[13] Catalogue des Livres imprimés, Manuscrits, Estampes, Dessins, et Cartes à jouer, composant le Bibliothèque de M. C. Leber, tom. i, p. 238. Paris, 1839. This library, the Catalogue of which consists of three volumes, now belongs to the city of Rouen. The cards are described in the first volume, pp. 237-48.
[14] With the Latins, Ludere par impar; with the Greeks, αρτιαζειν; ραιζειν, αρτια η περιττα. "Nempe ludentes, sumptis in manu talis, fabis, nucibus, amygdalis, interdum etiam nummis, interrogantes alteram divinare jubebant, 'αρτια η περιττα'; paria, nempe, an imparia haberent."—Meursius, de Ludis Græcorum, p. 5, edit. 1622.
[15] Fortune is a parvenue, in the Olympian circle,—of great means, but no family:
Di chi figluola fusse, ò di che seme
Nascesse, non si sa; ben si sa certo
Ch'infino à Giove sua potentia teme.
Macchiavelli, Capitolo di Fortuna.
[16] Dr. Thomas Hyde is inclined to think that the game of Astragali was known from the time of the general Deluge.—De Ludis Orientalibus. Oxon. 1694.
[17] The ancient Greek game of Astragali or Astragalismus—the Tali of the Romans—appears to have been played in a manner similar to that described in the text. The names given to the different casts are to be found in Meursius, De Ludis Græcorum, under the word ΑΣΤΡΑΓΑΛΙΣΜΟΣ.