CHERS AND PLAYING-CARDS. 933 



German Tarot packs, called Tarolc, vary greatly in their ornamental 

 and symbolic designs from the Italian cards from wliicli they are mau- 

 if'estly copied. 



91. Jei] des 78 Tarots I^gyptiens. ^ Paris, ^ France. Nineteenth 

 century. 



Set of seventy-eight numbered cards, intended for fortune-telling, 

 with designs copied Irom the Tarot pack. Accompanied by a hand- 

 book, entitled Art de Tirer les Cartes. 



The use of cards for the purpose of fortune telling is well known. 

 Indeed, it is the ojiinion of some authorities that cards were introduced 

 into Europe for the purpose of divination and fortune telling, by the 

 Gypsies, some time between 1275 and 13J5. There is evidence that 

 cards were used for this purpose early in the sixteenth century. 

 According to Willshire, recourse to cards for divinatory purposes 

 gradually declined among the upper classes until the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, though it prevailed, no doubt, among the lowest 

 grades of society frequenting fairs and the caravans of mountebanks. 

 In 1750, divination with cards again became popular, and at this period, 

 in 1753, a perruquier, named Alliette, who reversed the letters of his 

 name, and called himself Etteilla, sui>erseded the ordinary practice 

 of employing the cards of the pack singly, and substituted the art of 

 reading the mysteries they might unfold when the whole sequence was 

 arranged u])on a table. 



The emblematic figures of the Tarot pack have been the object of 

 nmch speculation, and their origin is said to extend back to the ancient 

 Egyptians, from whom they have descended to us as a book or series of 

 subjects of deep symbolic meaning. The discovery and explication 

 of this supposed source and hidden meaning of the Tarots employed 

 in modern times was claimed by M. Court de Gebelin in 1781. He 

 asserts that the series of seventy-eight Venetian Tarots has an unques- 

 tionable claim to be regarded as an Egyptian book, and that it is based 

 upon the sacred Egyptian number seven. Alliette applied the theories 

 of M. de Gebelin to the use of cards in fortune telling, and numerous 

 packs are made even at the jjresent day to be used in accordance with 

 the system which he formulated. 



92. Carte da Giuocare. Playing-Cards.' Bologna,^ Italy. Nine- 



teenth century. 



Forty cards of four suits: Coppe, Banari^ ^pade, and Bastoni; the 

 court cards, i^e, Begina, and Fante; the numerals, ace to seven, the 

 eights, nines, and tens being suppressed, agreeing with the pack used 

 in the Spanish game of El Homhre. 



The above may be regarded as a characteristic Italian pack. A dis- 

 tinctive character of the marks of the numerals in the suits of Spade 



• Cat. No. 9010, Mils. Arch., Univ. Penu. 



* J. Lisnion. 



''Cat. No. l.^r)i)4, Mus. Arch., Univ. Peun. 

 ■•Pietro Barij-azzi. 



