known as tarocchi appropriate. These recitations were performed to flatter Ladies of the Court, Nobility and exalted Religious Leaders. As early as the 16th Century, bards were creating composition that described and ascribed certain personality characteristics. In one case a verse related to a person’s fate.
Although there is no proof of “illicit” use of decks of cards for activities such as witchcraft, Inquisition Records show that in a 1589 Venetian trial, the cards were vilified and citizens accused of using them for witchcraft. However, during this time, accusations and trials were easy to produce. Factual evidence was missing more often than not. There is no historical documentation, even from the Inquisition, that shows The Catholic Church regarded Tarot or Playing Card Decks as heresy. They were occasionally banned because of their use in gambling, but were often found exempt from bans perhaps because they were used to amuse the upper class.
There is no conclusive evidence that Trump Decks were designed for divination usage. However, there are records of divinatory meanings assigned to the card in early 16th Century Bologna. Playing cards were connected to divination as early as 1487, so conjecture would include the Trump Decks. In the latter 16th Century, and as evidenced by Ettella’s deck, tarot decks began to be modified and created with divinatory and esoteric meanings.
It is likely that divinatory and esoteric meanings existed before the creation of this deck. The early Renaissance was a time of intellectual activity. Strong roots for Hermeticism, Astrology, Neo-Platonism, and Pythagorean Philosophy still existed. Many of these intellectual activities the descendants of the Cultural Slaves