| Tarot cards are a special deck of playing cards that is | | | | in 1750. These books described more systematic |
| used for divination. The tarot cards slowly developed | | | | methods of divination using the tarot cards. A |
| in the Europe from the conventional playing cards in | | | | sixteenth century evidence of tarot cards used as |
| the mid fifteenth century. The first of the illustrated | | | | poems is the poem called the "tarrocchhi appropriate" |
| cards were known as the carte da trionfi and the | | | | that described the famous ladies of the court. |
| decks used to have an extra illustrated trump card | | | | In contemporary literature too, cards have found |
| along with the four suits of the conventional playing | | | | significant presence. In the 1932 novel, 'The |
| cards. The oldest instance of the carta da trionfi can | | | | GreaterTrumps' by British writer Charles Williams, the |
| be found from a court document of Ferrara, Italy in | | | | main protagonists uses tarot cards to travel through |
| 1442. The connection of Tarot cards with literature | | | | dimensions of space and time, create new matter |
| has been profound and the tarot cards have been | | | | and summon powerful storms. Another such |
| used as vehicles of philosophical, poetical, societal and | | | | noteworthy novel is the 1969 novel 'Il castello dei |
| astronomical sermons. These cards have also been | | | | destini incrociati' by Italo Calvino which is translated in |
| used as the subject of literature from the time of | | | | English as the 'Castle of Crossed Destinies' in 1979. In |
| their inception to the contemporary age. | | | | this novel by Calvino mediaeval travellers gathering at |
| The earliest connection of the cards used as poetical | | | | a castle are forbidden to speak and uses a deck of |
| vehicles can be traced back to 1491 to 1494 when | | | | tarot cards to narratetheir tales. These stories are |
| the Sola Busca Tarocchi poem and the Boiardo | | | | then reconstructed by the narrator of the novel, |
| Tarocchi poem were painted on the back of | | | | attending implications from the secret nature of |
| illustrated playing cards. The next literary presence of | | | | communications, fate, and the transcendence of |
| tarot cards can be traced back to a book called, 'The | | | | everyday life. |
| Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli' that was | | | | In the 1922 poem, 'The Waste land', TS Eliot uses |
| written in 1540. This book described apparently | | | | cards to describe the character of madame Sosorti, |
| incoherent methods of summoning tarot card | | | | who appears in the first part of the poem. The first |
| divinations. The psychic divination methods described | | | | part of the poem is called the burial of the dead. A |
| in this book were random and incoherent, although a | | | | few of the cards mentioned by Eliot are imaginary |
| more systematic system of divination was also | | | | whereas the other cards like 'the Hanged Man' and |
| slowly evolving. This gradual evolution of divination | | | | 'the wheel' really appears in the tarot deck of cards. |
| incantations through the illustrated playing cards is | | | | Contemporary evidences of cards on literature |
| evident from the two books called, 'The Square of | | | | include the novel Sepulchre (2007) by UK writer Kate |
| Sevens' written in 1735 and the 'Pratesi Cartomancer' | | | | Mosse and the 2009 novel 'Andromeda Klein'. |