Tarot cards - associated in the collective imagination only with cartomancy - were actually also, for several centuries, one of the most popular card games, whose origin dates back to the mid-fifteenth century in northern Italy. Tarot cards spread to various parts of Europe and reached their peak between the 17th and 18th centuries.

Tarot was probably created as a didactic card game; in particular, the sequence of Triumphs was designed for the teaching of Catholic doctrine, while later they were used for various card games for recreational purposes. The typical tarot deck consists of a deck of traditional cards to which are added twenty-one cards called Triumphs and a single card called The Fool.

Thanks to the numerous literary testimonies that have come down to us, we are now able to reconstruct what were originally the basic rules of the game of tarot.

These rules were relatively complex, so much so that tarot was considered a game of skill – unlike other card games which were often considered a game of chance.

Only later, starting from the eighteenth century, in France with the famous Etteilla, were they used for divination purposes, becoming the most used tool in cartomancy. In the terminology introduced by esoteric theories, the Trumps and the Fool are collectively called major arcana, while the other cards are called minor arcana.

 Game spread

By the mid-fifteenth century the figures that appeared on the trumps had now stabilized and the game spread from the three main centers of Ferrara, Milan and Bologna.

At that time the trumps were not yet numbered and the players had to memorize the order of precedence, which had some differences between cities: in Bologna the most valuable card was the Angel, followed by Il Mondo and then by the three virtues (Justice, Temperance and Strength), in Milan the three virtues had lower values while in Ferrara the card with the highest value was the World, followed by Justice, the World and the other two virtues had much lower values.

From Ferrara, before dying out at the beginning of the 17th century, the game was transmitted to Venice and Trento, but without taking root. In Bologna the game remained popular up to the present day in the form of the Bolognese tarocchino and from here it spread to Florence where the Minchiate variant was born, which uses an expanded deck of 97 cards.

From Florence the game spread to Rome and from there to Sicily in the 17th century. However, it was from Milan that the game spread to the rest of Europe, first to France and Switzerland whose soldiers came into contact with the game during the French occupation at the beginning of the 16th century and from these countries it spread to the rest of Europe.

In France the game is played with the so-called Tarot de Marseille deck, whose main difference is the use of the French suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades) instead of the Italian ones. The game is documented in several passages of sixteenth-century French literature, and appears in the 1534 chapter of Gargantua and Pantagruel in which Rabelais lists the games played by Gargantua. A first description of the rules is contained in a booklet printed in Nevers around 1637.

The game is apparently widespread, so much so that the Jesuit François Garasse wrote in 1622 that it is more popular in France than Chess, but by 1725 its diffusion was reduced to Eastern France, where it persists to the present day and meets a general revival in the 20th century. In France, some new rules have been added to tarot games, the possibility of obtaining a bonus for possessing certain combinations of cards in the opening game, bonuses or penalties for winning or losing a hand with certain cards (for example, winning with the Pagat - the Magician Italian or lose one of the Kings).

The game arrived in Germany around the beginning of the 17th century, probably imported from France, given the attestation in the jargon of German players of numerous terms which are corruptions of the French correspondents, and by the middle of the century it was widely spread. However, the period and arrival channel of the game is not certain

The peak of the game's diffusion is from 1730 to 1830, during this period it was played in northern Italy, eastern France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austro-Hungary, Sweden and Russia and although it remained a local diffusion the rules were quite homogeneous with small local differences, whether you played with a deck with Italian suits or with one with French suits.

The use of tarot cards as playing cards is still found today in some Italian and French areas. The Sicilian tarot is still played in four towns in Sicily: Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Calatafimi, Tortorici and Mineo. In Bologna the Bolognese tarocchino is used, the original rules of which are kept by the Bolognese tarocchino academy. In Pinerolo the Ligurian-Piedmontese tarot is used. In France there is an active Fédération Française de Tarot whose regulation uses the Tarot nouveau.

Since its origins, the traditional game played with tarot has varied little: it is a game of tricks similar to tressette, briscola or bridge, in which the Trionfi or Arcana play the role of "briscole", i.e. cards stronger.

It is a game of "tricks", where, proceeding in order, each player plays a card and, once the round is complete, whoever wins the trick places the won cards face down out of the game, forming a pile of won cards.

 TAROT RULES

1. CARDS

It is the only game that uses 5 suits instead of 4.

In addition to swords, sticks, coins and cups there is the tarot suit. The 4 main suits each have 14 cards: King, Queen, Knight, Jack and the cards from Ace to 10.

There are 22 tarot cards and the values range from 0 for the "Fool" to 21 for the "World".

In the suits of swords and clubs (black suits) the trick value is, in descending order: King, Queen, Knight, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A.
In the suits of Coins and Cups (red suits) the trick value is, in descending order: King, Queen, Knight, Jack, A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
In tarot the trick value is, in descending order: 20, 21, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (the "Bagatto").

The only exception (formally contradictory) is that if in one hand there are both Trump n° 20 ("The Angel") and n° 21 ("The World"), 20 wins over 21!

The "Fool" cannot take or be taken, it remains with the player who received it in the deal with one exception (see p.4 below).

2. THE SCORE
For scoring purposes, the cards have the following values:

• each King is worth 5 points,
• each woman is worth 4 points,
• each Horse is worth 3 points,
• each Jack is worth 2 points,
• the World (n. 21) is worth 5 points,
• the Magician or Magician (n. 1) is worth 4 points,
• the Fool (0) is worth 4 points,
• 3 cards together are worth 1 point.
• All the other cards do not assign any points, so for example the strength card does not assign points, exactly like the 6 of wands, or the ace of cups.

To count the points, 3 cards are evaluated at a time: if the group consists of a value card and 2 slips, the value card keeps its full score; if in the group of 3 there is more than one value card, those after the first lose 1 point each.

The tie is obtained at 26 points, whoever scores the most boasts a credit corresponding to the points scored over 26, and whoever scores the least has a debt. When the round is completed, i.e. each player has acted as dealer, the winner of the game is the one with the most credits.

In the four-man variant, the game is normally played in pairs and the tie is reached at 36 points.

3. DISTRIBUTION AND DISCARD

The dealer shuffles the deck and makes the player to his right cut.

He will deal 5 cards at a time starting with the player on his left and keep the last 3 for himself.

Before the game begins the dealer will discard 3 cards which will form part of his tricks. It is forbidden to insert Kings and tarot cards into the discard pile, with the exception of the Magician if it is the only tarot card in the player's hand, therefore at the end of the hand, before counting the points, the dealer will show the discard pile; in the event of a mistake, the discard will be awarded to whoever took the last trick.

4. THE GAME AND THE TAKING

The player to the dealer's right starts the game, then the game is played in the reverse order of the deal. The hand player can come out with the card he wants, including the tarot.

It is mandatory to always answer with the exit suit but it is not mandatory to pass. If you do not have cards of that suit, you must play tarot cards that have a trump value. In the absence of both the come out suit and the tarot, it can be "cut" with any other suit but it is not possible to take. So if the first card is wands, you will be forced to respond with a wands card, or – if you don't have any – with one of the trumps (the major arcana excluding the mate), provided that there is the possibility. If, on the other hand, the first card is a trump, you will be forced to respond with a trump (provided you have one).

Without prejudice to these rules, the player will be able to play the card that he most wants.

The trick is made by the highest card of the led suit; if he is cut with a tarot, he takes the higher tarot.

When the player who has it decides to play the Fool, he shows it and places it between his tricks; that trick will be by the player who played the higher value card.

The Fool can only be played if the player has taken at least one trick, otherwise, it will be assigned to the player who takes the last trick. The Fool cannot be the out card and therefore, if you keep it until the last hand and have to go out, it will go to the player who wins the last hand.

5. END OF THE GAME

Depending on how it is agreed at the start, the game can end after 3, 6 or 9 hands or when 100 points are reached.

In some areas, in the 3-player game, "playing from the outside" is allowed: in the 3rd hand, the player who reaches a credit of 26 points can declare that he has won (regardless of the score that the others will reach) and, from that moment on, he must play in a way that favors neither of the other two. The rules are:

- when you have your hand, you must first play all the free or supposed free cards, then all the tarot cards;
- when answering you must always play the highest of the smallest.

Although it should be noted that game purists do not like those who "play from the outside".