The Tarot are playing cards whose origin has not yet been proven with absolute certainty: the most widespread theories indicate their birth in Northern Italy, in the period between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of Renaissance.
The Tarot were certainly created as an educational card game; in particular the sequence of the Triumphs was meant for the teaching of the Catholic doctrine, while
in more recent times they were played in games for recreational purposes. Since the eighteenth century, in France with the famous Etteilla, they have been used for divinatory purposes, thus becoming the most used tool in cartomancy.
The tarot game was quite complex. Even today, however, there are groups of enthusiasts who keep this tradition alive.
Now the Tarot are commonly associated, only to cartomancy – in fact they were also one of the most popular card games for several centuries.
Thanks to numerous literary testimonies, today it is possible to infer the original basic rules of the Tarot games.
These rules were relatively complex, and the Tarot were therefore defined as a game of skill, unlike the other card games that were often considered gambling.