Lists of Early Florentine Cardmakers (- 1460)
composed by Lothar Teikemeier, last updated 06.12.2012

Documents in Ferrara (about imports from Florence) (Source 01)

• unknown cardmaker (1423) (8 very expensive Imperatori cards)
  
• Ser Ristoro e compagni (1434 - "sette fiorini d’oro" for 2 decks)

Zdekauer note (Source 02)

• (1427) Antonio di Luca. Makes naibi. 42 years old, born in 1385.
  
• (1430) Antonio di Giovanni di Ser Francesco, naibmaker. 33 years old. Born in 1397. It says: Find of me (?) so many printing plates for cards and saints, and other things necessary for my profession<.
  
• (1446). Jacopo di Poggino, card painter. 48 years old. Born in 1398. (special article)

Jacobsen list (finishing years are last sign of activity) (Source 03)

• Baldo di Piero di Antonio di Baldo (1425-&gt;1458)
  
• Donnino di Giovanni di Francesco (1370-&gt;1447)
  
• Filippo di Marco di Simone (1435-&gt;1458) (special article)
  
• Francesco di Gabriello di Nuccio
  
• Francesco di Piero (c1360-&gt;1410)
  
• Franco di Piero (1364-&gt;1433)
  
• Giovanni di Donnino di Giovanni (1405-&gt;1433)
  
• Giovanni di Franco di Piero (1426-1448)
  
• Iacopo di Poggino di Luca «Paparello» (1398-1481) (special article)
  
• Piero di Donnino di Giovanni (1413-&gt;1447)

Silk dealer (acquire lists - 1431-1460) (Source 04)

---- intensive activities by:
• Antonio di Dino (Trionfi decks) (special article)
  
• Niccolò di Calvello (special article)
  
• Antonio di Simone (special article)
  
• Matteo Ballerini (Trionfi decks) (special article)
  
• Giovanni di Domenico (Trionfi decks) (special article)
  
• Manetto d'Agnolo merciai (supplier - Trionfi decks) (special article)
  ---- much less intensive activities by:
• Grosso (1432)(4 actions)
  
• Luigi rivenditore (1432)(6)
  
• uno fanciullo (1432) (3)
  
• Simone di Ser Antonio Fazi (1437) (4 decks for 20 Soldi)
  
• Antonio Trinchaglia[?] (1442 + 1453) (6)
  
• Meo di Ghoro (1442) (7)
  
• Foci(?) merciaio (1442) (1)
  
• Francesco (1443) (1)
  
• Una donna (1443) (1)
  
• Giusto di Giovanni dipintore (1443) (1)
  
• Francesco che fa i naibi (1443) (1)
  
• Christofono di Meo di Francesco fa i naibi (1445) (1)
  
• uno fanciullo (1449) (1)
  
• uno dipintore (1452) (1) (12 Trionfi decks)
  
• Antonio vochate il Chico(?) dipintore (1452) (1) (13 Trionfi decks)
  
• Antonio dipintore tra forzenai (1453) (1) (12 Trionfi decks)
  
• Francescho dipintore (1453) (1)
  
• Francescho di Nicholo dipintore (1453) (1)
  
• Cetina(?) fa i naibi (1453) (1) (12 Trionfi decks)
  
• uno dipintore (1455) (1) (12 Trionfi decks)

Silk dealer (sale list 1439-1455) (Source 05)

• Antonio di Dino (1439 + 1445 + 1447) (3) (special article)
  
• Antonio di Simone (1447 + 1451) (3) (special article)
  
• Matteo Ballerini (1454) (1) (special article)
  
• Antonio (possibly identical to Antonio di Dino) (1440 + 1445) (9) (special article)
  
• Paparello (Iacopo di Poggino di Luca) (1454) (2) (special article)
  
• Piero Piccino (1440 + 1451)(9)
  
• It is possible that another maker is mentioned, Cinchaglie(?) (1)

Lapini family (1415-1422 + 1453-1455) (Source 06)

• Antonio (?) (1415) (6) (cheap decks)
  
• Antonio di Francesco (1415) (4) (cheap decks ?)
  
• Piero di Antonio (1415-1418) (21) (7 decks for 20 Soldi)
  
• Antonio di Dino (1453-1454) (4) (Trionfi) (special article)
  
• de la Lisa(?) (supplier) (1453) (1)
  
• Pagholo Corsellini merciaio (supplier)(1454)(1)

Puri family (1447-1449) (Source 07)

• Giovanni di San Giovanni (Lo Scheggia) (1447-1448) (3) (special article)
  
• Paparello (expensive Chorone decks) (2-4)(special article)
  
• (not readable name) (1448) (1)

Bartolomeo di Paholo Seragli and business of Filippo di Marco (Source 08)

• Filippo di Marco (1453-1458 + 1463; made Trionfi decks) (special article)
  
• Giovanni di Domenico (1455; made earlier Trionfi decks for silk dealers) (special article)
  
• Benedetto di Antonio Spigliati (1463) (special article)

Double Appearances

• Jacopo di Poggino (Zdekauer) = Iacopo di Poggino di Luca «Paparello» (1398-1481) (Jacobsen list) = Paparello (Lapini and silk dealer sales)
• Filippo di Marco di Simone (1435-&gt;1458) (Jacobsen) = Filippo di Marco (Seragli list)
• Francesco di Piero (c1360-&gt;1410)(Jacobsen) possibly = Franco di Piero (1364-&gt;1433) (also Jacobsen)
  
• Antonio di Dino (at silk dealer acquire list and silk dealer sales list and Lapini list), possibly identical to "Antonio" (silk dealer acquire list)
• Antonio di Simone appears at silk dealer acquire list and silk dealer sales list.
• Matteo Ballerini appears at silk dealer acquire list and silk dealer sales list. Franco Pratesi comments: "Matteo is indicated in a rather confusing way, more often as Matteo di Bartolomeo or Matteo Ballerini. These names could already correspond to two different makers, and further ones might be present when we find Francesco as father’s name. I am nevertheless fully persuaded that we are in the presence of a single maker, variously mentioned, even if we are not accustomed to find anyone indicated as son either of Francesco or of Bartolomeo."
• Giovanni di Domenico appears at silk dealer acquire list and at the Seragli list.
• Francesco (active 1443) might be "Francesco che fa i naibi" (active 1443) at the silk dealer acquire list.
• Francescho dipintore (active 1453) might be "Francescho di Nicholo dipintore" (active 1453) at the silk dealer acquire list.
• Antonio vochate il Chico (?) dipintore (active 1452) might be Antonio dipintore tra forzenai (active 1453) at the silk dealer acquire list.
• "Uno fanciullo" (4x), "uno dipintore" (4x), "una donna" (1x) (all at silk dealer acquire list) naturally offer not much possibilities for an identification.

Assumed Relationships

• Giovanni di Franco di Piero (1426-1448) is possibly son of Francesco di Piero (c1360-&gt;1410), who is possibly = Franco di Piero (1364-&gt;1433). Giovanni di Donnino di Giovanni and Piero di Donnino di Giovanni should be sons of Donnino di Giovanni di Francesco (all at the Jacobsen list)
• Antonio di Simone (silk dealer lists) might be the son of Simone di Ser Antonio Fazi (Ferrara list)

Imperatori cards 1423

First Note 1423 - of great importance

Expensive cards 1434 imported to Ferrara from Florence

Zdekauer's note about Florentine cardmakers

Florentine painters of playing cards

Jacobsen deals with the painters active in Florence in early Renaissance and divides them according to their main activity. It appears that many specialised sectors of the handicraft existed, even if one can easily imagine that most painters could be active at the same time in various of these sectors. Understandably, painters of playing cards were not among the most renowned artists of the time, but we can find there specialisations that can be even more unexpected, such as have been for me those of painters of arms or of tall church candles.
As for the painters of our specific interest we find on page 485 of the book the following complete list, to which I add taken from the same book their dates of birth and, when we do not know the year of their death, the last date in which they are found still alive.

• Baldo di Piero di Antonio di Baldo (1425->1458)
• Donnino di Giovanni di Francesco (1370->1447)
• Filippo di Marco di Simone (1435->1458)
• Francesco di Gabriello di Nuccio
• Francesco di Piero (c1360->1410)
• Franco di Piero (1364->1433)
• Giovanni di Donnino di Giovanni (1405->1433)
• Giovanni di Franco di Piero (1426-1448)
• Iacopo di Poggino di Luca «Paparello» (1398-1481)
• Piero di Donnino di Giovanni (1413->1447)

I am certain that a few names can be added to this list, to begin with those already found by Zdekauer and/or Kristeller more than a century ago. For instance, Antonio di Luca, present in Catasto 1427; Antonio di Giovanni di Ser Francesco, who declared the possession of woodblocks in Catasto 1430; moreover, Benedetto di Antonio Spigliati, who is introduced by Jacobsen himself (see below) but absent in the list, because his activity is concentrated after the time interval studied.
It is likely that some further names can be soon added to the list. In particular, it is evident, as remarked by Jacobsen too, that part of these names can be regrouped into families, in which the sons first worked together with their father and then took his place in the job. Searching further along family members may probably provide further names.
However, I never found a list as long as Jacobsen’s one in my studies on this topic. For all these artists, Jacobsen provides additional information, mainly family data derived from Catasto, which were their estates and possessions, how was their family composed, and so on.
The last pages of the book are dedicated to schematic maps of Florence in various years, with marked the locations where painters lived and had their workshops. On the whole, in this book we find a lot of information collected together that may induce me to make another "step backward" later on, in order to recover further essential data of possible interest.
Now, I wish to halt my attention on a very particular case, involving painter Filippo di Marco, the maker of the triumphs documented in Cambini account books(1), till recently practically unknown to card historians.

2.1 From book 12791 – Entrata e Uscita A

This book(7) seems to be the first of a series of three similar books, but actually is of a different kind. Its contents are actually various: initially we have about thirty leaves of receipts, then four leaves beginning with number 25 with entries of the same kind as the following books, then many further pages of expenses for production, and similar matters. In other words, this whole book is interesting for us just due to its leaves 25 to 29, and it is from there that I have deduced the following table.

The corresponding dates are earlier than the limits indicated for the book and also earlier than most of the other records that I could study up to now - even the suppliers are not the same as we find later on. Luigi rivenditore certainly was not a cardmaker, but just a small retailer. Grosso[?] is thus the only maker recorded here; we have not yet encountered him elsewhere, and even his name, or nickname, is uncertain. Uno fanciullo, a boy, as a supplier of goods, is a rather frequent occurrence; unfortunately for us, any such indication does not help to trace the makers of the products.
The last entry corresponds to a purchase of four packs of naibi from Simone di Ser Antonio Fazi; his profession is not indicated, but we can assume him to be a cardmaker. It is unavoidable for us to connect him with Antonio di Simone, maybe his son, whom we find later on as a maker of expensive cards. Important is that we find here his family name too, and it has been possible to find him in Catasto 1427, the known series of books with much information on Florentine families.(8) I could read there that he was 33 and lived together with his wife, 25, and a third person; I was certain to find his child Antonio di Simone recorded together with his parents - unfortunately for us (and maybe for him) the third person of the family was instead by then... his mother-in-law.

3.5 Minor suppliers

a. Antonio Trinchaglia[?]
This is one of the many Florentine cardmakers, "che fa i naibi", with name Antonio. He may coincide with one or more of the other makers found here and there under the same name. The name of Trinchaglia, possibly a nickname, I could not read with certainty.

b. Meo di Ghoro
Meo di Ghoro che fa i naibi is a cardmaker that supplies naibi to the silk-dealers only for a few months of 1442. I could not find his products even in other stores that I have "visited" up to now. His prices were in the high range, comparable to those of Antonio di Simone, who was apparently preferred as a regular supplier – starting from about the same time.

d. Various suppliers
Sometimes we find cards from other suppliers, different from the "usual" cardmakers. Also a mercer (as typically Manetto d’Agnolo) could sometimes pay part of his debts with playing cards that he had acquired from elsewhere.

(a) The total recorded is L.18s.6. which would give 13s.* as average value for the three different packs. I could not find how to convincingly divide it into the three parts mentioned. Assuming 25s. for trionfi the average for grandi and mezzani would be too high at 11,08s*; more likely appear 40s., and 8,58s.*, respectively.
(b) these cards are indicated as by Paparello.

In a few cases, we find recorded "un dipintore", a painter, who evidently had some reason (or the silk-dealers had) not to record his name in the account books. In other cases, we find "un fanciullo", a boy, or "una donna" a woman; these are not exceptional entries in the books: on the contrary, it is a frequent occurrence that of "un viandante", a wayfarer, "un forestiero", a foreigner, "un amico", a friend, or similar attributes for suppliers, who are recorded in an anonymous way.

List of Playing Card Sales 1439 - 1454
(Silk trader Lorenzo di Bartolo and Matteo di Zanobi)

List of Abbreviations

(?) uncertain spelling of the previous word.
* price for single packs, deduced from the total price indicated as agreed upon.
<> the word inside can be read, but appears as deleted
ANC Ancona
ADB Antonio di Brunetto, see Purchasers ADD Antonio di Dino, see Makers
ADS Antonio di Simone, see Makers
ANB Antonio di Beltramo, see Purchasers ANT Antonio, see Makers
BER Bernardo, see Purchasers
CHA naibi recorded as charte
CIN Cinchaglie(?), see Makers
DOP doppi
DOR dorati, messi a oro
FIE fiera de la Vernia
FIN fini
FLO Florence
FOR a forma
GER Geradho di Paghole, see Purchasers
GIA Giannino d’Antonio, see Purchasers
GID Giovanni, see Purchasers
GIS Giannino di Simone, see Purchasers
GRA grandi
LAP Lapo, see Purchasers
LEO Leonardo, see Purchasers
MAB Matteo Ballerini, see Makers
MAG Martino di Giovanni, see Purchasers
MEZ mezzani
MIX more kinds together
MZL mezzanelli
NIA Nicholo di Nardo e Antonio di Iachopo merciai, see Purchasers
NIC Nicholao di Calvano, see Purchasers
PAP Paparello, see Makers
PCI piccini
PIA Pier Antonio di ser Barnaba, see Purchasers
PIC piccoli
PIE Piero, see Makers
PIG Piero di Giovanni, see Purchasers
PRA Prato
PRG Perugia
RIM rimboccati
ROB Ruberto di ser Bartolomeo, see Purchasers
SCE scempi
TRI trionfi
VEN Vinegia (Venice)

Notes and comments to the Tables

a - 1 pajo di najbi messi doro grandi per L.1s.13 dachordo.
b - 7 paia di najbi dj <pjero> piccjno per s.6 il paio.
c - 4 paja di najbj piccholi purghati(?) e 3 paja di najbj mezanj purghati(?) per s. quattordici d. otto tuttj.
d - In this case, the average price is for the 2+1 different packs.
e - The cost is twice the unitary price.
f - Apparently this entry has been corrected with the two following ones.
g - Charte di più ragioni, cards of several kinds, with total price agreed.
h - Trionfi da gugliare(?).
i - Dise per portare a Vinegia.
J - One reads 48s. a pair, but must be for a dozen.

Naibi sold in 1415-1422

The book in question is the first of the series, and in principle should cover the long time interval from 1415 to 1441. Unfortunately, its second part has been severely damaged and only the lower part of the pages can be read; moreover, the records themselves are there less detailed and complete. The handwriting is less fine than average, everywhere, but in the second half of the book it becomes hard to read. In conclusion, we should be satisfied, at least for the moment, with the few years for which I have been able to get the data of the following Table. As in other notes, the date is expressed as 14yymmdd and the price everywhere in soldi, with an approximation to hundredths of them, which did not correspond to any coin of the time (thus, for ex. s.8,67 should correctly be read as s.8d.8).

Abbreviations DOZ Dozzinali GRA Grandi MEZ Mezzani MZL mezzanelli PIC Piccoli VAN Vantag(g)iati Notes to the Table 1. Cards indicated as made by Antonio. 2. Purchaser: Cristofano d’Agnolo, merciaio in Lucca. 3. Purchaser: Agnolo di Bartolomeo. 4. Purchaser: Andrea di Giovanni, forzerinaio. 5. Purchaser: Leonardo, merciaio. 6. Purchaser: Lorenzo d’Antonio, speziale a La Lastra. 7. Purchaser: Francesco, merciaio. 8. Purchaser: Andrea Stefani, merciaio in Lucca. 9. Purchaser: Tommaso di Francesco, merciaio. 10. Purchaser: Daddo d’Antonio, merciaio.

As mentioned before, the main reason of satisfaction is that these years are so early for playing card production that these new data become particularly interesting. This is evident just at the very beginning: thinking for July 1415 of a single purchase of no less than 240 Naibi packs, to be further sold in Lucca, is probably much more than anybody could have expected. Apparently, a local production was necessary to support a similar trade, and not of the kind of the single cardmaker who little by little produced one pack after another in the course of several months, as we were ready to expect.
I have already discussed the various attributes associated with naibi.(6) Dozzinali, sold by the dozen, is a clear sign of a rather low quality. Here we have both normal packs, needing no attribute, or provided with that of Dozzinali, and Vantaggiati, those of a better quality.
The corresponding costs should indicate if the better quality was on its turn a standard quality at a superior level, or instead the Vantaggiati attribute was used for several nuances of increasingly higher quality. For these cards, the indication is somewhat confounded by the presence of different sizes too, with different prices on their turn. However, the impression deriving from the various prices present here is that several degrees of better qualities were present.
As for makers, we find only one of them mentioned here: the entries with packs made by him are only about one fourth of the total; however, the proportion greatly increases, up to about three fourths, if the number of packs is taken into account. His name, Antonio, is the most frequent among Florentine cardmakers. However, in 1415, several of the cardmakers with the same name, whom we find in records of later times, were too young or even not yet born.
Unexpected is that we do not find this maker associated with the more expensive cards; on the contrary, he seems to have been able to provide this seller with great quantities of standard cards, to be sold at the lowest prices of the market.
No pack of the Vantaggiati quality is indicated with its maker’s name. It is apparent however that these were supplied by at least a second maker, and a confirmation we find below, when dealing with packs acquired.
The purchasers are also interesting. They are always indicated with name and profession, sometimes with their place of activity too. The profession is often the same or similar to that of the suppliers, Merciai, let us use the literally corresponding term of mercers. We could thus be in the presence of a trade from gross-dealer to retailer, but – at least for our Naibi – it seems rather to have been a trade among retailers.
When the place is not indicated, we can assume it to be Florence. La Lastra I prefer to associate to a small village close to Florence in the North direction, rather than Lastra a Signa, farther to the West. Lucca is easy to identify, even if I had no idea of any such predominance for the destination of these sales. Among the purchasers, this big town is even represented by two different mercers.§ In particular, we can verify that these purchases occurred at short intervals of time - this implies that these cards were quickly sold out in Lucca.
Of course, these data are not enough to deduce that in other towns, of dimensions similar to Lucca, some local production of cheap cards had been established already. I would only deduce that any such activity was not yet developed in Lucca, whichever its cause could have been.
The prices that we find recorded are also of great interest, because we (or let me better write I, to be sure) had no idea how expensive Naibi packs could be at the time. Surprisingly enough, what we find here indicates that the production was already established at a level comparable to that of one or two generations afterwards. The Vantaggiati packs apparently corresponded to the Fini packs of later years; this is not surprising – surprising may be that their prices were of the same order. Even more unexpected is that Naibi Dozzinali were already produced at such low prices, as we know for later times, when the total production seems to have greatly increased.
At the time, there was some inflation in the cost of living and the same nominal prices for 1415 and 1450 did not have the same real value. However, the difference can be dealt with as corresponding to a second approximation, and an increased precision in comparing prices can be delayed to a following study.

Naibi acquired in 1415-1418

Information on cards acquired by our mercers is more difficult to detect in the book, because the corresponding trade is of a different kind. Packs are typically sold directly by cardmakers, who used them for "paying” some goods previously acquired in the store. This "payment” occurred, as usual, in successive installments, which could be recorded in the course of several months, as follows.

In the Table, a letter "t" after the soldi amount indicates that this is the total amount in soldi paid for an amount of packs that was not recorded. We are in the presence of two makers, Piero di Antonio (PDA) and Antonio di Francesco (ADF). The latter was likely the same indicated above as the maker of several packs sold in the store. We find only the record of the total price of his cards here, without any indication on unit prices. Piero di Antonio, on the other hand, appears as the supplier of the more expensive packs. Apart from one case of Naibi Mezzani recorded at 16s., all his packs were either Dozzinali, priced however as high as 8s., or Vantaggiati at 20. Apparently, he was not yet involved in any mass production, and the slow rate of his supplies may be a confirmation.
In other words, the two makers here encountered can be assumed as representative of two different ways of production: many packs of inferior quality or few high-class packs. Unfortunately, we do not have further data up to now, coming from any other cardmaker, already active in the town. We can however imagine that any additional maker, if already existing, could have employed one of the two mentioned kinds of production.

Naibi traded in 1453-1455

In the second book examined, we find a different and more familiar situation, corresponding to the middle of the 15th century. This is easier to compare with other account books already studied. However, there is something unusual in this book, which is thicker than similar ones, with more than three hundred leaves. It seems that the trade changed in the time of these records, with increasingly more entries concerning production rather than small trades of the shop. I have collected in the following Table all the packs that I could see in the book; namely, in its initial part.

* price for single packs, deduced from the total price and/or indicated as agreed upon. Abbreviations CAR Carte DOP Doppi GRA Grandi MEZ Mezzani PCI Piccini probably the same as Piccoli TRI Trionfi VAN Vantag(g)iati Notes to the Table 1. Maker: Antonio di Dino. 2. Attribute added: begli, or fine. 3. Supplier: de la Lisa(?). 4. Purchaser: Agnolo d’Antonio, active in San Gimignano. 5. Supplier: Pagholo Corsellini, merciaio. 6. Attribute added: I could not read it.

We can observe that low-quality packs still exist, but have rather become an exception among packs recorded here; only one dozen packs priced less than 2s. are present in the entries that I have seen in this store. Also at the other extreme we find a reduction of entries: the most expensive packs are a Naibi Doppi at 16s. and a Trionfi Grandi at 16s.6d. Other Naibi packs have prices in the middle range.
Interesting is also a case in which we see three Naibi packs acquired and sold on the same day, 27 December 1453: this immediately provides us with the information of the small mark-up adopted in this trade, less than 10%.
The appearance of Trionfi is remarkable; as it was easy to expect, they are priced higher than corresponding Naibi. However, we may note further details: apparently a price of 14s. had already become a standard price for them. These Trionfi seem generally to correspond to the Mezzani size, even though this is explicitly stated in just one occurrence; in the only one case in which we find the Grandi size indicated, the corresponding price only increases from 14s. to 16s.6d., still below that of several packs of Naibi Vantaggiati.

Naibi "fini"

There is not only one kind of playing cards indicated under the common denomination of naibi: we find more different packs than we could expect. Let us first conclude our discussion of the "simple" playing cards with a last point worth noting. At the time, one could acquire different kinds of cards, at different prices. When I was a child, a few years later than one could actually visit this merciaio store in person, we had two kinds of local cards, of course Fiorentine grandi, but also Toscane piccole, with exactly the same figures appearing on the cards. I did not imagine that this difference in card dimension could have such a long tradition.
It would be too simple to have just to decide between small or large cards: we find more than two kinds of specimens; mezzani or middle are also on sale, if we move to packs of better quality. If we have enough money, in the middle of the 15th century, we can buy products sold at various prices; when they are indicated as "richi", or "fini", there is no doubt about their superior quality.
I have thus kept all the cards that were sold as single packs, instead of by dozen, separately listed. When introducing low and better quality, the problem of choosing the most suitable pack may become embarrassing - there could hardly be a limit toward the best qualities that one could look for. The variation in price for a given pack is thus very high, as it can be verified in the following Table: here you can select one pack that costs remarkably more than a whole dozen of the previous ones.

Several columns are the same as in the previous Table. The middle one here adds some indication on the pack in question. Then here we have the number of packs (instead of the dozens as in the previous Table) and their individual prices. In the last columns the makers are indicated, with GI for Giovanni di San Giovanni, PA for Paparello, and CH where chorone (crowns) are mentioned, see below.
It is worth noting that the time interval for these records is reduced to half a year, end 1447 - beginning 1448, remarkably shorter than for dozzinale packs of the first Table. Again, it is not clear if any reliable conclusion on card trade can be deduced from this, because there are further variables to consider, such as a shorter notation for the last entries.
We find here both picholi and grandi, but no mention of either scempi or doppi. This is a problem for understanding which were these packs from that point of view, but the ratio slightly less than two that would exist in corresponding prices is not so big, with respect to the higher ratios between these prices and those of "dozzinale" packs. A possibility is that Paparello-chorone packs at 16-18 s. were scempi, whereas those at 26-27 were doppi, but there is another plausible explanation for the more expensive packs, which not only had gilded crowns, but also carefully painted figures.
What seems to me particularly interesting is that you enter the store and have the choice among various kinds of packs, all of them ready to be sold. This is not so surprising for the cheap items, sold and bought by the dozen. There is however something else, also available onto the shelves, something of an increasingly better quality. Among the corresponding makers, we find names that can easily be compared with those renowned masters, who at the same time were producing their famous packs for the courts of Milan and Ferrara: Giovanni and Paparello were at least at their level. There is a big difference, however. Here, any merciaio can enter the store and acquire a pack made by one of the best painters, and without having to order it and waiting for weeks that it is finished.
Almost one half of these entries corresponding to costly packs are associated with Giovanni da San Giovanni as a painter. Apparently he provided the workshop with a large stock of packs ready to be sold, in a way that may be considered intermediate with respect to "dozzinale" packs. Indeed, we find in no less than two cases that his packs are sold in groups of twelve – nevertheless they are numbered and priced on the basis of single packs and not of dozens. Their price of 5 s. is intermediate between the packs of the first Table and the remaining ones, made with seemingly better quality and additional gold decoration.
One maker (an.o di do.o?) I have not been able to read. The painter who provides the most expensive packs is Paparello, whom we met in the list by Jacobsen(6). I read for some of these packs the word "oro" and the words "le chorone". In my opinion, the simplest interpretation is that the personages on these cards had their crowns directly gilded. In one case we find both chorone and Paparello in the description, and it seems possible that Paparello was the painter in all cases in which chorone are mentioned. In any case, the highest price corresponds to both gilded crowns and painted figures.

An extraordinary cardmaker

Several names of cardmakers and painters of playing cards who were active in Florence in about those years can be found here and there, but in Richordançe A we find one, who may be more interesting than all the remaining ones: Giovanni da San Giovanni. San Giovanni Valdarno is the present name of a country town that near the end of the 13th century had been built by the Florentines, with the name of Castel San Giovanni, as a fortified settlement in front of Arezzo (not to forget that San Giovanni Battista is still considered as the patron of Florence).
Our Giovanni painter was born there but, as it occurred for many artists, he lived and worked in Florence; this he did after having been active as a soldier in his youth. His outstanding plus point is not so much due to his personal value as a painter, however remarkable, but rather to that of his elder brother, nobody less than Masaccio. For Masaccio, let me add here just his dates of birth and death, 1401-1428 – he has been so great an artist that it is easy to get whatever information one may wish about him. His full name was Tommaso di ser Giovanni Guidi da San Giovanni; his younger brother was born in 1406, soon after the death of their father, so that he could take the same first name: Giovanni di ser Giovanni, then nicknamed Lo Scheggia.(7)
I could read no less than three whole books dedicated to him, (8,9,10) where I could not find (yet) any trace of playing cards. It may be worth noting however that, while he is not known as a painter of triumphal cards, he is renowned for some of the triumphal processions that he painted on cassoni, the big and finely decorated trunks that were part of the marriage settlements of the brides.
Art historians should be warned not to expect that the revolutionary style of Masaccio could be passed to his brother as a painter of playing cards. Here no revolutionary improvement in style is welcome: the aim of the work is just to satisfy the conservative attitude of the players, who always prefer, and by far, that their traditional images are changed the least as possible.
I feel the last practical point is not taken sufficiently into account by art historians, when they pay some attention to playing cards, en passant. It is therefore a pleasure for me to provide them with the documented name of a painter, whom they already know from different productions. Even if art historians have written little or no pages about him as a card painter, I feel certain that they will soon find their remedy to this, with new hundreds of pages. There is an additional advantage: I give them exact dates for these cards, but thanks to the long life of this artist, it will be unlikely for them, in this case, to attribute to a painter cards produced before his birth or after his death.

One old article with ancient documents

I could read the article quoted myself and use it for further study. You can probably imagine my surprise in finding that all the new information precisely derives from the account books kept in the Archivio Storico dell’Ospedale degl’Innocenti, which I had began to study a few weeks ago. (I might add that the only Cambini’s Quaderno that I leafed through had been No. 266, whereas this new information derives from the Nos. 264, 265, 267, and 268. However, it is likely that even if I had instead examined one of these four volumes, my conclusion would have been the same.)
I will now continue the discussion with the help of the information that can be directly derived from the article mentioned above. The article is structured in a first part compiled by Hartt with discussion and comments and in a second part written by Corti with a selection of documents taken from the account books. In the following paragraph, I copy the part of the selection of documents inserted in the original article that is of interest for us. I have labelled A to G these quotations, but have kept in brackets the numbers that they have in the article.

First of all, we have to understand the function of Bartolomeo Serragli in this trade, and for this we can directly use the "explanation" provided in the article.

This dealer was particularly active towards the South of Italy, down to Naples and its royal palace. Some comments can be added now. Interesting enough is that these particular cards were of various qualities and values. Together with rather cheap items, we find pricey ones: remarkable among them is the first pack encountered, in 1453. One could simply conclude that at this rather early time it was still a new and costly kind of production, but also the contrary opinion can easily be supported: the very fact that this pack was indicated as unusually rich may prove that more current ones existed already.

Rather astounding may be the fact that just in one case can "simple" playing cards be found as manufactured and acquired. We had rather expected the contrary situation, in which ordinary cards were the rule and triumphs the exception. Apparently, triumphs were precisely the kind of playing cards most looked for, at the time, in this particular kind of trade.
Somewhat surprising is also the fact that all these different packs were produced by one and the same cardmaker, Filippo di Marco. We can imagine him as a kind of "Florentine Sagramoro", but evident dissimilarities appear, to begin with the actual customers, not a Duke of the Este family, but just an art dealer, who could sell further these cards practically anywhere.