Renaissance Art Symbols

Tarot Decks Give More Than You Think

Tarot decks were first described in the early 15th century in relation to Martiano da Tortona who mentioned tarot-like games. The motifs on these early illustrations were Greek deities with the suits made of four different types of birds, which differed greatly from the regular Italian suits. These forefathers of tarot decks had only sixteen cards, and their popularity seemed to be quite impressive at the time. Later, during the same century other mentions of tarot decks are found in Italian documents. Given the heraldic, social, poetical and philosophical interpretations of the cards, modern researchers are surely impressed by the vividness of the symbolism and the ideology behind it.

As for the oldest tarot decks ever preserved, they date from the mid 15th century and they were made on the special order of the Visconti family. The sixty-six cards are presently on public display at the Yale University Library in New Haven. Another well-known tarot deck was painted by Bonifacio Bembo at the request of Maria Visconti, they are preserved with the exception of two who were either lost or never existed. The design and fame of these cards have grown under the Visconti-Sforza patronage.
Plenty of modern imitations combine batons, swords, coins and cups with trump cards as the clear image of traditional iconography specific to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

The number of initial tarot decks must have been small given the amount of work involved in the making and the painting of these miniature works of art. Tarot decks have survived from Marseilles, Egypt or Switzerland and in time they came to be associated with magic and mysticism. The Occult, and people with occult occupations were the ones to start reading the cards for all divination purposes that have survived to our modern world too.

Tarot decks cannot be given a clear origin, yet, some scientists revealed that the etymology of the word tarot is Egyptian, meaning the royal road. According to tradition, Gypsies seem to have been the first to use cards for divination, but we don’t know for sure when tarot decks started to gain mass attention. What we know for sure is that Eliphas Levi introduced the tarot decks in the English speaking world, initially for aristocrats and then among the middle classes.

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