Jean-Claude Flornoy (Paris, France, 1950 – Sainte-Suzanne, France, 24 May 2011) was a French specialist of the

Tarot of Marseille The Tarot of Marseilles is a standard pattern of Italian-suited tarot pack with 78 cards that was very popular in France in the 17th and 18th centuries for playing tarot card games and is still produced today. It was probably created in Milan bef ...

, a writer and card maker working on bringing back to life historical

Tarot The tarot (, first known as '' trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, ...

decks. He especially worked on restoring the Jean Noblet and Jean Dodal decks.

Tarot contribution

Jean-Claude Flornoy has reproduced a number of early decks in the historical

and other early French pattern. He brought back to life the Historic decks, mainly conserved in the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

in Paris. Contributing to save a part of the occidental patrimony.

Biography

Jean-Claude Flornoy (Paris, 1950–2011) was a '' living and working in Sainte-Suzanne, France. Following studies centered around

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, he worked for 15 years as potter-ceramist. He has devoted 20 years to the study of the Tarots of the French (Marseille) Tradition. In 1996 he undertook an oversized restoration of the tarot of Nicolas Conver (Marseille, 1760). His aim was to faithfully bring this traditional

image An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensiona ...

ry back to life in all its original freshness. He then revived large-sized versions of other historic tarots from originals preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris: Jean Noblet (Paris, c. 1650), Jean Dodal (Lyon, 1701) and a number of

trumps A trump is a playing card which is elevated above its usual rank in trick-taking games. Typically, an entire suit is nominated as a ''trump suit''; these cards then outrank all cards of plain (non-trump) suits. In other contexts, the terms ''tru ...

from Jacques Viéville (Paris, c. 1650). It was in painting each arcana on giant canvases (220 cm by 110 cm) that he was able to come to 'understand' the way the images are operative in themselves. He regularly transports them for exhibitions, and proposes conference-workshops in a variety of tarot-related contexts.

Published works

Books

*2007 ''Le pèlerinage des bateleurs'' (only in French) *1992 ''The Pilgrimage of the Soul'', being a translation of ''

Le Pèlerinage de l'Âme ''Le Pèlerinage de l'Âme'' (English: ''The Pilgrimage of the Soul'') is a fourteenth-century poem written in Old French by Guillaume de Deguileville. A modern edition was published by the Roxburghe Club as ''Le Pèlerinage de l’Ame de Guillaume ...

''.

Decks

The following decks have been reproduced in high-quality and handmade, trumps: *Jean Noblet, ''circa'' 1650 *Jean Dodal, ''circa'' 1701 *Nicolas Conver, ''circa'' 1760 The following decks have been industrially reproduced: *Jean Noblet, ''circa'' 1650 *Jacques Viéville, ''circa'' 1650 *Jean Dodal, ''circa'' 1701

References

Sources

tarot-history.comtarotpedia.comletarot.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flornoy, Jean-Claude Tarotologists