Tarot cards and their mystical explanations of life and destiny are demystified in an exhibition at the Inquisitor’s Palace in Vittoriosa, organised by Heritage Malta. The exhibition which, with its magical and religiously-tabooed theme is deemed to attract a large number of visitors, opened on 17 June and will run until 29 October.

Playing cards are one of the most fascinating aspects of popular European culture. The oldest references to card-playing date back to the end of the 14th century and refer to the taxes imposed on card players.

In the 15th century, playing cards gained more popularity following the development of the printing press. However, while the lay people played with rough and badly-designed cards, high society played with cards designed by great artists and adorned with precious materials such as gold and silver.

The game of tarots is based on 56 numeral cards, said to be Italian but which are in fact Arabic in origin (coppe, danari, bastoni and spade), and 22 cards known as “triumphs”, which were introduced in Italy at the beginning of the 15th century. This game derives from the Triomphi of Petrarch (hence “trump”), where he described the principal forces which govern Man, and assigned a hierarchical value to each of them. First comes Love (Instinct), which is won over by Modesty (Reason); next comes Death, which is defeated by Fame and which is in turn attacked by Time, Eternity, or God, who stands over all.

As indicated in numerous Renaissance documents, the game of tarots was also at the centre of sophisticated entertainment in aristocratic courts. Another common practice that lasted until the 19th century was that of associating the tarot figures to famous people and composing poems on them which might be praising or satirical in tone.

These playful and literary practices, however, soon came under attack. As early as the end of the 15th century, an anonymous Dominican preacher denounced the tarots as the work of devils, and supported his claim by arguing that the inventor of the game had deliberately made use of aspects of Christianity such as the Pope, Christian virtues, and even God, in order to draw men into vice. Regarded as a gambling game, the Church did its utmost to suppress the game or tarots.

Despite the condemnation of the Church, however, the game of tarots kept on spreading. The first manuals that fixed the regulations of the different games appeared during the 16th and 17th centuries. At the same time the limitations against gambling became heavier and so typographers, in search of new openings, invented the production of new educational cards using geographical designs, heraldic coats of arms, biblical scenes and historical and mythological characters.

At the end of the 18th century, after the rebirth of occultism, a vast production of fortune-telling games started to develop. This tendency developed enormously during the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the success of avant-garde artists pressed playing cards manufacturers to commission famous painters and illustrators with the design of the images for new packs. In the same period, different companies started to exploit playing cards as a tool for promotion. This in turn increased the production of new packs.

Tarot cards laid out at the Inquisitor’s Palace

The exhibition entitled The Cards of Destiny: Gambling, Luck and Magic is being organised by Heritage Malta and the Italian Associazione Culturale “Le Tarot” under the patronage of the Tourism and Culture Ministry of Malta and the Culture and the Environment Ministry of Italy, with the collaboration of the Biblioteca Classense of Ravenna.

The display is divided in six sections: Playing Cards, Tarots, The Allegories of the Tarots, The Game of Tarots, the Book of Thot, and Cartomancy. Other than a wide variety of playing cards, incisions by famous artists, rare books, and other material related to card games, this exhibition also features large scenographies that illustrate the history of this typical European custom. It also delves into explaining why the Inquisition sought to curb the magical element ingrained in this tradition. All displayed material forms part of the immense patrimony which the Associazione Culturale “Le Tarot” has collected throughout the last 25 years.

Founded in 1986, the associazione is composed of a group of experts who specialise on this subject. They have held exhibitions in collaboration with some of the foremost museums in the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts of New York, the National Gallery of Washington, the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Galleria degli Uffizi of Florence, and the Bibliothèque National of Paris, among many others.

The exhibition is also complemented by a fully illustrated bilingual (Italian and English) catalogue entitled I Tarocchi: Storia, Arte e Magia (Tarots: History, Art and Magic). Edited by Andrea Vitali and Terry Zanetti, the catalogue contains contributions by foremost scholars of the topic.

Cartomancy and the Inquisition

After having been approached by the Associazione Culturale “Le Tarot”, the relationship between tarot cards and the symbols of the marble tombstones of St John’s co-Cathedral inspired the Tourism and Culture Ministry to start discussing the possibility of setting up an exhibition on the theme with Heritage Malta.

The splendid marble tombstones of the Knights of the Order of St John, which compose the floor of St John’s co-Cathedral in Valletta, contain various figures and symbols which refer to the concept of memento mori: reminders of the brevity of life and the vanity of worldly matters. These images were constantly present in medieval figurative repertoire, and were also eventually used in the allegories and symbolism of tarot cards.

The possibilities increased when the Inquisition was brought into the picture, since the Holy Office not only condemned gambling but was also greatly concerned and did its utmost to control the myriad of magical beliefs common among all sectors of society. And although mostly concerning the upper classes of society, cartomancy was one of them.

Cartomancy in fact, was one aspect of learned or elite magic which was considered to be potentially much more dangerous to the Church since, implicit in its teachings, which circulated in prohibited written texts, it offered an alternative cosmology to the official one provided by the Church. The popular magic used by the lower classes, on the other hand, worked along with established Catholic rituals and intended to procure protection and security during moments of crisis. Thus, although both popular and learned magic were denounced together and with equal vehemence by the Church, in reality the Inquisition was much more concerned about learned magic.

The exhibition The Cards of Destiny: Gambling, Luck and Magic is open to the public from Monday to Sunday between 9am and 5pm. Last admission is at 4.30pm. Tickets are at Lm2 for adults, Lm1 for students and senior citizens and 50c for children aged between 6 and 11 years.

Article provided by Heritage Malta