The annexed cuts are fac-similes of some of the old cards to which I have alluded at page 83. The originals are preserved in the print-room of the British Museum; and from a repeated examination of them, I am convinced that they have been depicted by means of a stencil, and not printed nor "rubbed off" from wood blocks. They are not coloured, nor cut into single cards; but appear just as they are shown in the fac-similes. They formed part of the covers or "boards" of an old book, and were sold to the British Museum by Mr. D. Colnaghi. Looking at the marks of the suits in those cards, the character of the figures, and the manner in which they are executed, I should say that they are not of a later date than 1440. Though cards of only three suits occur, namely, Hearts, Bells, and Acorns, there can be little doubt that the fourth suit was Leaves, as in the pack described by Mr. Gough, in the eighth volume of the 'Archæologia.' As in Mr. Gough's cards, so in these, there is no Queen; though, like them, there appears to have been three "coat" cards in each suit, namely, a King, a Knight, or Superior Officer, and a Knave, or Servant; in other words, King, Jack, and Jack's Man. The lower cards, as in Mr. Gough's pack, appear to have been numbered by their "pips" from two to ten, without any ace.
That those cards were depicted by means of a stencil is evident from the feebleness and irregularity of the lines, as well as from the numerous breaks in them, which, in many instances, show where a white isolated space was connected with other blank parts of the stencil. The separation seen in the heads of the figures in No. 1 of the fac-similes here given, would appear to have been occasioned by the stencil either breaking or slipping while the operator was passing the brush over it. From the costume of the figures in these cards, I am inclined to think that they are the production of a Venetian card-maker. A lion, the emblem of St. Mark, the patron saint of Venice, and a distinctive badge of the city, appears, as in the annexed cut, in the suit of Bells; and a similar figure, with part of a mutilated inscription, also occurs in the suit of Acorns.
Card-playing appears to have been a common amusement with the citizens of Bologna, about 1423. In that year St. Bernardin of Sienna, who died in 1444, and was canonized in 1450, preaching on the steps in front of the church of St. Petronius, described so forcibly the evils of gaming in general, and of Card-playing in particular, to which the Bolognese were much addicted, that his hearers made a fire in the public place and threw their cards into it. A card-maker who was present, and who had heard the denunciations of the preacher, not only against gamesters, but against all who either supplied them with cards or dice, or in any manner countenanced them, is said to have thus addressed him, in great affliction of mind. [107] "I have not learned, father, any other business than that of painting cards; and if you deprive me of that, you deprive me of life, and my destitute family of the means of earning a subsistence." To this appeal the Saint cheerfully replied: "If you do not know what to paint, paint this figure, and you will never have cause to regret having done so." Thus saying, he took a tablet and drew on it the figure of a radiant sun, with the name of Jesus indicated in the centre by the monogram I.H.S. The card-painter followed the saint's advice; and so numerous were the purchasers of the reformed productions of his art, that he soon became rich. In the Bibliothèque du Roi at Paris, there is an old woodcut of St. Bernardin, with the date 1454, which has been supposed to have been engraved with reference to this anecdote, as the saint is seen holding in his right hand the symbol which he recommended the card-maker to paint. A fac-simile of this figure of St. Bernardin is given in the 'Illustrated London News,' of the 20th of April, 1844, and reprinted in a work recently published, entitled 'The History and Art of Wood Engraving.'
John Capistran, a disciple of St. Bernardin, and also a Franciscan friar, followed the example of his master in preaching against gaming; and his exhortations appear to have been attended with no less success. In 1452, when on a mission to Germany, he preached for three hours at Nuremberg, in Latin, against luxury and gaming; and his discourse, which was interpreted by one of his followers, produced so great an effect on the audience, that there were brought into the market-place and burnt, 76 jaunting sledges, 3640 backgammon boards, 40,000 dice, and cards innumerable. Under an old portrait of Capistran, engraved on wood by Hans Schaufflein, there is an inscription commemorating the effects of his preaching as above related. [108]
FOOTNOTES:
[72] "Aleæ nomen quamvis pro omni ludo, qui in varietate fortunæ consistat, sumi queat juxta sententiam, vel opinionem aliquot scriptorum; quorum è numero est Joannes Azorius in tertia parte Institutionum Moralium, dicens: 'Aleæ ludus comprehendit Ludum Chartarum Lusoriarum, Taxillorum, Tabularum, et Sortium.' Propriè tamen, ut ait Jacobus Spiegelius, accipi solet pro Tesseris, quæ Tali etiam, vel Taxilli, et vulgò Dadi vocitantur: Tesseræ autem, Tali, vel Taxilli, et Cubi, vel Dadi, sunt idem, diversi vero quantum ad numerum laterum et punctorum.... Non desunt alii, qui Aleæ nomen pro Chartis Lusoriis passim intelligendum esse velint, ut Polydorus Virgilius, et alii scribunt."—Commentarius contra Ludum Alearum, Chartarum scilicet ac Taxillorum; a Fratre Angelo Roccha, Episcopo Tagastensi, p. 2, 4to. Romæ, 1616.
[73] "Bishop of Bamberg. What do you say is the name of the emperor who wrote your Corpus Juris?