A Short History of Tarot
Tarot's story runs from Renaissance Italy to the present day. The examples below move from the Italian word tarocchi to an educational image series, a Parisian fortune teller's card legacy, and contemporary participation.
From Card Table to Reading Table
The Cleveland Museum of Art explains that tarocchi, the Italian word for tarot, refers to a gambling game. The name, though, has also been attached to objects that were never meant for play, as the next example shows.
The Ferrara "Tarocchi" Engravings
The museum's record of the Ferrara engravings dates them to before 1467 and describes their medium as engraving hand-colored with gold. It explains that the name Tarocchi was once thought to describe their function, but is now understood to be a misnomer. Despite the name, the set is not a tarot deck.
Scholars generally agree, according to the museum, that the set of 50 engravings served as an educational tool. Its subject was a fifteenth-century philosophical model of the cosmos. The museum describes a ladder-like order rising from the beggar through humankind, the muses, the liberal arts, the virtues and the planets, ending with the dwelling place of God.
The groups are marked E, D, C, B and A in that order. According to the museum, the series was perhaps devised by a humanist scholar, and the artists and craftsmen in Northern Italy who designed, engraved and hand-colored it are unknown today.
The five groups contain ten images each. Their subjects show how the series brought social position, learning, virtue and the heavens into one arrangement:
- Conditions of Man: Five serfs and five aristocrats represent ranks within the human order.
- Apollo and the Muses: Apollo appears with the nine Muses.
- Liberal Arts: The seven arts are joined by Poetry, Philosophy and Theology.
- Virtues: Seven virtues are accompanied by three personifications of cosmic principles.
- Firmaments: Eight cosmic spheres and two prime movers complete the group.
The series exists in two versions. The museum's set is called the "E" series, after the letter in the lower left corner of the prints in the first group of ten, and is believed to be the first version.
A picture can invite reflection while still belonging to an educational series, which is part of what makes this set so rewarding for anyone drawn to symbolic imagery.
A Fortune Teller in Paris
The museum's portrait record for Marie-Anne Adelaide Le Normand gives another historical example. It describes her as a Parisian fortune teller born in Alençon, France, between 1768 and 1772. Little is known about her early years, but by 1790 she had established a strong following in Paris.
The account says fortune telling was illegal at the time, even though people from the highest social classes sought her services. It also places her work amid the political unrest of Paris in the 1790s. Those details show how much demand there was for her work in a turbulent city.
Le Normand later returned to Alençon and died in 1843. The museum identifies her tangible card legacy as the Blue Owl deck or Le Grand Jeu de Mlle. Le Normand, published by Grimaud two years after her death.
The deck that carries her name therefore appeared after her lifetime, a measure of how her reputation outlived her.
The Rider-Waite-Smith Tradition
When you turn from historical objects to a deck you might read with, consider the discussion of the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition in choosing your first tarot deck. Ask how the images and accompanying explanation suit the kind of reading you want to explore.
Who Consults the Cards Today?
A Pew Research Center report published May 21, 2025 draws on a fall 2024 survey of 9,593 U.S. adults. It found that 30% consult astrology or horoscopes, tarot cards or a fortune teller at least once a year. The figure for consulting tarot cards was 11%.
The survey also distinguishes taking part from relying on the practices. Overall, 20% of U.S. adults said they engage in at least one mostly for fun, while 10% said they do so mostly because they believe the practices give helpful insights. These percentages refer to U.S. adults, not just to the people who take part.
Only 1% said they rely a lot on what they learn from these practices for major life decisions; another 5% said they rely a little. Participation at least weekly was reported by 6%. For most people, in other words, the cards are a source of enjoyment rather than a guide to life's biggest decisions.