tarock and tarocchi games Divinatory Occult tarot decks

The tarot first called trionfi and later as tarocchi, tarock, yet others is a pack of playing cards most commonly numbering ), used in the mid-th century in numerous elements of Europe to learn a gaggle of card games such as Italian tarocchini and French tarot. From the late th century before the present time the tarot in addition has found use by mystics and occultists in efforts at divination or being a map of mental and spiritual pathways.

The tarot has four suits (which vary by region, being the French suits in Northern Europe, the Latin suits in Southern Europe, as well as the German suits in Central Europe). Each of those suits has pip cards numbering from ace to ten and four face cards for a total of cards. In addition, the tarot is distinguished with a separate -card trump suit and a single card known since the Fool. Depending for the game, the Fool may act because top trump or might be played to prevent following suit.

Fran�ois Rabelais gives tarau because name of 1 of the games played by Gargantua as a part of his Gargantua and Pantagruel; this really is likely the earliest attestation with the French form in the name. Tarot cards are employed throughout high of Europe to experience card games. In English-speaking countries, where these games are largely unplayed, tarot cards have become used primarily for divinatory purposes.Occultists call the trump cards as well as the Fool "the major arcana" whilst the ten pip and four court cards in each suit are called minor arcana. The cards are traced by some occult writers to ancient Egypt or Kabbalah but there exists no documented evidence of these origins or in the use of tarot for divination prior to the th century.



The English and French word tarot derives from the Italian tarocchi, which has no known origin or etymology. One theory relates the name "tarot" towards the Taro River in northern Italy, near Parma; the action seems to possess originated in northern Italy, in Milan or Bologna. Other writers accept can be as true comes from the Arabic word turuq, this means 'ways'.Alternatively, it might be from the Arabic taraka, 'to leave, abandon, omit, leave behind'. According to some French etymology, the Italian tarocco based on Arabic ..'rejection; subtraction, deduction, discount'.

There can be the question of whether the saying tarot is related to Harut and Marut, who have been mentioned in a very short account within the Qur'an. According to this account, a group of Israelites learned magic, for demonstration also to test them, from two angels called Harut and Marut, plus it adds that understanding of magic would be passed on others from the devil.9 What may be taken under consideration here may be the phonetic resemblance of tarot to Harut and Marut .
History

Playing cards first entered Europe inside late th century, probably from Mamluk Egypt, with suits much the same on the tarot suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also referred to as disks, and pentacles) and people still found in traditional Italian, Spanish and Portuguese decks.

The first known documented tarot cards were created between and in Milan, Ferrara and Bologna in northern Italy when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added for the common four-suit pack. These new decks were originally called carte da trionfi, triumph cards, along with the additional cards known simply as trionfi, which became [source] "trumps" in English. The first literary evidence with the existence of carte da trionfi can be a written statement in the court records in Ferrara, in . The oldest surviving tarot cards are from fifteen fragmented decks painted inside mid th century to the Visconti-Sforza family, the rulers of Milan.
Early decks
Le Bateleur: The Juggler in the Tarot of Marseilles. This card is often named The Magician in modern English language tarots

Picture-card packs are first mentioned by Martiano da Tortona probably between and , considering that the painter he mentions, Michelino da Besozzo, returned to Milan in , while Martiano himself died in . He describes a deck with picture cards with images with the Greek gods and suits depicting four forms of birds, not the most popular suits. However the cards were obviously regarded as "trumps" as, about years later, Jacopo Antonio Marcello called them a ludus triumphorum, or "game of trumps".

Special motifs on cards included with regular packs show philosophical, social, poetical, astronomical, and heraldic ideas, Roman/Greek/Babylonian heroes, as inside the case of the Sola-Busca-Tarocchi (9) and the Boiardo Tarocchi poem, written with an unknown date between and 9.

Two playing card decks from Milan (the Brera-Brambilla and Cary-Yale-Tarocchi)�extant, but fragmentary�were made circa . Three documents dating from January to July , use the term trionfi. The document from January is undoubtedly an unreliable reference; however, the same painter, Sagramoro, was commissioned by the same patron, Leonello d'Este, as in the February document. The game did actually gain in importance inside year , a Jubilee year in Italy, which saw many festivities and the movement of many pilgrims.

Three mid-th century sets were designed for members of the Visconti family. The first deck, and in most probability the prototype, is referred to as Cary-Yale Tarot (or Visconti-Modrone Tarot) and was developed between and by an anonymous painter for Filippo Maria Visconti. The cards (only ) are today within the Cary collection with the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale University, inside U.S. state of Connecticut. The most famous was painted inside mid-th century, to celebrate Francesco Sforza and his awesome wife Bianca Maria Visconti, daughter from the duke Filippo Maria. Probably, these cards were painted by Bonifacio Bembo or Francesco Zavattari between and . Of the first cards, will be in The Morgan Library & Museum, are at the Accademia Carrara, are at the Casa Colleoni and four: 'The Devil', 'The Tower', 'Money's Horse (The Chariot)' and ' of Spades', are lost in any other case never made. This "Visconti-Sforza" deck, which has been widely reproduced, reflects conventional iconography from the time for it to a significant degree.