Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards

by William Andrew Chatto

[262] Those cards were purchased of Messrs. Smith, of Lisle street, who also supplied the Museum with the two sets of old Italian engravings, usually called Tarocchi cards.

[263] "Die Karte ist nach Wälscher Art in Spade, Coppe, Danari, (die aber hier als Granatäpfel vorgestellt sind,) und Bastoni getheilet."—Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschicht, ii^er. Theil, s. 200.

[264] Breitkopf improperly calls those cards "Trappolier-Karte,"—Trappola cards. Aretine, in his 'Carte Parlanti,' makes a distinction between the game of Trappola, and that played with Tarocchi cards.

[265] "Il y a dans chaque couleur un roi, un officier supérieur ou capitaine nommé Ober, et un bas-officier, appelé Unter. On appelle encore de nos jours dans l'empire, où les mots français ne sont pas si en vogue, les officiers supérieurs oberleute, et les bas-officiers unterleute. Les Français ont substitué à la place de l'officier une dame, et à la place des bas-officiers des valets, ou des braves, comme Bullet les nomme. Le bas-officier des glands est nommé en Allemagne, der grosze mentzel, et celui de vert, der kleine mentzel; enfin, l'as porte le nom de daus."—Heineken, Idée générale d'une Collection complète d'Estampes, p. 239.

[266] "Sota. La tercera figura, que tiènen los naipes, la qual representa el infante, ò soldado. Dixose de la voz Italiana soto, que vale debaxo, porque vá despues de las figuras de Rey, y Caballo, que le son superiores."—In a superficial paper on old playing-cards, by the baron de Reiffenberg, printed in the 'Bulletins de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres, et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique,' No. 10, 1847, the Sota is transformed into a female: "Dans les jeux de cartes espagnols, la dame et le valet étaient remplacés par le cavallo et la sota, le cavalier et la fille."

[267] Mons. Duchesne, is of opinion that the Marquis Girolamo's cards belonged to the same pack or set as the so-called Gringonneur cards preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi. If Millin's description, however, be correct, Mons. Duchesne is unquestionably wrong.

[268] Millin, Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts, tom. i, p. 201. Paris, 1806. Quoted by Peignot.—Jacobello del Fiore flourished about 1420.—A set of cards, "containing figures of the gods, with their emblematic animals, and figures of birds also," were painted for Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan, who died in 1447. Decembrio, in his life of this prince, in the 20th volume of the 'Rerum Italicarum Scriptores,' says that they cost fifteen hundred pieces of gold, and were chiefly executed by the prince's secretary, Martianus Terdonensis. From the context, it appears that they were not mere pictures, but were intended for some kind of game.—Aretine, in his 'Carte Parlanti,' speaks with admiration of a pack of cards painted by Jacopo del Giallo, a Florentine artist who flourished about 1540.

[269] It is but fair to observe here that the Dutch name for the suit which we call Spades, is Scop, a Shovel, or Spade; and that as this name has been evidently given to the suit from the mark bearing some resemblance to a spade, the same suit might have been called Spades by the English for the same reason. This objection, however, does not affect the conjecture with respect to Clubs. In the Nugæ Venales, printed in Holland, 1648, we meet with the following: "Query. Why are the Four Kings of cards, Diamonds, Trefoil, Hearts, and Spades—Rhombuli, Trifolii, Cordis, et Ligonis—always poor?—Answer. Because they are always at play; and play, according to the proverb, is man's perdition. Their state is also in other respects most miserable; for when through them much money is lost, they are condemned to the flames, and burnt like wizards." The modern Dutch names for the suits of French cards are Hart,—Heart; Ruyt, a lozenge-shaped figure, a diamond-shaped pane of glass,—Diamonds; Klaver, Clover, Trefoil,—Clubs; Scop, a Spade, Shovel, or Scoop,—Spades.

[270] Sharon Turner's History of England, vol. iii, p. 80.

[271] "Here begynneth a traetys callyde the Lordis flayle handlyde by the Bushoppes powre theresshere Thomas Solme."—Without date. At the end: "Prynted at Basyl by me Theophyll Emlos, undere the sygne of Sente Peters Kay."—16mo. In one passage Henry VIII is appealed to as then living.