Database of Modern Tarot Art

Based on Adam McLean's Tarot Collection
This is the first systematic and exhaustive study of modern tarot art.
Version 4.7 October 26th 2015 - 2181 items.


Each tarot is shown as a single record card. The decks are in alphabetical order except for new provisional entries at the end which get sorted into the main list once the information has been checked.

The main database consists of a series of record cards which the user can page through one at a time, or search for individual items. I have now removed the separate sections for countries such as Canada, France, Spain, Australia and Italy as I have now implemented a new search engine which allows users to search for items only in a particular country, making these separate sections unnecessary.

I have added a number of new fields - amoung which are details of names of suits and court cards, numbering of the Fool, Roman or Arabic numbering, and so on. There is still much new data to be entered.

Eventually each record card will be indexed by the search engines so they can be found in a Google or other search engine, however, for some reason the search engines are not accessing the database. I may have to ask them individually to spider the folder.

After a bit of fiddling about I have made the pages swipable on an Android tablet.

GO TO THE DATABASE

My collection amounts to over 2600 items at present, so documenting these will take some time to complete. I now have a colleague inputing some of the information one day a week. One of the major tasks will be inputing in all my Japanese, Chinese and Taiwanese decks. There must be around 500 of these not yet entered into the database. This is difficult as I do not read Chinese or Japanese characters. I may have to employ someone with a knowledge of Chinese and Japanese to assist me. I hope to be able to substantially complete this database in 2016.

The descriptions presented here on the website are only one view of the database. It exists in a formatted database structure on my computer which will enable me, once the full set of information is entered, to create statistics on modern tarot. The individual record card metaphor seems a good way to present the information. These pages are created from the actual database on my computer, using a rather complex program, which I have to code to write the individual HTML pages. There are some limitations as to what can be done but I will try and add new features or present the data in a different layout, but this does take time coding and debugging the program. I would like, eventually, to find a way of making the pages work using features such as swipe in Android and other touch screen tablets. The database looks really good on my Samsung Galaxy NotePro tablet, and I wish I could just swipe through the pages, however, this has not yet been implemented in HTML code. As soon as it is, I will try and incorporate it into the code.
The descriptions and entries are for the most part self-explanatory. The price indication codes each tarot with a letter A - D.
A = Rare expensive tarot over 200 US dollars.
B = Limited editions and obscure out of print tarot 100-200 US dollars.
C = Well distributed tarot 40-100 US dollars.
D = Available mass market tarot less than 40 US dollars.
These are merely rough indications, based on the price I paid and my knowledge of the tarot market.

This database is a work in progress and consequently there are many typos as well as some missing data, descriptions and images. I will correct these as I add new material. There are currently a small number of decks with no images - this will be rectified later.

I would welcome any corrections, should I have made some error in entering information.


Please note: all the text and research information is ©Adam McLean.
It is my own intellectual property and I do not allow this to be copied and used by others.
This database represents years of collecting and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of my research,
documentation, keyboarding and formatting the information I have gathered.
Copying this information onto another site is a straight theft of my intellectual property.
For each of these entries I have had the actual tarot in my own hands.
This is not a cut and paste job from images and descriptions on the Internet, but original primary research.
It is, of course, immediately recognisable and I will legally pursue anyone appropriating it.