprising how the obvious also may escape one.

In a number of previous posts, I have written that I suspect that the name 'Tarot' may come from the region of its common provenance (hence, I had assumed, perhaps falsely, the Northern Italian area around the river Taro, and named the department of Tarot when under French rule). I had also mentioned - here and also to, if I recall correctly, either Huck or Michael, of this early spelling of the word in, amongst other places, Rabelais (as 'taraux'). Yet I had not even made the more obvious connection of this place-name with the modern renditions of Tharaux, nor 'Strength', nor Sforza... (though the latter two I was aware of - but had not linked it to the whole!).

With regards to the town of Tharot in Avallon (in the Anjevin?) region, this brings even more important considerations when thought about in conjunction with some of the 13th century developments on the region. For example, its political movements and intermarriages (and divorces/annulments!) and influences, courtly love, some important characters which became legendary, and cathedral buildings in the adjacent 'proper' French Parisian area... maybe no card makers were there. But maybe it is also another avenue to further investigate just to be sure.

Again, wonderful addi(c)tions to our further reflections and collective research.
 

Rusty Neon

In part 1 we described the so-called Cary sheet as a woodblock print dating back to about 1500, probably carved somewhere around Milan, that features the first known illustrations consistent with the tarot pattern now called "of Marseille".

http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards69.htm

The major arcana images of the Cary Sheet appear to be more like Visconti decks than any Tarot de Marseille deck (e.g., Conver, Noblet, Dodal, Payen), whereas the pip card images of the Cary Sheet appear to be more like TdM than Visconti.

Not having access to oft-cited tarot history books, I'm curious as to what the majority view of tarot historians is on what the first tarot deck would have looked like: e.g., major arcana and court cards like the Visconti deck and pip cards like the Tarot de Marseille, perhaps?


Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks.