versions of Tarot Cards or even French Playing Cards that featured the familiar Hearts, Spades, Clubs and Diamonds. Although not contributed to this transaction, there is a deck of cards in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, hand-painted and in the style of Northern Italian City States.
Tarot lore includes traveling into Europe on Gypsy wagons. Popularized by 19th Century novelists Villant and Papus, there is no historical evidence that Gypsies used Tarot until sometime in the 20th century. Their work historically was palmistry, fire divination and later playing cards.
The first known cards are hand-painted decks commissioned by noble families. That isn’t to say that printed cards may not have appeared after the invention of the Gutenberg Press, but these are the cards still in existence.
Containing rich symbolism, the cards often featured religious illustrations similar to European art of the period. This may be due to two factors. The monasteries were still producing illustrated works for nobility and rich merchants and “fad” Medieval and Renaissance Art was primarily filled with religious themes that carried over into the artwork of the cards.
History records the use of these decks of cards for a game similar Bridge. French titles (and their English translations) different somewhat from Italian titles. Many of the French titles have become familiar to us through the Tarot de Marseille. Ordering of the trumps varied considerably in Italy, perhaps depending on the whim of the creator. Even the number of cards in the deck seems to have varied. However, complete sets of cards are extremely rare, so firm statements to the fact are difficult.
Early bards and poets used the cards as a basis for verses