Playing cards first entered Europe in the late 14th century with the Mamelukes of Egypt, with suits of Scimitars, Polo Sticks, Cups and Coins. These designs rapidly evolved into the basic 'Latin' suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also known as disks, and pentacles), which are still used in traditional Italian and Spanish decks.

All evidence indicates that the first tarot decks were created between 1410 and 1430 in either Milan, Ferrara, or Bologna, in northern Italy, when additional trump cards with allegorical illustrations were added to the more common four-suit decks that already existed. These new decks were originally called “carte da trionfi”, or "triumph cards." The first literary evidence of the existence of carte da trionfi is a written statement in the court records in Ferrara, in 1442. The oldest surviving Tarot cards are from 15 fragmented decks painted in the mid 15th century for the Visconti-Sforza family, the rulers of Milan.

When the tarot was first used for divination is not known, but no documented examples exist prior to the 18th century. However, divination using similar cards is in evidence as early as 1540; a book entitled The Oracles of Francesco Marcolino da Forli shows a simple method of divination using the coin suit of a regular playing card deck. Manuscripts from 1735 (The Square of Sevens) and 1750 (Pratesi Cartomancer) document rudimentary divinatory meanings for the cards of the tarot, as well as a system for laying out the cards. In 1765, Giacomo Casanova wrote in his diary that his Russian mistress frequently used a deck of playing cards for divination. In 1781 Antoine Court de Gébelin wrote a speculative history and a detailed system for using tarot for divination. Since the publication of this history, various explanations have been given for the origins of tarot, most of them of doubtful veracity. There is no evidence for any tarot cards prior to the hand-painted ones that were used by Italian nobles, though some esoteric schools place tarot's origin in Ancient Egypt, or Ancient India.

The reason the origin of the tarot cards was supposed to be Egypt probably started with the mistaken belief that gypsies, among the first to use the cards for divinatory purposes, were descendants of ancient Egypt (hence the name " Gypsy ").

The relationship between tarot cards and playing cards is well documented. Playing cards first appeared in Christian Europe some time before 1367, the date of the first documented evidence of their existence, a ban on their use, in Bern, Switzerland. Before this, cards had been used for several decades in Islamic Al Andalus . Early European sources describe a deck with typically 52 cards, like a modern deck with no jokers.

The 78-card tarot resulted from adding the Fool and 21 trumps to an early 56-card variant (14 cards per suit). A greater distribution of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be given from 1377 onwards. Tarot cards appear to have been developed some 40 years later, and they are mentioned in the surviving text of Martiano da Tortona.

Da Tortona's text is thought to have been written between 1418 and 1425, since in 1418 the confirmed painter Michelino da Besozzo returned to Milan, and Martiano da Tortona died in 1425. It cannot be proven that tarot cards did not exist earlier than this date, but it seems improbable as the Martiano da Tortona text was written at least 15 years earlier than other corroborating documents. Da Tortona describes a deck similar to tarot cards in many specific ways. What he describes is more a precursor to tarot than what we might think of as "real" tarot cards. For instance, his deck has only 16 trumps, its motifs are not comparable to common tarot cards (they are Greek gods) and the suits are four kinds of birds, not the common Italian suits. What makes da Tortona's deck similar to tarot cards is that these 16 cards are obviously regarded as trump cards in a card game; about 25 years later, a near-contemporary speaker, Jacopo Antonio Marcello, called them a ludus triumphorum, or "game winner". The letter in which Marcello uses this term has been documented and translated on the Internet.

Lebanese Tarot

The Lebanese Tarot sprang from the artist's love of her country, and desire to pass on the Lebanese tradition and folklore through her detailed paintings. The deck is majors only and has 22 luminous, realistically painted cards. By Caroline Mehlinger-Jawlakh

Rider Tarot, Waite Tarot, Waite-Smith Tarot

The Rider-Waite Tarot is a classic Tarot deck, perhaps the most well-known in the Western world. It is often called the first modern Tarot deck, as the cards drawn by Pamela Colman-Smith and commissioned by Waite were the first to use detailed pictures on the minor arcana cards. This is a differently-coloured version to the Original Rider-Waite Tarot.

H.R. Giger Tarot, Baphomet Tarot

The original Baphomet Tarot, also known as the H.R. Giger Tarot, has been reprinted in book and deck set. Fans of H. R. Giger's dark imaginings (like the aliens of the movie of the same name) will like this deck, but it may be difficult for others.

Tarot of Prague

The Tarot of Prague is a very beautiful Tarot, composed of collaged photographs of Prague's art and architecture. Suitable for readings, and for beginners, the Tarot of Prague is now a classic, and is highly recommended.