Belgian Tarot — Vandenborre / 'Tarot Flamand' (Brussels, c. 1780)

At a glance

The Flemish tarot (Tarot flamand), printed in Brussels in the later 18th century by makers such as F. I. Vandenborre and Jacques/Jean Galler. It keeps the whole Tarot de Marseille structure but is famous for two substitutions in the trumps — a quiet response to Catholic sensibilities:

• II · Le Capitaine — a braggart soldier replaces La Papesse (the Popess).
• V · Bacchus — the wine-god on a barrel replaces Le Pape (the Pope).

With both clergy gone, the deck could be sold without offence in a region pulled between Catholic and Protestant authority. It is the Eastern/Belgian branch of the family — the same current the earlier Viéville (1650) pointed toward.

What you're looking at

The 22 Major Arcana (atouts) of the Vandenborre pattern, from the public-domain c. 1780 set on Wikimedia Commons. The 56 suit cards are not included here — clean public-domain scans of the Flemish minors have not yet been located at usable resolution; this is therefore a trumps-only grammar (like our Oswald Wirth), and the images are display resolution, not print.

Game, not divination

The Flemish tarot was a card game; the cartomantic readings attached to tarot belong to the later French occult tradition, not to this Brussels playing pack.

Sources

Wikimedia Commons 'Tarot Belgijski' set (public domain, c. 1780); Thierry Depaulis on the Belgian/Flemish cartiers; Dummett, The Game of Tarot. Trump identifications follow the standard Vandenborre order.

Where the pictures come from: who holds this deck's pictures, how sharp they are and what their rights allow: Sources: Belgian (Vandenborre).