Etteilla

Etteilla, an anagram of Jean-Baptiste Alliette (1738-1791), was a Parisian cartomancer regarded as the first professional tarot reader. From 1783 he published treatises devoted to reading the tarot, adopted Court de Gébelin's theory of an Egyptian origin and, around 1789, had a reordered tarot printed that was designed specifically for divination. He was one of the first to give distinct meanings to upright and reversed cards.