Ross wrote
... 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.
Well, you never know what some fool will try to do. Someone on Aeclectic seems to be a big fan of Etteilla's 2nd Cahier. Here is his translation of the part on the "Seven Days of Creation," i.e. the first eight cards of Etteilla's deck, with a commentary trying to explain his references.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=78
The translation is of pp. 9-21 of Etteilla's 2nd Cahier, pages put up in the original as attachments by another 2nd Cahier enthusiast at
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=70 and
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... stcount=71.
Later in the same thread, he translates a short section, 2nd Cahier pp. 21-22, in which Etteilla defends his reading, following de Gebelin, of the "Hanged Man" card as really the virtue Prudence.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=109
One reader, Teheuti, had an interesting comment on this passage in Etteilla:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=136
Then our amateur translator goes at it again, this time translating Etteilla's section on card 15, Etteilla's version of the "Bateleur" card, pp. 23-26 of the 2nd Cahier, also giving the original French.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=112
Then he translates Etteilla's initial summary of the first 22 cards, pp. 36-45 of the 2nd Cahier, with his transcriptions of the French:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=116
Then near the end of the 2nd Cahier, but before the Supplement, pp. 134-139, comes a sequence of four summaries of the entire deck. This part includes a footnote in which Etteilla describes his encounter in 1757 with a mysterious Piedmontese who introduced him to the mysteries of the tarot.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=130
The next post continues the summaries of the 78 cards, with two more. The French is pp. 136-140 of the 2nd Cahier. In this same post is a translation of one passage in the Supplement, 2nd Cahier pp. 161-162, in which Etteilla explains the strange "double numbers" on cards 13-17 of his original deck (the second number discreetly removed on most subsequent reprints).
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=131
The next post contains the seventh and last of the summaries of the cards that started on p. 134; it corresponds to pp. 140-142 of the 2nd Cahier.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=132
The next post looks at another summary of the 78 cards, this one on pp. 124-129 of the 2nd Cahier. It uses the motif from de Mellet of the "four ages," Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=133
In the course of the above, Etteila refers to the god "IOU." Our translator discusses this enigmatic word (which apparently does not mean "promissory note") in the next post
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=134
Our translator attempts a summary, in the paragraph beginning "In the context of 'Illuminist' writings...", at
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=135
And then a follow up, on what Etteilla might mean when he uses the phrase "spiritual medicine" (2nd Cahier supplement, p. 182) to describe the tarot as he conceives it. The post translates one sentence, p. 68 of the 2nd Cahier.
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php? ... tcount=138
Our translator promises more to come, on this same theme, but so far hasn't delivered.