[112] Anderson's History of Commerce, vol. i, p. 483.—The passage relating to cards, in the act referred to, was pointed out to the Hon. D. Barrington by Mr. John Nichols. Gough, in his 'Observations on the Invention of Cards,' in the Eighth Volume of Archæologia, says, that Mr. Le Neve produced before the Society of Antiquaries a minute to show that cards were manufactured in England before the 1st of Edward IV; for then a person had his name from his ancestor having been a card-maker. Mr. Gough observes that the ancestor of this person—Hugh Cardmaker, prior of St. John the Baptist, at Bridgenorth—was probably a maker of cards for dressing flax or wool. A Karter—a wool-comber—occurs in the town-books of Nuremberg, in 1397.
[113] Fenn's Paston Letters, vol. ii, p. 333, edit. 1778.
[114] "The kynge came privily to the said castell [of Newbattle], and entred within the chammer with a small company, where he founde the quene playing at the CARDES."—Leland's Collectanea, vol. iii, Appendix, p. 284. Cited by Warton, in his History of English Poetry, who also observes that cards are mentioned in a statute of Henry VII, in the year 1496.
[115] Private Life of James IV of Scotland, in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, Nos. 9 and 10, 1832.
[116] "Les cartes, comme tout ce qui tient aux arts, out une origine Italienne: c'est à Venise ou à Florence que les Grecs réfugiés de Constantinople les ont d'abord fait connaître."—Annuaire Historique pour I'année 1837, p. 188.
[117] Ducange, Glossarium ad Scriptores mediæ; et infimæ Græcitatis. Folio, 1688. Under the words Αζαρια and Χαρτια. Ταυλια is merely a different mode of spelling ταβλια—tabulæ, tables, a kind of backgammon board with its appendages.
[118] The following is Mons. Brunet's prefatory note to his brochure, which was published at Paris, in 1842. "Les curieux, les amateurs de livres recherchent avec empressement tout ce qui a rapport aux cartes; c'est ce qui m'a porté à consacrer un instant de loisir à la traduction de ce que je venais de lire, à cet égard, dans un ouvrage allemand, vaste répertoire de I'érudition bibliographique la plus étendue (Lehrbuch einer Literargeschichte der berühmtesten Volker des Mittelalters, von J.G.T. Grasse, Dresden und Leipsig, Arnoldische Buchhandlung, 1842, Band II, s. 879-85); j'ajoute quelques indications nouvelles à cet aperçu, que je n'imprime d'ailleurs qu'à quelques exemplaires."
[119] Geiler's second bell—his peal consists of seven—rings to this tune. "Secunda nola est: ludcre alea dissimilibus. Tangit hæc nola feminas nobiles et sacerdotes: feminas, inquam, quæ immiscent se turbis virorum et cum eis ludunt, contra c. ii de judiciis, lib. vi; sacerdotes et prelatos ludentes cum laicis,—laici sunt clericis oppido infesti, unde scandalizantur; nobiles qui ludunt cum nebulonibus et lenonibus, ut in speculo nostro vulgari habes."—Speculum Fatuorum, auctore Joanne Geiler de Keisersberg, concionatore Argentorense, sect. LXXVII. Lusorum turba (Spiel Narre). Edit. Strasburg, 1511. It may here be observed that Geiler's bells are intended by himself for the caps of "Spiel Narre"—gambling fools.
[120] "Logica Memorativa: Chartiludium logice, sive dialectice memoria; et novus Petri Hyspani textus emendatus. Cum jucundo pictasmatis exercitio: eruditi viri F. Thomæ Murner, ordinis minorum, theologie doctoris eximii." 4to, Strasburg, 1509 Leber says that the book was first printed at Cracow in 1507; and that an edition of it, in octavo, was printed at Paris in 1629. Murner was one of Luther's early opponents; and one of the pamphlets which was published during their controversy bears the following title: "Antwort dem Murner, uff scine frag, ob der Künig von Engellant ein lügner sey, oder der götliche doctor Mart. Luther, 1523." "An answer to Mumer on his question, 'Whether the King of England, or the reverend Doctor Martin Luther, is a liar?'"
[121] "Chartiludium Institute summarie, doctore Thoma Murner memorante et ludente." 4to, Strasburg, 1518. A copy of this book was sold at Dr. Kloss's sale in 1835; and in the Catalogue, No. 2579, we are informed that "this very rare and curious volume contains very many wood-engravings, illustrative of four distinct games played by the ancients with paper." Such games, we may presume, as are played at with the Statutes at large. If Murner understood any game, he must have learnt it subsequent to the publication of his Logical Card-play; and if he were able to make it subservient to the explanation of anything else, he must have improved himself greatly between 1508 and 1518.