So now to the 1797 text, which I think I have tracked down in the form of an 1802 reprint.
I start with Decker, Depaulis and Dummett (DDD) pp. 97-98, immediately after their discussion of the 1791 document:
Most of the material from L'art de lire dans les cartes of 1791 appears [start p. 98] to have been used in a little book which came out six years later, Le Tireur de cartes, ou le cartonomancien (Paris, Deroy, year V/1797). (65)
So we go to note 65, which Huck posted recently:
"An VI" would be 1798. I found
Le Bohemien listed in an 1802 edition precisely as described by DDD, joined with
Le Petit Escamoteur (The little slight-of-hand artist). The University of Chicago was kind enough, for a small fee, to copy the relevant pages for me. plus samples of the other two sections, on dream interpretation and magic tricks (the Escamoteur). DDD say somewhere that Saint Sauveur spent some years as a stage magician. I want to say more about the book than DDD do.
The first page of the pdf has the heading "LE PETIT MAGICIEN, ou explication des Songes qui ont rapport avec la Lotterie" (The little magician, or explicaton of the Dreams that have a connection with the lottery). Then there is sub-heading A, followed by rows of words beginning with A. After each one are numbers, thus:
ABBAYE, 73, 85.
Abbé, 6, 38, 44.
Abbeille, 3, 38, 86.
and so on. Some words only get one number, e.g. "Demoiselle, 10. Danse, 8." Presumably they are numbers to play, if you dream of the thing named, but I don't understand why it is sometimes one, sometimes two, and sometimes three numbers. Perhaps it is assumed that if you dream of a demoiselle you will dream of something else in the book, I don't know.
Then comes the frontispiece and title page:
On the next page we see the heading "AU BEAU SEXE, ET A TOUS LES AMATEURS DE LA CARTONOMANCIE." It is the editor speaking:
AU BEAU SEXE,
ET A TOUS LES AMATEURS
DE LA CARTONOMANCIE.
AUJOURD'HUI, avec tout l'appareil d'une saine philosophie, les deux tiers de l'humanité se font tirer les cartes pour savoir ce qui doit leur arriver; et ce qu'il y a de plus plaisant, c'est que les sages, qui ont l'air de tourner en ridicule cet amusement [start p. 4] superstitieux s'en occupent, et quelquesuns y croyent.
Pour moi qui ait toute l'apparence d'un croyant; qui sembla vouloir accréditer l'erreur par ce livre dont je fais hommage au beau Sexe, je dois faire ici de bonne-foi l'aveu public que je crois les secrets de l'avenir impénétrables a notre curiosité, et que je suis convaincu qu'ils sont au-dessus des connoissances humaines. Mon objet se borne seulement à rendra plus agréable et moins pénible un passe-temps de pure fantaisie, par ce livre propre à suppléer aux idées arbitraires que chaque [start p. 7] Cartonomancien attache aux cartes sans significations écrites.
Joint à l'agrément de voir dans les cartes, avec les significations que je leur attache, ce qu'on desire savoir, on peut encore, avec un peu de pratique , s'instruire bientôt de toutes les vraies significations, et en faire soi - même une juste application : on épargnera, avec ce secours, à peu de frais, l'argent qu'on donne aux oracles de la Cartonomancie, ou tout au moins il sera aisé de se garantir de toute supercherie, et d'être dupe d'une interprétation captieuse qu'on donne selon les [start p. 8] circonstances à telles cartes, et d'après nos alentours intéressés à nous tromper. Puisse donc ce petit ouvrage mériter le suffrage du beau Sexe, en faveur de l'intention et du désir bien sincère de contribuer à son amusement.
(TODAY, with all the apparatus of a sound philosophy, two-thirds of humanity have card readings to know what must happen to them; and what is more pleasant, the sages, who make a show of ridiculing this superstitious amusement, occupy themselves with it, and some believe in it.
For me who has all the appearance of a believer, who seemed to want to accredit error with this book by which I do homage to the fair sex, I must here in good faith make public confession that I believe the secrets of the future impenetrable to our curiosity and that I am convinced that they are beyond human knowledge. My object confines itself to rendering more agreeable and less painful a pastime of pure fantasy, by this book capable of supplying the arbitrary ideas which every [start p 7] Cartonomancer attaches to cards without written meanings.
Together with the pleasure of seeing in the cards, with the meanings which I attach to them, what one wishes to know, one can still, with a little practice, soon learn all the true meanings and make oneself - also an appropriate application – spared, with this help, at little cost, the money given to the oracles of Cartonomancy; or at least it will be easy to guard against any deceit, from being duped by a captious interpretation given according to the circumstances to such cards, and according to those around us interested in deception. May this little work deserve the vote of the fair sex in favor of the intention and the sincere desire to contribute to its amusement.)
It is the disclaimer before a text that praises cartonomancy and the great Etteilla to the skies. Hopefully the police will stop reading here. We must bear in mind the year. Although the revolutionary calendar is still used, Napoleon is in power and the Church is getting back its land and power. There is also the danger of lawsuits. Anyway, it is good advice.
After this introduction, pages 6 through 19 are word for word the same as the introduction to the LWB of the current "Pettit Etteilla" by France Cartes (except that France Cartes has an obvious typo on p. 22 of the English translation, putting "6" instead of "16" as the number of one of the cards in the sample reading). The interpretations are for a 12 card reading and do in fact use what is on the current Cartes France "Petit Etteilla" cards (which themselves correspond, except for additional meanings for certain pairs of cards, to what is in the 1773 edition of Etteilla's first published book of 1770). It is an instruction manual for the Petit Etteilla, to be used either with an ordinary piquet deck or the special one that DDD tell us (note that Saint-Sauveur has started selling.
On p. 20 the editor begins a third section, with his second method of reading the cards of a Piquet deck, that of the "tireuses", i.e. lady card-readers. These card-intepretations resemble those of the Petit Etteilla and also, where different, those of the Etteilla tarot in the ordinary suits, but with more variety than either. Etteilla's name is not mentioned. Perhaps the meanings are those of the Petit Oracle des Dames, but I haven't checked.
There follows another "Maniere de tirer les cartes", using a layout of 15 cards. I have not determined what set of card meanings go with this section's example or examples (I am not yet sure what is a new example and what is merely another solution to an example already given). It seems to be a continuaton of the other. This is quite an interesting section, quite different from anything I've seen by Etteilla. Since his name is still not mentioned, not even as the name of a card, I assume that it is a kind of parallel track; there are similarities and differences. However for now I will skip it.
So we come to p. 45, the part DDD are talking about. I give the French followed by my translation:
Avis sur le Petit Etéilla.
POUR remplir le but que je me suis proposé de ne laisser ignorer aucune des manières de tirer les cartes, je crois devoir transcrire textuellement un petit ouvrage de quelques feuilles qui parut sur la fin de l'année 1771, sous le titre du Petit Éteilla.
Les lecteurs en apprécieront le mérite en le comparant avec les différens procédés indiqués dans le corps de cet ouvrage
[start p. 46]
Avis de l'Editeur qui mit au jour ce petit traité en 1771.
CE petit ouvrage parut sur la fin de 1771; dans la seule intention qu'avoit l'auteur d'en faire present à ses amis. Un exemplaire m'ayant tombé entre les mains au commencement de 1772, je fus voir cet auteur et lui demander ia permission d'eu faire part au publie (je dis la permission, parce que je suis en droit de dire qu'il ne seroit point nécessaire de privilège exclusif, si les hommes étoint et pensoient comme moi à ce sujet.) Eteilla fut plus loin, et crut me devoir des obligations de réimprimer ce petit amusement, duquel il n'avoit prétendu tirer aucun parti; ayant donné cette manière de tirer les cartes a l'âge de quinze ou seize ans, et l'ayant vérifiée juste à celui de trente-trois. Flatté de son honnêteté, je n'ai rien changé au dit ouvrage; ce que lui-même et ses amis [start p. 47] pourront justifier: j'en exempte pourtant une petite note marquée d'une *, comme question que je me fis, et que de retour chez moi, je mis en écrit suivant sa réponse, mot à mot.
Si je ne parlois particulièrement d'Etteilla, plusieurs personnes pourroient me soupçonner d'ingratitude. Cet homme vraiment honnête et sociable, est unique dans son genre, et la plus grande preuve est en son zodiaque mystérieux, toute fois qu'on ne s'attache point à la superficie, mais au fond. C'est une grande ville, dont la plupart, même des litérateurs, ne peuvent voir que les dehors... Peu de gens ont porté cet art aussi loin que cet auteur. Nous attendons de lui: 1°. La manière de tirer les cartes appelées tarots. 2°. Le combat de cinq contre quatre-vingt-cinq. 3°. Eteilla [sic] dévoile sincèrement de grands mystères sous un autre titre. 4°- Il est des génies: le moyen de de n'en point douter, c’est en les voyant. S'ensuit beaucoup [start p. 48] coup de commentateurs aux abois. Enfin, ce n'est pas, au rapport des anciens et modernes savans, les ignorans qui voyent, pénètrent et lisent dans les mysterieux secrets des sciences occultes.
Je ne dirai qu'un mot des sieurs Barbannaa (car ils sont deux), pensant en cela plus, sagement quecertains de nos excellens hommes cpii, en citant et prouvant l'ignorance des historiens, nous les ont trop fait connoître, et qui eussent mieux fait de les laisser ensevelis sous la poussière. Ainsi, les sieur Barbannaa, pour rendre leur oeuvre complette, auront la bonté de ne point répondre seulement à onze questions, mais à onze mille, ou qu'ils ne se donnent point pour des démonstrateurs en les tirages de cartes. Ils ont eu l'absurdité de dire qu'il falloit couper de la main droite; qu'ils lisent le grand Eteilla [sic]: certes, ils eussent mieux fait de suivre le fameux Eteilla [sic], leur devancier, leur maitre, que si mal innover; et leur quatre sept, qu'ils nous donnent pour [start 49[ quatre filles, sont aussi mal controuvés que leur nom de Barbannaa, qu'ils avaient inventé pour faire discord avec le vrai nom d'Eteilla. Le tirage des cartes n'est vraiment qu'un amusement. Mais qui croiroit, que, comme en autre matière, il advint de faux disciples qui veuillent sacter? Heureux quand on peut arrêter sissi subitement de pareils esprits pestilentieux, et les ranger à leur devoir! Ah! vil intérêt, où conduis-tu les hommes? a la perte d'eux-mêmes et de leurs semblables, car, en un mot, sans cette annonce, le trouble arrivoit dans ce tirage de cartes, et l'amant eût cm sa maîtresse infidelle par les fausses lumières des Annabarbannaa. Soit dit à la postérité, Eteilla est le premier qui a écrit sur ce tirage de cartes et a donné la seule et vraie Manière: qui ne l'entend pas n'est pas né pour être Cartonomancien.
And my translation thus far, incorporating words and sentences translated by DDD in bold print
Forward to the Petit Etéilla.
In order to fulfill the object which I have proposed, that of permitting myself to be ignorant of no method of reading cards, I believe I ought to transcribe verbatim a small work of a some folios which appeared at the end of the year 1771, under the title of The Petit Éteilla.
Readers will appreciate its merit by comparing it with the different procedures indicated in the body of this work.
Forward by the Editor who uncovered this little treatise in 1771.
This little work appeared at the end of 1771, with the author's sole intention to make a present of it to his friends. A copy having fallen into my hands at the beginning of 1772, I was seen by this author [DDD have: visited him], and I asked his permission to inform the public (I say permission, because I am right in saying that an exclusive privilege would not be necessary if others were and thought like me). Eteilla [sic] was far away, and I thought it my duty to reprint this little amusement, of which he had not pretended to derive any advantage. He had given this manner of drawing the cards when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, and having verified it just at thirty-three. Flattered by his honesty, I have not changed anything in the said work, which he and his friends will be able to justify--I exempt from it, however, a small note, marked with a *, as a question which I had--and which, on my return to my house, I put in writing, following his response word for word.
If I did not speak particularly of Etteilla, some people might suspect me of ingratitude. This truly honest and hospitable man is unique in his genus, and the greatest proof is in his Zodiac mysterieuse, which always does not remain at the surface but at the depths. It is a large city, most of which, even by literary men, can only be seen on the outside. Few people have carried this art as far as this author. We expect from him: 1st. The manner of drawing cards called tarots, 2nd. The fight of five against eighty-five. 3rd. Eteilla sincerely reveals great mysteries under another title. 4th. There are geniuses: the means of not doubting it is by seeing them. There follow many (48) coup [cuts?] of commentators at bay. Finally, in rapport with ancient and modern savants, it is not the ignorant who see, penetrate and read the mysterious secrets of the occult sciences.
DDD interpret points 1-4 as prospective titles of books he planned to write, of which only the first is familiar to us. The last sentence (not in bold) seems to me a reference to the belief, expressed for example by Alberti in
Ten Books on Architecture, that the ancients, not only the Egyptians but even the Romans, wrote their most profound wisdom in pictures called hieroglyphs--and the tarot was precisely hieroglyphs in that sense--enigmatic pictures that would be intelligible to the wise of every age but not to the ignorant.
I continue, still translating the editor's forward (this whole passage omitted by DDD; it is important only for the style):
I will only say one word of the sires Barbannaa (for they are two), thinking more wisely than some of our excellent men, citing and proving the ignorance of historians, who have made them too well known, and who would have been better to left buried under the dust. Thus the sires Barbannaa, in order to render their work complete, will have the goodness not to reply only to eleven questions, but to eleven thousand, or not represent themselves as demonstrators in the printing of cards. They had the absurdity to say that it was necessary to cut with the right hand; that they read [in?] the great Eteilla [sic]. Certainly they would have done better to follow the famous Eteilla [sic], their predecessor, their master, than so poorly to innovate. And their four seven[s], which they give us for [start 49] four girls, are as ill-founded as their Barbannaa name that they invented to make discord with the true name of Eteilla. Drawing cards is really just an amusement. But who would believe that, as in other matters, there would come false disciples who wanted to know? Happy when you can stop with sufficient subtlety such pestilentious spirits, and put them to task Ah! Vile interest, where do you lead men? To the loss of themselves and their fellows, for in a word, without this announcement, trouble arose in this drawing of cards, and the lover had his infidel mistress by the false lights of the Annabarbannaa. Eteilla is the first who wrote on that drawing of cards and gave the only true way: who does not hear it is not born to be a Cartonomancian.
By the "four sevens" as "girls" (filles), I think he means identifying the 7s with girls (as opposed to women) of various hair colors. As we will see, Etteilla identifies only two cards in this way: the 8 of hearts, with a blonde girl, and the 8 of clubs (trefles) with a brunette. This passage is probably what DDD are referring to when they say that "the style strongly resembles Etteilla's own peculiar style." Then they ask "Would it be the 'abrégé de la cartonomancie' that our magus has always claimed to have written in 1753?" But this part, the most peculiar, is still in the editor's introduction. Perhaps it is what the editor went home and wrote down before he forgot it, but didn't put in the main body of the 1771 publication because it had been orally communicated to him. On the other hand, a few sentences in the previous paragraph are also rather odd.
Now comes the little work that the editor says Etteilla printed in 1771. It, too, has an odd style, but more in the manner of his other writing of the time. The brackets around the asterisk are parentheses in the original, but I have to use brackets; otherwise it comes out a gold star. I am continuing to put what DDD translate in bold--or at least trying to; I can't seem to get this Forum to let me use both italics and bold together:
[start p. 50]
LE PETIT ETEILLA.
Vous avez un jeu ordinaire de trente-deux cartes, et vous y ajoutez absolument une trente-troisième qui doit être blanche, ce qui est facile, en effaçant un as d'un autre jeu parce que vous qui êtes femme brune, vous ne pourriez voir sans cette trente - troisième carte, si une autre femme brune vous seroit utile ou nuisible, etc. Or donc, vous serez représentée par cette carte blanche; & toutes les fois qu'elle ne paroîtra pas dans le coup que vous aurez tiré pour vous, cela signifiera que vous avez grande inquiétude.
Ainsi il faut commencer par écrire les noms qu'ont vos cartes, comme je vais vous le désigner, c'est-è-dire, telles que le premier inventeur du tirage des cartes [start 51] les a nommées; petite anecdote que je ne trouve citée qu'en un très-ancien manuscrit dont je suis posesseur. Que le savant ou plutôt le demi-sciencé, ne se récria point sur l'expression très-ancien; car j'ai l'avantage de lui dire que le tirage de cartes ne provient pas des cartes, mais du jeu dès trente trois bâtons d'Alpha [*], nom d'un grec réfugié en Espagne, et qui predisoit l'avenir; témoin la défaite des romains: autre anecdote.
(You have an ordinary deck of thirty-two cards, and you absolutely add a thirty-third that must be blank, which is easy: erasing an ace from another deck because you are a dark-haired woman, you would not be able to see, without this thirty-third card, whether another dark-haired woman would be useful or harmful to you, etc. Now, you will be represented by this blank card; And whenever it does not appear in the cut [i.e. the cards] which you have drawn for yourself, it will signify that you have great uneasiness.
Thus, it is necessary to begin by writing the names which your cards have, as I shall designate them to you, that is to say, as the first inventor of card-reading named them. A little anecdote which I find cited only in a very old manuscript that I own. The learned man, or rather the semi-scientist, did not shrink from very ancient expression; For I have the advantage of telling him that card reading does not come from cards, but from the game of the thirty-three sticks of Alpha *, name of a Greek refugee in Spain, who predicted the future; witness the defeat of the Romans: another anecdote.)
This is of course peculiar. One bit of vagueness is in what relationship the old manuscript has to the story about the thirty-three sticks of Alpha. DDD read Etteilla as saying that he was "inspired" by an old manuscript he owned. The text has "je ne trouve citée qu'en": "I find cited only in", followed by the very odd sentence that DDD omit. Then there is the asterisk after Alpha's name, in parentheses (in brackets here). It directs us to the bottom of the page, which says (with my translation in parentheses):
[*] Attribué à la puissance de la déesse des forêts.
([*] Attributed to the power of the goddess of the forests.)
Here is DDD's speculation about all that (pp. 98-99):
Oddly enough, seers in the forests of West Africa still invoke the god Fa, a spirit who presides over divination by geomancy, which requires the casting of pebbles, shells, or nuts. The name of this practice is fa or ifa, a word descending from the Arabic al-fa'l, meaning "omen, lot, or fortune". Geomancy itself is of Arabic origin, and one wonders if Eteilla's little myth could be a confused account of a geomantic system reaching France from Moorish Spain. In any case, Alpha's preferred 33 must have induced Etteilla to use groups of 33 of thirty-three cards in his Tarot format and to improve the Piquet pack by adding his special card, the "Etteilla".
This all strikes me as far-fetched. The Piquet pack was used for cartomancy independently of Etteilla. We have that on Etteilla's own authority, from his account of the three elderly people, and from de Mellet or his cook, who attached quite different meanings to the individual cards from those of Etteilla's 1770 work and so must be considered an indendent source. Alpha's 33 most likely comes from Etteilla's 32 + 1 and not the other way around.
One did not have to be familiar with West Africa to know about geomancy. It was studied in Europe at least since the 12th century, with numerous accounts based on Arab sources. Recent search on the inventories of private Venetian libraries around 1500 reveal that many people of the professional class (doctors, lawyers) owned geomancy manuals. After the mid-16th century the most accessible means would have been by reading Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books on Philosophy. It was also on many lists of condemned arts, especially after the Council of Trents. Unless someone can actually produce a text known in the 18th century connecting the word "al-if" for "omen" with "ifa" of geomancy (which DDD patently do not).
As for the goddess of the forest, one problem is the asterisk, which the editor says he added, based on something Etteilla said. Let us assume that the editor got it right. I would note that in Roman Empire paganism, Diana was the goddess of the forests, and she was one form of the triform goddess Hecate, considered patron deity of witches, etc. Her memory far outlasted the Roman Empire, in that people accused of witchcraft told of the power of Diana to convey them places and help them with their magic (see e.g.
The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft, at
https://books.google.com/books?id=Df5NL ... on&f=false, or Lea
History of the Medieval Inquisition, vol. 3 p. 496, at
https://books.google.com/books?id=YwPB1 ... na&f=false). It would not surprise me if Etteilla had read some lurid tale about Diana helping those casting whatever they cast into magic circles, and that in this way Greeks fleeing pro-Nicean Christian Greater Greece, the center of such magic, could have been held accountable for pagan survivals, Visigoth victories against the Romans in Spain, and the spread of the Arian heresy, which the Visigoths found quite sensible for a time. Indeed, I see that Arianism was spread to the Goths and Visigoths by none other than a Greek named Ulfilas (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulfilas), a name that is not Greek but Goth (meaning wolf) but sounds close to Alpha. Ulfila did not go to Spain, but he did convert Goths, who converted Visigoths, and the Visigoths conquered Spain, maintaining the Arian heresy. Unlike (I imagine) the etymology of West African magical terms, his name was of some note in Etteilla's time; he even had a glacier named after him, Wikipeida says, on an island of Antarctica toward South America. Some such story, or combinations of stories, in Etteilla's mind, perhaps with a restoration of Ulfilas's "true" name to something more Greek, reminiscent of Allietta's own (as Huck notices), would explain the defeat of the Romans (by Goths and Visigoths) by means of casting sticks in a magic circle (in legends about Gaul or "Storied Spain"), and the Greek refugee (from orthodoxy) in Spain (taken by the Visigoths). The goddess of the forests is the one in charge of magic circles done there. All that is missing is the number 33, which Etteilla himself can supply.
However it still remains to be seen whether there are significant correspondences between geomantic associations--there were 16 of them--and the 32 of Etteilla's
abrégé. Here they are, suit by suit (plus of course the Etteilla card), first in French and then English:
Les Coeurs.
L E ROI Un bomme blond.
LA DAME . . . . Une femme blonde.
LE VALET . . . . Un garçon blond.
L'AS Bouteille, table.
LE DIX La ville où l'on est.
LE NEUF Victoire.
LE HUIT Une fille blonde.
LE SEPT La pensée.
[start p. 52]
Les Caros.
LE ROI C'est un homme.
LA DAME . . . . Une femme.
LE VALET . . . . Un militaire.
—lors qu'il a les pieds
en haut ... Un domestique.
L' AS ... Lettres ou nouvelles.
LE DIX ... Or.
—à côté des mauvais piques Courroux.
LE NEUF . . . . Retard.
LE HUIT ... Campagne.
LE SEPT . . . . . Caquets.
Les Trèfles.
LE ROI . . . . . .Un homme brun.
LA DAME . . . . Une femme brune.
LE VALET . . . . Garçon brun.
L' AS . . . . . . . Beaucoup d'argent.
LE DIX . . . . . . La maison.
LE NEUF . . . . Un présent.
[start 53]
LE HUIT . . . Une fille brune.
LE SEPT . . . l’Argent.
Sur la carte blanche vous écrivez Eteilla, ou vous ne l'écrivez pas, mais vous serez
toujours représenté par cette carte.
Les Piques.
LE ROI . . Homme de robe
-— renversé. .. . Homme veuf.
LA DAME ...Femme galante.
-— renversé ... Femme veuve.
LE VALET, . . Envoyé.
-— renversé, . . Un curieux.
L’AS , . . Amour.
-— renversé. . Grossesse.
LE DIX, . . Pleurs.
LE NEUF. . Ecclésiastique.
-— renversé, . Deuil.
LE HUIT. . . Maladie.
LE SEPT . , . Espérance.
(Hearts.
THE KING . . . . A blond man.
THE LADY . . . A blonde woman.
THE VALET . . . A blond boy.
The ACE. . . . . . Bottle, table.
THE TEN . . . . The city where we are.
THE NINE. . . . Victory.
THE EIGHT. . . A blonde girl.
THE SEVEN. . .Thought
Diamonds.
KING . . . . . . It's a man.
THE LADY . . A woman.
THE VALET ...A military man.
-when his feet are high ... A servant.
THE ACE ... Letters or news.
THE TEN ... Gold.
- next to low Spades, Anger.
THE NINE. . . . Delay.
THE EIGHT ... . Country.
THE SEVEN. . . .Gossip.
Clubs.
THE KING . . . . . A dark-haired man.
THE LADY . . . . A dark-haired woman.
THE VALET . . . . Dark-haired boy.
THE ACE. . . . . . A lot of money.
THE TEN . . . . . .The House.
THE NINE. . . . . A present.
THE EIGHT. . . . A dark-haired girl.
THE SEVEN. . . . Money.
On the blank card you write Eteilla, or you do not write it, but you will always be represented by this card.
Spades.
THE KING . . . . Man of the robe [lawyer, judge, jurist]
-- reversed. ... Widowed man.
THE LADY . . . . Gallant woman.
- reversed . . . Widowed woman.
THE VALET. . . Envoy.
-- reversed . . . A curious person.
The ACE . . . . Love.
-- reversed. . . Pregnancy.
THE TEN, . . . Tears.
THE NINE. . . . Ecclesiastic.
-- reversed . . Mourning.
THE EIGHT. . . Illness.
THE SEVEN. . . Hope.)
Except in Spades, these are precisely the upright meanings for the cards as they are presented in 1773. The only difference I see are (a) the bit about the Ten of Diamonds representing Anger if next to low Spades is removed, and (b) For the Ace of Hearts, "table" is given to the Reversed and the Upright to Mars (
https://books.google.com/books?id=CI85A ... uf&f=false and surrounding pages). In Spades, there are a a few exceptions: "widowed woman" in 1773 is the upright meaning, and the reversed, "gallant woman", changed to "woman of the world". Also, "Curious" is changed to "spy", "Love" to "Venus", and "Mourning" to "Saturn",. These are minor adjustments; he says that "Venus" means "lover of pleasure" and "Saturn" means "mortality of one who falls on it".
1773 also puts other things on the cards: "titles", both upright and reversed. These are omitted, as well as the numerous changes in meaning due to other nearby cards.
There is next (in the 1797 book) a section on how to use the cards thus prepared:
A présent que vous avez écrit sur vos trente- trois cartes la signification qu'elles ont, battez-les bien, coupez-les , et tirez-les suivant votre méthode , c'est-à-dire, comme vous voudrez; et lorsqu'elles seront sur table, vous les expliquerez l'une après l'autre, en observant que la première qui est à votre droite, et qui par conséquent a été tirée la première, a le commandement sur la seconde; la seconde, sur la troisième, et ainsi en suivant.
Exemple.
La première carte que vous avez, supposons, tirée, est le sept de trèfle; la seconde, la dame de trèfle; vous devez dire, c'est de l'argent qui vient à une femme brune. Si la dame de trèfle étoit venue la première, et le sept de trèfle la seconde, vous auriez dit: c'est une femme (55) brune qui enverra de l'argent; à qui ? à la première figure qui vient après.
Lorsque la carte qui désigne ecclésiastique vient entre garçon et fille, cela annonce un mariage. Si l’Eteilla upe l'une de ces deux places, le mariage est pour vous, et vous consulteriez la couleur de la figure qui est à l'oposite de vous.
Trois neuf, c'est bonne réussite.
Quatre rois, c'est grand honneur.
Plusieurs personnes tirent par trois cartes, et prennent la plus forte lorsqu'ils y a deux cartes de la même séquence; cela est bien.
Mais s'il vient trois cartes de la même séquence, il faut les mettre toutes trois telles qu'elles sont venues, chacun e àla suite.
S'il vient trois rois, trois dames, etc. il faut aussi mettre ces trois cartes.
Et lorsqu'en ce coup l'Eteilla paroît, il faut le mettre le premier, et si avec lui se
trouve deux caros, ou deux trèfles, ou (56) deux coeurs ou deux piques, il faut les mettre aussi. S'il se trouve deux cartes à la fin du jeu de la même séquence, il faut les
mettre.
S'il n'y a qu'une carte de reste à la fin du jeu, on ne la met pas.
(Now that you have written on your thirty-three cards the meaning which they have, shuffle them well, cut them, and draw them according to your method, that is to say, as you please; And when they are on the table, you will explain them one after the other, observing that the first one on your right, and therefore drawn first, has the command over the second; The second, the third, and so on.
Example.
The first card you have drawn, let us suppose, is the Seven of Clubs; the second, the Lady of Clubs. You have to say that money comes to a dark-haired woman. If the Lady of Clubs had come first, and the Seven of Clubs second, you would have said: it is a dark-haired woman who will send money. To whom? To the first figure that comes after.
When the card that designates Ecclesiastic comes between a boy and a girl, it announces a marriage. If the Eteilla takes one of these two places, the marriage is for you, and you would consult the suit of the figure which is next to you.
Three Nines is good success.
Four Kings, that is a great honor.
Several people draw by three cards, and take the strongest when there are two cards of the same sequence; This is fine.
But if there come three cards of the same sequence, you have to take [mettre] all three as they came, each one in succession.
If there come three Kings, three Ladies, etc., it is also necessary to take these three cards.
And when in this case the Eteilla appears, it must be taken first, and if with it are found two Diamonds, or two Clubs, or two Hearts or two Spades, they must also be taken. If there are two cards at the end of the game in the same sequence, it is necessary to take them.
If there is only one remaining card at the end of the game [jeu, also could mean "deck"], it is not taken.)
This is quite short. It is quite possibly an early draft. After that, in the 1797 book, comes another "Maniere de tirer les cartes", with yet another set of card meanings and instructions. They seems based on on the Petit Etteilla but not part of the 1771 (supposed 1757) document. Then that part of the book ends, and the "Petit Escamoteur" begins, telling how to do various tricks of the stage magician, breathing out fire and the like. That he gives out these secrets to all lends credence to his beginning disclaimer of belief in cartonomancy.
Given that the text I have just posted is short, it might be a 1771 experiment by Etteilla to see if his instructions could be simplified, by having his friends try to do readings with it. On the other hand, it might well be an early draft, and so indeed the 1757 abrégé, where only a few reverseds are filled out, no titles, only a few meaning in combinations, and brief instructions. It is not much removed from the one-by-one card-reading of the three old people.
Why would he not have done more reversals? I don't know. Perhaps he was experimenting and had not made up his mind. In that case, it might be of interest to think about what such experiments might have been. As it stands, the text offers neither surprises nor new insights. However it does give a simple list to compare with other lists, from that time or earlier.
Here, for example, is a comparison, with Franco's list, just taking the suit cards. I am not sure why there are two FD's. The F in Bolognese Deniers is female. R seems to mean King, Q Queen, C Knight, F Page or Maid, A Ace, D Coins, C Cups, B Batons, and S Swords. I get those from Huck's last post in this thread. Then the Etteilla comes from here. D (Denari) corresponds in Etteilla to Clubs (Trefles); C (Coppe) corresponds to Hearts (Coeurs); B (Bastoni) to Diamonds (Caros), and S (Spade) to Spades (Piques).
RD = L’uomo, QD = Verità, CD = Pensier dell’Uomo [thought of the man], FD = Denari (money], FD = Signorina, AD = Tavola (Table), 10D = Denari.
Clubs. K = dark-haired man; L = dark-haired woman, V = Dark-haired boy, A = A lot of money,
10 = House, 9 = A present; 8 = dark-haired girl, 7 = Money.
RC = Un Vecchio [an old man], QC = Donna Maritata [married woman], CC = Accomodamento [arrangement], FC = La Donna, AC = La Casa [House]
Hearts. K=blond man, L = blonde woman, V = blond boy, A= Bottle, table, 10= city, 9=Victory,
8=blonde girl, 7=Thought
RB = Un signore non ammogliato [unmarried man], QB = P...na, CB = Martello della porta [hammer of a door], FB = Pensiere della Donna [thought of the woman], AB = Baronate
Diamonds. K=a man, L=a woman, V=military man/ servant, A=Letters or news, 10=Gold/Anger, 9=Delay, 8=Country, 7=Gossip.
RS= Mala Lingua [bad tongue], AS = Lettera, 10S = Lagrime [tears].
Spades. KING = Robed/widowed man, L = Gallant/Widowed woman, V = Envoy/curious, A = Love/Pregnancy, 10 = Tears, 9 = Ecclesiastic/Mourning, 8 = Illness.
There seems to be a relationship, although with changes. The Italian Cavaliers [Knights] drop out. The colors of French suits have affected Etteilla's men and women, and sex likewise for the Bolognese Pages. Letter from Swords goes to Etteilla's Diamonds and Gossip from Batons goes to Etteilla's Spades. There are similar switches in Coins/Clubs and Cups/Hearts. Etteilla's have expanded to include more cards. But it certainly looks like Etteilla's list is related to the Bolognese one.
Then there is geomancy. The figures in medieval Europe were Vita=Life, Lucrum=Riches, Fratres=Brothers, Genitor=Father, Nati=Sons, Valetudo=Health, Uxor=Wife, Mors=Death, Itineris=Journeys, Regnum=Kings, Benefacta=Good Fortune, Carcer= Prison. They also divide into mothers, sisters, nieces, witnesses, judge, and (optional) super-judge. (For all these, see
https://www.princeton.edu/~ezb/geomancy/geostep.html)
Is there any relationship to the cards? There is some correspondence, but in fortune-telling some commonalities are to be expected, if they are basic to human life--things like good and bad fortune, and people categorized in important ways. If fortune-telling with cards developed from geomancy, the idea of family relationships (mother, father, sons, niece, etc.) would seem not to have been retained, replaced by stage of life, marital status (boy, man, widower, old man; one system even has children). To these are added hair color, related to suit color, and profession. Geomancy's Judge reappears as the Robed Man in Etteilla, Life as Pregnancy, Death as Mourning, Journeys as Envoy, Health as Illness. Other things are replaced by new things: letters, city, love, gossip.
Another type of parallel is that illustrated by "Jack and the Giant Killer" (see my previous post), where predictions are made (assuming Mary Greer is right) based on the positions of significators. Here is Wikipedia (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomancy):
Pietro d'Abano discusses the primary modes of perfection used in geomantic interpretations with significators in his geomancy essay.[11] In astrological geomancy, the significators are chosen based upon the identity of the querent and the identity of the quesited. Generally, except when the querent asks about a situation about a subject with no immediate connection to themselves, the querent's significator is located in the first house (see Derivative house). The quesited's significator is identified based upon the focus of the query: this is based upon the relation of the query to the astrological houses. Some questions require more than two significators, such as in a query involving several primary factors (e.g., two parties quarrelling over an estate).
Pietro d'Abano was a c. 1300 professor at Padua who died in prison during a trial for heresy, apparently connected with denying the causal role of angels and demons in the lives of humans, as opposed to astrological influences (what a thing to die for!). In legend, he was also considered a powerful summoner of demons (in other words, damned either way). His writings, or translations, on the decans are considered a major influence on the astrological program at the Schifanoia Palace in Ferrara. The PMB Strength card seems modeled on one of the figures in an illustrated Abano book (
http://www.trionfi.com/0/i/r/11.html).
It is surely true that this feature of cartomancy--the significator--goes back to that time. On the other hand, it is a natural component of randomized procedures for making decisions. When we "draw straws" to see who will go first, the straws are all significators. Court cards are natural significators. We see that in the Fernando de la Torre's comments about his proposed cards in 1450 Spain (cited by Ross Caldwell at
http://www.academia.edu/6477311/Brief_h ... cartomancy):
...players could tell fortunes with them to know who each one loves most and who is most desired and by many other and diverse ways.
Ross also gave the examples from the Spanish witch trials, e.g.:
Once, she had the cards read by the wife of a poor water-bearer. She wanted to know if her man loved another woman: the King of Cups represented the man and the Jack of Coins represented Lady Maria. Getting both cards together would signify that the young man only loved Lady Maria; but getting any other Jack with the Knight or the King of Cups would be a signal of the young man having another lady.
There are also the comments about Boiardo's cards ("And sometimes the tercets are so appropriate that the friends laugh heartily",
http://trionfi.com/0/h/) and the tarocchi appropriati where particular triumphs were assigned to particular ladies (these last two not divination per se, just this phenomenon of signification).
Yet systems of divination do influence one another, especially when there are already natural commonalities. It doesn't take a semi-educated person's presumed study of somebody else's (a priest's?) presumed study of seers in the forests of West Africa for this to happen.