Chapter 1: Facts and Questions
What we know (and don't) about Tarot before 1450 . . .
Sometime in the later fifteenth century, deep in the mountainous heart of Italy, an unknown Franciscan friar preached a long sermon on the subject utilis de ludo — the use of games.
He began his discourse by distinguishing three kinds of games of chance: “Namely the dice, the cards, and the trumps.”
This sermon is the first detailed reference we have to t…