Etteilla Translation?

[Morgan]

I have been working on compiling the principle published works on the use of the tarot for cartomancy. I've got most of the infamous French Occultist and their GD descendants accounted for, but I haven't been able to track down an English translation of either of Etteilla's books.

Does anyone know if there is a published edition or a copy online anywhere?

[Ross G. R. Caldwell]

Hi Morgan,

I'm pretty sure there is no English translation of any of Etteilla's writings. It might be worthwhile to translate Manière de se recréer with the Piquet pack (1770) and the Tarot (1783 (? IIRC)), but the Cahiers of his magnum opus, I don't think anybody would have the patience. They are pompous, digressive, polemical, and really obscure - some say badly written, but I'm no judge of literary quality in French. It would be a lot of work to make an edition in English, with the necessary annotation.

The Tarot book is really rare - maybe only one copy extant? I'll have to check that in Wicked Pack of Cards. But the first one might be worthwhile - I'll see if I can find a copy and begin translating it.

Ross

[SteveM]

A pdf of the second edition (1773) of Etteilla, ou la seule manilere de tirer les cartes (1770) is available through google:

http://books.google.de/books?id=CI85AAA ... q=&f=false

Google translate has got a little cleverer - it is not perfect but it does sometimes detect when an archaic 'f' is an 's'. For example:

R. Naiffance , l'on verra pour qui, ou bien où l'on eft né.

It correctly identifies naissance and est and translates the above as

R. Birth, we will see who, or where one is born.

R. . . : . Domeftique it identifies as domestique and translates as
R. . . :. Servant.

R. Entreprife, entreprendre, l'on confulte le Jeu pour favoir fi l'on réuffira. it recognizes entreprise, savoir, consulte, si and réussira and translates as [i]
R. Enterprize, undertake, we confult the game knowing if we fucceed.

BUT:

R. Trahifon , Ton verra fi l'on eft trahi , ou fi l'on trahit.
R. Treachery, your glass if it is betrayed, or if we betrayed.

doesn't make sense, and is an example of where you need to check the text against the image, which shows Ton is actually l'on:

R. Trahifon , l'on verra fi l'on eft trahi , ou fi l'on trahit.
R. Treachery, we will ignore it is betrayed, or if we betrayed.

If however we change the 'f' to an 's' manually we get the translation:

R. Trahison , l'on verra si l'on est trahi , ou si l'on trahit.
R. Treason, we'll see if we are betrayed, or if it betrays.

Some of Mellet's divinatory keywords are similar to Etteilla's : either de Mellet is using Etteilla as a source or they are both drawing on a common strand of (french suit) cartomancy.

Conversely, I think it probable that Etteilla's source for the conversion of French to Latin suits for his later book(s) on tarot was de Mellet.

Most recently these have been used in Huson's Dame Fortuna deck, which uses Etteilla's DMs and attributions.

SteveM

note: previously posted in AT thread here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.ph ... ge=2&pp=10
in which 'coredil' posted:

I guess there is also no english version of the later Etteillas book:
"Manière de se recréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées Tarots" from 1783 (premier cahier) 1785 (second cahier) 1785 (Troisième et Quatriéme cahier)

To my knowledge only the premier and the second cahier have been reprinted in 1977 as Facsimile by the edition Jobert.
I have one copy of this reprint but it is quite difficult to find.
ISBN 0337-0674

The Quatrième cahier has been included as Facsimilé in Halbronn's book: "Etteilla L'Astrologie du livre de Thot" printed by Tredaniel in 1993.
I have also a copy of this book which is not very difficult to find.
ISBN 2-85707-556-1

[SteveM]

I have been working on compiling the principle published works on the use of the tarot for cartomancy. I've got most of the infamous French Occultist and their GD descendants accounted for, but I haven't been able to track down an English translation of either of Etteilla's books.

Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot has a fairly comprehensive bibliography.

The influence of Ettiella on the English occultists has been demonstrated and the parallels with Mathers and Waite tabulated by Revak:

http://www.villarevak.org/misc/history.html

[SteveM]

Most recently these have been used in Huson's Dame Fortuna deck, which uses Etteilla's DMs and attributions.

Dame Fortuna LWB:

http://www.loscarabeo.com/files/New_DFWT_online_LWB.rtf

[Morgan]

Thank you for your replies, Ross and Steve.

Ross wrote:

It would be a lot of work to make an edition in English, with the necessary annotation.

I had no idea that there weren't translations of that material, but I guess it makes sense. Seems like Levi was the first to catch the attention of the nineteenth century British occultist with too much time on their hands. I imagine we wouldn't have half of the obscure translations we do today without Waite, Mathers, et al.

If you do ever decide to translate any Etteilla material, please share it on the forums--I'd love to see it.

Steve: thank you for the link to the Google book--I will try and wrestle with the translate feature. I have the James Revak paralell document printed out in a binder--it is very interesting. Thank you for the link to the Huson document as well. I would like to get the Kaplan encyclopedia, but it is beyond my budget at the moment.

On a somewhat different note, do you all have strong likes or dislikes of any of the Etteilla or Etteilla-inspired decks? I was thinking of picking up a cheap, used copy of the recent Lo Scarabeo 'Book of Thoth' because I don't have anything from that part of the tarot world...