St. Bernard, for example, speaking on the 5th of March, 1423, to the crowd assembled in front of a church at Siena, inveighed with so much energy, and fulminated with so much persuasion, against games of chance, that all who heard ran at once and fetched their dice, chess, and cards, and burnt them on the very spot. But, adds the chronicle, there was a card-maker who, being ruined by the sermon of the saint, went to seek him, and with a flood of tears said to him: “Father, I am a maker of cards, and I have no other trade by which to live. By preventing me from following my trade, you condemn me to die of hunger.” “If painting is all you are capable of,” replied the preacher, “paint this picture.” And he showed him an image of a radiating sun, in the centre of which shone the monogram of Christ—I. H. S. The artisan followed his advice, and soon made his fortune by painting this representation, which was adopted by St. Bernard as his device.
Although in every direction similar censures were directed against cards, they nevertheless did not fail to come much into fashion, especially in Italy; and to have a considerable sale. Thus, in 1441, we find the master card-makers at Venice “who formed a rather numerous association,” claiming and obtaining from the senate a kind of prohibitory order against “the large quantity of painted and printed cards which were made out of Venice and were introduced into the town, to the great detriment of their art.” It is important to notice that mention is made here of printed as well as of painted cards. The fact is, that at this date, not only did all the cities in Italy make their own cards, but, in consequence of the invention of wood-engraving, Germany and Holland exported a large quantity of them. We must also point out that documents of the same date appear to establish a distinction between the primitive naïbi and cards properly so called, without, however, affording any detailed characteristics of either. It is, however, known that prior to the year 1419, one François Fibbia, a noble of Pisa who died in exile at Bologna, obtained from the “reformers” of this city, on the score of his being the inventor of the game of tarrochino, the right of placing his escutcheon of arms on the “queen de bâton,” and that of his wife’s arms on the “queen de denier.” Bâtons, deniers, with coupes and épées, were then the suits of the Italian cards, as carreau (diamond), trèfle (club), cœur (heart), and pique (spade), were those of the French cards.
No original specimen has been preserved of the tarots (tarrochi, tarrochini) or Italian cards of this epoch; but we possess a pack engraved about 1460, which is known to be an exact copy of them. Added to this, Raphael Maffei, who lived at the end of the fifteenth century, has left in his “Commentaries” a description of tarots, which were, he says, “a new invention,”—in comparison, doubtless, with the origin of playing-cards. From these two documents—though they present some differences—we may gather that the pack of tarots was then composed of four or five series or suits, each of ten cards, bearing consecutive numbers, and presenting so many deniers, bâtons, coupes, and épées, equal in number to that of the card. To these series we must add a whole assortment of figures, representing the King, the Queen, the Knight, the Foot-traveller, the World, Justice, an Angel, the Sun, the Devil, a Castle, Death, a Gibbet, the Pope, Love, a Buffoon ([Fig. 206]), &c.
It is evident that tarots were current in France long before the invention of the game of piquet, which is unquestionably of French origin; and among these tarots we must class the cards that are called those of Charles VI. ([Figs. 207] and [208]), and are now preserved in the Print-Room of the Bibliothèque Impériale in Paris; these may be considered as the oldest to be found in any collection, either public or private. The Abbé de Longuerue states that he saw the pack with all its cards complete; but only seventeen have been preserved to our day. These cards are painted with delicacy, like the miniatures in manuscripts, on a gilt ground, filled with dots forming a perforated ornamentation; they are also surrounded by a silvered border in which a similar dotting depicts a spirally twisted ribbon. This dotting is doubtless the tare, a kind of goffering produced by small holes pricked out and arranged in compartments, to which the tarots owe their names, and of which our present cards still retain a kind of reminiscence, in their backs being covered with arabesques or dotted over in black or various colours. These cards were about seven inches long and three and a half inches wide, and were painted in distemper on cardboard ·039 inch thick. The composition of them is ingenious and to some extent skilful, the drawing correct and full of character, and the colouring or illumination brilliant.
Fig. 206.—The Buffoon, a Card from a Pack of Tarots. Fifteenth Century.
Among the subjects they represent are some which deserve all the more attention, because they can hardly fail to recall to mind a conception somewhat similar to that of the “Dance of Death,” that terrible “morality” which, dating from this epoch, was destined to increase more and more in popularity. Thus, for instance, by the side of the Emperor, who is covered with silver armour and holds the globe and the sceptre, a Hermit makes his appearance as an old man muffled in a cowl and holding up an hour-glass, an emblem of the rapidity of time. Then we have the Pope, who, with the tiara on his head, sits between two cardinals; but Death is also there, mounted on a grey horse with a rough and shaggy coat, and sweeping down with his scythe kings, popes, bishops, and other great men of the earth. If we see Love, represented by three couples of lovers who embrace as they converse, while two cupids dart at them their arrows from a cloud above; we also see a Gibbet, on which hangs a gambler suspended by one foot, and still holding in his hand a bag of money. An Esquire, clothed in gold and scarlet, rides gallantly along, proudly waving his sword; a Chariot bears in triumph an officer in full armour; a Fool places his cap and bells under his arm that he may count upon his fingers. Finally, the last trumpets are waking up the dead, who come out of their graves to appear at the Last Judgment.
s: Fig. 207.—The Moon.