Exit Stage Left: An Old Fool

Jacques Vieville, printed around 1650, Florney reconstruction

Here is the Fool from the Jacques Vieville deck circa 1650.  It follows an anonymous Tarot of Paris of unknown date which also faces left.  What is important to notice is that there is NO NUMBER on the card as well as the direction the Fool faces. In the Vieville decks the majors bear no titles and the numbering is different than the Marseilles, which is different than the modern RWS Tarot.

The first acknowledged Marseille deck is the Jean Noblet  of 1659. The Florney edition  does a modern revisioning of the original Vieville deck and goes one step further by presenting 44 cards with a reversed card in the all majors edition turned to “match”  Marseille style decks.

Since the Vieville is older,  and faces left  wii see this style of card as a remnant of an earlier Gnosis now forgotten. Left to us means  the Fool is making an exit from space time.

The right facing Fool as shown in the Marseille style editions wii interpret as the Fool entering  and/or  re-entering the labyrinth of the Cosmos as  tabula rasa to walk  its circular path of sequential eternal return.

Remember that the Zero or Cipher is a modern addition to this card.  Also the Tarot de Vieville  is a unique style of Tarot, just as is the Marseille deck.  Below is the all majors double version produced by Editions Le Tarot  drawn by the late J.C. Florney.

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