"Oldest Cartomancy Meanings in English" -

ankh_f_n_khonsu Sun Feb 07, 2010 3:00 pm

By way of Plutonica - See Mary K. Greer for the complete article:

Oldest Cartomancy Meanings in English

January 18, 2010 in Playing Card Divination, Tarot History & Research

Dr. Flamstead’s and Mr. Patridge’s New Fortune-Book containing . . . Their new-invented method of knowing one’s fortune by a pack of cards appears to be the oldest book with instructions on fortune-telling-with-cards in the English language. The first edition seems to be from 1729—well before Etteilla wrote his 1770 book on “cartonomancie” and contains a “lot” style method of divination in which the card chosen leads to a verse based on your choice of a set question. However we know from the 1730 play Jack the Gyant-Killer that multi-card spreads with meanings for each card were already current in England.