[224] The Empress is supposed to have been substituted for the Pope, who occurs in the old series of figures assumed by M. Duchesne to have been the original Tarocchi. In a similar manner, L'Amoureux is supposed to have been substituted for Apollo; the Chariot for Mars; the Capuchin or Hermit for Saturn; the Wheel of Fortune for Astrology; and Le Pendu for Prudence.
[225] The figures of two or three of the Atous are sometimes differently represented. In a pack now before me, inscribed "Cartes des Suisses," manufactured at Brussels, in No. 2, instead of Juno, there is a figure inscribed "Le 'Spagnol, Capitano Eracasse;" in No. 5, Bacchus supplies the place of Jupiter; and No. 16, which is inscribed "La Foudre," shows a tree struck by lightning, instead of a tower. In this set, the Fou is numbered 22. Tarots are generally about a fourth longer, and a little wider than English cards, and are usually coarsely coloured.
[226] Memorie spettanti alla storià della Calcografia, dal conte Leopold Cicognara. 8vo, Prata, 1831.—Cited in Duchesne's Précis Historique sur les Cartes à jouer, prefixed to the specimens of playing cards published by the Société des Bibliophiles Français.
[227] This book was written by the notorious Pietro Aretine. A second edition was published in 1589, and a third in 1651. The title of the last is 'Le Carte Parlanti; Dialogo di Partenio Etiro; [the anagram of Pietro Aretine] nel quale si tratta del Giuoco con moralità piacevole.'
[228] Though Mons. Duchesne generally speaks of those cards as if it had been positively ascertained that they were painted by Jacquemin Gringonneur, we yet find the following salvo, in the Précis Historique: "Mais le fait de leur haute destination à l'usage d'un roi, ne repose que sur des conjectures incertaines; espérons qu'un jour quelque antiquaire favorisé par un heureux hasard aura peut-être le bonheur de changer nos doutes en certitude."
[229] The Abbé's notice of those cards is by no means precise; and when he speaks of the four monarchies contending with each other, it is evident that he had either an imperfect recollection of them, or that he supposed some old numeral cards, of four suits, to have belonged to the same series.—"J'ai vu chez M. de Ganières un jeu de cartes (je ne sais s'il étoit complet) telles qu'elles étoient dans leur origine. Il y avoit un pape, des empereurs, les quatre monarchies, qui combattoient les uns contre les autres: ce qui a donné naissance à nos quatre couleurs. Elles étoient longues de 7 à 8 pouces. C'est en Italie que cette belle invention a pris naissance dans le XIVe siècle."—Longueruana, tom, i, page 107.
[230] Materiali per servire alla storià dell' origine e de' progressi dell' incisione in rame e in legno, col. da Pietro Zani. 8vo, Parma, 1802. The author's observations relating to cards are to be found at pp. 78-84, and pp. 149-93.
[231] There was also a series of the same subjects engraved in the sixteenth century.
[232] Bartsch, Peintre-Graveur, 8vo, Vienna, 1812.—His notices of old cards are to be found in vol. x, pp. 70-120; and vol. xiii, pp. 120-38.
[233] "Singer fait remarquer, avec raison, qu'on n'a pas d'exemple de cartes à jouer d'aussi grandes dimensions, qu'il n'y a ici des figures sans pièces numérales, et que, d'ailleurs, les sujets ne sont pas ceux des tarots ordinaires. Il aurait pu ajouter que des gravures exécutées avec tant de soins, que les chefs-d'œuvre d'un art nouveau dont le premier mérite s'appréciait par la beauté de l'empreinte, n'ont pu être destinés à recevoir l'enluminure qui entre essentiellement dans la confection du jeu de cartes."—Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer, p. 18.