3. The 1802 Le Bohemen and its reportedly 1771 (or 1757) "Petit Etteilla"

Now I want to add some data on the Etteilla side that I think is helpful, namely, a "Petit Etteilla" included in the book Le Bohémien, contenant l’Art de tirer les cartes, suivi par l’Art d”Escamoter, et de l’application des Rêves aux Numéros de la Lotterie. My copy is Paris 1802, but it was originally 1797 according to DDD, note 65 on p. 275.

Although anonymous, there are good reasons to think the author, or at least editor, was Jacques Saint-Sauveur. After attending school in Paris, at least until 1772, he followed his father’s career in the diplomatic service and then wrote illustrated travel books; he also seems also to have been known for performing magic tricks, which is what the second half of Le Bohemien is devoted to explaining. Decker, Depaulis and Dummett state that he published a Petit Etteilla, i.e. a Piquet deck marked with Etteilla’s keywords, sometime in the last years of the 18th century. They also observe that the publisher’s address for the earlier printing of the booklet on magic tricks (Le Petit Escomoteur) is the same as that given for “citoyen” Saint-Sauveur for his Petit Etteilla.

L’Art de tirer les cartes is a compendium of different methods of reading ordinary playing cards, using different layouts and different sets of meanings. About the short treatise, again called Le Petit Etteilla, the editor says it is a transcription of a work that Etteilla printed privately for friends in 1771. In it are two sets of cartomantic meanings for the Piquet deck. The editor says that a copy fell into his hands, and he went to visit Etteilla in 1772, to ask permission to reprint it. He continues (p. 46; I thank Alain Bougereal for disentangling the first line):

Eteilla fut plus loin, et crut me devoir des obligations de réimprimer ce petit amusement, duquel il n'avoit prétendu tirer aucun parti; ayant donné cette manière de tirer les cartes a l'âge de quinze ou seize ans, et l'ayant vérifiée juste à celui de trente-trois.

(Eteilla went further, and considered that he should pay me if I reprinted this little amusement, from which he had not claimed to take any advantage; having given this way of drawing cards at the age of fifteen or sixteen, and having just verified it at thirty-three.)

Since Etteilla was born in 1738, Decker, Depaulis and Dummet point out, he would have “given” this work in 1753 or 1754, and “verified” its correctness in 1771. They note that what comes next “strongly resembles Etteilla’s own very peculiar style.” This early date is consistent with other reports attributable to him. A 1791 document, to which Etteilla gave his signature, also characterizes him as “giving” (donnant) his method in 1753. Somewhat confusedly, it also speaks of him writing an “abrège” (synopsis) in 1757. However in 1785 he said he wrote that work in 1753. In any case, its first set of meanings is much the same as those of his book of 1770.

As to where this system came from, the 1791 document mentions only “three elderly persons” imprisoned for cartomancy in Paris 1751-1753. This passage was misleadingly paraphrased by DDD, who say only that he "restored" their false meanings (p. 97), leaving it unclear on what basis he did so. Decker corrected this impression (The Esoteric Tarot, 2013). Rather than use his translation, I will give the French original plus as literal a translation as possible (I get the French from the little white book that accompanies the France Cartes edition of the Petit Etteilla, which agrees 100% with that in the British Museum, except for not including the address of "citoyen" Saint-Sauveur at that time.):

Notre auteur, dès 1753, en donnant la manière de lire les significations adaptées aux cartes, avaid non seulement rediges les fausses significations que les trois personnes leur admettaient, chacune de leur côté; mais il avait en outre accordé ces significations, en prenant légitimement pour le neuf de coeur celle de la victoire, qui, par une autre de ces trois personnes, était mal à propos attibutuée au neuf de carreau, etc.

(Our author, from 1753, giving the manner of reading the meanings adopted by the three persons, not only rectified the false meanings that the three persons granted them, each on their part; but he also harmonized these meanings, taking from them legitimately for the nine of hearts that of victory, which by another of these three persons, was improperly attributed to the nine of diamonds, etc.)

What he did, according to this account, was to "harmonize" the three sets of meanings. Decker properly observes (Esoteric Tarot p. 183):

The fifteen year old Etteilla, although fascinated by the reading of cards, was alert to its inconsistencies, and he confidently addressed them. He tabulated the cards' meanings and issued the tables in print.

Etteilla does not say explicitly how he "harmonized" the meanings, but presumably he eliminated that given by only one, if the other two agreed on something else.

What follows in the 1802 text are these meanings of 1753-1757, as published in 1771. There are two sets, one much shorter than the other, due to there being many more Reversed meanings. Both are of interest. I have cut and pasted the relevant passages from the 1802, by suit, with the first set on top and the second on the bottom. Here are Hearts and Diamonds, then Clubs and Spades. I don't display the pictures themselves because then there would be too much of a gap in the text. If you go to the Appendix to this paper, you will see both the French and the Italian meanings, the latter below the former:

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Now I will give a translation into English of the above comparing them to the Bologna document's meanings, as I did with the 1770. You will notice that these meanings largely agree with what Etteilla said in 1770. But there are differences. One is that there are only two hair-colors. That, among other things, leaves rooms for other significations. There are four new pairs of interest, which I have put in bold. 

Etteilla 1757/1771 (two sets of meanings, the second in parentheses; --- means no reversed for that card), compared with Bologna c. 1760-1782

Kings	Hearts/ Cups	Diamonds/ Batons	Clubs/ Coins	Spades/ Swords
Etteilla Upright	Blond man (blond businessman)	It is a man (A soldier)	Dark-haired man (same + fidelity)	Man of the law (same)
Etteilla Reversed	--- (Man of good heart)	--- (Man of the country)	--- (Illness of men)	Widowed man (Evil man)
Bologna	Old man	Unmarried man	The man	Evil tongue

Queens	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Blond woman (good blond woman	A woman (traitorous woman)	Dark-haired woman (wife of love)	Woman of loose morals [femme gallante] (Widow)
Etteilla Reversed	--- (Good woman)	--- (Woman of the countryside)	--- (Jealous woman)	Widow (Evil woman)
Bologna	Married woman	Whore	Truth	missing

Jacks/ Pages	Hearts/Cups (f in Bologna)	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins (f in Bologna)	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Blond boy (blond young man)	A soldier (A traitor)	Dark-haired boy (faithful man)	Envoy (Traitor)
Etteilla Reversed	--- (Thought of a blond man)	Domestic servant (same)	--- (Indecision)	One who is curious (Illness)
Bologna	The woman	Thought of the woman	Young woman	missing

Aces	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	Bottle, Table (House of the full heart)	Letters (Great news)	Much money	Love (Trial, pregnancy)
Etteilla Re	Inheritance	Betrayal	Lover	Pregnancy
Bologna	House	Vexations	Table	Letter

Tens	Hearts/Cups	Diamond/Batons	Clubs/Coins	Spades/Swords
Etteilla Upright	City where one is (Repast of the full heart)	Gold  -next to bad Swords, Angers (Sure campaign)	House (Fortune)	Tears  (Boredom)
Etteilla Reversed	--- (Repast of the false heart)	--- (Anger)	--- (Love)	--- (Tears)
Bologna	House tiles	missing	Money	Tears

In Kings there is a connection between Bologna and Etteilla that wasn't there before: between Bologna's "evil tongue" (mala lingua) and Etteilla's "evil man" (homme mechant).

In Queens we see a stronger connection between "whore" (P--ana) and the Queen of Swords, who is here not a "woman of the world" but a femme gallante, which means "woman of loose morals". Etteilla substituted femme du monde in 1770. But in Bolognese cartomancy we see the term again in the 19th century: the King of Cups is Gallantuomo P and the King of Coins (these are the two older men in tarot depictions) is "Gallantuomo". But of course an older male "gallant" is not the same as a young female one. I also do not think it is the same as a femme d'amour, which I interpret as "wife of love". For these later occurrences of gallant see my list of all the Bolognese meanings, from the sheet and also the handwritten words on three later decks, spanning 1820 to 1920 (in my Appendix).

In Pages/Jacks we see Bologna's piensiero da donna" in cropping up in Etteilla's Jack of Hearts as "piensee d'un homme blond" (thought of a blond man). This term "Pensée de" never turns up again, although we do have "Pensée" by itself for the 7 of Hearts in 1770. In Bologna, however, "pensiero di..." appears numerous times. In the document there is precisely "piensiero della donna" for the Knight of Hearts., and in later Bolognese cartomancy, the Page of Bastoni "Bastone in pensiero" (as opposed to "Bastone in personne" for the Queen) and "Suo pensiero". The Knight of Swords later gets "piensiero di spadina" (thought of the dagger) and the Knight of Batons "piensiero della Regina" and "pensiero di lui". These later occurrences could not be due to Etteilla's writings, because by 1770 he had removed them everywhere. All that remained was "pensee" for the 7 of Spades.

In the Tens we see the words "courreaux" and "colere", both meaning "anger," which is just a strong version of vexation. Neither word ever appeared in the Petit Etteilla. Yet oddly it does appear in his Tarot, in the same reversed meaning.

The only Bologna meaning not accounted for is "Truth", for which any connection to Etteilla is remote. One can speculate about a relationship to "femme d'amour", as somhow meaning "true love", but that is all it is, speculation. But a 95% corelation, 16 out of 17, is not bad, even if some take some imagination. That is more than I would expect if the medium was simply word of mouth from practitioner to practitioner over decades. Even within Bologna, over a fifty year period, there isn't such a match.

The 1771/1757 document also explains one important difference between Etteilla's 1770 book and the Bologna cartomancy sheet. The 1770 book had Reversed as well as Upright meanings for almost every card. The Bologna sheet has no reversals. In the 1771/1757 document, there are reversals in only one suit, Piques. It is easy enough to understand why someone using the 1771/1757 as inspiration for the Bolognese sheet would neglect such reversals, as they are the exception rather than the rule.

This booklet also accounts for another difference between Etteilla 1770 and the cartomancy sheet.  Etteilla had a special significator card, standing for the consultant, called "Etteilla", a 33rd card. Normally it was just one of the court cards. But there is no such card in 1757/1771.

Another feature pointing to the 1771/1757 booklet rather than the 1770 book is that the two meanings that have the closest match - "gallant" and "pensiero de..." - continue to be used in Bologna long after they have disappeared from French cartomancy. In fact they do not appear in any of Etteilla's books, only the 1771 booklet. But how could that booklet, of quite limited circulation, have managed to get to Northeastern Italy in the very decade in which it had been produced in Paris?