textual errors in the footnotes

Some of these errors are translation errors in both the 1985 and the 2012 editions. Others are new errors introduced into the 2012 edition from incorrect changes in the page numbers between editions. The numbers had to be changed, but whoever did it was not consistently good at the job.

First, the title of the section is translated incorrectly, in both the 1985 and 2012. The French title is “Notes”, and indeed that is what they are, and not a hard word to translate. In the English versions, the title is “References”. Some of the footnotes are references, but most are not.

In the French reprint, the footnotes are also in the back of the book, as opposed to the bottom of the page where they were in the original. But the French reprint, unlike the English, gives the page number for that footnote in the text. That has been omitted from both English versions, making it difficult to refer back to the text unless one has read the footnote while in the course of reading that very page of the text. Instead, the English versions simply number the footnotes consecutively.

In footnote 2, reference is made to a writer named, in the original, "Goethe". The name appears as “Gothe” in the English versions.

Footnote 21 says that the crayfish on card 18 is red “to indicate its effrey colour”. I cannot find "effrey" in a dictionary, even the OED. The last two words in the French are “caractère igné”, meaning “fiery character”, which fits what Wirth says about the crayfish in the text:

The crayfish of the Tarot is red, not because it is cooked, but rather, because of the inner fire that makes it deploy in ceaseless activity to fulfill its mission of salubrity..

Footnote 22 in the 2012 refers us to pages 24 and 25 for more information on the “Baldini cards”. The correct reference is page 8.

Footnote 27 speaks of the "‘light’ through which the occultist swears". The preposition in French is “par”, meaning “by”.

Footnote 28, in both English versions, leaves out Wirth’s suggestion that we go to a certain other page of the text. In the 2012 edition, that would be page 45. In the 1985, it would be p. 49.

Footnote 31 refers us to pp. 76-78. That should be, in the 2012, pp. 45-46.

Footnote 53 speaks of the “Prince of the World” and refers us to p. 75. The French is “ce Monde”, so “this World”. The reference in the 2012 edition should be to p. 70.

Footnote 58 misspells “femininity” as “feminity”.

Footnote 64 speaks of “a park of sterile tree with lush foliage”, an image from Goethe, spelled correctly. But the French has “arbres”, i.e. “trees”, which is surely right.