There are some puritanical persons who regard Playing Cards with horror, and will not touch “the devil’s picture books” that display the symbols of Hearts, Clubs, etc.; but these same people adopt with avidity these educational cards that sometimes have the pips slyly tucked into a corner. Or, perhaps, they use cards that have numbers printed on them to indicate the pips, with other marks to show the suits and the court cards, so these good people play Grabouche, Pinocle, Bezique, Flip, and other games that are, in truth, recognised as games of chance.
In 1507 a set of instructive cards was invented by Dr. Thomas Muruer, the celebrated opponent of Martin Luther. The pack was printed at Cracow and called Chartiludui Logicae, and these were intended for the use of the inventor’s pupils in the art of reasoning. At first people were delighted with them and their novelty, and then they turned against this method of instruction and threatened to burn the doctor for inventing them.
This pack was an imitation of the Tarots, and was composed of ten logical cards with sixteen suits of emblem cards, the pips being the German Bells, Acorns, Leaves, and Hearts, with additional symbols of crayfish, scorpions, etc.
When Louis XIV was eight years old, it was necessary to educate him, but he was a dull and reluctant pupil, so Cardinal Mazarin invented some “instruction cards” for the youthful king that illustrated fables and proved attractive to others besides the agrammatist.
A little later, some cards depicting the history of France were designed by the artist Desmarits, who, finding that they were received with favour, followed them with a geographical set, and then with one called harlequin, in which the figures of well-known persons were grotesquely dressed.
There are later French packs illustrating the kings and queens of France, and also some that commemorate the Revolution, the Empire, the reign of the Orleans family, and that of Napoleon III; for in that country not only were the cards used for illustrating their historical events, but the court cards changed their dress with the rulers, not keeping to the costumes of the fifteenth century, as the English cards have done.
The French also issued a pack of cards to teach heraldry as early as 1680, and one for music in 1808, while in 1820 two instructive sets were issued, one of them on botany and the other one on astronomy.
Heraldic cards were published by M. Claude Finé in 1659, and others were issued in 1725. This idea was followed in England in 1675, when some German cards were adapted to the needs of the other country. The Germans issued another pack on which were heraldic devices in 1700, and a similar one came out in Venice in 1707. The cards are not useful for gambling or fortune-telling, but they are ornate, and are fine examples of print work, and as such find places in collections.
In 1656 practical cards for teaching spelling, arithmetic, etc., were issued in London by F. Jackson, and at about the same time satirical and political cards were published. Those interested in full descriptions of these packs can find a list in “The Catalogue of Playing and Other Cards in the British Museum,” by Mr. Willshire.
Cards for divination have appeared from time to time, but the emblems were so fanciful and so unauthoritative that the unhistoric designs have not found favour. One of them in the British Museum shows traces of being derived from the Tarots, as Mercury is seen hovering over a sailing vessel under his guise of protector of merchants. It is to be remarked that it is the Seven of Bells and is called Commerce. The Eight of Bells is the Wheel of Fortune. The Two of Leaves is Hope, and the Six of that suit is the Death card. It is evident that the artist picked out at haphazard certain designs on the Tarots for imitation, and that he had no comprehension of the meaning or value of the numbers, such as three, seven, or thirteen, accorded to them by mystics.