Tarot cards were invented to play a new type of card game
The game of Tarot originated in the 15th century and continues to be enjoyed as such in various parts of the world today. One enduring version is “French Tarot,” a trick-taking game similar to popular card games like “Hearts” and “Bridge” where a single suit of cards is declared more powerful than the rest. While the exact origins remain uncertain, historians have narrowed the birth of the game of Tarot down to 15th-century Italy—most likely in either Milan, Florence, Bologna, or Ferrara between the 1420s and 1440s.
The game of Tarot descended from regular playing cards
Playing cards were already widespread across Western Europe by around 1375, having originally made their way from China during the 11th century. They traveled through the Arab world and the Mamluk Empire—probably via Egypt to Spain and the Moorish Empire—before becoming established in Europe. In the Mamluk deck, court cards featured three male figures: the King, the First Lieutenant, and the Second Lieutenant. These became the Page, Knight and King in most early European card decks.
Adding a permanent fifth suit of cards
The wonderful innovation in Tarot was adding a permanent, high-ranking, 22-card Trump suit to an ordinary deck of 52 cards. Whilst in other trick-taking games, a player would declare one of the suits (Coins, Batons, Cups or Swords) the trumps suit for the round, Tarot’s additional suit is always the highest ranking.
Tarot also added Queens to the Court Cards
Tarot wasn’t the only card deck to add Queens, but most decks of the time adhered to the structure of three males inherited from the Mamluk playing cards.. The reason for the addition of Queens to Tarot’s court cards remains unclear. One prevailing theory suggests that Tarot originated within royal Italian courts and there is lots of evidence that the game was enjoyed by both men and women—then including Queens might have been a deliberate choice to appeal to the courtly audience. What we do know is that Tarot quickly gained popularity, not only in the royal courts, but also with everyday people.
The card game had a period of structural experimentation
With the additional 4 Queens, the deck standardised over time to 78 cards. Each 14-card suit of Batons, Cups, Swords & Coins contains 10 pips, a Page, Knight, Queen and King.
BUT, the 22 Trumps conquer them all.