Tarot de Marseille

Le Bateleur. The Magician.

I just finished Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. It was a beautiful book, putting me constantly into a black, white, and grey, yet vibrant dreamworld. As I wondered in and out of different tents, one to which I always returned was the Fortune Teller. She used cards for her readings, specifically the Tarot de Marseille. This little episodes as she read provide a little foreshadowing for those that know meanings, or spent time looking them up. As a card player and enthusiast, and the owner of three decks of tarot, I wondered how (if at all) the Tarot de Marseille differed from my own.

The earliest inventors of paper and printing with wood blocks, the Chinese, "played cards" as early as the 9th century (first recorded references of playing cards, although it has been speculated that since there was paper, there were paper card games). Cards were widespread in Asia by the 11th century. In the 14th century, Mamluk Egypt introduced Europe to their playing cards, a deck consisting of 4 suits (swords, staves, cups, and coins) of either 13 or 14 cards (numbered 1 through 10 [pips], with either 3 or 4 "court" cards [a king, first and second duties, and an assistant--all designed and faceless keeping an Islamic tradition]). The Spanish were most likely the first European card players owing to connections in the Islamic world, but card playing by the elite of European was widespread by early 15th century. Card playing exploded with the invention of the printing press, in conjunction with and challenging the myriad religious prints.

Types of design also mushroomed in the different cultures and regions of Europe. Germany played with suits of hearts, bells, leaves, and acorns, and these suits probably influenced the French suits of hearts, diamonds, spades (from leaves), and clubs (from acorns). The Tarot de Marseille continues to use the swords, staves, cups, and coins, but changes the court cards to king, queen, knight, and knave (or "page" and "jack" as well).

With news games being made and played in the 14th century, Northern Italians created a supplement to the traditional four-suited set. These cards, often numbered 1 though 21 (and a no numbered or zero car), depicted allegorical persons and situations, called carte de trionfi (shortened to trionfi) or triumph cards. The French called these stouts (roughly translated as "assets") and the English shortened "triumph" to "trump" (side ramble: This makes me wonder if the meaning of "trump" is taken from the cards--I may need a trip to the OED!!).

The Tarot de Marseille includes the trump cards, as well as the 4 suits, 14 cards of swords, staves, cups, and coins. The swords are curved and crossed and the staves crossed as lattice work, echoing the origins in the Mamluk cards with the curved scimitar and the long, straight polo mallets. The Tarot de Marseille is certainly the fore bearer of the most common divinatory tarot decks. The 22 trump cards and the four sets of four court cards influence the titles and pictorials in the modern Rider deck, created in 1909. However this modern deck differs from the Tarot de Marseille, in that the pip cards (1 through 10) also include an allegorical pictorial.

Other things of interest:

Abbreviation of Knave to Kn too much like the K for King. Went low class with Jack.
Euchre. Joker relationship and sound. The best bower. Relation to the "zero" card--the Fool.
Timing. 13 cards in each suite -- 13 lunar month calendar and 364 days or 52 card deck to 52 week year. Four suits four seasons.
Papess. Female Pope controversy. Sometimes called the Priestess. Pope also become Priest or Hierophant.
13 not numbered or named. Death.
Corner and edge idices -- so one doesn't have to spread hand -- 17th to 18th century
Redesign of court cards so reversible. Less telling to opponents what's in one's hand. 18th century
French Revolution. "Ace high" because of the rise of the Third Estate. Or three court cards became Liberté, Egalité, and Fraternité.

Books from the Attic

I am reviewing my HOS books, looking for some survey and basic ones to help with my end of the year project (although I continue to bounce back and forth between historical video games and a Sci Rev website). I thought I would document by photo what I pulled down out of the attic. I put a tag with the publication date on the front.

Notice three things. 

1) I only pulled down things that were a survey across a time period. On that front, I'm also looking for VERY introductory HOS material, not an upper level, junior or senior level course.   An freshman level course can be made deeper and broader more easily, than an upper level course can be whittled down.

2) My last book was copyrighted in 1999. So I have QUITE a gap in new a current research. So the next couple of steps is going to be hunting around for more recently published HOS or HOT (History of Technology) survey textbooks (I'm pretty sure that Shapin has one--I'm going to go ahead and purchase that one). 

3) Also, I want to include some HOT, and my library certainly lacks that. So, I'll look for those too.

The smaller stack from the attic. This stack is missing Kuhn and Merchant, but that's because they live on the bookshelf in the living room, not in the attic.

 E.A. Burtt's The Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Physical Science, 1924 (I'm wondering what the copyright status on this one is? I think it was extended in 1932, putting it into that complicated category.)

 D.L. Hurd and J.J. Kipling, The Origins and Growth of Physical Science, Volume 1, 1958

David Knowles, The Evolution of Medieval Thought, 1962

Lynn White, Medieval Technology & Social Change, 1962

Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 1962 (A pivotal work that WILL be discussed, used, etc in a survey class.)

G.E.R. Lloyd, Ancient Culture and Society - Early Greek Science: Thales to Aristotle, 1970

Richard S. Westfall's The Construction of Modern Science: Mechanisms and Mechanics, 1971

Robert Mandrou's From Humanism to Science, 1480 - 1700, 1973

Carolyn Merchant's The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution, 1980

Look at how special!!

Elizabeth L. Eisenstein's The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, 1983

Londa Schiebinger's The Mind Has No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science, 1989 

Margaret C. Jacob, The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution, 1988

David C. Lindberg's The Beginnings of Western Science, 1992 (This is the good survey text that I have. As part of this project, I may be rereading this for the final project, just to get a sense of layout. However, ending in 1450, I really need another supplemental text to finish the Sci Revolution and a lot of these bleed over into the Enlightenment.)

Steven Shapin, A Social History of Truth, 1994

Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment, 1995

John Henry, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science, 1997 (This is a quick little text that I will reread as well.)

H. Floris Cohen, The Scientific Revolution: A Historiographical Inquiry, 1994 (A history of the history written about the Scientific Rev, I figured just looking at the table of contents would be helpful, but I think I have those. I'm really looking for post 1990s.)

Edited by W. Clark, J. Golinski, and S. Schaffer, The Sciences in Enlightened Europe, 1999 (This includes so really good topical pieces on newer research.)

The Elements of (Web) Style

Site Design Basics

Is there a web design manifesto like Strunk and White's Elements of Style? I thought that I had one found at The Elements of Style Blog. But no, I must search on.


Web Style Guide
I didn't like this one.  It has too many design elements with twelve.  This one does have some good ideas though, that some of the others don't have. This are ideas that you want to begin to think about before you begin to build that site--that are not as obvious as a design element like a color palate--but are vital for the functioning of a good website.

1. process
2. universal usability
3. information architecture
4. interface design
5. site structure -- (I think this is the one that is really important
                              that the other design elements are NOT terribly
                              explicit about.)
6. page structure
7. page design
8. typography
9. editorial style
10. forms and applications
11. graphics
12. mulitmedia

My Ink Blog

So this one is the same list that comes from The Non-Designer's Web Book, that Rosenzweig and Cohen reference. 

1. contrast
2. repetition
3. alignment
4. proximity

Digital Web Magazine

I actually think that these five design elements. They are more helpful than the four listed previously (but truly include those).

1. balance               -- (alignment)
2. rhythm                --(proximity - movement between text, images,
                                   and white spaces)
3. proportion
4. dominance          -- (contrast - both in color, space, size)
5. unity                    -- (repetition)

ConversionXL

This is one that I found. I liked these. It used good images. Got some very good ideas also, but maybe the Gestalt Design Laws got a little to intense. Also the names of these don't necessarily identify what you are looking for, so you have to know that Hick's Law is, or Fitt's Law.

1. visual hierarchy
2. divine proportions
3. Hick's Law     --every choice require addition time for a decision
4. Fitt's Law       --time it takes to move to an area is because of the
                             distance away and its size
5. Rule of Thirds -- use a 3x3 grid to help organize
6. Gestalt Design Laws -- people see the whole before each part
                            --Law of Proximity
                            --Law of Similarity
                            --Law of Closure
                            --Law of Symmetry
                            --Law of Common Fate
                           --Law of Continuity
7. White space and clean design
8. Occam's Razor -- the simplest solution is usually the best

Site Design Analysis

I am going to review the HOS sites I discussed in the previous post for their "elements of style." And perhaps, I should keep in mind my Strunk and White elements while I'm at it.

The Galileo Project
balance                -- pretty good
rhythm                 -- simple, good
proportion            -- proportions pretty good, would like the 
                               "reading" text to be a little bit bigger
dominance           -- color palate is great, but the text is NOT a
                                dominant color, images just big enough to 
                                contribute to the text
unity                    -- very nicely done, love the inclusion of the site 
                                map, really shows the repetition and ease of 
                                finding info on the site

The History of Science Society

This site is very simple and very well done. But it is a very basic site on the Society itself, so it's not a very complex site with a lot of different information. Simple. Elegant. Front page is update with information and news. I didn't scroll all the way down, and found that in comparison with the SHOT site, I like to see the WHOLE front page, so maybe a static page?

The Society for the History of Technology

Like the HOSS site, SHOT's site is very simple and very well done. Again, it's not a very complex site with a lot of different information. Simple. Elegant. Nice colors. Cool addition right on one of the tabs at the top is a "Resource" page. HOSS could use one of those.

Cultures of Knowledge

balance and rhythm -- a pattern emerges, index on the side, larger 
                                    scroll of the "reading" text, white space to
                                    edge of page (one one or both sides, Galileo
                                    had white space only on one side)             
                                   dominance -- colors nicely done, dominant 
                                   text shows highlighted readings
unity                        -- page to page stays the same, good unity

I'd like a site map, not exactly clear what information was where. Also a link to their super cool project should be on that front page! -- Early Modern Letters Online.

Ptak Science Books

balance                 -- nice balance, breaks model I mentioned 
                                 earlier
rhythm                 -- nice relationship to the white space and images
proportion            -- images that should be bigger are
dominance           -- not a whole lot of dominant text, so eyes don't 
                                really know where to go; colors are ok - not 
                                offensive, but could use, some background 
                                color to split off sections of information; this 
                                makes information hard to find and use right 
                                away, takes some time to swim through
unity                    -- nice repetition

Also pintrest? I can't keep up. I'll figure that out when it's been around for ten years.

From Cave Paintings to the Internet

There is nothing not awesome about this. Beautifully developed and SOOOOO easy to use.  Crazy good design. 



The Scientific Revolution HomePage

balance 
rhythm                -- the rhythm of this site is not perfect, sometimes
                               you'll be following along and a link will take 
                               you back to Hatch's home page, rather than the                     
                              Sci Rev homepage, requires more hunting about  
                             how to get back to where you were
proportion
dominance           -- Sometimes pages can be really busy, with 
                                colors and patterns, but it is OLD SCHOOL
unity                    -- what is identified as a link to a new page is not    
                                very uniform

I love this site, because I've been using it since 2001 or 2002, but that is in part because it has great basic (while still a wide berth) of information on what I studied. Dr. Hatch has continued to add new idea, information, and research, but it is definitely not the most up-to-date on information or design. This site is kind of a window into the history of the History of Science.

Why, hello there, stranger.

My name is Amanda, and I'll be you flight attendant for this wild ride. You might be asking yourself, "What is this blog?" or more importantly "Who blogs these days? Everyone is doing a podcast." You raise great questions.

As the name implies, I'm a crafty historian. *eyes roll* You might be wondering exactly what I mean by "crafty historian."  And this time I have a more comprehensive answer for you.  I am both crafty and also a (an--we can have this argument later) historian. And part of my mission as a historian is to make others think about the fact that history is crafted.

That's right. History is all made up. Before I get a variety of emails complaining about my lack of historical understanding, let me explain. For the most part, those of you that have dedicated your lives to history and that's what you are doing for a living completely understand this idea. It's not new.  Most of what I post on here will not be new. I'm talking to the rest of you. I haven't been a teacher for an exceptionally long time--three years at the elementary/middle school level and then a year and one half or so at the local community college. But it is certainly a REVOLUTIONARY idea when I say that EVERYTHING you read has a bias; it's been constructed; it is arguing something; it is CRAFTED. That's right, take it to a logical conclusion.  It's art!

Yeah, media is biased. But also yeah, your history textbook is biased.  And so is every political campaign, and conversation you have. "They" (the authors) are trying very hard, to present a coherent and cognizant message about what our life is today.  This is a little more nuanced, but even the "data" is biased. It's pretty easy to take what one is looking for in a scientific study and make it fit to your argument. What to do, what to do?

Well, and people LOVE to think that they are doing this, THINK FOR YOURSELF.  That's what I'm trying to do here. You might find contradictory views.  Things that are very fringe and weird. Articles that have nothing to do with history at all, and everything to do with teleportation. This is all part of my thinking process.

I'll certainly have articles on history. I listen to A LOT of podcast and hope to stream them here. Pictures, comics, and maps that I think are beautiful, telling, or shocking will be posted here.  This blog is a product of my classes at Northern Virginia Community College, but also of a new realization.  The internet is a vast place.  I want a place to go that has radical links to ideas that I'm interested in.  We need ways to break down and find information on the internet. So that's what I'm doing here.

I have a lot of things saved up for my readers.  I hope that I will be able to post every other day.  That is a lot of dedication.  But it's pretty rare, that I don't find something spectacular on the web every other day.

To my students: this is a great resource outside of the class material.

To my family and friends: this is a great way to know what I'm thinking about each week.

Please, listen or read what I've posted.  It may open up a whole other (semi-real internet/informational) world that you didn't realize existed.  AND then post your comments, I'll try to respond for a bit.  And look at other interesting things that you've posted there.

So ignore the knitting links if you want. Listen to the podcasts if you want. Look at the pictures if you want.

"History is a pack of lies we play on the dead." --Voltaire