The Leber-Rouen Tarot

Thirty cards survive from a classicized sixteenth-century Tarot deck, in the Leber Collection in the Bibliothèque Municipale di Rouen. The cards are hand colored with gold and silver highlights. The images are classical figures but, in striking contrast to other classicized decks like Sola Busca and Boiardo, the trump subjects are neatly consistent with the standard Tarot subjects. Michael Dummett summarized the deck, and a similar one:

The pack is obviously non-standard, and is a classicised one: the court figures are labelled with inscriptions in Latin identifying them with characters of classical history (e.g. the King of Coins with Midas, King of the Lydians [right]), while the trump cards, although clearly identifiable with the usual subjects, also have Latin inscriptions interpreting them in terms of classical mythology (e.g. the Devil is represented by Pluto and is labelled 'Perditorum Raptor'). The numeral cards are very elaborate, the Batons, in particular, being depicted as whole trees. A complete pack, very closely related to the one at Rouen, but not identical with it, was known to Count Leopoldo Cicognara, and was described by him in his book on playing cards of 1831. He illustrated it by all four Aces and trump card showing Apollo and Cupid, obviously representing the Sun and Love cards. The pack has now disappeared.

As Dummett's examples illustrate, the subjects chosen conflate standard trump subjects with classical myth and history in a fairly transparent manner. Midas as the King of Coins is dead obvious, and Alexandar the Great is equally appropriate as the King of Swords (above-left). Cupid is shown in virtually all historical decks. Pluto as the Devil and Apollo as the Sun are just as natural as any possible classical subjects. As is the case with virtually all pre-Gébelin Tarot decks, the only serious mystery is why occultists claim Tarot to be so mysterious.

The motto of the Emperor is Imperator Assiriorum (right). This is the ruler of the Assyrian Empire, perhaps Sardanapalus. Sardanapalus was a legendary figure whose story was included as one of the 56 biographies in De Casibus Virorum Illustribus and who appeared in the Boiardo Tarot deck as an example of Idleness. The figure in the Leber-Rouen deck is shown riding a camel.

The motto of the Pope is Pontifex Pontificum (left), that is, the high priest of the Collegium Pontificum (College of Pontiffs) or Pontifex Maximus. The image blends this Roman office with that of the Roman Catholic Pope, depicting the figure with the conventional triple tiara.

The motto of the Chariot is Victoriae Premium (right), the reward of victory. This is about as straightforward as imaginable, given that the celebration of a Roman triumph was a reward for a great military victory.

The motto of Time is Rerum Edax (left), the Devourer of Things. Like Fortune's motto, this is a universally understood metaphor.

The motto of Fortune is Omnium Dominatrix (right), the Ruler of Everything. This is like the well known title, Imperatrix Mundi, a perfectly conventional view of Fortune.

The motto of the Devil is Perditorum Raptor (left), Ravisher of the Lost. This refers to Pluto and the popular story of Prosperine, which is depicted.

The motto of the Star is Inclitum Sydus (right), the Prominent (Famous, Glorious, etc.) Star. This is a bit peculiar, but then so are some standard Tarot Star cards. In general terms, the Star is usually an indirect reference to Christ. This is what enables Fire from Heaven (the previous card) to triumph over the Devil (two cards lower than the Star). This may be indicated by depicting the three Magi who followed the Star, or by more obscure allusions. In this case it appears that the allusion is to Stella Maris or, more precisely, a Pagan precursor. Stella Maris was the guiding light for sailors, metaphorically those traveling in the Barque of Peter, i.e., the Church of Rome. James Frazier, in The Golden Bough, says this about Star of the Sea:

The attributes of a marine deity may have been bestowed on Isis by the sea-faring Greeks of Alexandria. They are quite foreign to her original character and to the habits of the Egyptians, who had no love of the sea. On this hypothesis Sirius, the bright star of Isis, which on July mornings rises from the glassy waves of the eastern Mediterranean, a harbinger of halcyon weather to mariners, was the true Stella Maris, “the Star of the Sea.”

The identification with Stella Maris may seem odd, but certainly a Star and the sea, with ship and fish, are depicted. A modern Stella Maris icon (above-left) includes a number of salient elements corresponding to the Prominent Star of the Leber-Rouen deck.

There doesn't appear to be any readily available source for the Leber-Rouen deck. Three different books were scanned just to get images of the seven trump cards.