It may be well to remark that here we have the first mention of printed cards, which probably came from Germany. A pack of these are still in existence engraved with the burin, which are supposed to be the work of FINIGUERRA or MANTEGNA, and at any rate belong to this period of Italian art. It seems probable that they were made at Padua or Florence, and are imitations of the earliest Italian tarocchi, which vary somewhat from the cards now in use.
The design is at once simple and good in outline, the engraving fine and harmonious; they are divided into five series, each of ten cards, and bear the names of the muses, the sciences, the heavenly bodies, and the virtues.
The so-called cards of CHARLES VI. of France, which are now in the Bibliothèque du Roi in Paris, are probably the most ancient of any that are preserved in the various public collections of Europe. There are but seventeen, painted with all the delicacy of the illuminated miniatures in the illuminated manuscripts of the period, on a gold ground, and surrounded by a silver border, in which is a ribbon rolled spirally round done in points.
It is to this that the cards owe their name of tarots, being marked in compartments, as we often see them in the present day, when the back is covered with arabesques.
These cards differ somewhat from the Italian ones, bearing neither numbers nor devices. There is
The Emperor in silver armor, a diadem of fleurs-de-lis on his head, and, holding a globe and a sceptre;
The Pope with his triple crown, the Gospels and keys of St. Peter in his hands, and seated between two Cardinals;
The crescent moon rises above two astrologers in long furred robes, who are measuring the conjunctions of the planets with compasses;
The fool wearing a cap with asses' ears, and a deep pointed ruff round his neck, while four children are throwing stones at him;
Death, mounted on a white horse, is throwing down kings, popes, and bishops;
The House of God seems half devoured by flames;
And finally, the last judgement shows us the dead rising from their tombs to the sound of trumpets.
It will be seen that this game offered a philosophical representation of life from a Christian point of view; they might serve as a pastime for the poor king during his sad years of dark and furious madness, but would scarcely please his frivolous and corrupt court, where, notwithstanding the tumult of riots among the people, and civil discord dividing every class, it only occupied itself with pleasure, fêtes, masquerades and tournaments, under the influence of a gallant and voluptuous chivalry. In this brilliant and refined court, which blinded itself to the gravity of political events, and tried to stifle with the sound of instruments, dances and songs the ferocious shouts of the populace in the Halles, the courtiers would assuredly decline to play with cards which reminded them of the solemnities of life.
It will be readily believed that such works of art as these early packs of cards were not accessible to the multitude, but were very costly and only fit for kings and nobles. In an old account-book of the monarchs of France, we find that the treasurer paid in 1392 about £8 [around $400 of 21st century money] of our present money for three packs; and a single pack, exquisitely painted by MARZIANO, secretary to the Duke of Milan, cost, but a few years later, 1,500 gold crowns.
But as the more economical way of printing and engraving came into use, both which arts were known long before printing with moveable types, the price of these coveted articles fell rapidly, and in 1454 a pack bought for the Dauphin cost no more than 10s.
As time passed on, the figures on the cards changed with the costume of the time, according to the caprices of the court or the imagination of the maker. The pointed beard, heavy collar and plumed hat appeared as the dress of the kings; the hair turned back and crimped, the lace collar, and the farthingale, as that of the queens.
One old pack represents the four great monarchies--Jewish, Greek, Roman and French, under the Kings DAVID, ALEXANDER, CÆSAR and CHARLEMAGNE; while the queens symbolize the manner of reigning--JUDITH, by piety; RACHEL, by beauty; PALLAS, by wisdom; ARGINE, which is the anagram of Regina, by heirship; and the knaves the four ages of chivalry--HECTOR, the valiant Trojan chief; AGIER, a paladin of CHARLEMAGNE; LANCELOT, one of the twelve knights of ARTHUR'S Round Table; and LAHIRE, the bold captain of CHARLES VII.
The ace has borne many different interpretations: some imagined it to be the symbol of money for the payment of the troops, and derived it from the old Roman coin, giving it a power superior even to a king; others saw in it the first of the lower ten cards, and explained the name as coming from the Celtic as, signifying first or chief.
As regards England, though it received the game from a very early period through the trade it carried on with the Hanseatic and Dutch towns, yet it does not appear that any cards were manufactured here before the end of the sixteenth century, since under the reign of ELIZABETH the Government reserved to itself the monopoly of playing-cards imported from abroad. The oldest which are known, and which closest approach the early Italian packs, were discovered by Dr. STUKELY in the binding of a book. Unhappily, the originals have been destroyed, but correct drawings made at the time are in possession of the Society of Antiquaries, and have been reproduced in SINGER'S work on the the subject.
They have been coarsely engraved and printed in two colors, green and brown, which were those usually employed by the German makers, while the French were indigo and vermilion. They mark a very early period, when the arts of drawing, engraving and printing were in their infancy.
Spain received from the Arabs and the Moors the eastern game of naïb long before cards were made at Viterbo, but when the latter became general, the excited the utmost enthusiasm in the country, and a passion for the play existed; so much so, that when the companions of CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, after their discovery of America, formed the first establishment in the island of San Domingo, they found nothing better to do than at once to manufacture cards from the leaves of trees.
--Chambers' Journal
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