Swiss Tarot

Jupiter, the fifth trump

The Swiss Tarot deck is a 78-card deck used for the tarot card games Troccas and Troggu. It is also sometimes called the JJ Tarot due to the replacement of the usual second and fifth trumps with cards depicting Juno and Jupiter, or as 1JJ Tarot in reference to the catalog number of a common release of the deck by A.G. Müller.

History

The deck is derived from the Tarot de Besançon, which itself comes from the Tarot of Marseilles. It is an Italian suited pack which substitutes the figures of Juno and Jupiter in place of the Popess and Pope of the Tarot of Marseilles. The first version was produced between 1831 and 1838 in the card factory of Johann Georg Rauch. It was the first tarot pack made by the factory and was unexpectedly successful in the American market. The first version was manufactured, unaltered, by his successor, Johannes Müller in Diessenhofen until 1860.

In 1965 the Swiss card game firm, A.G. Müller, issued a reprint which is distinguished by its cleaner lines. The alternative name for the pack comes from this edition, the "1" simply being a number within the product line and "JJ" the replacement of 2 trumps by Juno and Jupiter.

Cards

The face cards are not double headed and both the trumps and pip cards use additive Roman numeral indexing. The lack of modern features like vertically symmetrical face cards, corner indices, and Arabic numerals has made this deck unpopular for tarot players outside of their native communities. For example, the French-speaking Swiss (Romands) prefer using the Tarot Nouveau to play French tarot. It is still the official deck for Troccas tournaments.

Troggu players use the German version. Troccas players use the French-language version but refer to their cards with their Romansh (Rhæto-Romanic) nicknames. In 2016, A.G. Müller began printing of Sursilvan captioned packs for Troccas players on behalf of Radiotelevisiun Svizra Rumantscha. The names and designs of the cards are as follows:

Trump cards

Image Number. Caption.
United Kingdom Germany France 		Additional Rhæto-Romanic
names and their translation
(unnumbered)

The Fool
Der Narr
Le Mat
il narr		 I.

The Magician
Der Magier
Le Bateleur
il bagat
II.

Junon
Junon
Junon
la gaglina		 la biua the chicken
III.

The Empress
Die Herrscherin
L'Impératrice
l'imperatura		 IIII.

The Emperor
Der Herrscher
L'Empereur
igl imperatur
V.

Jupiter
  • il da Cuoz

  • il Diu fauls
  • the man
    from Cuoz
  • the false God
VI.

The Lovers
Die Liebenden
L'Amoureux
ils inamura(i)		 —
VII.

The Chariot
Der Wagen
Le Chariot
il carr		 la Catrina
en crotscha		 Catherine
in a chariot
VIII.

Justice
Gerechtigkeit
La Justice
la giustia		 la stadera the scales
VIIII.

The Hermit
Der Eremit
L'Ermite
il pader		 X.

Wheel of Fortune
Rad des Schicksals
La Roue de Fortune
la roda dalla fortuna
XI.

Strength
Kraft
La Force
la forza		 la ventira fate
XII.

The Hanged Man
Der Gehängte
Le Pendu
il pendiu		 XIII.

Death
Der Tod
La Mort
la mort
XIIII.

Temperance
Die Mässigkeit
Tempérance
igl aunghel		 la tempronza temperance
XV.

The Devil
Der Teufel
Le Diable
il giavel
  • il da cornas
  • il naucli
  • il bab dallas
    femnas
  • the horned one
  • the evil one
  • the father
    of women
XVI.

The Tower
Der Turm
La Maison de Dieu
il tiaratriembel
  • la casa
    da Diu
  • il cametg
  • la Cadi
  • la claustra
    barschada
  • the house
    of God
  • the lightning
  • the Church
  • the burning
    monastery
XVII.

The Star(s)
Der Stern
L'Étoile
las steilas		 —
XVIII.

The Moon
Der Mond
La Lune
la glina		 XVIIII.

The Sun
Die Sonne
Le Soleil
il sulegl
XX.

Judgment
Gericht
Le Jugement
il truament
  • la dertgira
  • ils bluts
  • la giuven–
    tetgna
  • judgement
  • the nudes
  • youth

XXI.

The World
Die Welt
Le Monde
il mund
  • la vaca
  • la biala
  • la ferma
  • il miau
  • il min
  • the cow
  • (the) beauty
  • (the) beauty
  • the cat
  • the cat

Suit cards

Suit
No.
 Cups Pentacles Swords Wands
Ace
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Page
Knight
Queen
King

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Bacchus occupies the same location in Belgian Tarot. Both Tarocco Siciliano and da Tortona's deck feature Jupiter as their highest trump, while the medieval Sola Busca tarot has his Greek equivalent, Zeus, seated on a chariot. Boiardo–Viti has him among its face cards, featuring his eagle on the fourth-highest position.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 The queen of coins in the medieval Boiardo–Viti tarot, also found in da Tortona's deck.
  3. ↑ "Swiss Tarot" is the name recommended by the International Playing-Card Society.
  4. ↑ When available; same as the first two columns, otherwise.
  5. 1 2 The shell game player.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 See animal tarot.
  7. ↑ The chicken.
  8. 1 2 Baby talk.
  9. ↑ A suburb of Disentis.
  10. ↑ The carriage.
  11. ↑ The monk.
  12. ↑ The angel.
  13. ↑ The earthquake.
  14. ↑ The tribunal.
  15. 1 2 Both an abstract noun (beauty) and a substantivized feminine adjective (the beautiful woman).
  16. ↑ In English, the face cards are explicitly labelled pentacles despite not featuring any.

References

  1. 1 2 Swiss Tarot at i-p-c-s.org. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  2. ↑ Mann, Sylvia (1990). All Cards on the Table. Leinfelden: Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum. pp. 166–168, 172.
  3. ↑ Ruh, Max (2005) Schaffhauser Spielkarten. Schweizer Pioniere der Wirtschaft und Technik. Verein für wirtschaftshistorische Studien, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-909059-32-5, pp 27–31, 52 and 73.
  4. ↑ McLeod, John. Troccas at pagat.com. Retrieved 13 February 2018.