Keeping in
mind the cartomantic suit correspondences between French and Italian suits, I want to compare again the Bolognese suit
card meanings with those of Etteilla. I think Dummett missed some parallels.
Also, there is a text that is probably earlier and also by Etteilla, in which
there are a few more. Since this text is not well known, I will say more about
it.
Published with no author listed, Le Bohémien (below) was printed in 1802 Paris.[1] That of course is not earlier than 1770, but there is more to be said. Decker et al mention it in their 1996 book A Wicked Pack of Cards.[2] They observe that it is a combined reprint of two works, of which the second, L’Art d’Escamoter (The art of the sleight-of-hand artist), first printed in 1797, tells how to do magic tricks. It is the other, L’Art de tirer les cartes (The art of reading the cards), that is of our interest.
Although
anonymous, there is good reason to think the author, or at least editor, of
both was one Jacques Saint-Sauveur. After attending school in Paris, at least
until 1772 and age fifteen, he followed his father’s career in the diplomatic
service and then wrote illustrated travel books; he also seems to have been
known for performing magic tricks.[3]
Decker et al state that he published a Petit Etteilla, i.e. a Piquet deck
marked with Etteilla’s 1770 keywords, sometime in the last years of the
eighteenth century.[4]
They also observe that the publisher’s address for the earlier printing of the
booklet on magic tricks (Le Petit Escamoteur [sic]) is the same
as that given by “citoyen” Saint-Sauveur on a card of his Petit
Etteilla.[5]
The British Museum has the very card on its website.[6]
L’Art
de tirer les cartes
is a compendium of different methods of reading ordinary playing cards, using
different layouts and different sets of meanings. What is of our interest is a
short treatise called Le Petit Etteilla, which the editor says is a work that
Etteilla printed privately for friends in 1771. In it are two sets of
cartomantic meanings for the Piquet deck. The editor says that a copy fell into
his hands, and he went to visit Etteilla in 1772, to ask permission to reprint
it. He continues:
Eteilla
[sic] went further, and considered that he should pay me if I reprinted
this little amusement, from which he had not claimed to take any advantage;
having given this way of drawing cards at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and
having just verified it at thirty-three.[7]
Since Etteilla was born in 1738, Decker et al point out, he would have “given” this work in 1753 or 1754 and “verified” its correctness in 1771. They note that what comes next “strongly resembles Etteilla’s own very peculiar style.”[8]
The early
date is consistent with other reports attributable to him. A 1791 document to
which Etteilla put his signature also characterizes him as “giving” (donnant)
his method in 1753.[9]
Somewhat confusedly, it also speaks of him writing an abrège (synopsis)
in 1757.[10]
However, in 1785 Etteilla said he wrote that work in 1753.[11]
In any case, its first set of meanings is much the same as those of his book of
1770.
As to where this system came from, the 1791 document mentions “three elderly persons” imprisoned for cartomancy in Paris 1751-1753. They did not agree among themselves, so the young Etteilla “harmonized” (avait accordé) their individual meanings.[12] It seems to have been a system for the Piquet deck. Decker et al say only that his system, including that of the Tarot, “is largely fed from older French cartomancy.”[13]
[1] Le Bohémien, contenant l’Art de tirer les cartes, suivi par l’Art
d’Escamoter, et de l’application des Rêves aux Numéros de la Lotterie (no author/editor listed, but probably Jacques Saint-Sauveur, ed., Etteilla the author of "Art de tirer les cartes," and Saint-Saveur the author of the rest). (Paris: Chez Lemarchand, 1802). Scans of relevant pages from this work have been graciously provided to the author by the University of Chicago library.
[2] Ron Decker, Thierry Depaulis, and Michael Dummett, A Wicked Pack of Cards (London: Duckworth, 1996), p. 275, n. 65.
[3] Biographie universelle et portative des contemporains, ou Dictionnaire historique des hommes célèbres de toutes les nations, morts ou vivants, ec., 1826, p. 1231, in Google Books. Cited by Steve Mangan (“Kwaw”) online on Aeclectic Tarot Forum (find “biographie universelle”).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, Wicked Pack, p. 274, n. 62
[6] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1896-0501-715-1-32. Thanks to Steve Mangan for this link.
[7] Le Bohémien (see above n. 1), p. 46: “Eteilla [sic] fut plus loin, et crut me devoir des obligations de réimprimer ce petit amusement, duquel il n’avoit prétendu tirer aucun parti; ayant donné cette manière de tirer les cartes à l’âge de quinze ou seize ans, et l’ayant vérifiée juste à celui de trente-trois.”
[8] Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, Wicked Pack (see above n. 2), p. 98.
[9] From Le Nouvel Etteilla, ou Moyen Infaillible de Tirer les Cartes et de lire dans l’Avenir, in the booklet accompanying the Petit Etteilla deck reproduced by France Cartes (Paris: n.p., n.d.), p. 12. This seems to be the 1791 booklet described by Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, Wicked Pack, pp. 96-97, inasmuch as their liberal quotes from it correspond to passages in the France Cartes version. The year 1791 is given in the bibliographic material contained in the copy of the original booklet from which they quote, according to their n. 64, pp. 274-75, giving its original title as Etteilla, ou l’Art de tirer dans les Cartes.
[11] Etteilla [Jean-Baptiste Alliette], Philosophie des Hautes Sciences (Paris, 1785), p. 116. Online in archive.org. Cited by Decker et al, p. 78.
[12] [Etteilla? Jacques Saint-Sauveur?], Le Nouvel Etteilla (see above n. 9) p. 11. This passage is also quoted (in their translation) in Decker, Depaulis and Dummett, Wicked Pack, pp. 96-97.
[13] Decker, Depaulis, and Dummett, Wicked Pack (see here n. 2), p. 94.
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