d00605

Boiardo deck accompanying the Boiardo poem

The deck had according to Boiardo's poem 4 unusual suits, Whips (for fear), Eyes (for jealousy), Vases (for hope) and Arrows (for love). It seems, that the deck (perhaps in his first version) was produced after Boiardo's death 1494, but also before the death of Viti in 1500 (Boiardo's commentator). Another possibility would be, that Viti, who studied in Ferrara, in 1489 was sent with Boiardo's poem as present to his home town Urbino to the marriage of Elizabetta Gonzaga (who was involved, which is evident by the commentary of Viti).

6 cards:

Knight (Cavallo) of Vases

Page (Fante) of Arrows

The author Kwaw collected to the presented deck:

"In an article appearing in THE JOURNAL OF THE PLAYING-CARD SOCIETY [Vol. I, No. 1 ISSN 0305-2133 August, 1972] under the title "A CHOICE COLLECTION OF PLAYING-CARDS" Sylvia Mann reported :
'On the 24th November, 1971, under the description given above, there took place at Christie's in London the sale of what must be considered one of the most remarkable collections of playing-cards ever to come on the open market. The property of the late Captain H. E. Rimington Wilson, the collection cannot have exceeded one hundred packs, but almost every one was of the highest quality or interest, and many, so far as the present writer is aware, were previously unrecorded.'
Among the items on sales was:
'310. 44 cards of a 15th-century Italian pack with fanciful suit-marks (though based on Italian ones) of Cups, Arrows, Eyes and Whips, Merlin calls this pack the "Jeu des Passions" as each suit represents a passion. Although the exact composition of the pack was not absolutely clear, each suit had four court cards (King, Queen, Cavalier and Jack) and ten numerals, all cards bearing three lines of verse. Merlin mentions the pack being [end of page 12] acquired in 1861 for 400 francs. In 1971 it made 350 gns.
' More data is given in the article."

(collected by autorbis)