The tarot, [circa 1870-1885].

Autograph manuscript notes and translations from chiefly Italian sources on the subject of tarot probably compiled by Abner Doubleday, circa 1870-1886, including extensive discussion of tarot in relation to the Cabala

The volume includes material about tarot attributed to Alliette, Jean Belot, Thomas H. Burgoyne, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, Antoine Court de Gébelin, Éliphas Lévi, R. Palmer-Thomas, Moreau de Dammartin, M. Le C. de M. (Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, Comte de Mellet), Ramon Llull (cited as Raymond Lulli), Thomas Moore Johnson, Papus, Guillaume Postel (cited as William Postel), and Louis Claude de Saint-Martin, as well as extracts from the Journal of the Theosophical Society, which later became The Theosophist, and The Platonist

The volume includes astrological charts and a group of 78 hand-drawn and colored copies of Italian tarot cards, including examples made by Farinone Battista in Varallo

Typescript front matter tipped in the volume by Stuart R. Kaplan includes an index and page notes, and a description of the volume from Charles Hamilton, Auction No. 77, May 2, 1974, Lot 283, as well as a photocopy of an entry for Doubleday from Charles Lincoln Van Doren and Robert McHenry, Webster's American Biographies (Springfield, Mass: G. & C. Merriam Co, 1974).