Hundreds of decks have passed through my hands during my fifty years with tarot; and I’ve been reading with a few that I really love for decades. But I never became instantly infatuated with a deck until I unboxed the 1709 Pierre Madenié in 2013. This was the first deck I ever purchased from Yves Reynaud, and I was thrilled to own such a faithful reproduction of an historic deck. Adding to the magic, when I opened the package from France, something tiny zipped through the air in front of my face and brushed my cheek. I was sure a tarot fairy had been set free from the package. I knew instantly that this was no ordinary deck!
I never understood what people meant by “bonding” with a deck. How do you bond with printed cardboard? But right from the start, I sensed that something uncanny was speaking to me when I laid out the Madenié cards (maybe that tarot fairy?) Madenié quickly became my preferred reading deck; and a decade later, it’s still my go-to companion.
I’m always intrigued by the first and original of anything. At the time I purchased the deck, Madenié was thought to be the first known TdM type II. We now know that Chosson was most likely printed a few decades earlier. But that hasn’t undermined my enthusiasm.
In fact, I’m even more in love with the deck because Marco Benedetti has just issued a beautiful facsimile of the original from the Musée Nationale Suisse in Zurich. The colors, printed on cream art paper, are rich, deep, and pleasantly soft. The cards are flexible, light, and a dream to shuffle. The deck comes in a sturdy telescope box (inner box shown here).
Madenié’s deck is one of the best-quality wood block TdMs to survive from the eighteenth century. The stenciling can be rather sloppy on these historic decks. But the Madenié workshop did an excellent job lining up the stencils and keeping the ink inside the lines, with a few exceptions where blobs of ink landed outside the shape. The beautifully carved faces with their pleasant expressions make this deck stand out from the crowd.
Who was Pierre Madenié?
Madenié was born in 1678 in a small town near Lyon, France. He was orphaned by age thirteen, so he moved to Dijon to live with his maternal uncle, a card maker named César Balay. In the late 17th century, card makers began migrating to Dijon from other cities. As a young man, Balay joined the migration, moving from his hometown near Lyon to Dijon.
Balay’s nephew must have learned the trade very quickly, since he was an established card maker by the early 1700s. Madenié married in 1703 and eventually had nine children. He died in Dijon in 1741, age 63.
The initials PM appear on the Chariot where the block carver’s initials are usually found. It would be very unusual for a card maker to carve his own blocks, as it’s a specialized skill. This deck is unique in having the carver’s name on the base of the Ace of Cups, where it says Pater Graveur a Dijon. His initials “CP” are tucked into the Two of Cups next to the flower toward the bottom of the central stem. The card maker Claude Pater (1682-1724) appears often in Dijon’s records. César Balay and his wife, and Pierre Madenié and his wife, are listed several times as godparents to Pater’s children. In 1725, Pater’s widow remarried with Pierre Madenié as witness. It seems the card makers of Dijon were one big family, as their names appear repeatedly as witnesses on each other’s legal documents.
I just counted, and I seem to be the happy owner of 28 Type II TdM decks. (Do I need professional help to deal with my addiction?) I never have to agonize over which deck to read with on any given day. I’ve stayed loyal to Pierre Madenié for over a decade, and that’s not going to change any time soon.
Biographical information comes from Chronique des Cartiers de Dijon entre 1680 et 1760 by Jean-Luc Lanez, 2018. I failed to note who posted a link to the PDF on Facebook. I’m very grateful to them, and would be happy if they came forward to be recognized.
See the comments below for a link to the original PDF.
All cards shown here are from Marco Benedetti’s facsimile deck.
Marco Benedetti’s facebook page with information on all of his decks:
https://www.facebook.com/Marco.C.Benedetti.Tarot
Reynaud has done three versions of his facsimile. Here is a review of his first two editions:
https://tarot-heritage.com/2017/02/27/the-two-madenie-decks/#more-1520