INTRODUCTION OF CARDS INTO EUROPE.
At what period Playing Cards first became known in Europe,--whether
as an original invention, or introduced from some other quarter of
the world,--has not yet been ascertained. From the silence, however,
of all authorities by whom we might expect to find them distinctly
named if they had been in common use, it may be fairly concluded,
that, though they possibly might be known to a few persons before the
year 1350, they did not begin to attract notice nor come into frequent
use till towards the latter end of the fourteenth century. Packs of
cards are distinctly mentioned by the name which they still retain in
France--_Jeux de Cartes_--in an entry made in his book of accounts,
about 1393, by Charles Poupart, treasurer of the household to Charles
VI of France. Considering, then, this entry as an established fact in
the history of cards, I shall now proceed to lay before the reader some
of the grounds and evidences on which it has been asserted that cards
were well known in Europe before that period.
Several writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in
discussing the lawfulness of card-playing, gratuitously assuming that
the game was included under the general term _Alea_,[72] have spoken of
cards as if they had been known from time immemorial. The easy mode of
deriving _aliquid de aliquo_ by means of a comprehensive _genus_, is
of frequent use with those decisive characters who delight in settling
cases of conscience with a strong hand; and who, enveloped in the
dust of the Schools, lay vigorously about them, both right and left,
with weapons borrowed from "the old Horse Armoury of the Fathers,"
and re-ground, for present use, on the Decretals. He who can discover
cards, _implicitè_, as Olearius has it,[73] in St. Cyprian's tract, De
Aleatoribus, or in the injunctions against gaming in the canons of any
Council or Synod previous to 1390, will have no difficulty in finding
"Roulette" and "E or O," implied under the general term _Tabulæ_.
Having thus indicated the value of the hypothetic evidence in favour of
cards being known in early times,--because the game was subsequently
comprehended under a schoolman's definition of the term _Alea_,--it may
be left to pass for what it is worth.
Mons. Eloi Johanneau's proof that cards were known in the eleventh
century, from the testimony of Papias, previously noticed, neither
requires, nor indeed admits of serious refutation. If it could be shown
that the word _Naipe_ or _Naibe_ was ever used in Spain or Italy to
signify a painted cloth or a picture, before it was used to signify a
Playing Card, its affinity with _Nappe_ and _Mappa_ might be admitted
to be clearly established. John of Salisbury, who was born in the
early part of the twelfth century, says not a word in his work 'De
Nugis Curialium'--on the Trifling of Courtiers--which might indicate a
knowledge of cards, although one of the chapters is especially devoted
to an examination of the use and abuse of gaming.[74] Had cards formed
one of the common pastimes of the courtiers of his age, it is highly
probable that he would have mentioned them, by some name or other, so
as to distinguish them from the other games which he enumerates.
The 38th canon of the Council of Worcester, held in 1240, contains
the following prohibition: "Prohibemus etiam clericis, ne intersint
ludis inhonestis, vel choreis, vel ludant ad aleas vel taxillos; nec
sustineant ludos fieri de Rege et Regina, nec arietes levari, nec
palæstras publicas fieri:" that is, "We also forbid clergymen to join
in disreputable games or dancings, or to play at dice; neither shall
they allow games of King and Queen to be acted [fieri], nor permit
ram-raisings, nor public wrestlings."[75] Ducange, who quotes the
passage in his Latin Glossary, under the word Ludi, is inclined to
think that the game _de Rege et Regina_--King and Queen--might have
been the game of cards. There are not, however, any just grounds
for entertaining such an opinion. The conjecture seems to have been
suggested merely from the circumstance of there being a King and Queen
in the cards with which the writer was most familiar; but had he
known that no Queen is to be found in the earliest European cards, he
probably would not have made so bad a guess. Besides, looking at the
context, there can scarcely be a doubt that the _games_--not _game_--of
King and Queen were a kind of mumming exhibitions which the clergy
enjoyed as spectators, not as performers. Payments to minstrels and
mummers for their exhibitions for the amusement of the monks, and eke
of the lord Abbot himself, are not of unfrequent occurrence in the
account books of old monasteries. In the same clause, the clergy are
enjoined not to allow of ram-raisings nor public wrestlings--sports
in which they were as unlikely to appear as actors as in the games of
the King and Queen. What may have been meant by ram-raising--_arietes
levari_--the curious reader is left to find, if he can, in the pages of
Strutt and Fosbroke.
The next passage, supposed to relate to Playing Cards, which demands
attention, is that which occurs in the Wardrobe accounts of Edward I,
anno 1278, and which has been already quoted in the first chapter. It
appears necessary to give it here again, together with the Hon. Daines
Barrington's remarks on it, in the chronological order of evidences
adduced in favour of the antiquity of Card Playing in Europe. "The
earliest mention of cards that I have yet stumbled upon, is in Mr.
Anstis's 'History of the Garter' (vol. ii, p. 307), where he cites the
following passage from the Wardrobe rolls, in the sixth year of Edward
the First: 'Waltero Sturton ad opus regis ad ludendum ad _quatuor
Reges_, viii._s._ v._d._'; from which entry Mr. Anstis, with some
probability conjectures, that Playing Cards were not unknown at the
latter end of the thirteenth century; and perhaps what I shall add, may
carry with it some small confirmation of what he supposes."
The simple fact that the game of cards was known, both in France
and England, by the name of the Four Kings, long before we had any
special dissertations respecting its origin, is of more weight,
in corroboration of Anstis's supposition, than Mr. Barrington's
supplemental conjectures. The first question to be determined, is the
identity of the game of cards, and that of the Quatuor Reges; but,
without adducing the slightest evidence, he assumes the fact, and then
proceeds to speculate where Edward might have learnt the game. But even
admitting that cards were meant by the term _Quatuor Reges_, it is
just as likely that Edward learned the game from his Queen, Eleanor of
Castile, as that he learned it from the Saracens in the Holy Land; for,
admitting it to be of Eastern origin, and that Europeans first obtained
a knowledge of it from the Saracens, or a people of Arab race, it may
be fairly supposed that Spain would be one of the countries in which
cards would be earliest introduced. In the cards now in use in England,
there are certain peculiarities in the names of two of the suits, as
compared with the marks, which seem to intimate that we obtained our
first knowledge of the game from Spain, although subsequently we might
import our cards from France.
Seeing that chess was known in the East by a term signifying the Four
Kings, and that it was a favorite amusement with the higher classes
in Europe in the reign of Edward I, there can scarcely be a doubt that
this was the game to which Walter Sturton's entry relates. If cards
were indeed known in Europe in the early part of the reign of Edward
the First, the silence respecting them, of all contemporary writers,
for about a century afterwards, must be admitted as conclusive, though
negative, evidence of their not being in common use. Petrarch, though
he treats of gaming in one of his dialogues, never mentions them; and
though Boccacio and Chaucer notice various games at which both the
higher and lower classes of the period were accustomed to play, yet
there is not a single passage in the works of either, which can be
fairly construed to mean cards.
From the following passage, which occurs in a work on the 'Government
of a Family,' in manuscript, composed by Sandro di Pipozzi,[76] in
1299, it has been concluded by Breitkopf that cards were at that period
well known in Italy: "Se giucherà di denaro, o cosi, o alle _carte_,
gli apparecchieria la via, &c." Zani, however, opposes to the authority
of the manuscript, the negative evidence of Petrarch, who flourished
at a subsequent period, and who, he thinks, would not have failed to
have mentioned cards if they had then been known among the various
games which he enumerates in the first dialogue of his treatise 'De
Remediis utriusque Fortunæ.'[77] Mons. Duchesne also remarks, in his
'Observations sur les Cartes a jouer,' that, as the copy of Sandro di
Pipozzi's work, cited by Taraboschi, and examined by Zani, is not
of an earlier date than 1400, there is reason to believe that the
express mention of cards in it, was the interpolation of a transcriber.
That such interpolations were frequently made both by printers and
transcribers, will appear evident from the following observations on
several works, both printed and manuscript, which have been cited in
proof of the antiquity of card-playing in Europe.[78]
The Abbé Rive, who ascribes the invention of cards to Spain, endeavours
to show that they were known there in the early part of the fourteenth
century. The evidence of this is, according to his statement, to be
found in the Statutes of the military order of the Band, promulgated
by Alphonso, King of Castile, where there is a passage expressly
forbidding the members to play at cards. Whether cards are expressly
mentioned in any old Spanish manuscripts of the Statutes in question,
has not been ascertained; but of all the different editions, original
and translated, of Guevara's 'Golden Epistles,' the work from which
the Abbé Rive obtained his information, the first in which cards are
expressly named, is that of the French translation by Gutery, published
at Lyons in 1558.[79] As the word is not to be found in the original
Spanish editions, nor in the Italian translations made from them, there
cannot be a reasonable doubt of its being an interpolation of Gutery,
who probably thought that a general prohibition of gaming necessarily
included cards; and thus, "par conséquent," the Abbé Rive is furnished
with positive evidence that the game of cards was common in Spain in
1332. Another authority, referred to by the Abbé Rive in favour of the
antiquity of Spanish cards, is of the same kind. In a collection of the
'Laws of Spain,' printed in 1640, he finds the following passage in
an Ordonnance issued by John I, King of Castile, in 1387: "We command
and ordain that none of our subjects shall dare to play at dice or at
cards (_Naypes_) either in public or in private, and that whoever shall
so play, &c."[80] There can, however, be no doubt that the word cards
(Naypes) is an interpolation; for it is not to be found in the same
Ordonnance as given in the collection entitled 'Ordenanças Reales de
Castilla,' printed at Medina del Campo, 1541. In this earlier edition,
playing at dice and tables for money is indeed forbidden--"de jugar
juego de dados ni de tables, a dinero"--but cards are not mentioned.
Jansen, in his 'Essai sur l'Origine de la Gravure en Bois et en
Taille-douce,' cites the four following verses from the romance of
Renard le Contrefait, pointed out to him by the late Mons. Van Praet,
in evidence of cards being known in France at least as early as 1341,
the year in which the romance was finished:
"Si comme fols et folles sont,
Qui pour gagner, au bordel vont;
Jouent aux dez, aux cartes, aux tables,
Qui à Dieu ne sont délectables."
The manuscript containing the verses as they are here given is in the
Bibliothèque du Roi; but certainly it is not of earlier date than 1450;
while in another manuscript, of the same romance, apparently about a
hundred years older, also preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, the
word "Cartes" is not to be found in the corresponding verse, which is
as follows:
"Jouent à geux de dez ou de tables."
Meerman[81] imagined that he had discovered a positive date for the
early use of cards in France, in the work known as the Chronicle of
Petit-Jehan de Saintré, but which was, in fact, written by Antoine de
Lassale, in 1459.[82] Saintré had been one of the pages of Charles
V, and on his being appointed carver to the King on account of his
good conduct, the governor of the pages is represented as giving them
a lecture on their bad courses: "Observe your companion here, who,
through his good conduct, has acquired the favour of the King and
Queen, and of all; while you are dicers and card-players, keeping bad
company, and haunting taverns and cabarets."[83] The fact of the work
having been composed in 1459, however, renders it of no authority on
the question; and even if it had been written by Jehan Saintré himself,
there cannot be a doubt that the term "_Cartes_" is an interpolation.
The term "_joueux de cartes_," card-players, is indeed to be found in
the earliest printed editions of the work, and also in a manuscript
preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi; but then this manuscript does not
appear to be of an earlier date than the latter end of the fifteenth
century, and there is also reason to believe that it is the identical
manuscript from which the work was first printed. The word _Cartes_,
however, is not to be found in a manuscript copy of the work in the
library of the Sorbonne, nor in another in the library of St. Germains.
The latter is much older than either of the others. Mons. Duchesne says
that, in 1583, it belonged to Claude d'Expilly, and that these two
verses, which show that it was even then considered an old manuscript,
are written in the first folio:
"Ce livre soit gardé, non tant pour sa beauté,
Que pour le saint respect de son antiquité."
"From this examination," says Mons. Duchesne, "we may conclude that
the word _Cartes_ is an interpolation made by a transcriber a century
later: consequently it cannot be admitted as a proof that cards were
known in 1367."[84]
In an edition of William de Guilleville's allegorical poem, entitled
'Le Pelerinaige de l'Homme,'[85] printed at Paris by Verard in 1511,
the following verses, in which cards are named, were pointed out to me
by my friend Mr. N. Hill, of the Royal Society of Literature, to whom
I am greatly indebted for much curious and interesting information
relating to the Origin and History of Playing Cards.
At folio xlv, _a_, Oysivete tempts the pilgrim to quit the right
way by recounting to him the pleasures enjoyed by those who place
themselves under her guidance:
"... Je meyne gens au bois,
Et la leur fais-je veoir danseurs,
Jeux de basteaulx et de jougleurs,
Jeux de tables et déschiquiers,
De boulles et mereilliers.
De _cartes_, jeux de tricherie,
Et de mainte autre muserie."
At folio lxxii, _a_, _Quartes_--for so the word is there spelled--is
noticed as a prohibited game:
"Mains ieux qui sont denyez,
Aux merelles, _quartes_, et dez," &c.
As there was reason to suspect that the word _Cartes_ or _Quartes_, in
the printed copies of De Guilleville's poem, was an interpolation, the
same as it was found to be in other works examined by M. Duchesne, M.
Paulin Paris, assistant-keeper of the manuscripts in the Bibliothèque
du Roi, was requested by a friend of Mr. Hill, to compare the printed
text with that of the earliest manuscript copies of the poem preserved
in the collection under his care. The result of the collation was
that the suspected words had been interpolated. The following is a
translation of a portion of M. Paulin Paris's letter on the subject.
"I have compared the verses of our MSS. of the Pilgrimage of Human Life
with the printed editions, and have found the latter very inexact.
Cards are neither named nor alluded to in the MSS.; and in them the
first passage, pointed out by your friend Mr. N. Hill, stands thus:
Ja leur fais je veoir baleurs,
Gieux de bastiaux et de jugleurs,
De tables et de eschequiers,
De boules et de mereliers,
De dez et d'entregsterie,
Et de mainte autre muserie.
_MS._ 6988, fol. 44, _verso_.
(No. 2), fol. 47, _verso_.
"The other passage referred to is, in both MSS. as follows:
Tant l'aime que je en suis sote,
Et que en pers souvent ma cote,
A mains jeux qui sont devées,
Aux merelles, tables, et dez."
As all the different interpolations referred to appear to have been
made in good faith,--not for the purpose of showing the antiquity of
card-playing, nor with any view of deceiving the reader, but merely to
supply what the transcriber, looking at the manners of his own age,
felt to be an omission,--they afford good grounds for concluding that,
at the time when the several works were first written, cards were not
a common game in either France or Spain; for, had they then been well
known in those countries, it is just as likely that they would have
been mentioned by the original writers as that they should have been
interpolated by later transcribers.
[Illustration]
In an article on Cards, in the 'Magasin Pittoresque' for April, 1836,
an illustration is given, of which the annexed cut is a fac-simile.
The writer of the article says that it is exactly copied from a
miniature in a MS. of the _Cité de Dieu_, translated from St. Augustine
by Raoul de Presles, who began the translation in 1371, and finished it
in 1375. The writer, considering the MS. to be of the same date as the
translation, says that the miniature represents persons of distinction
of the reign of Charles V.[86] As he adduces, however, no evidence to
show that the MS. is of so early a date, his so-called demonstration
that cards were well known in 1375, is essentially defective; for,
in transcripts of books, nothing is more common than to find, in the
illustrations, things which were unknown when the works were first
written. The costume, indeed, appears more like that of persons of
distinction about the latter end of the reign of Charles VI, 1422, than
of the reign of Charles V, 1364-1380. From the kind of cards which the
parties are seen playing with, no safe conclusion can be drawn with
respect to the age of the manuscript; for it is not positively known
what kind of cards were chiefly used in France between 1392 and 1440.
But, whatever may be the date of the manuscript, it is evident that
numeral cards marked with "pips" and honours, similarly to those now in
common use, were known in France at the time when the drawing was made.
The following account of the introduction of cards into Viterbo, in
1379, previously referred to in Chapter I, is here given as it is
to be found in Leber's 'Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer.'
"Feliciano Bussi relates, in his 'History of Viterbo,'[87] a work but
little known, that in 1379, the epoch of the schism caused by the
opposition of the anti-pope Clement to Urban VI, the mercenary troops
of each party committed all manner of annoyances and spoliations in
the Roman States, and that a great number of cattle, which had been
stolen by the marauders, and driven to Viterbo for the provisionment
of that city, were there seized, and carried off in a moment. 'And
yet,' adds the historian, 'who could believe it! In this same year of
so much distress there was introduced into Viterbo the game of cards,
or, as I would say, playing cards, which previously were not in the
least known in that city;' the words of Covelluzzo, are, folio 28,
verso: 'In the year 1379, was brought into Viterbo the game of cards,
which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is with them called
_Naib_.'" As the introduction of cards into Viterbo is here directly
recorded as a historical fact, there can be little doubt, if the
passage in Covelluzzo be genuine, that cards were known to the Italian
condottieri in 1379. In the chronicle of Giovan Morelli, of the date
1393, _Naibi_ is mentioned as a kind of game; and, from the context, it
has been concluded that it was one at which children only played.[88]
At any rate it appears there as a game at which older people might play
without reproach. Long after cards were condemned by synods and civic
ordinances, as a game of hazard, grave writers allowed that sober,
decent people might enjoy the game provided that they played purely
for the sake of recreation, and not for the chance of winning their
neighbour's money.
Heineken quotes from the 'Güldin Spil,' a book written about the middle
of the fifteenth century by a Dominican friar, of the name of Ingold,
printed at Augsburg, by Gunther Zainer, in 1472, the following passage
relating to cards:[89] "Nun ist das Spil vol untrew; und, als ich
gelesen han, so ist es kommen in Teutschland der ersten in dem iar,
da man zalt von Crist geburt, tausend dreihundert iar." That is: "The
game is right deceitful; and, as I have read, was first brought into
Germany in the year 1300." The title of 'Güldin Spil,'--the Golden
Game,--appears to have been given to the work by the author, on account
of its being a kind of pious travesty of the principal games in vogue
in Germany at the period when he wrote: having given each game a moral
exposition, that which was formerly dross is converted into gold: the
"old man" is put off, and the reformed gambler, instead of idling away
his precious time at tric-trac, dice, or cards for beggarly groschen,
"goes" his whole soul at the 'Güldin Spil.'
That the author had read somewhere of cards having been first brought
into Germany in 1300, may be admitted without question; for to suppose
that he told an untruth, would require to be backed by a supplementary
conjecture as to his motives for falsifying,--a mode of eliciting
the "truth," in frequent use indeed with philosophic historians when
discussing questions of great import in the history of nations, but
not exactly suitable for determining a trifling fact in the history
of Playing Cards. Having admitted the good faith of the author of the
'Güldin Spil,' the next question that presents itself is, whether what
he had read about the introduction of cards into Germany was in itself
true; it is, however, unnecessary to discuss it here, for even if cards
were known in Germany at so early a period, there is no satisfactory
evidence of their having been common in that country until about a
century later.
Von Murr, who also cites from the 'Güldin Spil' the preceding passage
relating to cards, thinks that the epoch assigned, 1300, is at
least fifty years too early.[90] He, however, states that he found
cards--_Carten_--mentioned in an old book of bye-laws and regulations
of the city of Nuremberg, to which he assigns a date between 1380
and 1384. The word occurs in a bye-law relating to gaming--'_Vom
Spil_'--from the penalties of which the following games are, under
certain circumstances, excepted: "Horse-racing, shooting with
cross-bows, _cards_, shovel-board, tric-trac, and bowls, at which a
man may bet from two pence to a groat." Whether the date assigned by
Von Murr be correct or not, I am unable to determine. His reason for
concluding that it was between the years 1380 and 1384, is as follows:
"There is indeed no date to this bye-law, but it is written in the same
hand as a law relating to the Toll-houses before the New Gate; and at
folio 4 there is a precise date, namely the second day before Walpurg's
day, 1384." The reason is not a very good one; for, even admitting
the identity of the hand-writing in the ordinance relating to gaming,
and in the act of 1381 relating to the toll-houses, yet both might
have been copied into the book at a subsequent period. It is also to
be observed, that, according to Von Murr's own account, the date 1384
occurs in the fourth folio, while the ordinance in which cards are
mentioned, is in the _sixteenth_ folio. But though the date assigned
by Von Murr to the Nuremberg regulation, may be a few years too early,
there is good reason to believe that cards were well known in Germany
towards the conclusion of the fourteenth century. According to Mons.
Neubronner, administrator at Ulm, (about 1806,) there was in the
archives of that city an ancient parchment volume, called the Red Book,
on account of its red initial letters, which contained a prohibition
against Card Playing, dated 1397.[91]
Having now laid before the reader the principal authorities which have
been alleged by various writers,--whether for the purpose of showing
the antiquity of card-playing in Europe generally, or with the design
of supporting their own opinion as to the invention of cards in some
particular country--it is now time to enter on what may be termed the
positive history of cards, beginning from the year 1393.
Charles VI of France lost his reason in consequence of a
_coup-de-soleil_, in 1392; and during the remainder of his life
continued insane, though with occasional lucid intervals. In either the
same or in the following year, 1393, this entry occurs in the accounts
of his treasurer, Charles Poupart, or, as he is named by Monstrelet,
Charbot Poupart: "Given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three
packs of cards, gilt and coloured, and variously ornamented, for the
amusement of the king, fifty-six sols of Paris."[92] Menestrier, who
was the first to point out this passage, concluded from it that the
game of cards was then first invented by Gringonneur for the purpose of
diverting the king's melancholy; and his account of the invention long
passed as authentic in the politely learned world. That the game of
cards was invented by Gringonneur is in the highest degree improbable;
for the general tenor of the passage in which they are named by Poupart
implies that the game was then already known, though from the notice
of the gilding and colouring of the cards, it may be supposed that
Gringonneur had a special order for them, and that they were not then
in general use.
"If," says Piegnot, "Père Menestrier had paid attention to the manner
in which the passage is drawn up, he would have perceived that
the expression 'for three packs of cards,'--'_pour trois jeux de
cartes_'--clearly announces, from its very simplicity, that cards were
already known, and that their invention was of a much earlier date. The
writer would not have mentioned so simply a collection of figures, just
conceived and painted by Gringonneur on small pieces of paper, and very
remarkable, as well from their symmetry and regularity, as from the
characters represented on them."[93]
The Hon. Daines Barrington, in his 'Observations on the Antiquity
of Playing Cards in England,' doubts if Poupart's entry actually
relates to Playing Cards. He is of opinion that the words "_trois jeux
de cartes_" mean three sets of illuminations upon paper, "_carte_
originally signifying nothing more." If Mr. Barrington had produced
any authority to show that, either in the time of Charles VI, or at
any other period, "un _jeu_ de cartes" was used to signify a set of
illuminations, or that the term ever signified anything else than a
pack, or a game, of cards, his doubt would not have had so much the
appearance of a starved conceit.
Though in 1393 cards might have been but little known and seldom played
at, except by the higher classes, the game in a short time appears to
have become common; for in an edict of the provost of Paris, dated 22d
of January, 1397, working people are forbid to play at tennis, bowls,
dice, _cards_, or nine-pins, on working days. From the omission of
cards in an ordonnance of Charles V, dated 1369, forbidding certain
games and addressed to all the seneschals, baillies, provosts, and
other officers of the kingdom, it may be safely concluded that if cards
were known in France in 1369, the game was by no means so common as in
1397. Duchesne indeed says that it is between 1369 and 1397, a period
of twenty-eight years, that the invention of Playing Cards, or at least
their introduction into France, ought to be placed.
Cards having been presented at the court of France for the amusement of
the king, and prohibited in the city of Paris, either as too good or
too bad for the amusement of working people, appear forthwith to have
become fashionable; but, besides the recommendations alluded to, the
game possesses charms of its own which could scarcely fail to render
it a favorite with gamesters of all classes, as soon as its principles
should be known.[94] To ladies and gentlemen who might play, merely
as a relaxation from the more serious business of hunting and hawking,
dressing and dining, no game could be more fascinating; while to those
who might play for gain, what other game could be more tempting? The
great infirmity of human nature, with the noble as well as the ignoble,
as old stories plainly show, is the too eager desire to obtain money,
or money's worth, in a short time and at little cost; and, hence, to
risk a certain sum on the chance of obtaining a greater, whether at
dice, cards, state lotteries, or art-union little-goes: in the latter,
indeed, under the prudent direction of what may be called "handicap"
legislators,--from their always coming out strong towards the end of
the session, like the beaten horses for a handicap at the end of a race
week,--the spirit of gaming is refined, and made subservient to the
purposes of pure charity and the promotion of the fine arts. He who
devised the game of cards, as now usually played, appears to have had a
thorough perception of at least two of the weak points of human nature;
for next to man's trust in his "luck," in all games of chance, is his
confidence in himself in all games of skill. The shuffling, cutting,
and dealing at cards, together with the chance afforded by the turn-up
of the trump, place the novice, in his own conceit, on a par with the
experienced gamester; who, on the other hand, is apt to underrate his
opponent's chance, from his over-confidence in his own skill.
During the middle ages, the clergy, notwithstanding their vows and
their pretensions to superior sanctity, appear to have been not
a whit more exempt from the weaknesses of human nature than the
unsanctified laity; nay, from the history of the times, it would
seem that their vows rendered them not only more susceptible of
temptation, but more likely to fall. Their preaching pointed one way,
and their lives another; and hence the old proverb, "Mind what the
friar _says_, not what he _does_." The vices of the times are indeed
written in the canons of synods and councils, and in the penitentials
of bishops directed against the immoralities of the clergy; and from
the experience of the past, thus recorded, we have ample proof that
clerical vows are not always a certain charm against secular vices.
After cards were once fairly introduced, it would appear that the
clergy were not long in "cutting in;" for, according to Dr. J. B.
Thiers, they were expressly forbid to play at cards, by the synod of
Langres, 1404.[95]
Menestrier refers to the statutes of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, 1430,
forbidding all kinds of gaming for money within his territories, though
his subjects are allowed to amuse themselves at certain games, provided
they play only for meat and drink.[96] "With respect to cards, they
are forbidden; nevertheless, they are allowed to women, with whom men
may also play, provided that they play only for pins,"--"dum ludus fiat
tantum cum spinulis." In this passage a jurist would not construe the
word "spinulis"--pins--literally, but would take it to mean any small
articles of pins' worth. In France, about 1580, the douceur given by
a guest to a waiter at an inn was called "his pins"--"épingles;"[97]
and the proverbial phrase, "Tirer son épingle du jeu," seems to allude
rather to "pin-stakes," than to the game of "push-pin."
Early in the fifteenth century, card-making appears to have become
a regular trade in Germany, and there is reason to believe that
it was not of much later date in Italy. In 1418 the name of a
card-maker--"_Kartenmacher_,"--occurs in the burgess-books of Augsburg.
In an old rate-book of the city of Nuremberg, the name "_Ell.
Kartenmacherin_" occurs under the year 1433; and in the same book under
the year 1435, the name "_Elis. Kartenmacherin_," probably the same
person. In the year 1438 the name "_Margret Kartenmalerin_" occurs.[98]
From those records it would appear that the earliest card-makers and
card-painters of Nuremberg were women; and that cards were known in
Germany by the name of "Karten" before they acquired the name of
"Briefe." Heineken, however, maintains that they were first known in
Germany by the latter name; for as he claimed the invention for his
countrymen, the fact of the name being derived either from the French
or Italian was adverse to his theory.
Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Ulm appear to have been the chief towns in
Germany for the manufacture of cards about the middle of the fifteenth
century; and, from the following passage, cited by Heineken from a
manuscript chronicle of the city of Ulm, ending at 1474, it would
appear that the German manufacturers, besides supplying the home
market did also a large export business: "Playing cards were sent in
small casks [_leglenweiss_] into Italy, Sicily, and also over sea,
and bartered for spices and other wares."[99] It was probably against
the German card-makers and painter-stainers that the magistracy
of Venice issued an order in 1441, forbidding the introduction of
foreign manufactured and printed coloured figures into the city
under the penalty of forfeiting such articles, and being fined xxx
liv. xii soldi. This order appears to have been made in consequence
of a petition from the fellowship of painters at Venice, wherein
they had set forth that "the art and mystery of card-making and of
printing figures, which were practised in Venice, had fallen into
total decay through the great quantity of foreign playing cards, and
coloured printed figures which were brought into the city."[100] The
magistrates' order, in which this passage occurs as the preamble,
was discovered by an Italian architect, of the name of Temanza, in an
old book of rules and orders belonging to the company or fellowship
of Venetian painters. Temanza sent an account of his discovery to
Count Algarotti, who published it in the fifth volume of his 'Lettere
Pittoriche.'
As it has been assumed that the earliest professional card-makers
were wood-engravers, and that the engraving of cards on wood led
to the execution of other figures, it appears necessary to trace
the Briefmaler's progress, and to show how he came to be identified
with the "wood-engraver in general." That the early card-makers or
card-painters of Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg, from about 1418 to 1450,
were also wood-engravers, is founded entirely on the assumption that
the cards of that period were engraved on wood, and that those who
manufactured them, both engraved and coloured the figures. It is not,
however, certain that the figures of the earliest cards, not drawn by
hand, were engraved on wood; in the oldest cards, indeed, which I have
had an opportunity of examining, and which appear to be of as early a
date as the year 1440, it is evident that the figures were executed
by means of a stencil.[101] From the circumstance of so many women
occurring as card-painters in the town books of Nuremberg between 1433
and 1477, there appears reason to conclude that they, at least, were
not wood-engravers.
The name of a wood-engraver proper--_Formschneider_--first occurs in
the town-books of Nuremberg, under the year 1449; and as for twenty
years subsequently, it frequently occurs on the same page with that of
a card-painter--_Kartenmaler_--there cannot be a doubt that there was
a distinction between the professions, although, like the barbers and
surgeons of former times, they both belonged to the same fellowship or
company.
A few years subsequent to the _Formschneider_, the _Briefmaler_ occurs;
but though his designation has the same literal meaning as that of
the _Kartenmaler_, yet his business seems to have been more general,
including both that of the card-painter and wood-engraver. About 1470
we find the _Briefmalers_ not only employed in executing figures, but
also in engraving the text of block-books; and about the end of the
fifteenth century the term seems to have been generally synonymous with
that of _Formschneider_. Subsequently the latter term prevailed as the
proper designation of a wood-engraver, while that of _Briefmaler_ was
more especially applied, like that of the original _Kartenmaler_, to
designate a person who coloured cards and other figures.[102]
Though we have positive evidence that, about the year 1470, the
_Briefmaler_ was a wood-engraver as well as a colourer of cards; and
though it be highly probable that the outlines of the figures on cards
were then engraved on wood, and that, from this circumstance, the
_Briefmaler_ became also a wood-engraver, yet we have no proof that
the earliest wood-engravers in Europe were the card-makers. Von Murr
indeed confidently affirms "that card-makers and card-painters were
known in Germany eighty years before the invention of typography,
and that the card-makers were at first properly wood-engravers, but
that, after the art of wood-engraving was applied to the execution of
sacred subjects, a distinction was made."[103] He who can thus persuade
himself that the germ of wood-engraving in Europe is to be found in
cards, will doubtless feel great pleasure in tracing its interesting
development; the first term, cards engraved on wood, being assumed, we
then have figures of saints with their names, or short explanations,
engraved on wood; next block-books consisting of sacred subjects with
copious explanatory text; and lastly typography and the press: "ce
n'est que le premier pas qui coute."[104]
At what period the art of wood-engraving was first introduced in
Europe, or in what country it was first practised, has not been
precisely ascertained. Not the slightest allusion is made to its
productions by any writers of the fourteenth century; and the earliest
authentic date that has hitherto been observed on any wood-engraving,
is 1423. A wood-engraving said to contain the date 1418 was indeed
discovered at Malines in 1844, pasted in the inside of an old
chest; but as the numerals have evidently been repaired by means of
a black-lead pencil, both the genuineness and the authenticity of
the date have been very justly questioned. The person by whom it was
found, the keeper of a little public-house, almost immediately sold it
to an architect named De Noter, of whom it was purchased by the Baron
de Reiffenberg, for the Royal Library of Brussels, of which he is the
conservator, and where it is now preserved.[105]
Before this discovery, the earliest wood-engraving with a date, was
the St. Christopher, in Earl Spencer's collection, in which the date
1423, partly in words and partly in numerals--"_Millesimo cccc^o xx^o
tercio_"--is seen engraved in the same manner as the other parts of
the subject. The first person who published an account of the St.
Christopher, was Heineken. When he first saw it, it was pasted on the
inside of the cover of a manuscript volume in the library of Buxheim,
near Memmingen in Suabia, within fifty miles of Augsburg, a city
which appears to have been the abode of wood-engravers almost from
the very commencement of the art in Europe, and in which we find a
card-maker so early as 1418. On the inside of the cover, Heineken also
observed another cut, of the annunciation, of the same size as the St.
Christopher, and apparently executed about the same time. The volume
within whose covers those cuts were pasted, was bequeathed to the
convent by Anna, canoness of Buchaw, who was living in 1427, but who
probably died previous to 1435. The Annunciation, as well as the St.
Christopher, is now in the possession of Earl Spencer.
From the time of their first introduction, woodcuts of sacred subjects
appear to have been known in Suabia and the adjacent districts by the
name of _Helgen_ or _Helglein_, a corruption of _Heiligen_, saints; and
in course of time this word also came to signify prints or woodcuts
generally. It would seem that originally the productions of the
wood-engraver were considered as imperfect till they were coloured; and
as the St. Christopher, the Annunciation, and others of an early date,
appear to have been coloured by means of a stencil, there is reason to
conclude that most of the "Helgen" of the same period were coloured in
the same manner. In France the same kind of cuts, probably coloured
in the same manner, were called "_Dominos_,"--a name which of itself
indicates the affinity of the subjects with those of the _Helgen_.
Subsequently, the word "Domino" was used to signify coloured or marbled
paper generally; and the makers of such paper, as well as the engravers
and colourers of woodcuts, were called _Dominotiers_.
Though we cannot reasonably suppose that the cut of St. Christopher,
with the date 1423, was the very first of its kind, there is yet reason
to believe that the art of wood-engraving was then but little known.
As the earliest woodcuts are observed to be coloured by means of a
stencil, it would seem that at the time when wood-engraving was first
introduced, the art of depicting and colouring figures by means of a
stencil was already well known; but as there are no cards engraved
on wood to which so early a date as 1423 can be fairly assigned, and
as at that period there were professional card-makers established
at Augsburg, it would appear that wood-engraving was employed on the
execution of "_Helgen_" before it was applied to cards, and that there
were stencilled cards before there were wood-engravings of saints.
Though this conclusion be not exactly in accordance with an opinion
which I have expressed in another work,[106] it is yet that which, on a
further investigation of the subject, appears to be best supported by
facts, and most strongly corroborated by the incidental notices which
we have of the progress of the Briefmaler or card-painter from his
original profession to that of a wood-engraver in general.
[Illustration: Old Stencilled Cards in the British Museum. No. 1 (p.
88.)]
[Illustration: Old Stencilled Cards in the British Museum. No. 2 (p.
88.)]
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.
[Illustration]
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_?
_Olearius._ Justinian.
_Bishop._ A clever prince!--I drink to his memory. It must be a grand
book.
_Olearius._ It may indeed be styled the book of books: a collection of
all laws, ready for the decision of every case; and whatever is now
obsolete or doubtful is expounded by the comments with which the most
learned men have enriched this most admirable work.
_Bishop._ A collection of all laws! The deuce!--Then the Ten
Commandments are there?
_Olearius._ _Implicitè_, they are; _explicitè_, not.
_Bishop._ That is just what I mean;--there they are, plainly and
simply, with out explication."--_Götz von Berlichingen_, a Play, by
Goethe, act i.
[74] John of Salisbury--Joannes Saresberiensis--was born in England
about 1110. He went to France when he was about seventeen years old,
and remained in that country several years. He subsequently visited
Rome in a public capacity. On his return to England, he became the
chaplain and acquired the friendship of Thomas à Becket. After the
murder of à Becket--of which he was an eye-witness--he withdrew to
France, in order to shun the hostility of his patron's enemies. From
his attachment to à Becket, no less than from his reputation as a
learned and pious man, he was elected Bishop of Chartres, where he died
in 1182. The work by which he is principally known is that referred to
in the text. The general title of it is, 'Policraticus sive de Nugis
Curialium, et Vestigiis Philosophorum, libri octo.' The chapter on
gaming, "De Alea, et usu et abusu illius," is the fifth of the first
book. Edit. Leyden, 1639.
[75] Archæologia, vol. viii, 1787.
[76] Mons. Leber, in his Etudes Historiques sur les Cartes à jouer,
remarks that Singer refers to this author as _Pipozzi di Sandro_, and
that the name thus transposed has been copied by other writers on the
subject of cards. It is, however, to be observed that Breitkopf twice
gives the name in the same manner as Singer.
[77] Materiali per servire alla Storia dell' Origine et de' Progressi
dell' Incizioni in rame, in legno, &c. p. 159. 8vo. Parma, 1802.
[78] Those observations have been chiefly derived from Mons. Duchesne's
paper on cards above referred to, and from a letter written by Mons.
Paulin Paris, assistant keeper of the MSS. in the Bibliothèque du Roi,
in answer to certain queries submitted to him through a friend of the
writer.
[79] The original Spanish edition of Guevara's Epistles was printed
at Valladolid in 1539, and the work was several times reprinted in
Spain and in Flanders. The letters were also translated into Italian
and French; and several editions were published before the year 1600.
There is an English translation by Geffery Fenton, 1582; and another by
Edward Hellowes, 1584.
[80] "Mandamos y ordenamos q̄ ningunos de los de nuestros reynos,
seā osados de jugar dados ni naypes, en publico ne en escōdido,
y qualquier q̄ los jugare," &c.--Recopilacion de las Leyes destos
Regnos, &c. Edit. 1640.
[81] Meerman, Origines Typographicæ, vol. i, p. 222. Edit. 1765.
[82] "Tout le monde sait que ce charmant ouvrage a été composé en
1459 par Antoine de Lassalle."--Duchesne, Précis Historique sur les
Cartes à jouer, p. 5, prefixed to the 'Jeux de Cartes Tarots,' &c.
Mons. Duchesne himself does not appear to have known "what all the
world knows" when he wrote his 'Observations sur les Cartes à jouer,'
printed in the Annuaire Historique, 1837; for he there seems to admit
that the work was composed by a person who lived at the period to which
it relates, and refers to two manuscripts in which the word "cartes"
is not to be found. He says that a third manuscript, which contains
it, appears to have been transcribed about the end of the fifteenth
century, but does not inform the reader that the work itself is a mere
romance, written in 1459.
[83] "Veez ci vostre compaignon qui, pour estre tel, a acquis la grace
du Roy et de la Royne et de tous, et vous qui estes noiseux et _joueux
de cartes_ et de dez, et sieuvés deshonnestes gens, taverniers, et
cabarets."
[84] Peignot considers the passages in which Cards are mentioned
genuine, both in the Chronicle of Petit-Jehan de Saintré and in the
romance of Renard le Contrefait. He had taken the passages just as
he found them in Meerman and Jansen, and made no further inquiry.
Saint-Foix appears to have been the first person in France who pointed
out the passage relating to cards in the Chronicle of Petit-Jehan de
Saintré. See Peignot's Recherches sur les Danses des Morts, et sur
l'Origine des Cartes à jouer, pp. 211-262, 315.
[85] This work was composed about 1330.
[86] "... Voici une démonstration concluante: c'est le _fac-simile_
d'une miniature du manuscrit de la traduction de la _Cité de Dieu_ de
Saint Augustin, par Raoul de Presles, qui le termina en 1375. Cette
miniature représente des personnages de distinction du règne de Charles
V, débout autour une table ronde et jouant aux cartes. Nous devons
cette miniature à l'obligeance de M. le Comte H. de Viel-Castel, qui
nous l'a communiquée, ainsi que d'autres documens qu'il avait réunis
sur les cartes. Le manuscrit d'où on a tiré la miniature, achevé en
1375, avait été commencé en 1371."--Magasin Pittoresque, Quatrième
Année, Avril, 1836, p. 131.
[87] Istoria della Citta di Viterbo, p. 213. Folio, Roma, 1742.
[88] "Non giuocare a zara, nè ad altro giuoco di dadi, fa de' giuochi
che usano i fanciulli; agli aliossi, alla trottola, a' ferri, a'
_Naibi_, a' coderone, e simili,"--Cronica di Giovan. Morelli, in
Malespini's Istoria Fiorentina, p. 270. 4to, Florence, 1728.
[89] Idée Générale d'une Collection complète d'Estampes, p. 240.
[90] C. G. von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2ter Theil, s. 98.
8vo, Nuremberg, 1776.
[91] Jansen, Essai sur l'Origine de la Gravure en Bois, &c., quoted by
Peignot, p. 256.
[92] "Donné à Jacquemin Gringonneur, peintre, pour trois jeux de
cartes à or et à diverses couleurs, ornés de plusieurs devises, pour
porter devers le Seigneur Roi, pour son ébatement, cinquante-six sols
parisis."--Menestrier, Bibliothèque curieuse et instructive, tom.
ii, pp. 168-94. 12mo, Trévoux, 1704. According to Barrois, the name
_Gringonneur_ signified a maker of _Grangons_. "Ce nom a fait prendre
le change; il signifie faiseur de grangons. 'Grangium _Grangons_ certus
tesserarum ludus.' Voir Glossarium de Ducange, Supplément, t. ii,
col. 651. Les premières cartes se vendaient à Paris, chez Jacquemin,
gringoneur, fabricant de dés, parce que les dés et les cartes
s'employaient simultanément. (Voir Miniature de notre cabinet dans
l'Abusé en Court, manuscrit de XV^e siècle.) D'où dégringoler, rouler
en sautillant comme les dés."--Elémens Carlovingiens, linguistiques et
littéraires, p. 265. 4to, Paris, 1846.
[93] The following "shrewd reply," which owes its point to Menestrier's
account of the invention of cards, appeared in a weekly journal about
three years ago. "Sir Walter Scott says, that the alleged origin of
the invention of cards produced one of the shrewdest replies he had
ever heard given in evidence. It was made by the late Dr. Gregory, at
Edinburgh, to a counsel of great eminence at the Scottish bar. The
doctor's testimony went to prove the insanity of the party whose mental
capacity was the point at issue. On a cross-interrogation he admitted
that the person in question played admirably at whist. 'And do you
seriously say, doctor,' said the learned counsel, 'that a person having
a superior capacity for a game so difficult, and which requires, in a
pre-eminent degree, memory, judgment, and combination, can be at the
same time deranged in his understanding?' 'I am no card-player,' said
the doctor, with great address, 'but I have read in history that cards
were invented for the amusement of an insane king.' The consequences of
this reply were decisive."
[94] About the beginning of the fifteenth century the passion for
gaming appears to have been very prevalent in France; and persons
who were addicted to it endeavoured to guard themselves from its
fascinations by voluntary bonds, with a penalty in case of infraction.
The following account of a bond of this kind is extracted from the
Memoirs of the Academy of Dijon for 1828. "Mons. Baudot a trouvé
deux actes de ce genre, qui méritent d'être conservés à cause de
leur singularité. Le premier est tiré du protocole de Jehan Lebon,
notaire, et de ses clercs Jehan Bizot, Guyot Bizot de Charmes, et
Jehan Gros. On y lit qu'en 1407, il y eut convention de ne pas jouer
pendant une année, entre Jehan Violier de Vollexon, boucher, à Dijon;
Guillaume Garni, boucher, Huguenin de Grancey, tournestier (employé
aux tournois), Vivien le Picardet, pâtissier, et Gorant de Barefort,
coustellier, tous de Dijon, à peine de deux francs d'or au profit de
ceux qui n'auront pas joué, et de deux francs d'or à lever par le
Procureur de la Ville et Commune de Dijon, au profit de la Ville."--The
second was a similar engagement, in the year 1505.
[95] Thiers, referring to the Synod of Langres of 1404, Tit. de
Ludibus prohibitis, thus gives the prohibition: "Nous défendons
expressement aux Ecclesiastiques, principalement à ceux qui sont
dans les saints ordres, et sur tout aux prêtres et aux curés, de
jouer aux dez, au triquetrac, ou aux cartes."--Traité des Jeux et des
Divertissemens, par M. Jean Baptiste Thiers, Docteur en Théologie,
p. 193. 12mo, Paris, 1686. Though this synod is also referred to by
Menestrier, Bullet, and others, it is overlooked by Mons. Duchesne,
who, speaking of the prohibition of cards to the clergy, says, "C'est
seulement au synode de Bamberg, in 1491, qu'au titre xvi on trouve la
défense: 'Ludosque taxillorum et chartarum, et his similes, in locis
publicis.'"--Observations sur les Cartes à jouer, dans l'Annuaire
Historique, pour l'année 1837, p. 176.
[96] Peignot, who affects great precision in dates and names, says that
the Statuta Sabaudiæ were "publiées en 1470 par Amédée VIII, Duc de
Savoie." Amadeus VIII, the amateur hermit--who was elected Pope by the
Council of Basle in 1439, and who took the name of Pope Felix V--died
in 1451.
[97] "Donnez nous du linge blanc. Faictes que nons ayons des linceux
blancs, et vous aures demain voz espingles."--J. T. Fregii Pædagogus,
p. 112. Basle, 1582.
[98] Von Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2er Theil, s. 121, 122.
[99] Heineken, in his French version of this passage, in the Idée
Générale, erroneously translates the word _leglenweiss_, "en ballots."
In his Neue Nachrichten, however, he gives the correct explanation,
"das ist, in kleinen Fassern"--"that is, in small casks." Though the
word Lägel, a barrel, is obsolete in Germany, yet its diminutive,
"leglin,"--as if Lägelin--is still used in Scotland for the name of the
ewe-milker's kit. It is needless to cite the work from which I copy
this bit of information, as the author, I am sure, will not find any
fault with me for any liberties that I may take.
[100] "Conscioscia che l'arte e mestier delle carte e figure stampide,
che se fano in Venesia è vegnudo a total deffaction, e questo sia per
la gran quantità de carte a zugur e figure depente stampide, le qual
vien fate de fuora de Venezia."--Algarotti, Lettere Pittoriche, tom. v,
p. 320.
[101] A stencil is a thin piece of pasteboard, parchment, or metal,
in which the outlines and general forms of any figures are _cut out_,
for the purpose of being "stencilled" on cards, paper, pasteboard,
plastered walls, &c. The operation is performed by passing over the
stencil a brush charged with colour, which entering into the _cut out_
lines imparts the figure to the material beneath.
[102] In a work entitled "ΠΑΝΟΠΛΙΑ omnium illiberalium mechanicarum
aut sedentariarum artium," &c., with cuts designed by Jost Amman, and
descriptions in Latin verse by Hartman Schopper, Frankfort, 1568,
there is a cut of a _Briefmaler_, and another of a _Formschneider_;
the former appears to be colouring certain figures by means of a
stencil; while the latter appears to be engraving on wood. There are
also editions of the work, with the descriptions in German verse by
Hans Sachs, the celebrated Meistersänger and shoemaker of Nuremberg.
Though it appears evident that at the time of the publication of this
work the business of a _Briefmaler_ was considered as distinct from
that of a _Formschneider_, there is yet reason to believe that the
old Briefmalers still continued both to engrave and print woodcuts.
On several large cuts with the dates 1553 and 1554, we find the words
"Gedrukt zu Nürnberg durch Hanns Glaser, Brieffmaler."
[103] "Kartenmacher, und Kartenmaler, oder wie sie später (1473)
hiessen, Briefmaler, sind schon in Deutschland 80 Jahre vor der
Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst gewesen. Die Kartenmacher waren anfangs
die eigentlichen Formschneider, ehe man geistliche Figuren schnitt, da
sie dann in der Folge der Zeit eine besondere Innung ausmachten."--Von
Murr, Journal zur Kunstgeschichte, 2er Theil, s. 89.
[104] "L'homme le plus versé dans la connaissance des premiers produits
de la xylographie, le Baron de Heineken, était intérieurement persuadé
que la première empreinte tirée sur un ais grossièrement sculpté, qui
parut en Europe, _était une carte_. Dans son opinion, que nous croyons
bien fondée, la gravure des cartes à jouer conduisit à celle des images
de Saints, qui donna l'idée de la gravure des inscriptions ou légendes,
d'où naquit l'imprimerie.--Ainsi, une carte aurait produit la presse!
Quelle mère et quelle postérité!"--Leber, Etudes Historiques sur les
Cartes à jouer, p. 3.
[105] The subject of this cut is the Virgin with the infant Jesus in
her arms, surrounded by four female saints, namely, St. Catherine, St.
Barbara, St. Dorothy, and St. Margaret. A fac-simile of it is given in
the Athenæum for the 4th October, 1845. The Baron de Reiffenberg, who
published a particular account of the cut, and of the circumstances of
its discovery, entertains no doubt of the authenticity of the date;
and considers that the costume of the figures and the general style
of drawing are in perfect accordance with the period. Another writer,
however, questions the authenticity of the date, which he says has been
retouched with a black-lead pencil; and, from the costume, he concludes
that it is not of an earlier date than 1468. He supposes that the
numeral l may have been omitted before xviii in the date, which in the
fac-simile of the cut stands thus: mcccc · xviii.--See Quelques
Mots sur la Gravure au Millésime de 1418, par C. D. B. 4to, Brussels,
1846.
[106] "It has been conjectured that the art of wood-engraving was
employed on sacred subjects, such as the figures of saints and holy
persons, before it was applied to the multiplication of those 'books
of Satan,' playing cards. It, however, seems not unlikely that it
was first employed in the manufacture of cards; and that the monks,
availing themselves of the same principle, shortly afterwards employed
the art of wood-engraving for the purpose of circulating the figures
of saints; thus endeavouring to supply a remedy for the evil, and
extracting from the serpent a cure for his bite."--A Treatise on Wood
Engraving, Historical and Practical, p. 58. Published by Charles Knight
and Co. London, 1839.
[107] Father Tommaso Buoninsegni, in his 'Discorso del Giuoco,' p. 27,
Florence, 1585, thus refers to the opinion of St. Bernardin and others
on the subject of gaming. "Sono stati alcuni tanto scrupolosi e severi,
i quali hanno detto, che non solo quegli che giuocano à restituire
tenuti sono, ma di più li heredi, e quei che prestano dadi, tavole,
carte, e chi vende, e compera baratterie e bische, ed inoltre li
artefici, i quali fanno e vendono carte, e dadi, ed altri strumenti da
giuocare; e di più li Ufficiali, Rettori, Magistrati e Signori, i quali
potendo prohibire cotali giuochi, non li proibiscono."
In the notice of the life of St. Bernardin, in the Acta Sanctorum,
cited by Peiguot, he is said to have required that cards [_naibes_],
dice, and other instruments of gaming should be given up to the
magistrates to be burnt. The anecdote of the card-painter is given in
Bernini's Histoire des Hérésies, tom. iv, p. 157. Venise, 1784. Thiers,
in his Traité des Jeux, pp. 159-161, gives an extract from a sermon
of St. Bernardin against gaming: his reference to the works of St.
Bernardin is "_Serm. 33, in Dominic._ 5, _Quadrag_. 1 _part. princ_."
but he does not mention the edition.
It may here be observed that the opinion of Dr. Jeremy Taylor on this
subject is opposed to that of St. Bernardin. See his discussion of
the Question on Gaming: "Whether or no the making and providing such
instruments which usually minister to it, is by interpretation such an
aid to the sin as to involve us in the guilt?"
[108] Geschichte der Holzschneidekunst von den ältesten bis auf die
neuesten Zeiten, nebst zwei Beilagen enthaltend den Ursprung der
Spielkarten und ein Verzeichniss der sämmt xylographischen Werke, von
Joseph Haller, s. 313. 8vo, Bamberg, 1823.