Style combination · Contrasts

Emblem Book × Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

The emblem book explains its picture with a printed motto and epigram on the page, while the tarot gives only a carved title and a numeral and leaves the meaning to play or reading; choose the emblem book when the text must carry the argument.

From the research on Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Mix them and make something Emblem Book Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards, their arrangement from Emblem Book, the finish from Emblem Book. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Type from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards: All caps
Hand-lettering
Colour from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards: Flat fields
Primary triad
Form from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards: Stylised figuration
Borders & frames
Composition from Emblem Book: Framed panels
Central symmetry
Surface from Emblem Book: Carved line
Paper & letterpress bite

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Wow

Cinzel, standing in for Roman capitals cut into the woodblock with the picture, in a band at the foot of each trump and court card, often with interpuncts and the copyists' spellings ('LE CHARIOR' and 'LA PANCES' on Dodal's cards, 'LE BATELEVR' with V for U)

Text · Emblem Book

A European book genre in which, from Chrestien Wechel's Paris edition of 1534 on, every page or opening repeats one fixed unit: a short motto, an allegorical picture and an explanatory verse, which only together yield a moral, amorous or religious meaning. It began with Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber (Augsburg, 1531), whose emblems still ran on continuously, and moved from small framed woodcuts set in humanist roman and italic to engravings, from Bocchi's Bologna book of 1555 to the full-page copperplates of 17th-century Dutch, Flemish and Jesuit books.

EB Garamond; Emblem Book used Letterspaced roman capitals for the mottoes of Steyner's 1531 Augsburg edition, as 'REVERENTIAM IN MATRIMONIO REQVIRI', broken over two centred lines above the woodcut, with the couplets in italic below, alternate lines indented and Humanist roman capitals for running heads and the commonplace headings that group the emblems, as 'DEVS, SIVE RELIGIO.' over the framed emblems of Bonhomme's 1550 Lyon Emblemata

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards, with a counter-accent from Emblem Book. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

#efe4c8 ground · 36%
#1c1915 ink · 14%
#e6c13f accent · 18%
#8a6a45 accent · 14%
#c8372d accent · 10%
#c9b48f accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe4c8;
  --ink: #1c1915;
  --accent-1: #e6c13f;
  --accent-2: #8a6a45;
  --accent-3: #c8372d;
  --accent-4: #c9b48f;
  --font-display: "Cinzel", serif;
  --font-text: "EB Garamond", serif;
}

Use it with care

Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards: Trace decks cut before 1800 (Noblet, Dodal and Conver in the BnF; Dodal cards and early 19th-century Conver printings at the Met) rather than recent redrawings such as Grimaud's 1930 'Ancien Tarot de Marseille' or the 1998 Camoin–Jodorowsky restoration, which are modern works; and do not present the occultists' story of an Egyptian origin, launched by Court de Gébelin in 1781, as history: the pattern descends from Milanese tarot and was made for the card game of tarot, which French and Swiss players used it for until the early 20th century.

The two styles

An antique-style sepia illustration titled “QUIET ROOTS” shows a large tree with exposed roots surrounding a buried rock, flanked by two resting stags, with a river, bridge and town behind it. An elaborate architectural frame surrounds the scene, decorated with foliage, birds, a woman's face, urns and ribbon bows.

1531–1724 · Southern Europe, Central Europe, Western Europe Emblem Book (Motto, Picture & Epigram) A European book genre in which, from Chrestien Wechel's Paris edition of 1534 on, every page or opening repeats one fixed unit: a short motto, an allegorical picture and an explanatory verse, which only together yield a moral, amorous or religious meaning. It began with Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber (Augsburg, 1531), whose emblems still ran on continuously, and moved from small framed woodcuts set in humanist roman and italic to engravings, from Bocchi's Bologna book of 1555 to the full-page copperplates of 17th-century Dutch, Flemish and Jesuit books.

A crowned, robed figure holds a star-topped staff and rests one hand on a blue orb bearing a yellow star. Flowers flank the figure within a distressed black border, with “GUIDANCE” printed below.

1639–present · Western Europe, Southern Europe, Central Europe Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards The standard pattern of French tarot cards, descended from Milanese tarot and recut by card-makers in Paris, Lyon, Avignon, Dijon and Marseille from the 17th century. Each of the 78 cards holds one emblematic subject, a stiff figure or small frozen group, or a set of suit signs, inside a ruled frame, cut in wood with thick contours and sparse hatching and stencil-coloured in a few flat colours, chiefly red, yellow, blue, green and flesh (with violet in the 17th century); trumps add a roman numeral above and a carved title below. Occultists read it as a book of symbols from 1781.

More combinations

With Emblem Book

With Tarot de Marseille Woodcut Cards

Every style combination