The Tarot began as a trick-taking card game first devised in 1400’s Italy. Known then as Tarocchi or Triomphi, its deck consisted of four suits of numbered and royal cards, similar to our card decks today, and an additional set of enigmatic pictorial images. Its play style created a gaming fad which spread so quickly that Tarocchi decks were soon mass-produced using wood-block prints which were cut out and individually wrapped around more durable pasteboard backing.
The trumps are the pictorial cards—magician, priestess, lovers, fool, etc.—which were added to the four-suited game decks in use at the time. As their underlying design scheme is still uncertain to this day, they remain a modern masquerade.