Tarot Emblemata
Modern tarot based on historical emblem traditions and heraldic design.
creator unknown · 2025
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The record
Emblems first appeared as part of coats of arms around 1120 in Western Europe. Originally heraldic devices they were quickly adapted by businesses using emblems to attract business, create brands, and cultivate customer loyalty. Think of ye olde taverns and inns with their curious signage (The Pickled Hound, the Green Man etc) as well as guilds with their emblems which acted as verifiable badges which assured quality and authenticity, and signalled the traders membership of a group with a reliable reputation. As time passed emblems came to be more complex in their nature and during the Renaissance and baroque periods emblems evolved to represent abstract ideas and moral messages. Emblem books appeared which were a collection of symbolic pictures accompanied by a short phrase or motto which acted as a title for the emblem, and a longer explanation in either verse or prose which gave deeper meaning to the picture and the motto. The emblems (emblemata) used in the Tarot Emblemata have their origins in a book called Devises Heroiques curated and collected by Claude Paradin and illustrated by Bernard Salomon. The book was first published in 1551 in Lyon in France and featured woodcut il
The cards
