Here is an
extract from the eminent (and long
out-of-print)
National Library catalogue:
Tarot, jeu et
magie
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris 1984
ref : 39, page 72, Tarot Dodal
Jean Dodal
(between 1701 and 1715)
Lyon, France, early 18th century
78 cards (complete deck), enseignes italiennes,
engraved on wood, stencil colored
multi-layered paper
123 X 66 mm
on the back : small triangular motifs
identifying marks :
JEAN / DODAL (2 of cups)
PLN / FPE (2 of cups)
FAICT A LYON PAR IEAN DODAL (2 of coins)
F.P. LE TRANGE (Force, the World, knave and
knight of Batons, knights of Swords, Cups and
Coins)
nomenclature IPCS : IT-1.2
This early 18th century tarot from Lyon makes its
intended market clear: it is destined to be
exported, as attested by the numerous citations
of F.P. LE TRANGE (“fait pour
l'étranger”: made for foreigners)
which appear on certain face cards. It is true
that French card-makers were then beginning to
widen their markets: Switzerland had known the
tarot from the 16th century and already had its
own production (cf. cat. n°43), Germany was
just beginning to take an interest, while the
most promising market of all was
certainly...Italy.
It would seem that Lombard and Piemontaise
card-makers gradually abandoned the production of
78-card tarot decks at the end of the 17th
century. Or they were at least unable to produce
the quantities the market required. It seems very
likely that Jean Dodal exported his cards to
Italy.
Several minor details differentiate the Dodal
deck from later "Marseille"- style productions:
the Devil still bears a sort of face on his belly
- an entirely traditional image - and the Mat has
already become Le Fol, or Fool. These features
are enough to incite specialists to see in these
cards the archetype for tarots made several
decades later in Italy. (See cat. n° 51 to
54)
Paris, B.N., Estampes, kh 381 rés. n°
76
Bibl. : O'Donoghue, F.5; D'Allemagne, I, 192 et
II, 610; B.N. n°402; Dummett, 196; PC, XII,
n°4, p.128.
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