4th November 1469: "A Federico di Bonacossi per pagamento de uno paro de carte da triomphi ... Lira Marchesana 11.04" (11 Lira Marchesana 4 Soldi paid to Federico di Bonacossi for delivering a pack of Trionfi cards.
Ortalli ("Prince of the playing cards") came to the conclusion, that after 1463 production notes of Trionfi were missing in Ferrara for longer time. Ross Caldwell found the note (October 2009) in Atti e memorie delle Rr. Deputazioni di storia patria per le provincie Modenesi e Parmensi, volume 2, by Carlo Vincenzi (1864) and in corresponding texts of the same time (for instance Documenti ed illustrazioni risguar danti la storia artistica ferrarese by Luigi Napoleone Cittadella (1468), p. 12 ff., which researches the context of the mentioned artist, who belongs to a family of painters (the father Ettore is already an artist, later other artists follow). Much later a family with the title Conte and the same name lived in Ferrara in the "Palazzo Bonacossi" for 2 1/2 centuries - the Palazzo still exists, the first part had been build just in the year 1469, but belonged in this time to another owner. Nowadays the Palazzo contains the Musei d'Arte Antica e Museo della Cattedrale.
At the same page we found a second note of interest for playing card research:
25th December 1469: "A M. Gurono suo fratello per zugare a ronfa. A Figarolo. .... Lira Marchesana 16.16" (16 Lira Marchesana and 16 Soldo are paid to M Gurono his brother for gambling [the game] Ronfa. In Figarolo.)
Gurone d'Este has been an abbot of Adria and in his late life also bishop of Viterbo and a half brother of duke Borso d'Este (compare the family of Niccolo d'Este). Figarolo (now Ficorolo) is a Ferrarese location in duke Borso's time at the Venetian border, near to the river Po - the region fell to Venetia after the Ferrarese war in 1483/84. Duke Borso had some building activity in his time in Ficarolo - the Este possession in Ficarolo is said to have been used for traveller visits. The date 25th of December signals, that the d'Este family or a part of it are willing to spend some time (likely 25th of December - 2nd of January) in Ficarolo connected to the traditional gambling activities in this special week, as they're also known of the Christmas celebrations of Galeazzo Maria Sforza in the biography of Lubkin.
It seems, that the entry is the second oldest document about the game Ronfa in Italy. The first appears in the allowance of trionfi, ronfa and criche in Florence 1463. Compare our collection to the game Ronfa.
(autorbis)
Palazzo Bonacossi