Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards

by William Andrew Chatto

The earliest known specimens of what are called Tarocchi cards are those preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, at Paris, and which are supposed by Mons. Duchesne to have formed a portion of one of the three packs painted for the amusement of Charles VI, in 1393. [228] They formerly belonged to Mons. de Gaignières, who had been governor to the grandchildren of Louis XIV, and who bequeathed them, together with his entire collection of prints and drawings, to the king, in 1711. Those cards appear to have been seen in the possession of Mons. de Gaignières by the Abbé de Longuerue; [229] and also by Dr. Martin Lister, who thus mentions them in his account of his journey to Paris, in 1698: "I waited upon the Abbot Droine to visit Mons. Guanieres [de Gaignières] at his lodgings in the Hostel de Guise. One toy I took notice of, which was a collection of playing cards for 300 years. The oldest were three times bigger than what are now used, extremely well limned and illuminated with gilt borders, and the pasteboard thick and firm; but there was not a complete set of them."

The following particulars respecting those cards are chiefly derived from Mons. Duchesne's description of them in his 'Observations sur les Cartes à jouer,' published in the 'Annuaire Historique' for the year 1837. There are seventeen of them, and there can scarcely be a doubt of their having formed part of a set of what are called Tarocchi cards, which, when complete, consisted of fifty. They are painted on paper, in the manner of illuminations in old manuscripts, on a gold ground, which is in other parts marked with ornamental lines, formed by means of points slightly pricked into the composition upon which the gilding is laid. They are surrounded by a border of silver gilding, in which there is also seen an ornament, formed in the same manner, by means of points, representing a kind of scroll or twisted riband. Some parts of the embroidery on the vestments of the different figures are heightened with gold, while the weapons and armour are covered with silver, which, like that on the borders, has for the most part become oxydized through time. There is no inscription, letter, nor number, to indicate the manner in which they were to be arranged. Mons. Leber agrees with Mons. Duchesne in ascribing them to a French artist of the time of Charles VI, and even seems inclined to conclude that they might have been intended for the amusement of that lunatic king. Looking at those cards, however, as they appear in the fac-similes published by the Society of Bibliophiles Français, I should rather take them to be the work of an Italian artist, and be inclined to conclude, as well from the general style of the drawing as from the costume, that they were not of an earlier date than 1425.

The following is Mons. Duchesne's enumeration of the seventeen cards which he supposes to have been executed by Gringonneur: the names in capitals are those which occur in a series of so-called Italian Tarocchi cards, with which he considers them to correspond.

1. Le Fou—the Buffoon. This figure is found in the Tarots of the present day, and is perhaps the same character as that which in the series of old Italian engraving—called Tarocchi cards—is inscribed Misero I.

2. L'Ecuyer—the Squire. Chevalier VI.

3. L'Empereur—the Emperor. Imperator VIIII.

4. Le Pape—the Pope. Papa X.

5. Les Amoureux—the Lovers. Young men and women courting, while two winged Cupids are discharging arrows at them. Mons. Duchesne gravely queries whether this subject does not represent Apollo and Diana killing the children of Niobe, and whether it ought not to be considered as corresponding with Apollo XX. It has, however, as little relation to the story of Niobe as it has to Apollo, as figured in the engraving referred to.

6. La Fortune—Fortune. This figure, standing on a circle which represents the world, holds a globe in one hand, and in the other a sceptre. Mons. Duchesne considers that it corresponds with that named Astrologia, in the series of Italian engravings, and there erroneously numbered XXXVIIII, instead of XXVIIII.—Bartsch, it seems had not observed this error.

7. La Tempérance—Temperance. Temperancia XXXIIII.