The Sun, plate 44 from Planets and Spheres

These so-called tarot cards were probably used as teaching tools—pamphlets or sets of flashcards— for noblemen or students. They instilled the traditional hierarchies of society and philosophy in five ascending series: Ranks and Conditions of Men, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Planets and Spheres, and Genii and Virtues. Artists also reused figures from these engravings in their art. The tarrochi are sometimes found bound as books, reinforcing their educational content. The Sun, with its curious conjunction of the zodiac’s Scorpio and a falling child, comes from the series Planets and Spheres