Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

These vessels carried not only wares, but merchants and missionaries, from the great seats of learning at the temples of Egypt. The priests of those days were not necessarily religious men, but they were scholars and scientists, who thought that their best use in the world was the diffusion of their learning and knowledge.

Since it is clearly established that the worship of Serapis, Thoth, and Mercury was followed at Pozzuoli from a very early date, preceding Christianity, it may be conceded that the people there were imbued with the appreciation of its mysteries and adored them. When Christianity refuted the doctrines of the heathen gods, those who followed the ancient rites were forced to conceal them. Hence it is that if Playing Cards are derived from this mysterious worship, through which they consulted the wishes of their gods, no trace of them can be found in the legal records before the middle of the fourteenth century, when the cards were established as a game but not as a cult.

Count Emiliano di Parravicino, in his essay on Tarocco cards in the Burlington Magazine for December, 1903, declares that professional players or teachers, known as barrattieri or rabildi, were organized in guilds that were recognised by law as early as the beginning of the thirteenth century, which seems as if the deposed initiates, or the priests of Mercury, were still vital and a recognised necessity, although under a new title.

Happily for the card student, there still remain several packs of Italian cards that link the present ones with the ancient emblems of Mercury. The ducal family of Visconti inherited sixty-one cards that originally belonged to Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, having been executed for him by Marziano da Tortona early in the fifteenth century. These were mentioned by Breitkopf in his work published at Leipsic in 1784. This pack differs from its compatriots and successors in having five, instead of four, court cards. The Atouts are beautifully painted with all the attributes connected with Mercury. That of “the Lovers,” No. VI, represents Duke Filippo Maria wearing a broad-brimmed hat on which is inscribed “A bon Droit”; the female figure is dressed as a bride and is probably a likeness of the Duke’s first wife, Beatrice di Tenda, the widow of Francisco Cane. These figures are surrounded with small shields blazoning the arms of Visconti and Pavia.

Among these Atouts No. XIII, Death, is represented on a black, instead of on a white, horse. The figures on the other cards resemble those still commonly used, but, unfortunately, there are fifteen cards missing from the pack. This historic collection of Tarots has been frequently described and reproduced, since Marziano da Tortona, who executed the pictures, was a scholar, as well as a skillful artist. He introduced some original features in his treatment of the pictures while strictly conforming to the heraldic devices that marked their origin, for no man living at that time would be ignorant enough to change the devices, since they still told their story to the people of the day, who understood heraldry even if they could not decipher written words.

This celebrated pack of cards was probably a wedding gift to the illustrious couple, since the artist was also their secretary. That it was prized, but little handled, and kept as a work of art is proved by the good condition of the pictures, which are almost as fresh as when they left the hands of the designer. They are treasured possessions of the descendants of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti and are seldom allowed to be seen or exhibited.

Another interesting collection of early Tarocci (little Tarots) is described by Count di Parravicino, who states that the pack was painted early in the fifteenth century by a Ferrarese artist named Antonio Cicognara. These cards have been owned in one family several centuries with an authentic history of them, for in the annals of Cremona, written by Domenico Bordegallo, is found the following reference to the pack:

“1484. In this year our townsman, Antonio di Cicognara, a most skillful painter of pictures and an admirable miniaturist, designed and illuminated a magnificent pack of cards called Tarots, which have been seen by me, and he made a present of them to the most honorable, reverend, and illustrious Lord Ascanio M. Sforza, Cardinal of the Holy Church, Bishop of Pavia and Novara, at one time dean of our cathedral and now commendatory of the canons of St. Gregory, and son of the most illustrious and excellent Francesco Sforza and the Lady Bianca Visconti, born here in Cremona.”

“The same artist,” states Count di Parravicino, “illustrated other packs for the sisters of this Cardinal. They were nuns in the Augustine Convent founded in this town by the aforesaid Madonna Bianca.”

This naïve record of the amusements of the religious communities of the fifteenth century presents a novel picture to the minds of those who suppose that cards were not permitted within the sacred precincts, although such was not the case, as is confirmed by a proverb of the day that says “Mind what the friar says, not what he does.”