| B | Iliaco XXXI | 31 |
| B | Chronico XXXII | 32 |
| B | Cosmico XXXIII | 33 |
| B | Temperancia XXXIIII | 34 |
| B | Prvdencia XXXV | 35 |
| B | Forteza XXXVI | 36 |
| B | Justicia XXXVII | 37 |
| B | Charita XXXVIII | 38 |
| B | Speranza XXXVIIII | 39 |
| B | Fede XXXX | 40 |
[Class A.—The Celestial System.]
| A | Luna XXXXI | 41 |
| A | Mercurio XXXXII | 42 |
| A | Venus XXXXIII | 43 |
| A | Sol XXXXIIII | 44 |
| A | Marte XXXXV | 45 |
| A | Jupiter XXXXVI | 46 |
| A | Saturno XXXXVII | 47 |
| A | Octava Spera XXXXVIII | 48 |
| A | Primo Mobile XXXXVIIII | 49 |
| A | Prima Causa XXXXX | 50 |
Having now given such an account of the so-called Tarocchi cards, as may enable the reader to determine for himself, both with respect to their original use, and their relation to playing cards proper, I shall now proceed to notice some of the principal varieties of numeral cards; that is, of cards consisting of four suits, and each suit containing a certain number of coat cards, together with eight or ten lower cards, having their numeral value designated by the marks of the suit to which they belong.
The oldest specimens of undoubted playing cards are either stencilled, or engraved on wood; and of a date which, looking at the style of their execution, the drawing, and the costume of the figures, cannot fairly be supposed to be later than 1440. Amongst the earliest are the stencilled cards preserved in the print-room of the British Museum, and previously described at page 89. In these the coat cards appear to have been a King, a Chevalier, and a Fante, Footman, or Knave; without any Queen. The marks of three of the suits are Hearts, Bells, and Acorns; the mark of the fourth suit does not occur,—as the specimens preserved are far short of a complete pack,—but it is highly probable that it was Leaves, called Grün by the Germans, as in the old pack formerly belonging to Dr. Stukeley, and described by Mr. Gough, in the eighth volume of the 'Archæologia.'
The cards formerly belonging to Dr. Stukeley were given to him by Thomas Rawlinson, Esq. [236] They were found in the cover of an old book,—supposed to be an edition of Claudian, printed before the year 1500,—and one or two leaves of an edition of the Adagia of Erasmus were interspersed between the layers of the cards, thus forming a kind of pasteboard. The marks of the suits are Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns; and the coat cards are the King, Chevalier, and Knave. The numeral value of the lower cards, from the Deuce to the Ten, is indicated by a repetition of the marks of the suits, as in modern cards. As there is no Ace, this pack, supposing it to be complete, would consist of forty-eight cards. These cards are rudely coloured, and of smaller size than those in the British Museum. On the Deuce of every suit is a shield, displaying what is supposed to be the card-maker's arms, namely, a kind of pick-axe, with one of the ends blunt like a hammer, and a mallet, in saltire. Fac-similes of Dr. Stukeley's cards are given in Singer's Researches.
As the distinctive marks of the suits on the oldest cards in existence are Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns, it may reasonably be supposed that these marks were used at as early a period as any of the others which occur on cards of a later date, but yet executed before the close of the fifteenth century. Next to these in point of antiquity, and perhaps of as early a date, are Swords, Cups, Batons, and Money, which would appear to have been the most common marks on early Italian cards, and to have been almost exclusively adopted in Spain. For the sake of distinction, in future, cards with these marks will be referred to as Spanish cards, as in Spain the suits are still distinguished by Swords, Cups, Batons, and Money; while cards having Hearts, Bells, Leaves, and Acorns, will be referred to as German cards, as such appear to have been the kind most generally used in Germany. Of the marks on what were more particularly called "French cards," in the sixteenth century,—Cœur, Trèfle, Pique, and Carreau, or as we call them, Hearts, Clubs, Spades, and Diamonds,—two of them at least, the Cœur and the Pique, are evidently derived from the Heart and the Leaf of the earlier pack, while there is good reason to believe that the form of the Trèfle was copied from that of the Acorn. [237]
The mark now called the Trèfle, in France, was formerly known as the Fleur. Peignot, referring to a poem entitled "La Magdaleine au Désert de la Sainte-Baume en Provence," printed at Lyons, in 1668, says: "We learn from this poem that, in 1668, the word Trèfle was not yet in use, as the designation of one of the suits of cards; that suit was then called Fleurs. The Valets were also then termed Fous."
The type of the Carreau, or Diamond, is not to be found in any of the marks of the other two packs above noticed. In the time of Pietro Aretine, the suits of French cards appear to have been known in Italy by the names of Cori, Quadri, Fiori, and Cappari, [238] as we learn from his 'Carte Parlanti,' first printed in 1545, in which a Paduan card-maker holds a long dialogue, moral and entertaining, with his cards:
"Paduan. As French cards are used in Italy, tell me, I pray, what, amongst that people, may be the signification of Capers? [Cappari.]