Template:Otheruses4
Modern tarot deck used for French tarot.
Tarot cards were originally created for playing games, being that the first basic rules appear in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona written before 1425.[1] The game of Tarot is known in many variations, mostly cultural.
Tarot card games[]
The pack with which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot is called Tarocco in Italian, Tarock in German and various similar words in other languages. Tarot games spread to most parts of Europe, notably exceptions being the British Isles, the Iberian peninsula, and the Balkans.[2] Contrary to popular belief, Tarot cards did not precede ordinary playing cards, and they were invented not for occultic but for purely gaming purposes. Only later were they used for cartomantic interests and divination, and also as a field for artists to display specific iconographical forms often connected to an ideological system in the background. Concrete forms appear at least since the article of Court de Gebelin in the year 1781
Tarocchi[]
Italian suits are still used for games like Tarocchini.
Tarocchi (Italian, plural form of Tarocco), and similar names in other languages, is a specific form of playing card deck used for different trick-taking games. This earlier name of the game is first documented in February 1442, Ferrara.
The first basic rules for the game of Tarocco appear in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, the next are known from the year 1637.Template:Fact In Italy the game has become less popular, although one version named Ottocento, Tarocco Bolognese, has still survived. There are still other tarot games like Scarto played in Piedmont, especially Pinerolo and Turin,[2] but the number of tarot games played outside Italy is much higher.
There seems to be a connection between the words Tarot (French) and Tarock (Germanic-Slavic) for the final name Tarocchi developed from French influence.Template:Fact Italian speakers of today claim that French words with an ending "-ot" had been commonly transformed in endings with "-occo" and "-occhi".Template:Fact The poet Francesco Berni still mocked on this word in his Capitolo del Gioco della Primiera written in 1526.[3]
Tarot[]
The French game of Tarot, also Jeu de Tarot, is one which uses a traditional 78-card Tarot deck instead of the 54-card deck used to play the Austro-Hungarian game of Tarock. A typical type of Tarot playing card deck is that of the standard French design, the so-called "Tarot Nouveau", which is French-suited and has face and number layouts similar to the common 52-card deck. The "Tarot Nouveau" deck has trumps which depict scenes of traditional French social activities, in increasing levels of wealth; this differs from the character and ideological cards of the standard Italian-suited Tarot decks such as the Tarocco Piedmontese, the Tarocco Bolognese, the Rider-Waite or even the Tarot de Marseille well-known in cartomancy.
A pack of Tarots corresponds in every particular with those called Tarocchi by writers of the sixteenth century. It consists of seventy-eight numeral cards of four suits and twenty-two emblematic cards called Atous. The suit marks on these cards are usually swords, cups, batons and money. Each suit consists of fourteen cards, ten of which are low cards, and the other four court cards, namely the King, Queen, Chevalier, and Valet. Of the Atous, twenty-one are numbered from 1 to 21, and an non-numbered card called "Fou", also called "Mat" in the play. It has no positive value in the game, but augments the value of any of the other Atous to which it may be joined.[4]
According to the current state of research, the game of Tarot became known in the year 1505 parallel in Taraux (France) and Ferrara (Italy) as Tarocchi.Template:Fact An earlier form of the game had the name Trionfi or triumphs, developed later as a general term for trick-taking games (Trumpfen in German and Trump in English), although it has almost completely disappeared in its original function as deck name.
Tarot Nouveau
Tarock[]
Tarock, recorded as one of the oldest types of card games known, is extensively played in Austria and makes a good introduction to the general principels of Tarot play, serving as a springboard to more advanced 54-card, French-suited card games such as Point Tarock and Königsrufen.[2] The game is widely played in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Denmark, and especially in the countries on the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, for which even the name Tarockanien has been coined: the Austrian variation of the game is thus still widely popular among all classes and generations in Slovenia, Croatia and in the Czech Republic, while in Hungary different rules are applied.
The tarock decks, popular in Germany and Switzerland, use either the Latin suits of cups, coins, batons and swords, or the German suits of Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves. The character representations of the trump cards in non-gaming divinatory tarot is based on representations similar to those found in the Italian tarot decks; Germanic Tarot playing card decks are less likely to feature these characterizations.[5]
Compounds[]
Deck of cards[]
As certain regions have adopted Tarot games that use only a subset of the 78-card deck, the decks themselves have become specialized. A complete Tarot deck such as one for the Jeu de Tarot, contains all 78 cards and can be used to play any game in the family. Austrian-Hungarian Tarock and Italian Tarocco decks, however, are a smaller subset suitable only for games of a particular region.
Austrian-style 54-card Tarock hand: the Fool, six trumps, King, Queen, 1 Template:Hearts.
The 78-card tarot deck contains:
- 14 cards each in four suits (Anglo-French, German or Latin depending on the region): "pip" cards numbered one (sometimes Ace) through ten; plus four court cards, a Jack (or Knave), a Knight (or Cavalier), a Queen, and a King.
- The twenty-one tarots, known in non-gaming divinatory tarot as the Major Arcana), function in the game as a permanent suit of trumps.
- The Fool, also known as the Excuse, is an un-numbered card which excuses the player from following suit or playing a trump in some variations, and also acts as the strongest trump in others.
Basic rules of play[]
- Play is typically counter-clockwise; the player to the right of the dealer plays to the first trick. The players must follow suit if they have the card of the suit led, otherwise either trumps or a card from another suit is played. The winner of each trick then leads to the next.
- After the hand has been played, a score is taken based on the point values of the cards in the tricks each player has managed to capture.
Common value of cards[]
- Oudlers (Trull) - Trumps 1-21 and the Fool: 5 points
- Kings: 5 points
- Queens: 4 points
- Cavaliers (Knights): 3 points
- Knaves (Jacks): 2 points
- Pip cards: fraction of a point
The cards are usually counted in groups of two or three depending on the game. After the hand has been played, a score is taken based on the point values of the cards in the tricks each player has managed to capture.
For the purpose of the rules, the numbering of the trumps are the only thing that matters. The symbolic tarot images customary in non-gaming divinatory tarots have no effect in the game itself. The design traditions of these deck subsequently evolved independently and they often bear only numbers and whimsical scenes arbitrarily chosen by the engraver.Template:Fact However there are still traditional sequences of images in which the common lineage is visible; e.g. a moon is visible at the bottom left corner of the XXI stems from confusion of German Mond, meaning Moon, with Italian mondo and French monde, meaning "world", the usual symbol associated with the card 21 on Italian suited tarots and in non-gaming divinatory tarot.
In tarot decks made for playing the game, as opposed to those made for divination or other esoteric uses, the four Latin suits are replaced in many regions with the French suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs, and spades. Some variations of the game are played with a 54-card deck (5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of hearts and diamonds and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of spades and clubs are discarded).
See also[]
- Mantegna Tarocchi
- Tarocco Piemontese
- Hofamterspiel
- Trappola
References[]
- ↑ Description of the Michelino deck - Translated text at Trionfi.com
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 David Parlett, Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, pg. 300 Oxford University Press (1996) ISBN 0-19-869173-4
- ↑ Samuel Weller Singer Researches into the history of playing cards pg. 28 London 1816
"Let him look to it, who is pleased with the game of Tarocco, that the only signification of this word Tarocco,
is stupid, foolish, simple, fit only to be used by bakers, cobblers, and the vulgar." - ↑ The Gentleman's magazine vol. 185 London 1849
- ↑ Italian-suited Tarot decks at Pagat.com
External links[]
Template:Wikiquote
- Tarocchi History at Trionfi.com
- Card Games: Tarot Games at Pagat.com
- What is Tarot? It's not what you think! at Bloggernews.net
- YouTube Introducing the Card Games for Tarot at YouTube.com
Template:Tarot Cards Template:List of trick-taking games
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