Tarot of Marseille - CARDS - tarot cards

Price: US $13.38

ProductID: alt1420

• Pack information: 78 Cards and booklet
  Card dimensions: 70 x 120 mm
  Authors:
• Claude Burdel
  
  The name Tarot of Marseille does not indicate a single deck of cards but rather a series of
• iconographic models, which identify a type of Tarot deck.
  
  At the end of the l600's, this type of card deck
• spread all over Europe, eliminating and replacing with rare exception (for example the Neoclassical Tarot of Lombardy),
• all regional
  production and variants of Tarots. Within one century, the iconography of Marseilles was the most
• widespread and well-known. When the esoteric world began to dedicate itself to Tarots and study them, it was faced
• with this type of Tarot whose icons were transformed and explained in light of divinatory practices.
  
  Strangely,
• the reason behind the extraordinary success of the Tarot of Marseille was predominantly economic. The iconographic
• model was without a doubt influenced by the Tarots of Paris, which in turn were heavily inspired by the Lombard ones.
• Nevertheless, the largest card industries of Europe were located in Marseille during that time. Thanks to that privileged
• position, some of the most important manufacturers of Tarot emerged and prospered: Arnoux (from 1790 to
• 1829), Bourlion (from 1753 to 1793), Conver (from 1760 to 1890), and Tourcaty (from 1701 to
• 1809). They were able to export card games and Tarots at extremely low prices and of a quality which was decidedly
• higher than the competition's. The logical consequence was that the use of Marseilles iconography became
• synonymous with quality and all manufacturers which were not in Marseilles adopted this new appearance in order to
• survive. Still today, the Tarot of Marseille are the ones used most for playing and, in Italy and France, also for
• divining.
  
  In particular, this deck represents a typical example of the iconography of the Tarot of Marseille. This
• edition's exact 'reproductions' differ slightly since the colours were brought back to their original splendour (without the
• damage which time has inflicted on the original cards), the background was cleaned up, and the images were carefully
• reset in a sharper design. The final effect is not an exact reproduction of the ancient deck but rather a reconstruction of
• how the ancient deck would have looked had it been printed today.