Jean-Claude Flornoy

– Le fou on its original version and restored by Jean-Claude Flornoy]

Jean-Claude Flornoy (Paris, 1950) is a French specialist of the Tarot of Marseille, a writer and card maker working on bringing back to life historical Tarot decks. He especially worked on the Jean Noblet and Jean Dodal decks.

Tarot contribution

Jean-Claude Flornoy has reproduced a number of early decks in the historical Tarot of Marseille and other early French pattern. He brought back to life the Historic decks, mainly conserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Contributing to save a part of the occidental patrimony.

Biography

Jean-Claude Flornoy (Paris, 1950) is a 'Cartier-enlumineur' living and working in Sainte-Suzanne,France. Following studies centered around philosophy and psychology, 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 imagery 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 from Jacques Viéville (Paris, c. 1650). It was in painting each arcane 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 Journey of the Soul", being a translation of "Pèlerinage de l'âme".

Decks

The following decks have been reproduced in high-quality and handmade, trumps:

Jean Dodal, "circa" 1701

Jean Noblet, "circa" 1650

The following decks have been industrially reproduced:

Jean Noblet, 1650

Jean Dodal, 1701 (to be released in 2009)

References

* [http://association.tarotstudies.org/newsletters/news53.html ATA Article]

Wikipedia in French [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Claude_Flornoy]

Tarotpedia [http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Flornoy%2C_Jean-Claude]

Website

[http://www.tarot-history.com Tarot-History.com]

[http://www.letarot.com Le Tarot.com]