The History of Tarot.

Now that we have become more familiar with our Tarot readers, let’s get more familiar with Tarot! Some of our readers here at the shop have been practicing for decades. While each of us have our own personal history with Tarot, what is the history of Tarot?

Pretty much everyone in the community will agree that the first edition of the Rider-Waite deck, published in 1909, is the universal Tarot deck. Despite the Waite-Smith deck setting the modern standard of meaning and illustration for the next century of Tarot, the story begins hundreds of years before.

The best guess we have to the earliest Tarot decks derive from an Italian card game. The “Trionfi” (Italian for “trump”) deck was a group of cards made to be added to a standard 52-card deck. They were used in various games, beginning in the early 1400s. This later evolved into the “Tarocchi” (Italian for “Tarot”), which was its own deck of 78 original cards. It was still used as a game in the mid 1400s.

Another major influence in Tarot as its known today comes from the collaborative effort between Duke Filippo Maria Visconti Milan, Maurizio Da Tortona, and Michelino Da Besozzo. The Duke had expressed his desire for a deck of cards to represent “virtues and temptations”. He shared this idea with the astrologer (Da Tortona) that acted as his secretary. While they came up with the ideas and meanings of each card, they still needed someone to illustrate the cards. They employed Da Besozzo to paint each one into reality, creating the first Tarot deck in existence around 1425. This was an original 78-card deck with a book, not relying on traditional cards or putting decks together.

Visconti heraldic emblem of the burning suns, hand painted and gilded tarot card, 1490s, Italy.

While there is record of this deck, the first surviving deck is recorded to have been from the 1490s. Parts of the Sola Busca still exist today. Even though there is record of previous decks, there is no remaining cards from any of them. The Sola Busca is the earliest deck we still have to this day.

Despite all the cards and Tarot being thrown around, it really wasn’t until the 1700s that “cartomancy” became a thing. Over in France, Etteilla Jean Baptiste was using these old versions of Tarot for the purpose of divination. This was very revolutionary, because these card games were typically played by the noble class. Baptiste broke out of that mold. He went as far as to create his own deck, making it not only accessible but for divination specifically. 

Then, 200 years later came the Rider-Waite era. Tarot has quite the history beyond that! As someone with a strong Italian lineage and traces of French, I feel this is why Tarot came so easily to me. You might notice how many readers will use the disclaimer “for entertainment purposes only” or how many companies put “game” printed in their decks. It is very true to its roots to be viewed this way, no matter how accurate a reading can be!