THE HISTORY OF TAROT
The Tarot was born in the Middle Ages in northern Italy, and spread throughout Europe with great speed. They were decks of 78 cards intended for playing in the courts, a refined and intellectual pastime. The wealthiest commissioned the painting of their cards to more or less famous painters; those who couldn't afford it instead bought decks of cards printed in series, created with wooden matrices and colored with mattes. “Divinatory” reading was not yet known, it would only become prevalent with the French school of the 18th century.
The origins of the Tarot are not certain. There are those who say that they derive from the hieroglyphs of the Book of Thoth and are a synthesis of Egyptian knowledge and religion. Others maintain that their birth is Chinese, due to the various similarities with the I Ching, the guardian book of ancient Chinese wisdom more than three thousand years old. Still others maintain that the origin is entirely Italian, placing them in the court of the Duke of Milan at the beginning of the fifteenth century. What is certain is that Tarot cards are very hermetic, with different symbols from tradition to tradition, and different methods of use and divination.
