c. 1600–50 · Tarot de Paris — its own 17th-c. Parisian pattern (Italian-suited)
Tarot de Paris — Anonymous (BnF, c. 1600–1650)
At a glance
An anonymous early Parisian tarot (BnF, c. 1600–1650) held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and free to view on Gallica (ark:/12148/btv1b105109624) — the unsigned companion to our Jean Noblet (c. 1650) and Jacques Viéville decks. Unlike the outlier Viéville, this pack sits squarely in the C-order (Marseille) mainstream: a fully named French Tarot de Marseille, every trump captioned on the card in period spelling (LE BATELEVR, LA IVSTICE, ATREMPANCE…). 78 woodcut cards, hand-coloured, shown here from the BnF scan.
Why it matters
With Noblet and Viéville, it shows that the named, numbered Marseille pattern was already standardised in Paris a century before Nicolas Conver's 1760 Marseille — the printed standard our library also holds. It is a clean witness to the C-order line in its Parisian form.
What you're looking at
- 22 atouts (trumps): 21 numbered + the unnumbered Mat, with the card names read directly from the scans.
- 56 suit cards: Deniers (Coins), Coupes (Cups), Bâtons (Batons), Épées (Swords), each with ten pips and four courts (Valet, Cavalier, Reine, Roi).
Honesty notes
The maker is anonymous, but the BnF catalogue dates it 1600–1650 (shelfmark RESERVE KH-34, titled Jeu de tarot parisien anonyme à enseignes italiennes). It is one of several early Parisian tarots — note it is not the famous idiosyncratic Tarot de Paris of the same years, but a captioned, mainstream C-order pack. The trumps are named from their printed captions; suit cards are shown in BnF folio order and pip ranks are assigned by position (corrections welcome).
Game, not divination
A playing pack; the cartomantic readings attached to the Marseille came later, with the 18th-century occult revival.
Sources
BnF / Gallica (ark:/12148/btv1b105109624), Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France; Thierry Depaulis on the Parisian cartiers; Dummett, The Game of Tarot.
RESEARCH NOTE (2026-06-13) — identity correction owed. The BnF object cited here (ark:/12148/btv1b105109624) is the idiosyncratic Tarot de Paris, a pattern of its OWN — NOT a mainstream C-order Tarot de Marseille. Its cards carry broken period captions (LAN PEREUT, LER MITE, A TREMPANCE, LES TOILLES, LA FOUDRE), figural animal Aces, and a Hell-mouth at XVI (La Foudre, not La Maison-Dieu). The deck name/description and trump titles need a reframe; confidence medium (Gallica scan not read card-by-card). See research/decks/paris-anonymous-tarot.md.
EDITORIAL CALL (2026-06-13): reframed as the Tarot de Paris, a distinct pattern of its own (NOT a mainstream Marseille). Per-card trump CAPTIONS (the broken period spellings, Hell-mouth Foudre at XVI, figural animal Aces) still need card-by-card correction from the Gallica scan — deferred to a session with image access.
Where the pictures come from: who holds this deck's pictures, how sharp they are and what their rights allow: Sources: Tarot de Paris.
The cards (78)
78 of 78 card images are not shown on this page (scan from the BnF (Gallica), free for non-commercial reuse only). Each card links to where its holder shows it; the card viewer and recursive.eco still open the deck.
- see it at the holderI · Le Bateleur
- see it at the holderII · La Papesse
- see it at the holderIII · L'Impératrice
- see it at the holderIIII · L'Empereur
- see it at the holderV · Le Pape
- see it at the holderVI · L'Amoureux
- see it at the holderVII · Le Chariot
- see it at the holderVIII · La Justice
- see it at the holderVIIII · L'Hermite
- see it at the holderX · La Roue de Fortune
- see it at the holderXI · La Force
- see it at the holderXII · Le Pendu
- see it at the holderXIII · La Mort
- see it at the holderXIIII · Tempérance
- see it at the holderXV · Le Diable
- see it at the holderXVI · La Maison-Dieu
- see it at the holderXVII · L'Étoile
- see it at the holderXVIII · La Lune
- see it at the holderXVIIII · Le Soleil
- see it at the holderXX · Le Jugement
- see it at the holderXXI · Le Monde
- see it at the holderAs de Deniers
- see it at the holderDeux de Deniers
- see it at the holderTrois de Deniers
- see it at the holderQuatre de Deniers
- see it at the holderCinq de Deniers
- see it at the holderSix de Deniers
- see it at the holderSept de Deniers
- see it at the holderHuit de Deniers
- see it at the holderNeuf de Deniers
- see it at the holderDix de Deniers
- see it at the holderValet de Deniers
- see it at the holderCavalier de Deniers
- see it at the holderReine de Deniers
- see it at the holderRoi de Deniers
- see it at the holderAs de Coupes
- see it at the holderDeux de Coupes
- see it at the holderTrois de Coupes
- see it at the holderQuatre de Coupes
- see it at the holderCinq de Coupes
- see it at the holderSix de Coupes
- see it at the holderSept de Coupes
- see it at the holderHuit de Coupes
- see it at the holderNeuf de Coupes
- see it at the holderDix de Coupes
- see it at the holderValet de Coupes
- see it at the holderCavalier de Coupes
- see it at the holderReine de Coupes
- see it at the holderRoi de Coupes
- see it at the holderAs de Bâtons
- see it at the holderDeux de Bâtons
- see it at the holderTrois de Bâtons
- see it at the holderQuatre de Bâtons
- see it at the holderCinq de Bâtons
- see it at the holderSix de Bâtons
- see it at the holderSept de Bâtons
- see it at the holderHuit de Bâtons
- see it at the holderNeuf de Bâtons
- see it at the holderDix de Bâtons
- see it at the holderValet de Bâtons
- see it at the holderCavalier de Bâtons
- see it at the holderReine de Bâtons
- see it at the holderRoi de Bâtons
- see it at the holderAs de Épées
- see it at the holderDeux de Épées
- see it at the holderTrois de Épées
- see it at the holderQuatre de Épées
- see it at the holderCinq de Épées
- see it at the holderSix de Épées
- see it at the holderSept de Épées
- see it at the holderHuit de Épées
- see it at the holderNeuf de Épées
- see it at the holderDix de Épées
- see it at the holderValet de Épées
- see it at the holderCavalier de Épées
- see it at the holderReine de Épées
- see it at the holderRoi de Épées
- see it at the holderLe Mat (The Fool)
Sources and credits
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (the 'Tarot de Paris', early 17th c.)
- Anonymous Parisian cardmaker (c. 1600-1650): No maker's name appears on the cards, not even in the Two of Coins cartouche where a maker would normally sign
- Bibliothèque nationale de France (holding institution): Holds the sole surviving complete copy, shelfmark RESERVE KH-34; digitised on Gallica as ark:/12148/btv1b105109624. Credit: 'Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France'. The scans are reused under Gallica's conditions of use: non-commercial reuse is free with this credit; commercial reuse needs a BnF licence (https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/fr/html/conditions-dutilisation-de-gallica)
- PlayfulProcess (2026): Grammar architecture and summaries
Research dossier: research/decks/paris-anonymous-tarot.md. Data: tarot/paris-anonymous-tarot/grammar.json, CC-BY-SA-4.0. Images keep their own licences (hover a card for its credit).