Gardener said:
And while we're at it, I wonder how you chose to assign divinatory meanings to each card. Did you follow numerology and elemental associations? Or personal meaning? Or both? Or something else?
And where did you find the 1826 pictures?
Hi Gardener and friends
In fact, the assigning was very easy because "The Book of Fate" gives DM verses to each playing card. For example,
Four of Spades.
Woman.
A wanton young wife, or a peevish old maid,
This card will be certain to fix on;
The men will be sure to avoid the young jade,
And the woman despise the old vixen.
Man.
Your blustering, bullying, swaggering blades,
Will commonly meet with the four of spades;
From whence they may learn, that in spite of their thunder.
'Tis four to one but they're force'd to knock under.
And the usual correspondence is spade-sword, club-wand, heart-cup, and diamond-pentacles(in this case pomegranates).
For the Book of Fate chapbook I use,
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/refbfate.htm
It's quite a rare fortune telling chapbook; even the British Library doesn't have a copy (or so the antique bookseller said).
The pictures are taken from William Young Ottley "A Collection of One Hundred And Twenty-Nine Fac-Similes Of Scarce And Curious Prints By Early Masters"(London, 1826). The cards themselves are far much older, probably made in 1490s for the gift to Spanish Royal wedding (had something to do with a mad queen).
The other suits of Trappola Oracle are
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/oratrac.htm
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/oratrap.htm
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/oratraw.htm
And the cards with DMs you can see at
http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~elfindog/atelier.htm
but I translated DMs into Japanese, so unreadble to many, I'm afraid.