History of Tarot: From Game to Reading
The History of Tarot in Plain Terms
The history of tarot begins not with fortune telling, but with a card game in northern Italy in the early 15th century, and that fact surprises many people who meet tarot for the first time. Tarot cards were first made as luxury playing cards for noble families, with hand painted pictures, gold leaf, and images drawn from the world around them: emperors, popes, lovers, wheels, towers, and stars. The game was called trionfi, or triumphs, and it was played with a deck that had a fifth suit of picture cards, the trumps, added to the four ordinary suits. Only centuries later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, did writers link those pictures to astrology, numerology, and Western mysticism, and turn a game into a tool for reflection and divination. Knowing that order, game first, divination later, helps a reader keep tarot in perspective, and it makes the history more interesting, not less.
This page follows that history in order, from the first records in the 1440s to the decks that most readers use today. The how to read guide gives a practical next step after the history here, with spreads and positions to try. It gives dates, places, and names that can be checked, and it notes where the record is clear and where it is not. Tarot history has many myths, such as a claim that the cards came from ancient Egypt, or that they were invented by a secret society. Those myths are not supported by the record, and this page does not repeat them as fact. The real history, with dukes in Milan, printers in Marseille, and artists in London, is rich enough on its own, and it explains why the cards look the way they do today.
Northern Italy in the 1400s: A Game for Dukes
The earliest references to tarot date to the 1440s and 1450s, in northern Italian cities such as Milan, Ferrara, Florence, and Venice. The game was called carte da trionfi, cards of triumphs, and it was played as a trick taking game, much like modern card games where one suit outranks the others. The deck had 78 cards: 22 trumps, or Major Arcana, and 56 suit cards, with four suits, Cups, Swords, Batons, and Coins, each with ten numbered cards and four court cards, King, Queen, Knight, and Page. That structure, 78 cards in the same shape, is still the structure of a standard tarot deck today, which is a remarkable continuity across nearly 600 years. The suits in Italy were Cups, Swords, Batons, and Coins, and those names are still used in many Italian and French decks, while English decks use Wands for Batons and Pentacles for Coins.
The game was played by noble families, and the earliest surviving decks were made for them as luxury objects. The cards were hand painted on pasteboard, with gold and silver, and they showed members of the noble families in period dress, with their coats of arms, their pets, and their cities in the background. The game spread from Milan to other Italian cities, and then to France, when French soldiers and rulers encountered the cards after the French conquest of Milan in 1499. The game was not a secret, and it was not a religious rite. It was a pastime for the rich, played at court, with cards that were also works of art. That social setting explains why the earliest cards are so beautiful, and why they survive in museums today, while the cheap printed cards used by ordinary players have mostly vanished.
The Visconti Sforza Decks: The Oldest Surviving Tarot
The Visconti Sforza decks hold the title of oldest surviving tarot cards. They were made in the middle of the 15th century for the Visconti and Sforza families of Milan. The name covers about 15 incomplete sets from that period, now held in museums, libraries, and private collections around the world. No complete deck has survived, but the three most famous sets are well known. The Pierpont Morgan Bergamo deck, also called the Colleoni Baglioni deck, was made around 1451, originally with 78 cards, of which 74 survive today: 20 trumps, 15 face cards, and 39 pip cards. The Cary Yale deck, also called the Visconti di Modrone set, was made around 1466, and is held at Yale University Library. The Brera Brambilla deck is held at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. The cards are attributed to Bonifacio Bembo and his workshop, though that attribution is not certain, and one scholar has proposed Francesco Zavattari instead.
Those decks are important for two reasons. First, they show the tarot structure already complete in the mid 1400s: 22 trumps, four suits, and court cards, with images that are close to the modern cards. The Fool, the Magician, the Empress, the Emperor, the Lovers, Death, the Tower, and the World are all present, though some images differ from the modern versions. Second, they show that tarot was a game, not a divination tool, in the 15th century. There is no evidence that the Visconti Sforza cards were used for fortune telling, and the cards themselves, with their coats of arms and portraits of the duke and his family, point to a game for a court, not to a secret rite. A reader who knows that history can enjoy the cards as art and as a game, as well as a tool for reflection, without needing a myth about ancient origins.
Marseille and the Spread Across Europe
From Italy, tarot moved to France, Switzerland, and northern Europe, and the Marseille pattern became the standard design for French tarot cards. The Tarot of Marseilles, or Tarot de Marseille, is a standard pattern of Italian suited tarot with 78 cards that was very popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries for playing card games, and it is still made today. The pattern was most likely created in Milan before it reached France, and the oldest surviving cards of the Marseilles pattern were made by Jean Noblet of Paris around 1650, with other early makers such as Jean Dodal in Lyon in 1701 and Nicolas Conver in Marseille around 1760. French card historian Romain Merlin coined the name Tarot de Marseille as late as 1856, and French writers such as Eliphas Levi, Gerard Encausse, who wrote as Papus, and Paul Marteau spread it, using the name for a group of closely related designs made in Marseille, a city that was a center of playing card manufacture.
The Marseille cards were printed from woodcuts and colored by hand or with stencils, which made them cheaper and more widely available than the hand painted Italian decks. The images are simpler than the Visconti Sforza cards, with flat colors, bold lines, and French titles on the trumps, and the Minor Arcana shows only the suit symbols, such as three cups or seven swords, with no scenes. That simplicity is part of the Marseille charm, and it is also a challenge for a modern reader, because a Seven of Swords with only seven swords gives less to interpret than a Rider Waite Smith Seven of Swords with a figure carrying swords away from a camp. The Marseille pattern spread across France and Switzerland, and its designs influenced the tarot decks made in northern Italy in the centuries that followed. The pattern remains a standard today, and many readers learn tarot with a Marseille deck as a second deck, after the Rider Waite Smith deck.
The Occult Turn: 1700s and 1800s
Tarot became a tool for divination in the 18th century, when French writers began to link the cards to ancient wisdom, astrology, and the Kabbalah. Antoine Court de Gebelin, a French writer, published a work in 1781 that claimed tarot came from ancient Egypt, a claim that is not supported by the record, but which shaped tarot for the next two centuries. Jean Baptiste Alliette, who wrote as Etteilla, published the first deck designed for divination in the 1780s, with new images and meanings, and he wrote the first books on reading tarot as a fortune telling tool. In the 19th century, Eliphas Levi linked tarot to the Kabbalah and to the Hermetic tradition, and Gerard Encausse, as Papus, wrote a popular book on tarot in 1889 that spread those links further. Those writers did not invent tarot, but they invented a new use for it, and that use, reading the cards for guidance, is the use most people know today.
In England, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a society founded in 1888 that studied Western mysticism, took up tarot as a central tool. Members of the Golden Dawn, including Arthur Edward Waite, Pamela Colman Smith, and Aleister Crowley, linked each Major Arcana card to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, a planet, a sign, and an element, and they designed decks that carried those links in the pictures. The Golden Dawn system is the basis for most modern tarot correspondences, including the links between the Magician and Mercury, the High Priestess and the Moon, and the Lovers and Gemini, which many readers still use today. A reader who knows that history can use those correspondences as a tradition, not as a fact, and can choose which system to follow, because different decks and different schools use different links.
Rider Waite 1909 and Thoth in the 1940s
The deck that matters most in modern tarot is the Rider Waite deck, which came out in December 1909 from the London firm of William Rider and Son, with designs by Arthur Edward Waite and art by Pamela Colman Smith, both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck holds 78 cards, with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana, and its fresh idea was to give every Minor Arcana card a full illustrated scene, rather than only pips. That change made tarot easier to read for beginners, because a reader could see a tale in each card, and it made the deck the standard for English speaking readers. Waite also changed the order of two Major Arcana cards, making Strength card 8 and Justice card 11, while older decks had Justice at 8 and Strength at 11, so the sequence fitted the astrological order used by the Golden Dawn. The deck is now often called the Rider Waite Smith deck, to give Smith credit for the art, and estimates suggest over 100 million copies circulate in over 20 countries.
The second major deck of the 20th century is the Thoth Tarot, designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943. The two met in 1937, and what was first planned as a six month project took five years, because Harris learned the Western esoteric tradition as she painted, and Crowley revised the images in detail. The Book of Thoth, Crowley text on the deck, was published on 21 March 1944 in a limited edition of 200 copies, with only eight cards in color. The full color deck was not printed until 1969, after both Crowley and Harris had died, and a professional quality printing did not appear until 1977. The Thoth deck has 78 cards, with 22 Major Arcana, called Atu, and 56 Minor Arcana, with court cards named Knight, Queen, Prince, and Princess, rather than Page, Knight, Queen, and King. The Thoth deck is more complex than the Rider Waite Smith deck, with astrology, alchemy, and the Kabbalah woven into every card, and it is often recommended as a second deck, after a reader has learned the basics. The Thoth deck guide gives a fuller view of that deck for readers who want to study it.
Tarot Today: A Tool for Reflection
A reader who knows the history can read with more confidence, because the history explains why the cards look the way they do, and why different decks use different images for the same card. The Fool is still a traveler at a cliff edge, the Lovers is still a choice, Death is still a close, and the World is still a completion, whether the art is from Milan in 1451, Marseille in 1760, London in 1909, or a modern deck made last year. The pictures change, the structure stays, and the use for reflection is a newer chapter in a long story that began as a game. That story is worth knowing, and it is worth telling honestly, with dates that can be checked and myths that are named as myths.
A simple next step is to look at one card from your deck, find its earliest image in a museum collection online, and note what has changed and what has stayed the same. The beginners guide and the minor arcana guide give a practical next step after that comparison, with the four suits explained in full. That short comparison turns history into a practice you can see, with a picture and a date to check. A reader can help you explore that history, ask the right questions, and choose the step that suits your life. First 3 minutes FREE — every time, for every reading, with all advisors.
Try a One-Card Tarot reading and think about one card from the deck and what its long history might suggest about your question.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was tarot invented?
Tarot was invented in northern Italy in the early 15th century, with the earliest references dating to the 1440s and 1450s. The game was called trionfi, or triumphs, and the deck had 78 cards, with 22 trumps and 56 suit cards, the same structure used today.
What is the oldest surviving tarot deck?
The oldest surviving tarot cards are the Visconti Sforza decks, made in the middle of the 15th century for the Visconti and Sforza families of Milan. The Pierpont Morgan Bergamo deck was made around 1451, originally with 78 cards, of which 74 survive today, and other sets are held at Yale University Library and the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.
When was the Rider-Waite tarot deck published?
The Rider Waite deck was first published in December 1909 by William Rider and Son in London, designed by Arthur Edward Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith. It was the first widely used deck with fully illustrated Minor Arcana cards, and it is now often called the Rider Waite Smith deck.
When was the Thoth tarot deck created?
The Thoth Tarot was designed by Aleister Crowley and painted by Lady Frieda Harris between 1938 and 1943, with the Book of Thoth published on 21 March 1944 in a limited edition of 200 copies. The full color deck was not printed until 1969, after both Crowley and Harris had died.
Did tarot come from ancient Egypt?
No, there is no evidence that tarot came from ancient Egypt. The claim was made by Antoine Court de Gebelin in 1781, but the record shows tarot was invented in northern Italy in the early 15th century as a card game, and only later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, was it linked to Egypt, astrology, and Western mysticism.
Last updated: November 12, 2026
