With that being said, the story of the “official” tarot cards, began in northern Italy in the fifteenth century AD.
Tarot cards probably originated in Italy in the 14th century since the earliest known explanation of their usage dates to 1391.
You should be wondering “Where do tarot cards come from?”
The most widespread tarot cards are that of Marseille, but little or nothing is known about this. It is only known that decks spread to Marseille, but it is not known where they came from or who created it. It is not even known the origin of the term tarot, different explanations have attributed the following languages.
Some have found that tarot cards were invented by the Romani people as a fortune-telling tool. Tarot is not a game.. It’s a serious, mystical spiritual practice. Tarot decks were designed for telling fortunes. Tarot is occult, pagan, satanic, anti-Christian.
In France, writer Antoine Court de Gébelin asserted that the tarot was based on a holy book written by Egyptian priests and brought to Europe by Gypsies from Africa. In reality, tarot cards predated the presence of Gypsies in Europe, who actually came from Asia rather than Africa.
While reading we ran into the question “Why are tarot cards linked to ancient Egypt?”.
By linking tarot imagery to Egyptian mysticism, they gave the cards greater credibility. Building on Court de Gébelin’s Egyptian connection, Etteilla claimed that tarot cards originated with the legendary Book of Thoth, which supposedly belonged to the Egyptian god of wisdom.
When did tarot cards come to be used?
Lets look at some of the early decks of Tarot cards, and the history of how these came to be used as more than just a parlor game. The ancestors of what we today know as Tarot cards can be traced back to around the late fourteenth century.
When did tarot cards become popular for divination?
It appears that divination with playing cards started to become popular in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, although at that time, it was far more simple than the way we use Tarot today.
The 18th century saw tarot’s greatest revival, during which it became one of the most popular card games in Europe, played everywhere except Ireland and Britain, the Iberian peninsula, and the Ottoman Balkans. French tarot experienced another revival beginning in the 1970s and France has the strongest tarot gaming community.
One frequent answer is, the oldest surviving tarot cards are the 15 or so Visconti-Sforza tarot decks painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan.
When was the first tarot deck made?
What can be told for certain is that the earliest deck known in Europe was the Venetian Pack, according to Benham. It was produced in Lombardy around the year 1320 and consisted of four suits of ten cards with four court cards per suit. It also included the twenty-two trump cards which in modern Tarot are known as the Major Arcana.
Where does the word Tarot come from?
For some it comes from taroté, the back of the first crossed-striped cards or by tarotiers, the makers of the first cards, and others by the god thot. In short, nothing sure is known about the tarot.
Then, what was the original purpose of tarot?
Tarot as Divination In both France and Italy, the original purpose of Tarot was as a parlor game, not as a divinatory tool. It appears that divination with playing cards started to become popular in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, although at that time, it was far more simple than the way we use Tarot today.