Early Playing Cards Research

<table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td><a name="a"><b><font size="3" color="#0033ff" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">    A</font></b></a><a href="http://autorbis.net" target="_blank"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">UTORBIS.net </font></a> - <a href="http://trionfi.com" target="_blank"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">TRIONFI.com </font></a> </td> <td align="right"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial Narrow">created 2003 - 2006       </td> </tr></table><hr size="1" width="90%"> <table width="100%"><tr><td rowspan="2" width="30%" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#dddddd"> <h3>PLAYING CARDS</h3> <b><font size="+1">Very early references <br>     - 1370/80</font> <ul><br> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/90/">Introduction and list of Links</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/91/">Stuart Kaplan's list</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/92/">Huck Meyer's opinion</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/93/">Marseille 1337</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/95/">Playing Cards in Bohemia 1340 (?)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/94/">Old German/Swiss notes</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/21/">Early Paper Mills in Europe</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/01/">Early Prohibitions (- ca. 1420)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/02/">Other early Notes (- ca. 1420)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/22/">L. A. Mayer: Mamluk Playing Cards</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/96/">References Muslim World</a> </ul> <font size="+1">Germany</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/10/">Johannes of Rheinfelden 1377</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/20/">Early German Card producers</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/25/">German Decks (15th cent.)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/07/">Notes to Karnöffel, Keyserspiel </a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/c/05/">The Name Karnöffel </a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/06/">(Imperatori decks / Ferrara)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/mi/00/" target="_blank">MEISTER INGOLD</a> </ul> <font size="+1">France</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/03/">France and Burgund (14th/15th century)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/15/">The Gringonneur Case</a> <LI><A HREF="http://trionfi.com/0/p/26/">Valentina Visconti and the French Court 1392 - 1397</A> </ul> <font size="+1">England</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/45/">Earliest reference in England in 1413</a> </ul> <font size="+1">Milan</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/08/">Prohibitions Filippo Maria Visconti</a> <li><a href="http://geocities.com/research_of_tarot/doc08.html" target="_blank">Vita di Filippo Visconti</a><br><br> </ul> <font size="+1">Ferrara</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/04/">Notes about Printing (Ferrara)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/06/">Notes about Imperatori decks</a> <br>    in Ferrara (1423 - 1452) </ul> <font size="+1">Florence</font><br><ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/05/">Prohibition around Florence</a><br>    (1377 - ca. 1500) <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/14/">Conclusions about Florence </a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/09/">Notes about Minchiate </a> </ul> <font size="+1">Further Articles to <A HREF="http://trionfi.com/0/l/50/" target="_blank">CITIES</A></font><br><br> <font size="+1"><A HREF="http://trionfi.com/0/e/" target="_blank">TRIONFI DOCUMENTATION</A></font><br><br> <font size="+1">Further Articles <br>     and Conclusions </font><br>related partly also to the theme "Trionfi"<br><br> <ul> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/27/">Early Printing dates (in development)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/12/">Trionfi-Kids</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/13/">Trionfi and Church</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/18/">Count Parravicino 1903</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/25/">First appearance 5x14-theory 1974</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/23/">Early Notes to "Tarot" (provisional)</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/28/">Tarocchi appropriati</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/17/">Sermones de Ludo cum aliis<br> - Information</a><br><br> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/24/">Knights Orders</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/19/">Ronfa - Notes</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/16/">The Cardplaying Wheel</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/29/">Felix Fabri / Playing Card Notes</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/40/">Il Cortegiano / Castiglione</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/70/">Franco Pratesi: Bibliography</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/41/">Oldest Divination with Playing Cards</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/82/">Collection Playing habits</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/42/">5 Decks in Ambras Collection</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/89/">Unusual Tarocchi cards, described 1849</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/87/">Jehan Bresson, 4 Spanish Tarocchi 1570</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/43/">Vespasiano da Bisticci - gambling notes</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/44/">Connaisseur 1754 - Gambling Satire</a> <li><a href="http://trionfi.com/0/p/71/">Links to Playing Tarot/Tarock</a> </ul></b> </ul></td><td height="50" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#dddddd"> Playing Cards - Documents and Articles </td></tr><tr><td align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <H1>Unusual Tarocchi cards, described 1849 (Gentleman's Magazine)</H1> <P>The following passage is from the "Gentleman's Magazine", 1849. It describes a fragmentarious Tarocchi deck consisting of 19 cards (13 pips, six trumps), which is estimated by the author of being ca. 2 1/2 centuries old, so would be from ca. 1600. <BR> Well, if all this is true, than the trumps have curious numbers and it is difficult to compare it to any other known deck. The Magician I is very unusual, a Devil has the unusual number XIII, a Justice the number XVIII and the Hermit the number XX.</P> <P><A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=CIvPywz10HsC&pg=RA33-PA493&vq=tarot" target="_blank"><B>Gentleman's Magazine 1849, Jan. - June p. 493</b></a></P> <CENTER><TABLE BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" BORDER="1" CELLPADDING="10" WIDTH="90%"><TD> <P>"These cards are nineteen in number: thirteen being of the ordinary suits, and six Tarocchi. They are considerably larger than our own cards, measuring 5 inches in length by 2 inc. in width. Of the suits there are:</P> <P><B>Spade</B>, 6, 9.</P> <P><B>Coppe</B>, 3.</P> <P><B>Bastoni</B>, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. <BR> The 2 and 3 bear the letters I. A. being the initials of the maker's name.</P> <P><B>Danari</B>, 6, 10. <BR> These represent some of the real coins of the period, among others are English rose-noble.</P> <P>The six Tarocchi have their entire surface occupied by pictures, printed from wood blocks, and painted (by means of stencils) in various colours. They have no names inscribed; but, taking them in the order of the numeral's which they bear, the designs may be thus specified:</P> <P><B>I.</B> <BR> Time or Saturn, carrying a naked man by the hair of his head over mountains. This may be supposed to be Le Pendu of the modern Tarocchi, in which the man is hung by one foot, a design of which Mr. Chatto gives no explanation, excepting some absurd conjectures of Mons. Court de Gebelin, which are not worth transcribing.</P> <P><B>XIII.</B><BR> A winged and hoofed devil, marching in the attitude of an heraldic lion rampant. Il Diavolo is one of the usual modern Tarocehi. </P> <P><B>XIIII.</B><BR> A naked figure walking over a mound, or figure of the world, which is banded and ensigned with a cross, (as in the regalia of emperor and kings.) She holds at her back a red sail; and at the side are clouds and various puffing heads rcpresenting the Winds. This is evidently meant for Fortune; which in the ancient French set attributed to Gringonneur is represented as "standing on a circle which represents the world, and holding a globe in one hand, and in the other a sceptre." (Chatto, p. 197.) But in the modern Tarot the design adopted for this card is the old emblematic representation of the Wheel of Fortune, with four human figures, - the aspirant, the rising, the prosperous (on its summit), and the falling. </P> <P><B>XVIII. </B><BR> Justice, standing, a helmet on her head, a balance in her left hand. This emblematic figure occurs in the oldest Tarocchi, and is retained in the modern Tarot </P> <P><B>XX. </B><BR> A stooping old man, with a long beard, walking with a staff as high as himself. This no doubt L'Hermite of the ancient Tarot, still represented by the Hermit, also called the Capuchin. </P> <P>Such are the few Tarocchi of this hitherto undescribed pack which have been submitted to our notice; and, if <B>we judge correctly of their antiquity, it is probably not less than two centuries and a half, possibly rather more</B>. "</P> </TD> </TABLE> </CENTER> <BR> <br> The article speaks of six trumps, but in the description we find only five.<br><br> <B>(autorbis)</B> </BODY> </HTML></td></tr></table> <hr><br><br> <center><b><font size="1">Trionfi.com </b>has its focus on Tarot History and especially the origin of Tarot in 15th century, also the representation of about 100 000 Tarot and other playing cards in the Tarot Museum. <br><b>The Chapter "Playing Cards - Documents and Articles"</b> presents specific material to the situation of playing card development in late 14th and 15th century. <br> Author: when not otherwise specified, autorbis. Copyright: trionfi.com. 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