Lenormand, Marie Anne, clairvoyante and card reader (1772-1843). Autograph signature ("M. A. Le Normand")on the loose title-page of her book, "Mémoires historiques et secrets de l'Impératrice Joséphine".

No place, [ca. 1820].

8vo. 1 p.

 1,500.00

Born into a family of merchants, Marie Anne Lenormand was educated by nuns in a Benedictine convent school in her native Alençon, but was expelled because of her penchant for fortune telling. In the 1790s, together with one Madame Gilbert, she ran a "fortune-telling bureau". She was arrested and subsequently released by the Committee of Public Safety, which increased her fame enormously, and soon had numerous clients from all walks of life. A celebrity of the Napoleonic era, she was consulted by the French Empress Joséphine as well as by Russian Tsar Alexander I. In France, Lenormand is regarded as the greatest cartomancer of all time; the fortune-telling cards known as "Lenormand cards" are named after her, though she did not use them herself.

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