TarotBot Marseille Noblet

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Optimized for Honeycomb tablets and small screen devices

TarotBot Flornoy series

In loving memory of Jean-Claude Flornoy, thank you for bringing new life to
the Tarot.

The Marseille tarot

It is generally known that the denomination "Marseille tarot" became
mainstream in the 1930’s when Paul Marteau, in response to the increasingly
popularity of Golden Dawn-based decks, decided to re-launch the French tarot
by reprinting an old version of the Nicolas Conver deck, calling it the
'Veritable tarot de Marseille'. Marteau may have gotten the idea from the fact
that three hundred years before, the city of Marseilles was the main port
through which French tarot decks were exported to the rest of the world. It
seemed appropriate, then, to baptize the French tradition as being 'from
'Marseille'. Or perhaps Marteau borrowed the term from Papus, who wrote in his
book, 'le Tarot des bohémiens': "We hope that for this purpose you have
procured the Tarot of Marseilles, the most correct in its symbolism". This
was, indeed, the earliest known use of the term. That is how several decks
sharing similar distinctive features but produced in various localities (the
Jean Noblet tarot, for example, was printed in Paris in 1650, while the Jean
Dodal was printed in Lyon in 1701) ended up consigned to the same label.

Think of the Marseille tradition as the champagne of tarots: a denomination
that transcends its geographical origin to define a very unique kind of
experience.

The Marseille is the most poetic of all tarots. Each card contains a hint from
another card, in an endless game of visual resonances. Linked to la langue des
oiseaux (the Language of The Birds), French folklore suggests that the
Marseille tarot speaks directly to the eye in the subtle voice of its
characters' gestures. The Marseille tarot borrows its language from the
Romanesque cathedrals of France, from the chanting arms of medieval heraldry,
and from the French people's love of puns and wordplay. The Marseille tarot
hides its secrets in the obvious.

Tarotbot gives you the opportunity to experience the Marseille tarot, either
through Jean Noblet's elegant design or through the rough shapes of Jean
Dodal. Both have been restored, from the only original surviving decks kept in
the British Museum and the Biblioteque Nationale of France, by master card-
maker Jean-Claude Flornoy.

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out of

4 reviews

Last update

Feb. 15, 2013

TarotBot Marseille Noblet

Store review

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