| Tarot reading is a psychic art of foretelling using a | | | | Visconti Sforza family, who ruled Milan in the mid |
| deck of special playing cards known as the tarot | | | | fifteenth century. |
| cards. Tarot reading is one of the different forms of | | | | Slowly the cards began to be used as a method of |
| clairvoyance or the method of foretelling using playing | | | | divination. The oldest evidence of the trionfi deck |
| cards. | | | | being used for divination is found in the form of a |
| The history of tarot cards is related to the history of | | | | 1540 book by the name of, 'The Oracles of |
| tarot cards. This is because tarot reading is a kind of | | | | Francesco Marcolino da Forli' which described random |
| clairvoyant process or the foretelling of future | | | | and seemingly incoherent divination methods. Later |
| events using playing cards. The first evidence of | | | | evidences like the 1735 book, 'The Square of Sevens' |
| playing cards in the west predates to late 14 the | | | | and the 1750 book 'Pratesi Cartomancer' showed that |
| century, when tarot cards entered Europe, | | | | a pattern was slowly evolving in the divination |
| presumably from Mamluk, Egypt. The Egyptian cards | | | | methods using playing cards. A 1765 diary entry of |
| had the earliest tarot suits of swords, staves, cups | | | | Giacomo Casanova shows that the playing cards |
| and coins. Such playing cards are still widely used in | | | | were frequently used for divination by a Russian |
| the traditional card decks of Italy, Spain and Portugal. | | | | mistress of Casanova. |
| The use of playing cards in Europe predates back to | | | | The playing cards thus slowly began to become |
| 1377. The earliest written record of the use of tarot | | | | mysterious vehicles of divination with special motifs |
| cards in Europe is a 1367 ban on playing cards at | | | | painted on them. The cards now were vehicles of |
| Bern, Switzerland. | | | | Social, Philosophical, astronomical, poetical and heraldic |
| The history of tarot started with the inclusion of an | | | | ideas as well as the illustrations of the Roman and |
| additional trump card with allegorical images is the | | | | Greek heroes began to appear on the cards. The |
| conventional four-suit deck of tarot cards. These | | | | Sola Busca Tarocchi poem (1491) and the Boiardo |
| new set of cards, with an additional trump card came | | | | Tarocchi poem (1494) are the evidences of two such |
| to be known as carte da trionfi, with the additional | | | | poems that were painted on the illustrated cards. The |
| trump card being called the trionfi card. The first | | | | most famous of the earliest Tarot card deck is the |
| evidences of carte da trionfi can be found between | | | | Visconti Sforza deck of seventy-four cards. This |
| 1430 and 1450 in Ferrara, Milan and Bologna in | | | | deck was painted between 1451 and 1453 by either |
| northern Italy. A written record from the court of | | | | Bonifacio Bembo or Francesco Zayattari to celebrate |
| Ferrara in 1442 is the earliest evidence of the carte | | | | Francesco Sforza and wife Bianca Maria Visconti, the |
| da trionfi. The earliest surviving Tarot card deck is | | | | then ruling family of Milan. Two cards of this deck, |
| from the archives of the then rulers of Milan, the | | | | 'the devil' and 'the tower' has never been found. |