The Origins of the Tarot De Marseilles
About the origin of the Tarot de Marseilles, we know few things but we can however say that the Tarot de Marseille play appeared in France under the reign of the king Charles VI.
When this poor king became insane, he was locked up in a castle by his wife Isabeau of Bavaria.
She provided him a mistress, Odette de Champdivert, who offered a deck of Tarot cards to him.
In fact, these Tarot cards were composed by 56 pieces of paperboard decorated with figures and signs. This play was used by Sarasins in the Eastern countries.
Charles VI asked to Jacquemin Gringonneur to redraw the figures in order to make them look prettier.
Some claim that the first illuminations of the cards appeared in Italy during the 16th century but the work of Jacquemin Gringonneur is indexed on the journal of Charles VI’s banker (15th century).
The Tarot we talk about here was not a divinatory Tarot but well a card play ; which still exists and is still used in Mediterranean countries as a simple cards play.
Since there are no documents establishing the year when the Tarot cards were created, the opinions are divided and the experts seldom agree between them.
The divinatory “Tarot de Marseilles” was born from the play offered to Charles VI. Twenty-two major arcana were associated to the fifty-six basic cards (minor arcana). Fortune-tellers use more major arcana than the minor arcana.
The graphics of the Tarot de Marseilles look medieval style and reflect perfectly the concerns of our ancestors, who were very superstitious and interpreted all what they saw.
Here are the 22 major
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