Let’s set the atmosphere for the Birth of Tarot!

I was struck in my too short visit to Italy, that The Holy Roman Catholic Church was a museum and places like Ireland were more ‘Catholic’ in many senses than Italy. The Medieval God- the male rigidity of Christianity had moved on- in fact there is a strong sense of return to ancient Pagan ways is very apparent today in lots of small but significant ways.
As an example I was in a small walled town when the feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated. The children had made their floral carpet and as sun set, the procession wound its way through the town. There were these little brides in their white dresses and smartly dressed lads all following the clergy and the large candle lit Seri and Christ on his cross and the Madonna on her throne held on high. The procession wound its way to the main piazza and the clergy and the icons went on up to the Church and the children stayed to party in the square. Gone was the devoutness of my youth when we also went to the Church for mass and Holy Communion. The Children danced and threw flowers and romped around in great fun and laughter. It was surreal and very non- Catholic.
In Siena, there was a Baptism for babies that was a completely secular affair. Every tiny district of Siena had a name, like the district of the Caterpillar or Owl or Green Dragon (there were 16) and the babies were baptized into their district for life. This was a taking over of the Baptism into the Church. In fact when talking to some mothers- many children were not Church Baptised- but it was VERY IMPORTANT to have the district Baptism. This was their allegiance- to the town not the Church.
It appears that the Renaissance was a great renewal of Man’s vitality and spirituality, but one which took place outside the Medieval way of life and the outside the Church. Christ on the cross, ceased to be a symbol of a distant male God, and became a symbol of ordinary suffering and the triumphant human being. The population remained essentially Christian- but at the same time became God and Goddesses of Nature.
This appears to be result of various things. The enormous wealth generated in Italy, a discomfort with Christian Death orientated existence, The plague and all its results, the search for new meanings to life, the declining spiritual credibility of the Papacy, the Schism, the confusion of many Popes (four at one time), increasing trade and influences from other cultures. Mostly there was this underground stream of what we would call Paganism now, which never was extinguished and can in many ways be called Etruscan in Italy.
As trade grew, more and more personal freedom from old restraining religious and feudal laws was grasped. This weakened the Church and its power, and Merchants became replacement power. These Merchants had the money to investigate traces of the Ancient World and took many ideas of reform into their lives. The greater majority of local Churches became known as ‘reform’ churches and became the de facto authority and the Merchants fought against ’simony’- the selling of Church favours and indulgences.

So we have forces in opposition- the new commercial drive was outward and materialistic and the Church was conservative, rigid and protective. Both needed each other and it seems largely ignored the ‘sins’ of each other unless it interfered with their respective power. Money was that power. Art was purchased by that power on both sides- each with it’s own agenda. The Merchants went back to their Etruscan roots- they loved Art, food and wine, music and dancing, the Gods, pastimes and religion, (in an abstract way) ritual, Processions and public spectacle, mental games and numbers, rhetoric and philosophy.
In walks Tarot!

~Lorredan~

Ps. Please remove to Unicorn Forum if this is too ummmm.....un-scholarly

Now what else was happening at the same time!
We know that cards were been made in the early 1400's
It is very likely that the first professional wood-engravers were card-makers; and this is rendered more probable by the fact that wood-engravers were generally called card-painters - Briefmalers - in Germany, at this time.
They were also called Formschneiders - figure-cutters - in Germany, about the same period; and this term appears to have been more specifically applied to those who were chiefly employed in executing wood-cuts for the illustration of books, to distinguish them from those whose principal business was the engraving and colouring of cards.


The first paper mill in Europe was in Spain, at Xátiva (modern Valencia) in 1120. More mills appeared in Fabriano Italy in about the 13th century, as an import from Islamic Spain. They used hemp and linen rags as a source of fibre. The oldest known paper document in the West is the Mozarab Missal of Silos from the 11th century, probably written in the Islamic part of Spain. Paper is recorded as being manufactured in both Italy and Germany by 1400, just about the time when the woodcut printmaking technique was transferred from fabric to paper in the old master print and popular prints.
Holy pictures were popular as were the illustration of private journals. Hand painted cards were given as gifts.
Soldiers and seamen played with gambling devices like Backgammon, Dice, and cards.
It could be said, and has been, that man was a toolmaker, a cooker of food, and Gambler, by nature.
You bring all the various factors together, and that the money generated by trade allowed the upper classes to have leisure time and the lower ones to be diverted from their hard work load... the time time was ripe for Tarot.
~Lorredan~

Hi Lorredan!

Thanks so much for starting this thread. I just want you to know that I'm very interested in exploring this together. I'm terribly distracted the past few days, and am looking forward to, hopefully this weekend, when I can sit down and give this some deserved attention.

Just wanted you to know you're not talking to a (completely) empty room!

robert

Happy to burble on Robert- the room is not quite empty :?
I will just rabbit on till someone comes and calls "Halt ! you ninny!"
Now where was I? Oh yes I am in Italy in the 15th Century.....
Independent States were developed in Italy and countries further West were consolidating.
There was division and disunity all around.
The Plague had already killed nearly a third to half of Europe's population, and aside from losing faith in the Church and the Magic of healers- those that were left started to prosper. Workers were able to move from estate to estate, because they were in demand. There were fewer people to pay taxes needed to fund the wars and strange things like Sumptuary Laws to restrict movement of the people, increased anti Church feelings. Rapid inflation and high prices for food made things difficult. Instead of dealing with these issues both Church and State and the Merchants tried to hold tight control over the population. Corruption in both secular and religious communities was common. The Popes had moved from Rome and now in the 1400s were to return. The Holy Roman Empire was weak as was the Byzantium Empire and they thought to unite the Orthodox Church with Rome- that was never going to be a popular idea. Rome did not go to the aid of Constantinople and the city fell in 1453. Many of the cities occupants fled to Italy, taking with them ancient texts.
During this time, the cities of Northern Italy developed an independent form of Government- they became City States. Because of where they were on trade routes on the Mediterranean or inland trails of commerce, these places such as Milan, Venice, Florence, Genoa, Pisa, Bologna and the Amalfi Coast became very wealthy centres. They set themselves up as Communi with autonomous powers protected either by the Pope or the Emperor. They were little Kingdoms usually controlled by a family who were like the Church in their abuse of Power. They exercised ruthless policies over rivals and neighbours. The leaders were not nobles- they were Merchants. They hired Soldiers to fight their wars, and the soldiers changed sides as the money was paid. They became Bankers and allied with Church or Emperor depending on where the advantage lay. All the while there was this growing disillusionment with the Church and the hypocrisy and it gave rise to Humanism.....if a dog could smell Tarot- it's scent was on the wind.
~Lorredan~

Hi Lorredan,

I have been reading your posts, impressed with the depth of your enquiry into Tarot history. You have however,reached a conclusion that surprises me. You wrote:

“ I have wanted Tarot to be anything but Christian- and finally have had to admit to Tarot's undeniable atmosphere of Birth.”

For me the Tarot images are a code for the defining issues of the human experience, and as such, they transcend the smallness of any one religion. The need to see the life cycle as a series of stages and to live in a way that is honorable and supportive of one's community while pursuing personal goals is part of what it is to be human.

It is deeply offensive to me when I hear someone say to a child, ”Do this because it’s the Christian thing to do.” implying that Christianity has a corner on virtue. Codes of behavior and concepts of the cycle of life have existed since time immemorial and been conveyed symbolically through stories often reenacted seasonally. I think it likely that Tarot is simply a mixture of images connected with those concepts and traditions. With the advent of the Christian Era they were given a Christian gloss, and once blockprinting became established, those beloved ideas could exist as portable images. Furthermore, it only stands to reason that if you had a set of such images among your very few possessions, you might use it to help you remember stories, to amuse yourself and others including children. You might devise games to play which could cause you to assign numbers. What a great way to have fun, and to gamble! When referring to a particular image, you would need a name so the images got titles.

Maybe in your family, there were strong pre-Christian traditions your grandparents valued and wanted to pass on, so they thought of ways to relate their stories to the images that, after all, had a pretty thin varnish of Christianity, or maybe theirs was a heretical form of Christianity. Either way, these ideas had to be kept secret, hidden (OCCULT) for this was heresy!

Do I think Tarot images were born into Christianity? No, I think they were baptized into it.
Just my take—pure conjecture. —Marcei

Hello all,

I may be misreading but the title of this thread seems to suggest that the tarot was a body of knowledge that somehow found its way into a deck of cards. Marcei post reinforces this suggestion. I would be very interested to know about earlier embodiments of this body of knowledge and, if possible, a brief summary of what such body of knowledge comprises.

Thanks in advance,

EE

I also am of the understanding that the tarot deck is a repository of earlier allegorical forms. The name of this card game, Carte da Trionfi, suggests that it was directly derived from the Trionfi parades, which was born from the earlier religious dramas. Certainly, this common set of allegories was not limited to drama, and they appeared in many visual allegorical works ( Dances of Death, etc.), and in literary works (Blanquerna, and so on...)

R

I think all of us would agree that elements that appear in tarot can be traced to different sources over varying amounts of time.

Is the question, rather, whether the particular combination of themes we would recognise as "tarot" existed before they were placed on cards in the early 1400s?