Tarot de Besançon

The Fool in the Besançon pack by Renault (c. 1820)

The Tarot de Besançon, also called the Besançon Tarot,[1] describes an historical type of Tarot pack used for playing card games that was made in south Germany, France and Switzerland, including the town of Besançon.[2]

History

The Tarot de Besançon was derived from the older form of the Marseille type, now known as ‘Type-I Tarot de Marseille’,[3] compared with which it portrays characteristic differences, notably that the Popess (trump II) and the Pope (trump V) are replaced by, respectively, Juno[a] and Jupiter.[b] The earliest cards of this pattern came from Strasbourg in the early 18th century.[4] During the mid-18th century other sources of manufacture included Colmar, Konstanz, Ulm and Munich, but the majority were manufactured in Alsace. The packs take their name from the eastern French town of Besançon, to which the cardmakers moved their production in the early 19th century, before being superseded in the late 18th century by French-suited tarot packs. The Swiss Tarot pattern, which emerged in Diessenhofen around 1860, was derived from the Tarot de Besançon.[2]

Description

Typical of card packs of the Besançon type is that the cards traditionally depicting the Papess and the Pope were redesigned to portray the Roman gods, Juno[a] and Jupiter.[b] It is assumed that this renaming took place in order to avoid upsetting religious sensitivities in an area of distribution marked by confessional contrasts.

Other features of the Besançon type compared with the Marseille Tarot are:

  • Cupid is aiming at the eyes of the lovers.
  • The face of the Moon appears head on and not in profile.
  • The world is not depicted dancing, but standing in contrapost.

Suits

Suits of the Tarot de Besançon
Suit
United Kingdom Swords Cups Coins Batons
France Épées Coupes Deniers Bâtons
l'Épée Coupes Deniers Baatons
Tarot of Besançon card deck (1890)[5]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack[c] Knight Queen[c] King[c]
Coins
Cups
Swords
Clubs

Trumps

The Besançon Tarot includes the Swiss Tarot, which forms its own sub-type (see details in that article), and the Tarot d’Épinal, which also has specific variations in design. It was manufactured around 1830 or 1850 by the cardmaker, Pellerin, in Épinal, the wood engraving comes from François Georgin (1801–1863). Among the features are an additional card with the title, Consultant, which was clearly used as a Significator, which is why it may be assumed that the cards were also used for divinatory purposes and not, like other packs of this type at that time, used exclusively for playing cards.

The pictures below, showing the 22 trump cards, come from a pack with coloured wood carvings produced by Renault from Besançon around 1820–1830. The pack is based on a c. 1800 design by Jean Jerger, also from Besançon.

Lequart
Paris
1890[5]		 Renault
Besançon
1830[7][1]		 Number.
Label.		 Lequart
Paris
1890[5]		 Renault
Besançon
1830[7][1]		 Number.
Label.
(unnumbered)

Le Fou
(Le Mat)

The Fool		 I.

Le Bateleur

The Juggler
Reminiscent of a pair[d][e] of jacks.[f]
II.

Junon

Juno[a]		 III.[c]

L'Impératris
(L'Impératrice)

The Empress
Reminiscent of a pair[d][e] of queens.[g]
IIII.[c]

L'Empereur

The Emperor		 V.

Jupiter[b]
Reminiscent of a pair[d][e] of kings.[g]
VI.[h][i][j]

L'Amoure(u)x

The Lovers		 VII.

Le Charior
(Le Chariot)

The
Chariot(eer)
Reminiscent of an archer,[k] like
those found in the William Tell pack.[l]		 Reminiscent of a knight.[g]
VIII.[m][j]

La Justice

The Justice		 VIIII.[m][h][n][i]

Le Capucin
(L'Hermite)

The Monk[c]
(The Hermit)
Reminiscent of a queen of swords.[g] Reminiscent of Diogenes.[o]
X.[p][i]

La Roux
(La Roue)
de Fortune

The Wheel
of Fortune		 XI.[m][j]

La Force

The Strength
Fate, consisting of rise or ascent,
climax or apogee, and downfall or descent.		 See lions in heraldry, Nemean lion,[q]
Samson's riddle, and 1 Samuel 17.
XII.[p][r]

Le Pendu

The
Hanged Man		 XIII.[i][p][s]

(La Mort)

The Death

(unlabelled)
Reminiscent of Judas,[t] who hung
himself, after betraying Jesus.[u]		 Depicted as the grim reaper and
occupying the same position in all tarots.
XIIII.[m][j]

Tenpérance
(Tempérance)

Temperance		 XV.[v][s]

Le Diable

The Devil
Reminiscent of a maid of cups, like those
found in Visconti-Sforza,[w] the Minchiate,
and Portuguese-suited playing cards.		 The underworld or netherworld,
envisioned as a subterranean realm.
XVI.[v]

La Maison
Dieu

The House
of God		 XVII.[v][j]

Le Toille
(L'Étoile)

The Star
A tower,[x] rising towards the sky, and a
lightning strike, descending from heaven.		 Shares similar imagery with Temperance
(XIV), itself reminiscent of a maid of cups.
XVIII.[v][j]

La Lune

The Moon		 XVIIII.[v][j]

Le Soleil

The Sun
Night and day. The main luminaries of the celestial sphere.
XX.[v][s]

Le
Juegmant
(Jugement)

The
Judgement		 XXI.[v][j]

Le Monde

The World
The angelic heaven,
above the firmament.		 The world to come after
the last judgement (XX).

Manufacturers

Known manufacturers of card packs of this type include:

  • Jean-Baptiste Benois
  • Suzanne Bernardin
  • J. Blanche, Besançon[2]
  • J. H. Blanck et Tschann
  • Louis Carey, Strasbourg[2]
  • Andreas Benedict Göbl
  • Arnoult Grimaud
  • François Héri
  • Jean Jerger, Besançon[2]
  • A. Kirchner, Besançon[2]
  • Joseph Krebs, Freiburg[2]
  • L. de Laboisse, Strasbourg[2]
  • Pierre Lachapele
  • Nicolas François Laudier, Strasbourg[2]
  • Jean Pierre Laurent
  • Arnoult Lequart
  • Guillaume Mann, Colmar[2]
  • Johann Pelagius Mayer, Constance[2]
  • Renault, Besançon[2]
  • Bernhard Schaer, Mumlisweil[2]
  • Jean Tissot
  • Wolfgang Weber
  • Johannes Muller, Schaffhousen
  • Josef Rauch Miller, Salzburg[15]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 The queen of coins in the medieval Boiardo–Viti tarot, also found in da Tortona's deck.
  2. 1 2 3 Bacchus occupies the same location in Belgian Tarot. Both Tarocco Siciliano and da Tortona's deck feature Jupiter as their highest trump, while the medieval Sola Busca tarot has his Greek equivalent, Zeus, seated on a chariot. Boiardo–Viti has him among its face cards, featuring his eagle on the fourth-highest position.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 In decks produced during the French First Republic, some royal or religious trumps and face cards were given secular republican names; thus, queens and jacks were labelled Liberty and Equality, respectively; kings, genii; The Emperor and The Empress, grandfather and grandmother; and The Hermit, the poor.[6]
  4. 1 2 3 The tarot deck is precisely one and a half times the size of the standard 52-card deck, its additional twenty-six cards, namely four queens and twenty-two trumps, forming the exact equivalent of two extra card suits,[α] hence the aforementioned doubling, within this initial (sub)section.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 The trumps of the contemporary Boiardo–Viti tarot consist of ten consecutive pairs of men and women, each embodying a vice and a virtue, respectively.[10][11]
  6. ↑ The page of batons, for the former, and those of coins or spades, for the latter.
  7. 1 2 3 4 In the contemporary Sola Busca tarot, all court cards (save for jacks) are explicitly labelled with additional meanings, taken from classical literature.
  8. 1 2 One of the three theological virtues:[e] love (VI), faith (IX) and hope, the latter being usually conflated.
  9. 1 2 3 4 The human fate (X) or lifespan, encompassing marriage (VI), old age (IX) and death (XIII), wedlock (VI) and monasticism (IX) being often contrasted.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Imagery reminiscent of astrological signs, as found, for instance, in this 16th century German woodcut: Sagittarius (VI), Libra (VIII), Leo (XI), Aquarius (XIV, XVII), Virgo (XIV, XVII, XXI), Cancer (XVIII), Gemini (XIX). The Minchiate explicitly depict all twelve constellations of the zodiac.
  11. ↑ The contemporary Visconti-Sforza Tarot depicts death with a bow, instead of a scythe, while the earlier Boiardo–Viti deck contains a suit of arrows. An atypical 15th century jack of batons, hosted at the Guildhall Library,[12] is portrayed as an archer aiming at a heron[13] (see also Ambraser Hofjagdspiel).
  12. ↑ First and last row, third from the left.
  13. 1 2 3 4 One of the four cardinal virtues,[e] from justice (VIII) to temperance (XIV), the wisdom of old age (IX) complementing the strength of youth (XI).
  14. ↑ Hermits voluntarily renounce ephemeral distractions (0–I), carnal pleasures (VI), and worldly ranks or titles (II–V, VII–VIII).
  15. ↑ The Boiardo–Viti[14] and Sola Busca tarots feature exclusively mythical and historical figures of classical antiquity for their trumps and face cards.
  16. 1 2 3 Hanging (XII) and being drawn on the breaking wheel (X) constitute medieval forms of torture, execution and capital punishment, oftentimes unto death (XIII).
  17. ↑ The contemporary da Tortona deck has Hercules wearing its skin.
  18. ↑ The gibbet's supporting pillars are reminiscent of batons, and the young man of a jack. In the contemporary Visconti-Sforza Tarot, Strength, occupying the previous position, also resembles a page of wands.
  19. 1 2 3 Medieval Christianity saw death (XIII) as the consequence of original sin, itself the result of temptation by the devil (XV), the former being undone by the resurrection unto eternal life, and the latter being condemned at the last judgement, hence the imagery and title of the XXth trump (1 Thessalonians 4:16). In the surviving Visconti-Sforza decks, all intervening trumps between Death and Judgment are either wholly absent from, or form later additions to the original set.
  20. ↑ The Sola Busca tarot also features two biblical characters among its trump cards.
  21. ↑ Labelled The Traitor, in Italian tarots.
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The cosmological (sub)section, depicting the various vertical layers of the world (XXI), listed in ascending order, from hell (XV) to heaven (XX).
  23. ↑ The complete Cary-Yale set.
  24. ↑ In other tarots (Belgium, Viéville), a tree.

Subnotes

  1. ↑ Decks with five and six suits, respectively, were already attested as early as John of Rheinfelden's late 14th century treatise.[8][9]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Besançon Tarot by Jacob Jerger". The World of Playing Cards. 19 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Pattern Sheet 6. The Tarot de Besançon". The International Playing-Card Society. 27 July 2011.
  3. ↑ For these two types, see Thierry Depaulis, “The ‘Tarot de Marseille’ – Facts and Fallacies”, The Playing-Card, Vol. 42, no. 1, July-Sept. 2013, pp. 23-43 and Vol. 42, no. 2, Oct.-Dec. 2013, pp. 101-120.
  4. ↑ Thierry Depaulis, The Cardmakers of Alsace, IPCS, 2023, chapter “The ‘Tarot de Besançon’, an ‘Ecumenical’ Tarot?”, pp.164-174
  5. 1 2 3 "[Jeu de tarot à enseignes italiennes] : [jeu de cartes, estampe], estampe". Gallica. 1890.
  6. ↑ "[Jeu de tarot à enseignes italiennes mis à la mode révolutionnaire] : [jeu de cartes, estampe] / F. I." Gallica. 1794.
  7. 1 2 "WWPCM03337 "Renault" (France) deck "Tarot de Besancon", 1920". Trionfi. 27 January 2014.
  8. ↑ Johannes von Rheinfelden (1429) [1377]. Tractatus de moribus et disciplina humanae conversationis: id est ludus cartularum moralisatus. Basel.
  9. ↑ Dummett (1980), pp. 11–12.
  10. ↑ Kaplan, Stuart R.; Huets, Jean (1978). The Encyclopedia of Tarot. Vol. I. Stamford, Connecticut: U.S. Games Systems. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-913866-11-5.
  11. ↑ Solerti, Angelo [in Italian] (1894). "Tarocchi di Matteo Maria Boiardo". Le Poesie Volgari e Latine di Matteo Maria Boiardo. Bologna: Romagnoli–Dall'Aqua. pp. 334–335.
  12. ↑ Wintle, Simon. "Perspectives on the History of Tarot: From a Renaissance Card Game to a Medium of Spiritual Meaning and Identity". The World of Playing Cards.
  13. ↑ "WCMPC Collection Acquisition No. 507". Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards.
  14. ↑ Solerti, Angelo [in Italian] (1894). "Tarocchi di Matteo Maria Boiardo". Le Poesie Volgari e Latine di Matteo Maria Boiardo. Bologna: Romagnoli–Dall'Aqua. pp. 317–336.
  15. ↑ Giordano Berti, "Tarot of Besançon of Josef Rauch Miller", in Tarot in German countries from the 16th to the 18th century, OM Edizioni, Quarto Inferiore 2018, pp. 23-25

Literature

  • Dummett, Sir Michael (1980). The Game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City. London: Duckworth.
  • Graf, Eckhard (1991). Lexikon des Tarot sowie der Orakel- und Selbsterfahrungsspiele. Nagelschmid, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-927913-03-0.
  • Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table, Jonas Verlag/Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, Leinfelden-Echterdingen
  • Rodik, Belinda (2008) Tarot-Lexikon. Grundbegriffe und Schlüsselworte zu Symbolik und Deutung. Schirmer, Darmstadt 2008, ISBN 978-3-89767-612-1, pp 323–346.
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