The Tarot of the Bohemians, The Most Ancient Book in the World (Absolute Key to Occult Science)

Second edition, revised.  xxviii, 356, 18pp, with a tissue-guarded engraved frontispiece and diagrams and illustrations in text.  Blue buckram cloth-covered boards, extensively decorated with gilt design on upper panel, gilt lettering front and spine.  Top edge gilt.  8vo.  Cloth is a little worn, gently rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, minor bumped affecting extreme lower leading corner, a few small indentations on edges.  Slightly skewed.  Fore and lower text block edges a little toned.  Free endpapers and tissue-guard toned, with some mild spotting all over endpapers else internally neat. clean, bright and tight. Described as a foundational, advanced text for serious Tarot students, Tarot for Bohemians was originally written by the French physician and occultist Gerard Encausse (died 1916) under his pen name, Papus.  It links the Marseilles Deck - a standard pattern of Italian-suited tarot cards popular in France from the 17th to 19th centuries - with Kabbalah, astrology and Hermeticism.  A E Waite, designer of the well-known Waite-Smith deck (also known as the Rider-Waite deck) provides the preface for this English language edition, connecting the French tarot tradition to his own work and providing a key for students for deeper esoteric research,