Tarot and Fortune Telling Cards
The Cary Collection is not merely composed of standard playing cards, but also contains tarot cards as well as cards related to cartomancy, or the divination of one's fortune based upon interpretation of various cards. The Beinecke Library guards two of the earliest still-existing tarot decks in the world, the Visconti and the Este tarot cards. Of the two, the Visconti cards are probably the most well-known. These cards were commissioned by the Visconti family in the mid-15th century and may be the oldest tarot card deck still in existence.
The Visconti and Este tarot cards are not the only such cards in the Cary Collection. There are also French suited animal tarots from Belgium and some Marseilles type tarots. Also included are non-tarot cartomantic decks. In 2006, the Beinecke acquired a pack of cards that were enclosed in every packet of Black Cat Virginia cigarettes, and in 2007 a deck of seventy-eight photographic tarot cards was added to the collection.
Read more about this topic: Cary Collection Of Playing Cards
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