It has been much disputed whether the earliest cards were printed from wood-blocks. If so, it would appear that the art of wood-engraving, which led to that of printing, may have been developed through the demand for the multiplication of implements of play. The belief that the early card-makers or card-painters of Ulm, Nuremberg and Augsburg, from about 1418-1450, were also wood-engravers, is founded on the assumption that the cards of that period were printed from wood-blocks. It is, however, clear that the earliest cards were executed by hand, like those designed for Charles VI. Many of the earliest wood-cuts were coloured by means of a stencil, so it would seem that at the time wood-engraving was first introduced, the art of depicting and colouring figures by means of stencil plates was well known. There are no playing cards engraved on wood to which so early a date as 1423 (that of the earliest dated wood-engraving generally accepted) can be fairly assigned; and as at this period there were professional card-makers established in Germany, it is probable that wood-engraving was employed to produce cuts for sacred subjects before it was applied to cards, and that there were hand-painted and stencilled cards before there were wood-engravings of saints. The German Briefmaler or card-painter probably progressed into the wood-engraver; but there is no proof that the earliest wood-engravers were the card-makers.
It is undecided whether the earliest cards were of the kind now common, called numeral cards, or whether they were tarocchi or tarots, which are still used in some parts of France, Germany and Italy, but the probability is that the tarots were the earlier. A pack of tarots consists of seventy-eight cards, four suits of numeral cards and twenty-two emblematic cards, called atutti or atouts (= trumps). Each suit consists of fourteen cards, ten of which are the pip cards, and four court (or more properly coat cards), viz. king, queen, chevalier and valet. The atouts are numbered from 1 to 21; the unnumbered card, called the fou, has no positive value, but augments that of the other atouts (see Académie des jeux, Corbet, Paris, 1814, for an account of the mode of playing tarocchino or tarots).
The marks of the suits on the earliest cards (German) are hearts, bells, leaves and acorns. No ace corresponding to the earliest known pack has been discovered; but other packs of about the same date have aces, and it seems unlikely that the suits commenced with the deuces.
Next in antiquity to the marks mentioned are swords, batons, cups and money. These are the most common on Italian cards of the late 15th century, and are used both in Italy and in Spain. French cards of the 16th century bear the marks now generally used in France and England, viz. coeur (hearts), trèfle (clubs), pique (spades) and carreau (diamonds).
The French trèfle, though so named from its resemblance to the trefoil leaf, was in all probability copied from the acorn; and the pique similarly from the leaf (grün) of the German suits, while its name is derived from the sword of the Italian suits. It is not derived from its resemblance to a pike head, as commonly supposed. In England the French marks are used, and are named—hearts, clubs (corresponding to trèfle, the French symbol being joined to the Italian name, bastoni), spades (corresponding to the French pique, but having the Italian name, spade=swords) and diamonds. This confusion of names and symbols is accounted for by Chatto thus—“If cards were actually known in Italy and Spain in the latter part of the 14th century, it is not unlikely that the game was introduced into this country by some of the English soldiers who had served, under Hawkwood and other free captains, in the wars of Italy and Spain. However this may be, it seems certain that the earliest cards commonly used in this country were of the same kind, with respect to the marks of the suits, as those used in Italy and Spain.”
About the last quarter of the 15th century, packs with animals, flowers and human figures, for marks of the suits, were engraved upon copper; and later, numerous variations appeared, dictated by the caprice of individual card-makers; but they never came into general use.
The court cards of the early packs were king, chevalier and knave. The Italians were probably the first to substitute a queen for the chevalier, who in French cards is altogether superseded by the queen. The court cards of French packs received fanciful names, which varied from time to time.
Authorities.—Abbé Rive, Éclaircissements sur l’invention des cartes à jouer (Paris, 1780); J.G.I. Breitkopf, Versuch den Ursprung der Spielkarten zu erforschen (Leipzig, 1784); Samuel Weller Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards, with Illustrations of the Origin of Printing and Engraving on Wood (London, 1816); G. Peignot, Analyse critique et raisonnée de toutes les recherches publiées jusqu’à ce jour, sur l’origine des cartes à jouer (Dijon, 1826); M.C. Leber, Études historiques sur les cartes à jouer, principalement sur les cartes françaises (Paris, 1842); William Andrew Chatto, Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards (London, 1848); P. Boiteau D’Ambly, Les Cartes à jouer et la cartomancie (Paris, 1854), translated into English with additions under the title of The History of Playing Cards, with Anecdotes of their use in Conjuring, Fortune-telling, and Card-sharping, edited by the Rev. E.S. Taylor, B.A. (London, 1865); W. Hughes Willshire, M.D., A Descriptive Catalogue of Playing and other Cards in the British Museum, printed by order of the trustees (London, 1876); Origine des cartes à jouer, by R. Merlin (Paris, 1869); The Devil’s Picture Books, by Mrs J.K. Van Rensselaer (New York, 1890); Bibliography of Works in English on Playing Cards and Gaming, by F. Jessel (London, 1905); and especially Les Cartes à jouer, by Henri René d’Allemagne (Paris, 1906) (an exhaustive account).
CARDUCCI, BARTOLOMMEO (1560-1610), Italian painter, better known as Carducho, the Spanish corruption of his Italian patronymic, was born in Florence, where he studied architecture and sculpture under Ammanati, and painting under Zuccaero. The latter master he accompanied to Madrid, where he painted the ceiling of the Escorial library, assisting also in the production of the frescos that adorn the cloisters of that famous palace. He was a great favourite with Philip III., and lived and died in Spain, where most of his works are to be found. The most celebrated of them is a Descent from the Cross, in the church of San Felipe el Real, in Madrid.