2. The Cartomancy Sheet and Etteilla Compard

Dummett asked, "Is there any connection between French and Italian tarot cartomancy?" (p. 80 of his 2003 article)?, adding, "If so, it could only have come through Etteilla." (For the article, go to viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1760&p=22186#p22186, where I have uploaded it.)

If I may put to one side for the moment his discussion of Etteilla's claimed source, an Italian named Alexis, Dummett's next comment (p. 81) is

Certainly there is no correspondence between the meanings given to the trumps in the XVIII-century Bolognese list and those which Etteilla assigned to his trump cards when he began to practise Tarot cartomancy.

This is not totally true. First, since Dummett's chart did not reproduce very well at the link just given, here are the Bolognese 1760-1782 document's trump meanings (Vitali and Zanetti 2005, p. 80):

Angelo - Sposalizio e Accomodamento (Wedding and Arangement)
Mondo - Viaggio lungo (Long journey)
Sole- Giorno (Day)
Luna - Notte (Night)
Stella - Regalo (Gift)
Diavolo - Rabbia (Anger)
Morte - Morte (Death)
Traditore - Tradimento (Betrayal)
Vecchio - Un vecchio (An old man)
Forza - Violenza (Violence)
Tempra - Tempo (Time)
Carro - Viaggio (Journey)
Amore - Amore (Love
Bagattino - Uomo maritato (Married man)
Matto - Pazzia (Craziness)

There are actually six meanings in the Bologna document for trumps that correspond more or less to meanings in his 1783 3rd Cahier (see my translation at http://thirdcahier.blogspot.com/): Folly for the Fool, Death as a reminder of one's mortality, Voyage for World, Marriage for the Love card (as opposed to love; well, we know about Etteilla's unhappy marriage); Day for the upright meaning of a card of his own invention showing a sun above a moon, and Night for the Reversed of this same card. In Bologna those were the meanings of the Sun and Moon respectively.

The other ten meanings in Bologna are far from what Etteilla says. Five out of fifteen is not nothing, but neither is it much, especially since Bologna's are mostly obvious. It is conceivable that Etteilla would have met Italians in his work as a print dealer, or Freemasons with Italian connections, some of whom we know had an interest in cartomancy. One of them might have known about Italian cartomancy - but all he could remember correctly were the obvious ones. Or Etteilla thought them up himself; with such suggestive cards, it is not hard to hit near the bullseye a few times, coming up with the easy ones. No systematic relationship is demonstrated, no information from a special source.

On the other side, it is clear that the Bolognese cartomancer couldn't have gotten those six meanings from Etteilla. His book wasn't published until 1783, and the papers with which the sheet were found end in 1782. But there is no reason why he should have.

Regarding the suit cards, of course it is a different story, since Etteilla had published his book on those in 1770, which is just about right for Bologna, considering the mass of papers there from 1772-1773. Could the Bolognese cartomancer have used the 1770 book as his basis for the suit cards; meanings?

Here we have to bear in mind, as Dummett does, the suit correspondences between the French Piquet deck and the French Tarot deck: Etteilla took Hearts as Cups, Diamonds (Carreaux, literally tiles) as Bastoni, Clubs (Trefles, literally Clovers) as Coins, and Spades (Piques) as Swords. This can be seen by comparing Etteilla's tarot assignments in 1783 with his Piquet assignments in 1770. It is also stated, preced by a discussion of the corresponding Tarot suits, by the Comte de Mellet in 1781 (on p. 403 of Monde Primitif, Vol, 8, in Gallica, translated by Steve Mangan at). 

The operative part above reads, in translation:

The Hearts, (the Cups), anounce happiness.

The Clubs (the Coins), fortune.

The Spades (1), misfortune. 

The Batons, indifference & the countryside.

It is also a reasonable set of correspondences, independently of the actual derivation of French suits (from German ones). The suit of Coins in the Tarot de Marseille tended to have a four-petaled flower in the middle of their coins, and diamonds in the middle of the cards where the sticks crossed (Chosson, 1736, is below, together with the equivalent cards in the 1770 tarocchini).

Dummett then observes that there is one "striking coincidence": Bologna's 10 of Swords and Etteilla's 10 of Spades both have "tears" as their meaning. He reports three other correspondences. In two of them it is among cards of the same rank, not of the same precise cards. The Ace of Swords and the Ace of Diamonds both have the meaning "letter"; and the Ten of Coins means "gold" while the 10 of Diamonds has the similar "money". Another correspondence is between an Ace, that of Cups, and a Ten, that of Clubs, both meaning "house".

Dummett rightly points out that we should not be surprised if meanings wander from card to card; they do the same if you compare the sheet with the meanings in later Bolognese sources. Dummett says he is uncertain whether Etteilla got his meanings from Italian cartomancy or not. He offers the possible hope that Decker's forthcoming book (which finally did come out 10 years later) would offer some defense of the idea that Etteilla's were derived from the Bologna (I don't see any). He does not consider the reverse question, apparently thinking that the sheet was too early to have been derived from Etteilla's book.

In 2005 Vitali and Zanetti repeated the four correspondences identified by Dummett, as well as giving most of those on the Cartomancy Sheet (they leave one out, supplied by Pratesi) and no one has looked at the two lists since. It is time to revisit the two lists.

The most accessible place to read Etteilla's lists is in Google Books' scans of the 2nd edition, 1773, at https://books.google.de/books?id=CI85AA ... &q&f=false, pp. 9-15. This reference is for anyone who wants to check my translations (and please do, as I make mistakes). In English, by ranks, the result is:

 Etteilla 1770/Bologna 1760-1782

Kings	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Blond man	A man	Dark-haired [brun] man	Man in legal profession
Etteilla Reversed	Light brown- haired [chatain blond] man	Another man	Brown-haired [chatain brun] man	Widower
Bologna	Old man	Unmarried man	The man	Evil tongue

Queens	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Blond woman	A woman	Dark-haired woman	Widow
Etteilla Reversed	Light brown-haired woman	Another woman	Brown-haired woman	Woman of the world
Bologna	Married woman	Whore	Truth	missing

Pages/ Jacks	Hearts/Cups (f in Bologna)	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins (f in Bologna)	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Up	Blond boy	Soldier	Dark-haired boy	Widow
Etteilla Reversed	Light brown-haired boy	Domestic servant	Brown-haired boy	Spy
Bologna	The woman	Thought of the woman	Young woman	missing

Aces	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Mars, laborious person	Letters	Much money	Venus, pleasure loving woman
Etteilla Reversed	Table extraordinaire	Note	Nobility	Pregnancy
Bologna	House	Vexations	Table	Letter

Tens	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Up	City where one is	Gold	House	Tears
Etteilla Re	Inheritance	Betrayal	Lover	Loss
Bologna	Married woman	missing	Money	Tears

As you can see, there are more correspondences than Dummett identified. In Kings, here is "man" by itself, not an obvious choice, given that the suits were readily and often associated with various professions, i.e. the clergy, country lords or peasants, the nobility or military, and commerce. It is the same for Femme by itself as Queen of Batons, linking with Donna in the Page of Cups; there is also "Table" in the Aces. The preceding 4 plus these 3 equal 7, out of 17, a not insignificant number.

There are others that could be a basis for the Bolognese cartomancer. "House tiles", coppe della casa, is a variation on the previous "House". Cartomantically what it means, at least as Terry Zanetti understands it (personal communication via Andrea), is "secrets under the roof".

Moreover, we have to take into consideration that Bolognese court cards looked different from French court cards (Paris standard above). Hair color was easily associated with suits in France because of the red and black suit signs. This wouldn't work in Italy. In Bologna, what distinguished the Kings was bearded and older vs. non-bearded and younger. So of course we will have, instead of "blond man" in Hearts, "Old Man" in Cups. And "Married woman" for the Old Man's Queen (since older men are married), and "whore" (Puttana) for the young king, perhaps also related to "woman of the world" in the other suit, Piques, with another young king. Below are the "Dalla Torre" Kings of Batons and Swords, together with the associated Queens. The Kings of Coins and Cups, not shown, are both old and bearded.

Then in Pages, we can see that it is a simple matter to take two of Etteilla's meanings, for boys, and identify them with women instead, since that is what the Bolognese cards have. You just take the meanings for the two suits of Valets who, in their French tarot versions, lack weapons, namely Hearts/Cups and Clubs/Coins, instead of boys, and of course forget about hair color,

These adjustments for the visual differences between French and Bolognese suits add a total of 6 to the 7 correspondences. we had. 13 out of 17 is not bad. 

Only four of the Bolognese meanings are left out: Evil Tongue, Truth, Thought of a Woman, and Vexations. Evil Tongue pertains to the nature of Swords, i.e. wounding. The other three perhaps pertain to some local custom or partiality of the cartomancer, easy to remember. For example, there might have been a tradition in which the Page of Batons, with his "stick", might have been identified with a particular womanizer. Also, there might have been a saying, relating to Coins, similar to the English "Put your money where your mouth is", i.e Truth instead of talk. Or again, to the specific meaning of the Queen of Coins, femme d'amour, a truly loving wife. I do not know about "Vexations".