Lismon Etteilla Tarot

Creator(s):  Z. Lismon
Date: 1890*, 2012
Country: France
Publisher: Blocquel*, HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.II, pp. 404, 405







Notes: 
The Lismon Etteilla is of type Grand Etteilla II and was -according to Dummett- the work of Simon Blocquel, a publisher at Lille, who worked in collaboration with his father-in-law Jean-Baptist Castiaux. The two of them liked using anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Blismon, Z. Lismon, Zlismon, Buqcellos, Milbons and Monblis.  A French biography of Blocquel can be found here.

The first evidence for this deck was in a book called Le Grand Etteilla, ou l'Art de tirer les cartes published 1838 by Blocquel, which served to advertise his new version of  Etteilla's cards. The authors name, Julia Orsini, maybe another pseudonym of Blocquel.

There were at least four editions of the Lismon Etteilla between 1838 and 1917, the oldest one (1838), which was mentioned in Kaplans Encyclopedia, has a misspelling of "Eteilla" on card number one, the following editions have the correct spelling "Etteilla".

Tax stamps for playing cards in France were abolished in 1790 and return in 1890, lasting until 1917. Thus the tax stamp on the Two of Swords dates a deck between 1890 and 1917.

The second edition (e.g. see  here) has a correct spelling of Etteilla, a complete upper left wreath on card #74 but no tax stamp, thus it dates before 1890.

The third edition can be seen on the British Museum page,  it has a tax stamp on the Two of Swords (thus it dates after 1890) and a complete upper left wreath on card #74.

The fourth edition has a tax stamp on the Two of Swords and a missing part in the upper left wreath of card #74, possibly because the printing block has got damaged. The reprint by HistoricalRetrospective was from the fourth edition.

 All Grand Etteilla II editions have on the Ace of Wands  Chute or "Fall" as the upright and the reversed is Naissance or "Birth" (The 1900-20 Grimaud Etteilla ''corrects" this so that Birth/Naissance is the upright and Fall/Chute is reversed).

Grand Etteilla II was engraved on wood and did not diverge greatly from the original Etteilla deck. The titles are printed on both sides of the picture frame. Some images and keywords are different from Etteilla’s original deck. The Coins have become wreaths enclosing a quatrefoil. The lower panels on the numeral cards are new. The cards 1,10,12,15 and 21 have been redesigned.

Francois de Poilly Tarot

Creator(s): Francois de Poilly
Date: 1660*, 2012
Country: France, USA
Publisher: HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: other
Reference: HistoricalRetrospective




Notes:
Francois de Poilly (1623-1693) was a French engraver. In 1660 he or someone from his family created the Poilly Tarot.

The deck is not traditional tarot, but it does contain 22 trumps, about 3/4ths of which follow the Tarot structure. The differences are similar to the 97-card Minchiate decks of Italy.

The original deck features only the Majors and courts, the pip cards were recreated by HistoricalRetrospective. Card #16 was also missing from the original, and has been recreated. The deck is  standard poker size, 2 1/2" by 3 1/2".

Daityanus Tarot

Creator(s): Ernst Kurtzahn (Daityanus)
Date: 1920, 2012
Country: Germany, USA
Publisher: Talis / Schikowski / HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Etteilla
Reference: Encyclopedia of Tarot, vol.III, pp. 158, 161

Notes: 
Ernst Kurtzahn, who wrote under the pseudonym Daityanus was a member of various Rosicrucian and magical orders, and especially interested in Kabbalah. The cards were small (2 3/4 inches by 1 5/8 inches) and first published by Talis Verlag in Germany in 1920 in the book Der Tarot by Ernst Kurtzahn as black and white line drawings.The book was reprinted by Schikowski in 1983 and the cards were published as a deck in 2012 by HistoricalRetrospective.

Most of the designs are redrawn from Etteilla Tarot and arranged and titled in traditional tarot sequence. Two ofthe designs (VI Lovers and Xii Hanged Man) are taken from the Tarot of Marseilles.

In his book Kurtzahn states that his tarot is derived from Etteilla's Tarot, the Tarot de Marseilles and Oswald Wirth's Tarot. The Fool is numberd zero, The World is numbered XXII, no card is numbered XXI. The cards have Geramn titles and a Hebrew letter with its corresponding number at the bottom.

The book and scans of all cards are available online here

Sola Busca Tarot (HistoricalRetrospective)

Creator(s): Nicola di Maestro Antonio
Date: 1491, 2012
Country: Italy, USA
Publisher: HistoricalRetrospective
Number of Cards: 78
ISBN:   
Type: Ferrarese
Reference: Pinacoteca di Brera



Notes:
The Sola-Busca Tarocchi may be dated from around 1490 since the hypothetical date of 1491 was painted on one of the illuminated cards of the set (the inscription "ANNO AB URBE CONDITA MLXX" on card XIIII may be read as the date of 1,070 years after the foundation of Venice - either 421 or 453 - that should mean 1491 or, less likely, 1523).

Giordano Berti and Michael Dummett suggest that the deck might have been engraved in Ferrara and illuminated in Venice (or for the Venetian market). The art was bulino engravings printed on paper pressed and glued as cardboard, illuminated with colours and gold, painted faux porphyry on the back.

Today the painter Nicola di Maestro Antonio from Ancona is identified as the artist of the deck, and the Humanist and Hermeticist Ludovico Lazzarelli is believed to have designed the complex iconographical programme of the Sola Busca Tarot.

The coat of arms featured in the deck, which have been identified as those of the two Venetian noble families Venier (red and white coat of arms/ Bochos shield) and Sanudo (coat of arms silver with blue ribbon/Aces of coins and cups), and the presence of the monogram "M.S." on three of the Aces suggest that the owner of the deck, and the person responsible for its colouring in Venice in 1491, was Marin Sanudo the Younger, the famous Venetian Humanist with an interest in alchemy .

The complete deck, which was owned by the Sola Busca family, was photographed in 1907 for the British Museum. In 2010, the Pinacoteca di Brera museum in Milan bought the deck for 800.000 EUR. 

The Figures on the Trumps represent historical / mythical characters. The characters are identified by names printed on the cards: Mato, Panfilio, Postumio, Lenpio, Mario, Catulo, Sesto, Deo Tauro, Nerone, Falco, Venturio, Tulio, Carbone, Catone, Bocho, Metelo, Olivo, Ipeo, Lentulo, Sabino, Nenbroto, Nabuchodenasor.

But whatever name was given to the Trumps, in order to be actually "used" they still had to include traditional meanings. These could be identified  on the basis of the iconography and history of the figures depicted. Bocchus, for instance, who had betrayed his ally Juguretha embodies the figure of The Traitor (The Hanged Man), wheras Cato, who took his own life, embodies Death.

The Sola Busca is the earliest known deck to have illustrated Minors. Shortly after receipt of the black-and-white photographic images of the Sola-Busca Tarot, they were placed on exhibit at the British Museum in London. It is probable that the experience of viewing of this exhibit provided the initial stimulus for Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith to subsequently create their own tarot deck with all 78 cards illustrated. A comparision between the Sola Busca and RWS Minors can be found here.

In the suit of coins several cards show practices such as assaying, hammering and the checking of flan sizes which can be either related to minting or to the alchemical work.

 The alchemical iconography is particularly evident in the 4 of Coins (Earth as mother of the metals), the 5 of Coins (the male element as the alchemist who impregnates the earth to get the philosopher's stone, with the use of fire) and the 9 of Coins (“nigredo”, blackness as the death of the first matter, the first step of the alchemical process).

The suit of batons also features alchemical motifs, offering a parallel between alchemy and agriculture, of the sort drawn in the treatises by Pseudo-Llull.


Several reprints of the Sola Busca Taro existst: Lo Scarabeo, Italy 1995; Wolfgang Meyer edition, Germany 1998  and HistoricalRetrospective edition, USA 2012. Mine is from the first Historical Retrospective edition with bridge-sized cards.