Archive for March, 2008
An Unfamiliar and Beautiful Belgian Tarot
Monday, March 17th, 2008My online excursion through the Bibliothèque nationale de France not only turned up some interesting woodblocks, I also stumbled across this set of cards which appear to be related to the Belgian Tarot:
The BnF had this description (in French)
cote cliché: RC-C-01562
légende: Cartes à jouer : coupes, points et figures
département: Estampes et photographie
cote du document: […]
Flornoy Hand-Stenciled Tarot Cards
Monday, March 17th, 2008
I mentioned in the post about the BN Molds that the old fashioned method of producing Tarot cards was to print the Black lines with a block, and then to hand-stencil each of the colors one-by-one.
Amazingly, hand-stenciled cards are still available from cartier-enlumineur Jean-Claude Flornoy, the same craftsman who has published the very successful […]
An Interesting Tarot Mold from the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
Sunday, March 16th, 2008I was looking through images on the Bibliothèque nationale de France site, and came across a very interesting TdM mold. This type of woodblock mold was used to print the black lines of tarot cards onto sheets of paper, then the sheets were stenciled one color at a time. Unfortunately, the image was not […]
Vote for your favorite Marseille Tarot
Thursday, March 13th, 2008A new thread has been opened on Aeclectic Tarot where members are encouraged to vote for the “Top 3 Tarot de Marsielle”.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=95246
These were my favorites:
#1 Jean Noblet
#2 Jean Dodal
#3 Nicholas Conver
I’m delighted that the Jean Noblet Tarot is not only my favorite, but seems to be the most popular so far. Make sure you vote!
Update: Vieville Crowns
Thursday, March 6th, 2008Earlier I mentioned the Crown on the King of Cups, and asked for help in a thread on Aeclectic Tarot to find examples of the crown in the Vieville deck. I was pleased to see some very interesting responses. One of the contributors pointed out that not only does the King of Cups have an […]
Essays of Andrea Vitali
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008Andrea Vitali is an Italian Tarot historian who has made many contributions to the study of Tarot History. He’s been instrumental in bringing attention and investigation into the role of Bologna in the development of the Tarot. His book iL Tarocchino di Bologna is worth getting for the pictures alone, even if you can’t read […]
The Mysterious Cary Sheet
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008Housed in the Cary Collection at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, is a rare find… an uncut sheet of Tarot cards; probably produced in Milan, dating probably as far back as the year 1500. This sheet has come to be known as the “Cary Sheet”, or […]
The Crown on the King of Cups
Sunday, March 2nd, 2008
For a long time I’ve wondered about the crown on the King of Cups in many of the old decks, particularly the Vieville.
How odd it is, with the “wings” coming out the side. Yet, I wonder if it is based on an actual crown? It is extremely detailed for an old woodcut image, including […]
The Jacques Vieville Tarot
Saturday, March 1st, 2008The Tarot of Jacques Vieville is a unique and intriguing deck. It was created in the same time and place as the Jean Noblet Tarot, (Paris, around 1650); but is clearly from a different tradition. As far as I know, there is no other deck like it, yet it has similarities to a wide range […]
The Best Tarot History Summary on the Web
Saturday, March 1st, 2008TarotHistory.com is a founding member of Tarotpedia, the Online Encyclopedia of Tarot. When we first launched the site in 2006, we asked Michael Hurst (of Carte da Trionfi) to write the summary for the Tarot History page. It remains, in my opinion, the very best summary of tarot history on the web.
Tarotpedia’s Tarot History page