Tarot systems
Etteilla Tarot: system and Grand Etteilla 1857
Etteilla is an independent French divination system of the late eighteenth century. Grand Etteilla 1857 is a German edition in this tradition, not an alternative design of Rider–Waite–Smith Tarot.
What “Etteilla” and “Grand Etteilla” mean
Etteilla was the professional name used by Jean-Baptiste Alliette. He developed one of the earliest systematic methods for reading Tarot specifically for divination. “Grand Etteilla” names a family of decks organised for that method; it does not identify a single timeless artwork.
What is special about the German edition of 1857
The Stuttgart publication Theoretischer und praktischer Unterricht über das Buch Thot preserves 78 numbered cards with German inscriptions. Each card carries two printed terms. They are concrete reading positions within the historical system rather than modern “positive” and “negative” summaries.
How a card is read
The reader identifies the applicable printed term, keeps the cards in sequence and connects their terms into a statement. The surrounding cards and the question determine how literal, personal or situational that statement becomes. Handwritten notes found in the digitised copy are not treated as part of the printed doctrine.
How it differs from Rider–Waite–Smith
RWS organises Major and Minor Arcana around the symbolic scenes designed by Pamela Colman Smith under Arthur Edward Waite’s direction. Grand Etteilla uses its own order, cosmology and printed term pairs. Similar numbers or images do not establish a one-to-one correspondence.
Historical boundary
The Egyptian origin story belongs to the Etteilla tradition’s own historical self-description. Current scholarship first documents Tarot cards in fifteenth-century Italy. We present the tradition and the modern research record separately.
Grand Etteilla 1857
- 78 cards in an independent sequence
- Two printed reading terms on every card
- “Thorheit” appears as card 78
- No complete one-to-one mapping to RWS
- German historical titles remain visible in the reconstructed edition
Draw three Grand Etteilla cards
Sources
Digitised German edition of 1857 · The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Tarot history
Frequently asked questions
Is Grand Etteilla a German Tarot system?
No. Etteilla is a French system. The 1857 deck used here is a German-language edition of that tradition.
Is Grand Etteilla the same as Rider–Waite–Smith?
No. The systems differ in sequence, imagery, terminology and reading method.
Are the handwritten notes in the scan official meanings?
No. Our source standard separates printed content from later handwritten annotations.