About this Translation
This translation came about from a search for unbiased information on the origins of tarot,
From devout practitioners to the general public, tarot fascinates and captivates the imagination.
What is known about the emergence of this game, born in Italy at the dawn of the Rennaissance?
This specificity comes from a card game invented some years earlier, around 1415-1418, by a Milanese humanist,
The etymological path of the origin of tarocco would be a connection to tare weight, for the purpose of
How was this new game disseminated throughout Europe?
The peculiarity of tarot comes exactly from its usage as a game, as well as a divinatory medium, which permits
Meanwhile, the esoteric reading of tarot became an object of intellectual interest under the influence of two Frenchmen,
This quest started with an intuition that the human world as he knew it was preceded by an earlier primitive world-
Of their exchanges would be born the tome of Primeval world, in which they ascribe an Egyptian origin to divinatory tarot,
which proved to be scarce, particularly in English.
Comment le jeu de tarot est devenu un objet divinatoire
is an article taken from Le Monde,written by Youness Bousenna.
In this article, he interviews Thierry Depaulis, a game historian
who is the leading source of objective writing on tarot.
Depaulis details the origins of tarot, starting with its creation as a card game,
going on to its evolution into a divinatory tool. Although brief,
this article gives a clear and concise overview of what we know for certain of the history of the cards,
both as a game and for divinatory purposes. In this translation, I strived to retain Depaulis’ tone and style,
but most importantly to accurately translate the technical terminology into English while assuring
that I was indeed referring to the same thing as Depaulis. With so much variation in tarot decks
and how they are used, both regionally and generationally, this proved to be a difficult,
but in most cases, not impossible, task.
Profitez bien!
How the game of tarot has become a divinatory tool
Text adapted from:
Le monde
Invented at the end of the Middle Ages in Italy, this card game has become as valued as a hobby
as much as for divination, popularized by new age culture, explains historian Thierry Depaulis.
Interview by Youness Bousenna
Published on February 28, 2021, at 6:00 am – Updated on March 4, 2021, at 6:09 pm
To disentangle history from the myth, game historian Thierry Depaulis returns to the origins and
the evolution of this recreation which has, over time, become the object of esoteric speculation.
A specialist of tarot in particular, Thierry Depaulis wrote Tarot, Game and Magic for the grand
exposition presented at the National Library of France in 1984 and 1985. He is currently working
on the book Illuminated Tarot, Masterpieces of the Italian Rennaissance which will be released
through Lienart editions.
Thierry Depaulis: Tarot emerged around 1430 in Northern Italy, presumably in Milan or Florence,
initially under the name trionfi, that is to say “triumph”, which comes from its major innovation to cards.
In effect, this game consisting of 56 cards divided into four suits in the Italian version (cups, batons,
swords, and coins) is characterized by a series of supplementary cards, the trionfi, which we call “trumps”
and that esoterists name the “major arcana”.
Marziano da Tortona, at the request of the Duke of Milan, Phillipe Marie Visconti. One of the two – it's
unknown which – had the brilliant idea of adding to the regular cards a series of sixteen cards (versus
twenty-two for tarot), always superior to the others and representing the gods of Olympus.
If cards come from the east, this innovation was a pivotal western contribution: the invention of the trump.
Tarot would be born from this proto-tarot, fifteen years later. The replacement of the name trionfi by tarocco
came about for an unknown reason around 1500, without the rules or the cards changing.
deduction (the tare weight, or lowest empty weight, to be deducted from the gross weight), for, in tarot,
we "deduct” certain cards before playing: that’s the aside. The guttural ending of the Italian dialect taroch
was dropped for the French tarot, recorded since 1505 as shown in the writing “tarau(x)”.
Due to its complexity and the memory that it requires, tarot is a game for the elite and not for the average person,
but it was very quickly disseminated. Between its creation and 1500, it won the entire Italian peninsula, then
entering France through Lyon. Half a century later, it arrived in German-speaking Switzerland which named it Troggenspiel –
the Swiss German having taken the first syllable from taroch. It didn't win over Germany until 1715 and then
scattered through Northern Europe and up to Russia.
who wouldn't develop a passion nor interest until recently, in the divinatory version.
the reading of the hidden face of the present or to foresee the future. To when does this occultist branch date back?
This divinatory usage is a reimagining of the game of tarot, starting in the years 1770-1780 when two phenomena appeared.
During these years we have the first traces of evidence of any popular use for divination with, in Provence,
an article mentioning a woman who professed to find lost objects. Arrested, she was thrown in a straitjacket with a
tarot crown on her head. This incident attests to the use of tarot cards among a much larger array of methods than divination.
Antoine Court de Gébelin (1725-1784) and Louis de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet (1727-1803). A mysterious scholar, who was prominent
in his day but is little known of today, Court de Gébelin would embark on the colossal encyclopedic work entitled The Primeval World,
Analyzed and Compared to the Modern World, of which 9 volumes appeared between 1773 and 1782.
it would be a premonition, of a sort, of prehistory-, of which he would aim to decipher the traces of. It is in the eighth
tome of The Primeval World, released in 1781, that a historic archeology of divinatory tarot was attempted for the first time.
This passage was written by Court de Gébelin and by another under a pseudonym, who has been identified as Comte de Mellet, officer
and governor of Perche, of whose life little is known. He likely would have been a Freemason, as was Court de Gébelin
who would have met him in a lodge.
seeing hieroglyphic texts- and adding to this pseudo-history a pinch of Jewish Kabbalah and some bohemian influence.
This previous reading to Champollion is, well understood to be, completely fictitious. The wild theory accounts for the Egyptomania
of the era, which was particularly common in Masonic Lodges, but also the frantic pursuit towards the irrational that emerged in the
18th century, as a reaction to the omnipotence of the rationalism promoted by the Lumières.
as a reaction to the rationalism of the Lumières.”
At the same time, a certain Etteilla (Jean-Baptiste Alliette, 1738-1791) was inspired by Court de Gébelin "reading”
the cards and published the world's earliest cartomancy manual, which he named by the neologism of cartonomancie égyptienne,
known today as “Tarot Egyptien”. These publications would open the doors to the occultist reading of tarot.
to be read or the future predicted. What is known about the origin of these major arcana?
The origin of the trumps, or the major arcana, is currently unknown. But a consensus emerged over the Christian influence on them,
which is particularly prominent in the hierarchical sequencing of these twenty-two trumps.
These first describe a journey through the terrestrial world with the Fool – a merchant-, then the pairs Pope-Popess
and Emperor-Empress. This journey continues with the vicissitudes of human life (the Chariot, Justice, the Lovers, Death,
the Devil...) to conclude with a path of light (with the Star, the Moon, the Sun) leading up to the World and Judgment.
The names "Tarot de Marseille” or "Tarot de Besançon” could divert non-practitioners. How are these variations connected?
The names essentially came from esoteric circles of the second half of the 14th century. During this period, the practice
of playing tarot declined over time and shifted towards French-suited tarot (spades, diamonds, hearts, and clubs). It only survived
because of two Italian style tarot manufacturers in Marseille, from which comes the name Tarot de Marseille.The same thing happened
in Franche-Comté, around 1900, with the abandonment of local tarot for the “new tarot”. The Tarot de Besançon, whose only difference
with the Tarot de Marseille is the replacement of the pair Popess-Pope with the pair Junon-Jupiter (which in reality took place in Strasbourg),
was only produced in this city.
“The removal of the Popess trump handled the Catholics, whereas that of the Pope appeased the Reformed.”
This substition of figures is connected to the controversial character of the Popess, who for the Catholic church, expels
a shameful tale that the Protestants are delighted to resurrect- a removal of this trump was thus demanded by the legatus of Bologna
at the beginning of the 18th century.
For the Tarot de Besançon, my theory is that something similar to Strasbourg likely happened, around 1715-1720: the removal of the Popess
handled the Catholics whereas that of the Pope appeased the Reformed, who were plentiful in Alsace.
How was divinatory tarot passed from devout practitioners to being practiced by the general public that we see at the moment?
The divinator usage would experience a boom in the middle of the 19th century, under the influence of Eliphas Lévi (Alphonse-Louis Constant,
1810-1875), a man qualified as a “great renovator of occultism in France” according to his biographer Paul Chacornac (1884-1964).
This person would be pivotal for the dissemination of this practice. But, up until the end of the century, its usage remained one of
intellectual bourgeoisies or writers, such as Gérard de Nerval.
Another important figure later intervened with Papus (Gérard Encausse, 1865-1916), a doctor whose talent was first to synthesize plenty
of more or less serious esoteric knowledge and reiterate it in a clear way. From this came the success of his books such as The Tarot of
the Bohemians (1889), which would play a part in the international expansion of the occult usage.
But it's after the first world war that occult tarot would conquer the United States. In return, the dissemination of divinatory tarot
to the general public was followed by New Age culture. A popularization in the 1970's is noticeable. This continues today, notably under the
influence of figures such as director and French-Chilean artist Alejandro Jodorowsky, whose books on the subject have been translated through
the entire world. As for the game of cards itself, its life continues in France, as well as in Austria and some other countries, such as Denmark.
Without becoming more popular or losing ground, it still continues to allure the young.
Translator's Note
Although definitely a challenge, Comment le jeu de tarot est devenu un objet divinatoire was an absolute pleasure to translate. The most obvious
challenges were linguistic, stemming from the innate differences between the French and English languages, but there is always the consideration
to discursive issues and any socio-cultural knowledge needed. Keeping the authorial voice consistent was something which I assigned a high level of
importance to and something that came up often when translating the text. An unexpected example of this is in the subtitle in the phrase “new age”,
written precisely this way in the source text. While at first glance this should be a verbatim translation, in English, the norm is “New Age”
capitalized. So the question of whether or not to capitalize arises. Although “New Age” is by and large the norm, “new age” is far from incorrect,
and I found the same to be true in French. So, I assume that the choice was made in the source text to go against the norm and not capitalize,
which from my further readings of Thierry Depaulis’ works, I feel I can safely assume was a conscious decision as I don’t believe he thinks very
highly of “new age” as a whole.
Keeping the authorial voice consistent came up in a broader scope when considering the register of the text as well as deciding whether to break
up sentences for ease of reading. The big issue here is another inherent difference between the usage of the target language and the source language.
In French it is far more natural and common to use longer sentences and exacting language, while in English maintaining equivalence in this area
renders a text that feels of a higher register. I made the decision to maintain this overall tone and register as much as possible with the
justification that the text is not necessarily written for the average person.
Syntactical issues at times brought up the question of whether to add detail to avoid awkwardness or confusion. An example of this is translating
“qui provient de son innovation majeure” which translated simply as “which comes from its major innovation” sounds awkward in English, like a
thought left unfinished. Here I felt adding detail for clarity was necessary. I almost went with “its major innovation to card games” but decided
that “games” was adding too much detail, as tarot is clearly more than just a card game. Another linguistic issue that came up was foreignization,
whether it be keeping them or introducing new ones. The source text uses a second language, Italian, several times and even a third language once.
In all of these intances such as “trionfi,” “tarocco,” “ tarroch,” and “troggenspiel,” I chose to keep the foreignizations that were already there.
In one case, I chose to introduce a new foreignization into the target text, “tarau(x).” In this instance, keeping the word the same was vital on
a graphic level due to the emphasis on the spelling of the word in the source text. This was an easier decision to make because of all the existing
foreignizations.
The single most time-consuming aspect of this translation was all of the socio-cultural knowledge that was required to accurately translate a lot of
the terminology specific to tarot, both as a game and its divinatory usage. Because of the informative nature of the article as well as
Thierry Depaulis’ expertise in the field, it was of utmost importance to correctly translate the tarot specific terminology. Some of this came very
easily due to my familiarity with the subject, so I knew to keep “Tarot de Marseille” and “Tarot de Besançon" the same because that is how they are
known in America, as well as translating “la coupe, le bâton, l'épée, et le denier” to “cups, batons, swords, and coins". But I was entirely at a
loss as to how to translate "l’écart,” a gaming specific term and spent a considerable amount of time down the rabbit hole of various game rules in
order to figure out its link with “le chien” from other popular trick-taking games and from there was able to accurately translate it to the English,
tarot specific term “the aside".
There is only one example of a translation that I was left unhappy with, “une couronne de tarot", an obscure reference to the first evidence of tarot
being used in any way other than a game. I spent the most time researching this than anything else in this text and am still at a loss as to what
Depaulis is actually referring to, despite researching in English, French, Spanish and even a little in Italian. That being said, I'm fairly
certain that my translation of "tarot crown” will be no more obscure than the source text to most readers, as I was truly unable to find anything
else referencing this.