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Swiss 1JJ Tarot
Today, I am going to introduce
the 7th, and also the last, tarot card deck that still being used
for game playing. The card deck is called Swiss 1JJ Tarot.
Swiss 1JJ Tarot deck is an
Italian suited pack with 78 cards. The deck is derived from the Tarot de
Besançon, which itself comes from the Tarot of Marseilles. This is also the
reason behind the similarities between the Swiss 1JJ Tarot deck and the Tarot
of Marseilles deck. Though, there are some minor changes on the trump suit.
As other Latin-suited tarot
deck, the deck consists of 4 suits namely, swords, batons (or wands), cups & coins (or Pentacles), as
well as the additional suit of trumps. Changes are mainly on two of the cards.
The trump 2 “Popess” and the trump 5 “Pope” of the Tarot of Marseilles are substituted
by the figures of Juno and Jupiter respectively.
The deck was first published in
the 1830s by the Swiss businessman Johann Georg Rauch. In 1965, AGMüller issued
a reprint of the deck and named it as 1JJ. The "1" simply being a number
within the product line and "JJ" the replacement of 2 trumps by Juno
and Jupiter. Now, most people use the term “1JJ” to refer to this particular
tarot deck.
The other trumps look exactly like those in the Tarot of Marseilles deck
Trump 21 "The World" and "The Fool",
which is the largest trump in this game.
Different from the other 3
Latin-suited tarot decks, the Tarocco Piemontese, the Tarocco Bolognese and the
Tarocco Siciliano that I have introduced previously, Swiss 1JJ Tarot is not used
for gaming in Italy. The deck only survives in a few villages of South
Switzerland as a gaming deck. Those places include Visp in the southwest and
the Romansh speaking region in the southeast. The deck is for playing Troccas,
in the Romansh speaking region, and Troggu, in Visp. Despite its less
popularity in card playing nowadays, Swiss 1JJ Tarot deck is still widely
available. Because of its similarity to the Tarot of Marseilles deck, many
tarot readers use the Swiss 1JJ Tarot deck for divinity purpose. This is the
reason of keeping this ancient deck alive.
Pip cards of the 4 suits
The pattern of Swiss 1JJ Tarot
deck is in public domain and technically anyone can print. Depends on the
printer, the deck comes in different languages, such as English, French and
German. People mainly use the French version to play games. However, there is a
more localized Romansh version available to purchase online.
My deck is an English version printed by AGMüller in Belgium. The deck comes with an instruction booklet which teaches how to interpret the meaning of each card in tarot reading. Tarot card game is not mentioned in the booklet at all.
General Information
|
Player |
2 to 8 |
|
Playing Time |
30 mins |
|
Age |
? |
|
Year Released |
1830? |
|
Designer |
(Public Domain) |
|
Publisher |
AGMüller |
|
Family |
Trick-taking |
|
Score |
5.9 (Board Game Geek) |
|
Card size |
50mm x 83mm |
|
Deck size |
78 cards |
|
# of suits |
5 – Swords (spade), Batons (bastoni), Cups
(coppe), Coins (denari) & Trumps |
|
Details |
The deck is in Italian suit. Cards are all
numbered in Roman numerals, except the Fool card. Trump consists of 22 cards, which bears similarity
to the trump suit of Tarot of Marseilles. There are no Jokers. An instructions
booklet for divination reading is included. |
Game Play
Where to buy?
Etsy.
In the previous posts, I have
introduced the 5 different suits of traditional playing cards, namely the
French-suited, the Spanish-suited, the German-suited, the Italian-suited &
the Swiss-suited. I have also introduced 7 different tarot decks that are still
used for gaming today, which includes the Tarot Nouveau, the Industrie und Glück, the
Adler Cego, the Tarocco Piemontese, the Tarocco Bolognese, the Tarocco Siciliano & the Swiss 1JJ Tarot. And thanks to Tarocco Siciliano, we still
be able to have a glimpse on the now extinct Portuguese-suit.
But it seems that we have
reached the end of our journey on traditional playing card decks, or at least
traditional “Western-style” playing card decks. In the future posts, I will
introduce some other special deck of playing cards. Or maybe I will revisit
some dedicated card games that I played with my son during the pandemic. Stay
tune and I hope you have enjoyed this page.
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