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.
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.