The origin of the tarot is dark. Perhaps, it goes back, like other playing cards, to the times of the ancient Egyptians, from the moment that scholars have recognized the major arcana in the hieroglyphics. On the contrary, other scholars have spoken about remarkable similarities of the playing cards with the first games and oriental idols. On the other hand, you can not exclude the average age as the birthplace of the tarot. We do not even know whether the major arcana, with their symbolic drawings and the minor arcana, with their well-known four suits, were created separately and later gathered in a single deck, by any genial mind, or if, on the contrary, they were born directly as a deck or deck of seventy-eight cards.
I will try to give the most plausible explanation about the origin of the normal cards of the game and the tarot in particular, following the chronological order and details of the first decks, similar to those of the tarot, which were popular in Italy during the 15th century, following them in its evolution until the definitive deck of the 18th century tarot.
The Egyptian Book of Thoth
In volume I of the work Le Monde primitif, of 1781, Court de Gebelin offers a convincing argument in favor of the Egyptian origin of the tarot cards. He argues that the twenty-two major arcana are an ancient Egyptian book, The Book of Thoth, saved from the fire that destroyed the temples. Thoth was the Egyptian Mercury, considered one of the first kings, and the mythical inventor of the word and hieroglyphics, letters inserted in a chain of mystical events. Many students of the occult sciences recognize in the tarot cards the pages of the hieroglyphic books, which contain, in a series of symbols and emblematic figures, the principles of the mystical philosophy of the Egyptians: Gebelin was convinced that the esoteric symbols of the Tarot spread throughout Europe from the nomadic tribes of the Gypsies or gypsies.
Chess
The Chaturange or game of the Four Kings, is very similar to the four-suit game cards. This oriental game, which dates back to the V-VI centuries, precursor of the modern game of chess, had originally the King, the General (the current Queen) and the Horse, as well as the Pawns or soldiers. At the beginning there was no Queen, since the presence of a female figure in a game that reflected the war strategy contrasted with the original idea of decorum. It is probable that, at a certain moment, some Indian players would be left without a piece of Chaturange, they would cut out the missing figures using a tree bark or a paper, thus giving rise to a new game.
China - Chess - Dominoes - Dice
A type of Chinese cards has the same name as Chinese chess, Keu-ma-pou, or Cars - Horses - Rifles, so we can think that card games are derived from Chinese chess.
It is believed that the Chinese domino, punctuated as the dice - from which it seems to derive - was used at the beginning in the divinatory practices. It is composed of twenty-one pieces, which represent the combinations of the two dice. Some experts consider that the game cards derive, in the last analysis, from the dice, through the Chinese game of wooden dominoes.
Korean divining arrow
The eighty-letter Korean decks, called Htou-Tjyen, suggest the idea that Korean card games are derived from divining arrows. These letters are usually strips of paper, 20 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The reverse is uniformly decorated with a feathered arrow. The cards include eight clubs. The letters present frontally bundles of stylized arrows that conserve, with respect to the different clubs, the symbolic meaning of the quiver. That is why it has been thought that these letters bring their origin from the divination arrows.
The Gypsies
Many associate the divining letters with the gypsies, native of Hindustan and expelled from Italy, at the beginning of century XV, by Timur Lenk, the Muslim conqueror of most of the Central Asia and the Eastern Europe. The Gypsies are universally recognized as the Cartomantes par excellence, since it is believed that they carry in their blood the divinatory virtues.
Tribes of Gypsies began to move towards the West around the year 1400, crossing the Indus, Afghanistan and the deserts of Persia and moving along the Persian Gulf, to the mouth of the Euphrates. Entering the great deserts of Arabia they found different roads to Europe. Small nomadic tribes had stopped in Crete, Corfu and the Balkans, before 1350. In 1417, a tribe of Gypsies arrived near Hamburg, in Germany. Other sources speak of Gypsies in Rome in 1422 and in Barcelona and Paris, in 1427.
Be that as it may, there is good evidence to believe that the Gypsies arrived in Europe only some time after the appearance of the playing cards.
Johannes, a German monk
In a letter sent by this monk to Brefeld, in Switzerland, he states that "a game called the game of cards (Ludus cartarum) has come to us this year of 1377"; but he adds that "he ignores when it was invented, where or by whom".
In his treaty, which is preserved in the collection of the British Museum in London, Johannes compares the game of cards with that of chess "since in both there are kings, queens, nobles and commoners".
Cards
One of the main arguments in support of the Saracen origin of the letters is the name that the Spaniards use to indicate the playing cards: cards, which could be derived from the word napa, used in Vizcaya and which means plain, uniform.
Some scholars believe that playing cards is a voice of Arab origin. The Hebrew word Naibes has similarity to the old Italian name of letters, naibi, and in both languages means magic, clairvoyance and prediction.
According to another theory the word cards would derive from the initials of the inventor of the letters: N.P., a certain Nicolao Pepin. However, there is a lack of evidence in this regard.