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Though historians like Kaplan and Matthews publish new information on divination decks every year, there are still many holes in the larger story of fortune-telling cards. Wolf points out that those who use cards for divination are often at odds with academics researching their past. “There's a lot of friction between tarot historians and card readers about the origins and purpose of tarot cards,” Wolf says. “The evidence suggests they were invented for gaming and evolved for use in divination at a much later date. Personally, I believe they were designed for game play, but that the design is a bit more sophisticated than many tarot historians seem to believe.”
尽管像Kaplan和Matthews这样的历史学家们每年都在推出新书，描述卡牌占卜的历史，用卡片预知未来的历史仍然有很多未解的地方。Wolf指出，那些仍然用卡片占卜的人与研究者之间往往不能达成一致。“关于牌的起源和意义，研究塔罗牌的历史学家和占卜者之间经常发生摩擦，”Wolf说，“有证据表示纸牌被用于赌博和占卜是在比较晚的年代了，从个人来讲我觉得它的起源就是一种游戏，但是我觉得塔罗牌的设计应该比很多历史学家想的更复杂一些。”
By the mid-18th century, the mystical applications for cards had spread from Italy to other parts of Europe. In France, writer Antoine Court de Gébelin asserted that the tarot was based on a holy book written by Egyptian priests and brought to Europe by Gypsies from Africa. In reality, tarot cards predated the presence of Gypsies in Europe, who actually came from Asia rather than Africa. Regardless of its inaccuracies, Court de Gébelin's nine-volume history of the world was highly influential.
在十八世纪中期，卡牌的神秘用途从意大利传播到了欧洲的其他地方。在法国，作家Antoine Court de Gébelin坚持说塔罗牌源自一本古埃及祭司的圣书，并由吉普赛人从非洲带来。而事实上塔罗牌在欧洲的出现要早于吉普赛人，而吉普赛人实际上来自亚洲，而不是非洲。先不管这些错误，Court de Gébelin写的九卷本倒是广为传播。
Teacher and publisher Jean-Baptiste Alliette wrote his first book on the tarot in 1791, called “Etteilla, ou L'art de lire dans les cartes," meaning "Etteilla, or the Art of Reading Cards." (Alliette created this mystical pseudonym “Etteilla” simply by reversing his surname.) According to Etteilla's writings, he first learned divination with a deck of 32 cards designed for a game called Piquet, along with the addition of his special Etteilla card. This type of card is known as the significator and typically stands in for the individual having their fortune read.
教师和出版家Jean-Baptiste Alliette在1791年写了他的第一本关于塔罗牌的书，名为《Etteilla, ou L'art de lire dans les cartes》，意思是“艾特拉，卡片中蕴含的秘密”（Alliette发明了这个神秘学词汇“艾特拉”，就是把他的姓的拼写颠倒过来）。在他对“艾特拉”的描述里，他一开始是从一种叫做“皮克牌”的32张纸牌的游戏中学会占卜术的，里面再加上他特别的“艾特拉”牌，就被视为一种典型而知名的用于个人占卜的卡牌。
A hand-colored set of tarot cards produced by F. Gumppenberg, circa 1810. Photo courtesy Bill Wolf.
1810年由F. Gumppenberg制造的一种手绘塔罗牌。
