Playing the Fool

IN 1927, the German historian and cultural scientist Aby Warburg (1866–1929) began work on his legendary Bilderatlas Mnemosyne, a meticulous grouping of photographs pinned to 69 wooden panels that explored the recurrence of ancient symbols throughout history. Few academics took an interest in the obscure and superstitious world of tarot cards, but Warburg devoted a whole panel to it. Rescued from Nazi Germany in 1933, his library and photographic collection now reside at the University of London’s Warburg Institute, a leading repository of tarot history, preserving the story of a much-misunderstood game that is as edifying as it is mysterious. Highlights of the collection, together with international loans, feature in ‘Tarot—Origins & Afterlives’, the latest exhibition at the refurbished Warburg Institute in Bloomsbury, WC1, which reopened its neo-Georgian building in October…