Tarot de Marseille Type I: definition

The Marseille Tarot type I is an iconographic category used by historians to designate the ancient forms of the Marseille, appearing above all between the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century.

It corresponds to a family of ancient images characterised by certain graphic and stylistic particularities: the decks of Jean Noblet and Jean Dodal are frequently studied examples.

These tarots present notable iconographic differences from the later models: certain drawing details, inscriptions or image structures vary appreciably from type II.

Their study allows historians to understand the progressive evolution of tarot images before their more stable fixing in the eighteenth-century models.

Type I arouses renewed interest today: several workshops have restored these ancient decks, valued for their freshness, their details and their closeness to the sources of the Marseille Tarot.

Distinguishing type I from type II does not establish a hierarchy of value, but orders the history of the images chronologically and helps appreciate the richness of the Marseille tradition.

For the scholar, comparing type I and type II is very instructive: it shows how an image transforms over time and makes it possible to go back toward the oldest, freshest sources of the Marseille Tarot.

For anyone drawn to the roots of the Marseille, the type I decks offer a rare, vivid glimpse of how the cards looked before the eighteenth century standardised their image.