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:
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:
"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:
At folio lxxii, a, Quartes—for so the word is there spelled—is noticed as a prohibited game:
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:
MS. 6988, fol. 44, verso.
(No. 2), fol. 47, verso.
"The other passage referred to is, in both MSS. as follows:
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.
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 cccco xxo 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.
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.
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 Citéde 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 . "Ce nom a fait prendre le change; il signifie faiseur de grangons. 'Grangium Grangonscertus 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 XVe 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.
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.