HISTORICAL AND ICONOGRAPHIC NOTES

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WESTERN PLAYING CARDS

It has been suggested that playing cards were born in China, sometime around the 10th century AD. They were likely domino cards, i.e. the ones that represent a throw of two dice, very similar to the ones still used today in the Far East, and just slightly different from common domino tiles now used in many countries.
A few centuries later, playing cards were in use by the Arabs, and soon after they spread also to the Western world.

10 of Coins from the earliest Arabic deck known

This was the result of the commercial and cultural relationship between the Mediterranean countries and the Arabic world, in particular the Mamlûks, who spread along the northern coast of Africa. The archaic Italian word for "playing cards", naibi or naibbi, and the Spanish equivalent, naipes, still used, both come from the Arabic word na'ib, meaning "delegate" or "deputy". "Deputies" were two court cards of the old Arabic deck: the "viceroy" and the "second viceroy". Such cards did not feature the relevant personages as human figures, according to the Islamic tradition, but only stated the names of the three ranks at the base of the subject. The oldest surviving set of cards of this kind is known as   Mulûk wa-Nuwwâb ("Kings and Deputies"), held by the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. It was composed of four suits, each of which had fourteen cards (ten suit cards and four courts), for a total of 56 subjects.

The suits of the Arabic deck were:

Coins Darâhim	Cups Tûmân	Swords Suyûf	Polo-sticks Jawkân

On the surviving cards held in Istanbul, these names are spelled at the bottom of the court cards, together with the rank; a sample is shown at the end of the third part (relations between Western and Oriental cards), where the the meaning of the names and the connections that seem to relate these cards to an ancient Chinese origin are discussed more in depth.

NAIBI, TAROTS AND HUNTING DECKS According to written records, Italy is the western country where tarot cards were first made, in the first half of the 1400s, but Spain is the country where the common non-tarot cards first appeared, some 50 years earlier. The relation between these two kinds of decks may be explained by the present theory, according to which the Mamlûk cards were taken into Spain and Italy sometime during the 14th century, following the close relations between the Arabic and European civilizations, facing each others across the Mediterranean.

trump from the Pierpont-Morgan Visconti Tarot (15th century)

In Spain the composition of the local deck remained almost unmodified; only the 10s were dropped, thus reducing the 52 cards of Moorish origin to a local 48-card deck. A further modification concerned the introduction of pictures featuring court personages instead of a written caption, which made them more easily recognizable. In Spain, such cards were called naibes or naipes, a word of Arabic etymology (as previosly explained).
Decks of cards with a similar composition were known in Italy, as well, referred to as naibi (alternative forms were naibbe, nahipi, etc.). But other chronicles from the first half of the 15th century mention "saracen cards" - another indication suggesting their origin - and in the second half of the same century "cards for playing".

A different deck was devised in northern Italy, i.e. the one now called tarot, whose composition was likely obtained by adding to the Moorish set of suit cards, or naibi, a group of 22 illustrated subjects of local origin, and by increasing the three original courts, all male personages, with the addition of a female one, and in some early editions even more than one.

The enlarged pack was soon named carte da trionfi (trump cards, but literally meaning "triumph cards"), probably after the poem I Trionfi by Petrarch, and this was also the name of the game played with them. The word tarocco ("tarot") came into use later on, being found in written sources only as of the early 16th century. More than one source mentions the "triumph cards" (or "cards of Lombardy") and the "cards for playing" (or "small cards for playing") as separate items. One source also mentions "emperor cards", although these ones have never been identified. Therefore, in the early 1400s at least two varieties of playing cards were in use at the same time, i.e. smaller ones without trumps (referred to as "of Saracen origin"), and larger ones which included the set of trumps, of Italian origin.

Curiously, the earliest surviving deck of Western playing cards is not a tarot, nor a traditional Spanish deck, but a third variety from southern Germany, likely sprung from the Moorish cards, as well.

courts from the suit of Deers (Stuttgarter Kartenspiel)	The Stuttgarter Kartenspiel ("Stuttgart deck") dates back to c.1430. Another one with similar features is the Ambraser Hofjagsdpiel ("Ambras court hunt deck", see the relevant gallery for details and pictures). This group of patterns, now referred to as hunting decks, came into use in German-speaking areas in the first half of the 15th century. They had no trumps, and their composition was basically similar to that of Moorish decks, but their suit system was rather peculiar.	3 of Hounds (Amb.Hofjagdspiel)

Hunting decks, very few of which are still extant, were beautifully illustrated with scenes of royal hunts, as the suit signs adopted were animals or objects used for hunting, such as deers, hounds, falcons, nooses, etc. Some of these decks were known to have a fifth suit, featuring shields. However, scholars tend to agree that these decks appeared shortly after the tarot. A 16th century French deck now partially extant, known as Tarot of Catelin Geofroy, features the 22 usual trumps, but the four suits are pheasants, lions, parrots and monkeys, almost in the fashion of the German cards: basically, a blend of classic tarot and hunting cards.

penetration and spreading of playing cards in Europe (second half of the 14th century - first half of the 15th century)

subject from the Hofämterspiel (Germany, c.1460)

A much fewer number of German decks instead of pips featured personages of a royal household, such as the chaplain, the lady-in-waiting, the master of the stables, etc., ordered according to their social hierarchy. Only one specimen of such decks has survived; it is known as the Hofämterspiel ("household deck"). Its suit signs are shields featuring the national emblems of four central European countries (see also the Hofämterspiel gallery for further details and pictures). German cards such as the aforesaid ones and hunting decks were probably used up to the 17th century, when they died out, while the popularity of the classic tarot kept growing. Nevertheless, their peculiar suits are believed to have inspired the ones still used today by most German-speaking areas.

From the 15th century onwards, playing cards spread through many princely courts, into neighbour countries, soon reaching most parts of the European continent.

THE BIRTH OF REGIONAL PATTERNS

In all countries where the pastime had become popular, both the tarot and the playing cards without trumps survived side by side. While the former remained popular among wealthy players, the common people played with the cheaper type of decks, consisting of suit cards only, because the tarot game was complicated, because it was not suitable for gambling, because it required a good cultural background to understand the trumps, and also because tarot decks were more expensive. Although the cheaper type of cards shared a common Moorish scheme, in differnt parts of Europe each deck had a particular composition, obtained by either dropping or replacing some of the subjects not frequently used. Obviously, the new composition changed from country to country, according to the favourite local games. This led to a rather large variety of combinations, which gradually grew into the standard regional patterns used today.

Northern Italy adopted the well-known 52-card scheme (values 1 through 10, and three courts), and the 40-card scheme (values 1 through 7, and three courts). Central and southern Italy use 40 cards (same as above). Spain uses both 40- and 48-card decks (the latter has values 1 through 9). Portugal too now uses a 40-card deck, though slightly different from the Spanish one: 1 to 8 (but without a 7), and three courts. Many central and northern European areas such as France, Germany (but not in the south), the Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, tend to use 32 cards, starting either from 1 (in French-suited packs) or from 2, i.e. deuce (in German suited ones), then 7 through 10, and three courts. A 24-card pack is used in southern Germany and Austria for the game of Schnapsen. Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland use 36 cards (same as above, but with 6s, as well).

the map below refers to the composition of regional patterns used for local games

trump from Mitelli's Tarot (17th century)

Suit signs too were modified quite considerably: in Spain the shape of the original Arabic signs slightly changed to a less stylized pattern: the look of Coins, Cups, Swords and Batons turned more "actual"; in particular, the original polo sticks, virtually unknown to the Spanish, were turned into cudgels. Germany radically changed suit signs, probably inspired by the early "hunting decks", adopting symbols which recalled everyday's country life: Hearts, Leaves, Acorns and Bells.

• Switzerland too chose Acorns and Bells, but the other two signs became Shields and Roses: the former was probably a reminiscence of the fifth suit of some "hunting decks", mentioned above. The Roses, instead, may have been a graphic corruption of the Coins used in northern Italy, due to the elaborate geometrical patterns featured by the latter suit signs, sometimes resembling the petals of a flower.
• France changed suit signs to a rather stylized design: Diamonds, Hearts, Clubs and Spades, likely sprang as a simplification of the German ones (Leaves into Spades, Acorns into Clubs and Bells into Diamonds). Later on these signs were adopted by other European countries where cards had not yet become popular, thus becoming the international (or French) suit system.
• Portugal originally used the Spanish suits, but around the 19th century the French system prevailed, and it is still the one presently used.
• In the north-east of Italy, symbols remained more or less identical to the suit cards found in early tarots: this gives reason for the rather ancient look of these cards.
• The center and the south of Italy developed local patterns sprang from the Spanish cards, whence their suit system made of Coins, Cups, Swords and cudgel-shaped Batons.

Tracing the change of the suit signs, Coins maintained their early shape and meaning in the Latin systems (Italian, Spanish), while in Germany they were turned into Bells (still round, but no longer related to money), until in the French system this sign lost all its details and straightened its sides, giving birth to the suit of Diamonds. This last change may have developed because of the rough colouring technique used for early decks, which may have caused the circles to appear as irregular dots of tan-brownish ink.

evolution of suit signs in different systems (left to right): Mamlûk, Spanish, Italian, German and French