Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

by Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer

It is probable that one of the oldest existing packs is the Tarot pack now preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes in Paris. Others discovered in the back of a book in Florence in 1910, also Tarots, have not been open to the inspection of students. They are valued at two thousand dollars, but the pack is not complete, nor on record, so the cards painted for Charles VI may still claim to be the oldest known. The débris of this pack was also discovered in the binding of a book of the fifteen century. The heraldic devices on the cards and the detail of the costumes, which are essentially French, point to their having been produced in the time of Charles VI. The robes, beards, etc., of three of the Kings are similar to the portraits of Charles or his courtiers. The velvet hats are surmounted with crowns and the robes are trimmed with ermine. The dress of the Knaves corresponds with that of the pages, or else with that of the sergents d’Armes of the day, while the Queens are dressed like the portrait of Isabella of Bavaria. The court cards of the fourth suit show a marked contrast to the richly bedecked ones of the three other suits, for the figures are habited like savages, which is supposed to recall a fête given on the occasion of the marriage of one of the queen’s maids of honour to the Chevalier de Vermandois, that had such a horrible termination.

Charles VI had had attacks of mania, but was at that time more reasonable. Hugonin de Janzay, one of his favourites, planned to entertain him by inducing him to take part in a mummery, for which the king and five other men were to be dressed as savages, and were to enter the fête to surprise the guests. The party were dressed in linen soaked with tar and covered with fur, so were completely disguised. They rushed into the ballroom shouting and rattling their chains, when the Duc D’Orleans, brother of the king, seized a torch from an attendant to look more closely at the strangers, and by mischance set the inflammable clothes on fire. Most of the men were chained together and could not escape, but one of them freed himself and saved his own life by plunging into a cistern of water which was placed in the buttery for the purpose of rinsing the drinking cups.

The king, who was standing at a little distance talking to the Duchess de Beri, was saved by that lady, who, with great presence of mind, wrapped her velvet cloak around her royal master. This gruesome incident brought on another attack of mania, that lasted until his death on the 21st of October, 1422, after a reign of forty-two years. It is presumed by M. Paul la Croix, in his essay on “Cartes a Jouer” (1873), that this celebrated incident was perpetuated in the French cards that he thinks were invented and painted at about that time.

The fragments of the second pack, that apparently belong to the same period, closely resemble those with which we are familiar, since they are not Tarots but bear the pips invented by the French, and M. la Croix states (page 241) that he “credits the tradition declaring that these particular cards are the first Piquet pack, and that these were the original cards that dethroned the Tarots of the Italians to become the favorites of the French nation.”

These French pips were afterwards adopted by the less ingenious English, while the Germans invented devices of their own, called Grünen, Eicheln, Herzen, and Shellen, at about the same period. Although the Spaniards remained faithful to the Tarots, they discarded the Atout part of the pack, retaining only the suit cards with the pips of Cups, Money, Swords, and Staves. The emblems adopted in the several countries nearly five hundred years ago (when a wave of card playing seems to have swept over Europe), have retained their hold on the affections of those who adopted the individual devices, for each nation still clings to the pips that were then chosen, and it is only by degrees that the French designs are emigrating to different parts of the world.

The “Jesse” pack of cards, now to be seen in Paris, are painted on cardboard, and the figures are dressed in the fashions of the day. The emblems recall the heraldic tokens of two of the courtiers of Charles VI, as well as the one identified with one of the most beautiful and learned women of her day. It is said that the invention of these pips was due to the anxiety of Queen Isabella and her ministers to divert the unfortunate monarch, so as to prevent his interfering with their schemes.

It was with the alteration of the pips, the adoption of Coeurs (Hearts), Carreaux (Diamonds), Trèfles (Clubs), and Piques (Spades), the distinctive use of red and black unmingled with other colours, and the discarding of the fourth court card, together with the Joker, and the Atout part of the old pack, that the fortune-telling Book of Thoth became transformed into a set of toys or gambling instruments. It is little wonder that their original intention, purpose, and history became obliterated and finally almost forgotten, so that when a French writer ventured to state that cards were part of the Egyptian mysteries he was treated as a foolish dreamer.

The invention of the French pips is attributed to two persons, both of them courtiers of the king, who probably worked together to produce a simple and convenient set of devices that should be easily recognised and as well adapted for playing, as were the original Tarots suited for divining the lives and characteristics of mankind. One of the inventors of the French pips was Etienne Vignolles, whose nickname was La Hire, and this name has been found on some of the old cards, as if he wished to be perpetuated in this way, and not as the brave old soldier who was well versed in chivalric customs, and who, according to historians, had always his sword drawn against the English. The second person to whom is credited the invention of the Piquet pack is Etienne Chevalier, secretary to the king, and his treasurer, who was noted for his original and inventive genius and his quick wit. It is more than probable that to his facile pencil the new designs should be attributed. The men who formulated the rules of the game for which they invented the cards must have been clever, as it is arranged with such care that these rules have remained practically unaltered for five hundred years, and Piquet is still a favourite in men’s clubs and the best tête-a-tête game known.

The Piquet pack contains five pip cards, Ace, Seven, Eight, Nine, and Ten, with three court cards, King, Queen, and Knave, called by the French names of Le Roi, La Reine, and Le Valet or varlet. With this handful of cards we are all familiar. Here was a great modification of the old suits with their heraldic devices. The Cavalier of the Tarot pack was discarded, thus reducing the court cards to three instead of four, while five of the pip cards were also omitted. The game was thoroughly scientific, needing close attention and discretion even with the curtailed pack of cards. It showed the soldier’s hand in its stratagem, and that of the artist in its simple colours.

The king’s banker was Jacques Cœur, whose beautiful palace in Bourges shows a pun on his name in every lintel, door or window where a heart is cut in stone or wood to remind one of the owner. Tradition states that it was in honour of Jacques Cœur that his heraldic emblem, Coeurs (Hearts), was placed on the cards to perpetuate his memory, to the exclusion of that of his patron, Mercury, the god of merchants.