Hello,

Jean-Marie Lhôte in his Histoire des jeux de sociétés reproduce an image from the Dictionnaire Larousse Mensuel juillet 1919 that pictures the atouts from a Tarot de Marseille deck attributed to a Nicolas Rolichon from the XVIIth century. The picture seems to present a lot of similarities to Dodal or Payen decks, but I didn't find a lot of discussions online regarding this supposed Nicolas Rolichon' Tarot - which is odd since there are lots of discussions about the Chosson's datation. So is that a known mistake that has already been documented or another big question mark ?

Thanks in advance for your replies,

Bertrand

Do you have any images or links? I've not heard of him, but could tell a lot by seeing his work.

I was in the process of correcting the poor pictures I took from the book (alas no scanner), here they are :

This Nicolas Rolichon is said to be from Lyon. There was a Nicolas Rolichon cardmaker in the XVIth century in Lyon : http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-63.html
A quick search shows several homonyms in Lyon from the XVIth to the XVIIIth century in Lyon - not cardmakers.
I don't have any lyonese cardmaker list, don't know if D'Allemagne referenced some Nicolas Rolichon in Lyon in the XVIIth. Jean-Marie Lhôte says that the only source for this deck is this reproduction from the Dictionnaire Larousse mensuel. Google Books gives a nearly readable snippet here http://books.google.com/books?id=xnJHAA ... stdEM&cd=4 where one can discern the Nicolas Rolichon name and XVIIth century. The last sentence in the text seems to read :

Tes tarots que nous reproduisont ici sont ré...[réduites ?] de ........ ; ils ont été[édités ?] à Lyon par Nicolas Rolichon au XVIIe siècle

which translate roughly to

The tarots we present here are .... from.... ; they were [published?] in Lyon by Nicolas Rolichon during the XVIIth century

And sadly Gallica doesn't list this specific volume...


Bertrand

This is a terrific find!!!

These are absolutely related to the Dodal/Payen, and yet, I can see differences to the Dodal that I would like to clarify with comparison to the payen.

Do you have bigger pictures? You can either link them, or send to me via email and I can put on the server. I want to look at the details to check for many identifiers, if possible.

Really wonderful!

Death is "reversed", like on the Noblet, as compared to Dodal or Payen! How interesting!

Starklof, Karl Christian Ludwig
Rouge et noir: oder die Geschichte von den vier Königen. Aus den
Papieren des Staastkanzlers Rolichon.
Mainz: Florian Kupferberg, 1829.
See Edgar Mertner, “Lilliput, Satire, and German Petty States,” Swift
Studies, 11 (1996), 137-39.

http://www.anglistik.uni-muenster.de/im ... t_2008.pdf

translated "Red or black: or the story of the 4 kings. From the papers of the state councilor Rolichon" (1829)
Obviously the book is referring to playing cards, possibly a satire.

http://www.bassenge.com/bassenge/de/los ... TEXT=Armin
? seems not relate to the theme ... ... but the number of the participating persons ("Dramatis personae") is 22 (Tarot ?) and some of them have clearly card names, for instance "Argine". "Rolichon" is one of the persons.
No joke: It seems to be a satire about the origin of the playing cards, disguised behind some love stories. The "Papiere des Staatsministers Rolichon" are simply the playing cards ... so Rolichon is the cardmaker.



****************
http://www.auction.fr/FR/vente_jeux_jou ... xixe_.html

"12 têtes fac-similé d'un jeu «exotique» du XVIIe s. par Jean Rolichon à Lyon
Anonyme, France, XIXe s.,

Impr. en relief, couleurs au pinceau, 85 x 60 mm
Dos : blancs (traces de colle)
Ces cartes sont toutefois différentes de celles reproduites dans D'Allemagne 1906, I, 106-107.

Joints : trois clichés zinc pour reproduction de cartes du XVIIIe s., montés sur talon d'aggloméré. "

Good evening,

thank you gentlemen for these replies.

Robert, I indeed have bigger pictures (but they are just as bad as these ones) :
http://dutarot.free.fr/pics/rolichon1.jpg http://dutarot.free.fr/pics/rolichon2.jpg

Huck, I suppose that there were several Rolichons, possibly from the same family, who were cardmakers.
Argine in the second link clearly relates to Standard decks, which a Nicolas Rolichon produced in the XVIth.

Jean Rolichon in the XIXth is possibly from the same family...

Thanks for these pointers !

On traditiontarot forum, Charly Alverda just informed me that there are images from this deck in a book called "tarot point de croix" (more or less "tarot and cross-stitch" [sic])...

Bertrand

Bertrand

Bertrand wrote:
Jean Rolichon in the XIXth is possibly from the same family...

As I understand the passage ...
"12 têtes fac-similé d'un jeu «exotique» du XVIIe s. par Jean Rolichon à Lyon
Anonyme, France, XIXe s.,"
... a facsimile edition is of XIX.th century, the original is of 17th century and the XVII. century edition is made by Jean Rolichon. And that's a jeu "exotic".
And this has some differences to those, which Allemagne presents at p. 106/107.

That is an interesting early pack. I'd like to know more about it.

D'Allemagne lists four Lyonnias cardmakers of the Rolichon name:

François, 1570-1573
Nicolas, 1575-1635
Jean, 1660-1674
Philibert, 1663

The court cards by Jean Rolichon illustrated on pp. 106-107 are fantasy designs for the standard-suited French pack:

Spade (Pique) (p. 106)
Roi: Almanzor
Dame: Zayde
Valet: Muhavia
(they are all black/moorish)

Heart (Coeur):
R: Constantin
D: Fausta
V: Ablavius

Club (Trèfle):
R: Atabalipa
D: Titzala
V: Tepetipac

Diamond (Carreau)
R: Cyrus
D: Mandane
V: Araspe

I can't risk scanning the book, but I'll take photos if anyone is interested. I can't see any relevance to the Tarot of Nicolas Rolichon however.

If this Rolichon is genuine, then it is by far the earliest Tarot de "Marseille" (1575-1635).