In the “Illustrirtes Wiener Tarokbuch,” by Ulman, we find this statement: “Two centuries had not passed after cards were introduced into Europe, when Francis Fibbia, Prince of Pisa, Italy, arranged from the oldest of all games, called Tappola, a new one called Tarok, which is found in Bologna as a favorite game during the fifteenth century. This was played with Trappola or Trappelin cards, when the original suits were retained, which were Cups, Money, Swords, and Staves, but after wood engraving was invented, the French pips were adopted and are now the only ones used in the Austrian Tarok pack.”
It is noteworthy that the Rev. Edward Taylor, in his “History of Playing Cards” (pages 209 and 457), mentions an interesting pack of cards, “the imprint of which states them to be sold by John Lenthall, stationer at the Talbot over against St. Dunstan’s Church, London, who carried on business there from 1665 to 1685, so the cards were probably issued immediately after the Restoration.” They were prophetical or fortune-telling cards, and their use was described in directions published with them. The pips were French; the emblematical figures were imitations of the Atouts and evidently had been copied from part of a pack of Tarots, but the figures had names applied to them that were not exactly like the originals. The Ace of Hearts had a figure that was named Hermes Trismagus, which leads to the supposition that the original connection of Mercury with the Tarots was not entirely forgotten in the seventeenth century, but was known in connection with fortune-telling. As a prophet he was still an important personage. The other figures on the cards represented Roman Catholic saints or modern heroes, so that of Mercury was entirely out of place, unless in connection with his cult.
CHAPTER III
MERCURY
Although treated by modern writers as one of the minor of the twelve gods of Olympus, Mercury was by no means so looked upon by the ancients, who revered, feared, consulted and obeyed him as they did no other deity, so he wielded more influence over the lives of mankind than did all the other gods put together. Jove was dreaded because a bolt from the blue might destroy the unwary at any moment; even though Mercury was the lightning conductor, the latter was not blamed for the catastrophe. Juno commanded admiration by her beauty, but her cold self-esteem drew few followers; still, as presiding over maternity, she delivered, through Mercury, the newly born to its parents. Diana had, perhaps, the largest number of worshippers, since she had a plurality of attractions, and had under her protection many and various walks of life, when Mercury acted as her lieutenant. It was Mercury who lured Proserpine from the side of Ceres, to reconduct the former to earth when spring followed winter, and it is under this form, as Chthonius, that Mercury is allegorically represented as the messenger conducting the soul at death to the future state.
Mercury was the peacemaker, or adjuster of difficulties, as well as the councillor and intercessor, for he could be appealed to with the certainty that his orders could be received by mankind, and by them could be comprehended through a sign language interpreted by his priests. He was in reality more powerful than any of the other gods taken separately, for, although they might be lavishly propitiated, they could not reply to invocations except through their messenger, Mercury. He was also the inventor of emblems, pictorial art, and language, through which he could be directly approached and his wishes communicated in response to invocations by means of the Atouts and the pip cards. Any profanation of his mysteries was rapidly revenged by his worshippers, so it is little wonder that they were not placed in town records or in early histories. Nor, if they were, would these mysteries have been mentioned as Playing Cards, for the ancient Book of Thoth was not classified as a game, and until the Temple of Toth, as well as the Serapeon, near Naples, were destroyed, compelling the exiled priests to carry on their person the emblems taken from the walls, there was absolutely nothing like a card to mention in the official records. Students, therefore, must search for descriptions of wanderers, of soothsayers, of astrologers, of fortune-tellers, of prophets or of gypsies, if they wish to discover traces of the cult of Mercury, since it was gradually and imperceptibly merged into the Playing Cards as we understand them.
There were few of the homes of the rich Romans that were not adorned with a statue of this god under one of his four great attributes. The best known is, perhaps, one by John of Bologna, showing him as Caduceator, or the messenger, under which guise Mercury carries the caduceus and points with his right hand to heaven. When represented in this way, he is the bearer of news, of life, and of health. It was his wand, or caduceus, that, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, was the emblem of the medical man, who always carried his stick or staff into the sick chamber. It is still used by barbers, who display his staff, apparently wound with bloody rags, before their shops, a survival of a custom dating from the time when barbers were the dentist surgeons and “blood-letters.” His wand was also representative of the stylus which was used to write on the “Tablet of Fate,” for Mercury was also the god Nebo of the Babylonians, who is mentioned under this name in the Bible. He is credited with being “the writer in the Book of Fate” and, says a Cuneiform inscription, “had foretold the destiny of mankind since eternity.” The stylus was also the emblem of Thoth, who wrote in the “Book of Good Works” after death.
