Maniere de se recreer avec le jeu de cartes nommees tarots

Amsterdam and Paris: Segault and Legras, 1783. FIRST EDITION. 6 full-page engraved plates, 4 text engravings (3 tipped-on), 1 text woodcut, 1 folding engraved plate. Modern boards. One old tape repair to a paper flaw. An excellent, uncut copy. HOW TO READ TAROT CARDS

ETTEILLA [ALLIETTE, Jean-Baptiste]
Maniere de se récréer avec le jeu de cartes nommées tarots pour servir de troisième [-quatrieme] cahier à cet ouvrage. Paris and Amsterdam : Segault, Legras, and the Author 1783-5. 12mo. With 6 full-page engraved plates, text engravings and 1 folding engraved plate. Modern boards. [Bound With:]
Jeu des tarots, ou le livre de Thot. "Memphis" [but Amsterdam]: Lesclapart, Petit, and Samson [1788]. 12mo.
I: First editions, the very first how-to manual for reading tarot cards. The large folding plate, often missing, is a perpetual zodiac calendar with directions for use.
II: Second edition of this explanatory pamphlet issued at the same time as Alliette's first deck of tarot cards. Here he describes how to use tarot to interpret dreams and visions.

I: First editions, the very first how-to manual for reading tarot cards. In the first of these books Jean-Baptiste Alliette, known here under the anagram Etteilla, describes each of the 78 cards in a tarot deck and what they mean when drawn according to one's star chart, and he explains the natural and metaphysical basis for tarot as a science. He also provides the "historical" background for tarot: according to Alliette, tarot was composed 171 years after the Great Flood by 17 Egyptian magi after the teachings of Thoth, the ancient three-headed god of wisdom. It was written on leaves of pure gold near the Egyptian city of Memphis. In the section entitled "Fragment sur les hautes sciences," Alliette decries skepticism about magic and cabala and asserts the natural intersections of hard science with occultism. In final book, he provides instructions for making and reading astrological charts. The large folding plate, often missing, is a perpetual zodiac calendar with directions for use.

These are volumes 3 and 4 in a 4-volume serial publication issued over 2 years. All volumes are very rare; five libraries in the U.S. hold any of them (Morgan, NY Public, Yale, Library of Congress, and Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison).

II: Second edition of this explanatory pamphlet issued at the same time as Alliette's first deck of tarot cards. Here he describes how to use tarot to interpret dreams and visions and provides a list of further reading for the aspiring occultist.

Caillet 210 & 208; Huson, Paul, Mystical Origins of the Tarot 54-55; Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot bib. ("exceedingly rare).". (Inventory #: 19425)