Kaplan's representation of Playing Card history "before 1370"
Stuart Kaplan Tarot Encyclopedia I became the most distributed book about Tarot history in the 80ies of last century. In the Internet discussions about Tarot contents (starting around 1996 with the development of Internet), which presented a qualitative jump of the theme, Stuart Kaplan's book was the best known work and mostly the general base for the participants. The following is only intended as an overview for orientation, single points should be discussed in detail.
To the theme "playing cards before 1370" Stuart Kaplan reflects in his subpoint Interpolation and Translation errors, p. 31/32.:
- Pipozzo di Sandro's Trattato del Governo" (1299)
- Das Guldin Spilfrom Ingold (reflects the year 1300)
- Synod of Würzburg (1329) - Mainz (1316)
- William de Guilleville's Le Pelerinaige de l'Homme" (reflects 1330)
- Renard le Contrefait (reflects 1341)
- Alphonse XI. and Guevara's Familiar Epistles (1342)
- Le Roman du Roi Meliadus de Leonnoy's (reflects latter half of 14th century)
- Historique et Cronique de Provence (reflects 1361)
- Magasin Pittoresque (reflects 1370 - 1374)
- Jehan de Saintre (reflects (1364 - 1380)
All sources are rejected in their value by Kaplan's article cause of various reasons (there are further notes of "errors" mentioned by Kaplan, which refer to later times)
In the same source Stuart Kaplan lists under the point Omissions ("Omissions from early writings support the theory that playing cards were not known at the time cited for other games"), p. 33/34:
- Ovid's Ars Amatoria (43 BC)
- Christian Church (generally)
- Sanskrit manuscripts (ancient)
- John of Salisbury (after 1110)
- Council of Worcester (1240)
- Town book of Augsburg (1275)
- Wardrobe Rolls of Eduard I (1278)
- Code of Nuremberg (1286 - 1299)
- Eleventh to Fourteeth-Century Romances
- Machau Confort d'Amy (1364)
- Petrach (died 13 74), Bocacchio (died 1375) and Chaucer (died 1400), no playing cards also in the Arabian nights, compiled in 15th century.
The entry from Bern 1367 (prohibition) is accepted by Kaplan I (p. 24). Kaplan presents the document at p. 25 as photo. In the time of Michael Dummett's book Game of Tarot, little later than Kaplan's work (1978), the validity of the entry is disputed between two specialists. Detlev Hoffmann in 1998 claims, that the entry is solidified and correctly dated for 1367.