About The Book of Trades Tarot (Jost Amman – 1588)
Jost Amman was a prolific Swiss-German Renaissance artist celebrated chiefly for the woodcuts he produced for book illustrations. This 54 card deck features all of the minor arcana and two major arcana or joker cards (Love and Music). This satirical deck first appeared in a book called the Book of Trades. Some of the images had appeared in books published prior to this time, along with moralising verses beneath each card.
The suits are Books, Printer's Ink Pads, Wine Jugs, and Beer Cups. For the purposes of this tarot divination, Books correspond to Swords, Ink Pads to Wands, Wine Jugs to Coins, and Beer Cups to Cups.
The deck is arranged in a non-standard fashion for a tarot, but in the traditional way for German playing cards. There are no Pages, Knights or Queens, instead an Unter ("under", eleventh) card with the suit sign at the bottom, and an Ober ("over", twelfth) card with the suit sign at the top. A Lady appears on the card corresponding to ten, and the King takes up position on horseback on card thirteen.