Prohibition Theory
Card Playing prohibited, Trionfi allowed

Documents

In October 1441, in time parallel to the marriage of Bianca Maria and Francesco Sforza, the magistrate of Venice answered to "a petition from the fellowship of painters at Venice, who claimed   that card making had fallen into total decay in Venice because great quantities of playing cards and colored printed figures were being imported." (Kaplan I, p. 26) with an import prohibition.

Gherardo Ortalli, p. 199, comments: ".... we see that card making was a far from negligible activity. The authorities began to levy specific duties on the imports and sales of packs of cards. The manufacturers who, mixing the sacred and profane, often printed both playing cards and holy pictures began to unite to defend their common interests in the old logic of the guilds. The authoities had to take into account the needs in this sector of production to favour local manufacturers. In October 1441 the Venetian Senate agreed to the demands of local producers and banned the import of "carte da zugar o figure", playing cards or figures either printed or painted abroad. This protectionist measure was probably intended to combat the invasion of German products, but ultimately could do little in the face of overwhelming market forces."

Franco Pratesi notes about an entry from the 10th of december 1450 in Florence: "1450 saw the first list of permitted games. They were few but the names are important: dritta, vinciperdi, trionfo and trenta . The inclusion of trionfo is of particular interest. That inclusion means, that trionfo had taken an traditional character ...."

1488 in Brescia, Italy, a prohibition of games of chance, " buschatia ", defined as "omnis ludus taxillorum et cartarum exceptis ludis tabularum et rectis ludis triumphorum et scachorum" is done, thus excluding backgammon, chess, and triumphs. Similar prohibitions, also excluding Trionfi, appear in probably coordinated action in Salo at the Gardasee (1489) and Bergamo (1491) (Dummett, Game of Tarot, p. 98.)
Brescia, Salo and Bergamo, near in distance to each other, are all in Northern Italy near to the German playing card centers. 

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The Prohibition Theory:

We know, that in 1441 in Venice it became necessary to protect Venetian  card producers against cheap playing card imports - probably from Germany (German producers were leading in printing techniques and could produce cheaper). A strategy of defending against these imports might have been to specialise in inventing "Italian decks", so "card playing was forbidden", but playing cards with Italian decks (or decks from Venice) was allowed (only in the theory, there is not enough evidence to state anything like that).
As German card producers imitated Italian decks and suits probably with the plan to export these decks (examples of this are known from later times), it was hard to decide for any contolling official, whether a deck was imported or not. So it was started to specialise the decks: with heraldic devices and finally with Trionfi cards (hypothetical idea of the prohibition theory). So we get from 1450 in Florence the information, that Trionfi are allowed, but card playing stayed prohibited (although with a Trionfi deck you could play any card game, that you desired, and from 1456 by the Ferarese jurist Ugo Trotti we know, that various plays were done with the Trionfi deck), and from other cities we do know, that they followed in their laws this specification: Trionfi were allowed, but card playing was prohibited (Brescia, Salo and Bergamo). Later on in card history tax stamps were invented, either to protect the homeland production but also to get some income for the government.     
As Venice was a center of trade, it might be, that the problem to protect against imports occured here for the first time. The Trionfi specification might have happened here in first hand as a protection measurement, Ferrara - near to Venice - might have followed the practice in second place. So - perhaps - Ferrara got Trionfi-decks from Venice, already before February 1442.

The statute of Venice - October 1441 - and the first note about Trionfi in Ferrara - February 1442 - are in time very  near to each other, only three monthes difference.

Prohibition of card playing and allowance of Trionfi are a logical contradiction - the Trionfi included the normal card-game, with that card deck any card-game could be played.






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