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XVIII*. Some observations on the Invention of Cards and their Introduction into England. By Mr. Gough

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

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Extract

Dr. Stukeley exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, Nov. 9, 1763, drawings of a compleat pack of cards copied from the pasteboard cover of an old book made up of several layers of cards. These were purchased at the sale of the Doctor's coins, May 15, 1766, by the late Mr. Tutet, a worthy and learned member of this Society, who bound them up in his neat and careful manner in two volumes, inserting in the first leaf of the first volume the following account of them.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1787

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References

page 152 note [a] Which are exact copies of the original pack.

page 156 note [b] Man of Law's Tale 716. Merchant's Tale 818. Sompner's Tale 514. Wife of Bath 1190. Clerk of Oxenford 1474-6. Pardoner 2183. Nun's Prologue 1063. Spelman of Deeds, p. 243, &c. It should therefore seem a mistake in Bullet (p. 137.) when he imagines that the English and Germans borrowed the use of cards after the term valet came to signify in France a servant.

page 157 note [c] Rapin, III. 488, 489.

page 157 note [d] Ralph le Strange who died in the time of Rich. I. (Dugd. Bar. I. 663.) founded at Bridgenorth, beyond the bridge, an hospital for a prior or master, and several lay brethren to the honour of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary and St. John Baptist. Tann. Mon. 451. Dugd. Mon. II. 433. Prynne calls him “magister hospitalis S. Joannis Evangelistæ” among his protections, 12 E. I. ibid.

page 158 note [e] Bullet, p. 18.

page 158 note [f] Essais sur les rues de Paris, vol. I. p. 333. Bullet in his “Recherches historiques fur les cartes a jouer” 1757, is of the same opinion: but it has been controverted in a more concise manner in the “Etrennes aux joueurs des Cartes” of the Abbé Rive, who attributes the invention to the Spaniards, and finds them prohibited in the statutes of a new order called “The Order of the Band,” instituted by Alphonsus XI. about 1332.

page 159 note [g] When Charles V. advanced Saintrè from the place of page to that of carver (ecuyer tranchant) the esquire who had the care of the pages, held him up to them for an example so contrary to their practice. “Et vous, says he, qui etes noyseux, joueux de cartes, de des &c.” Chronique &c. c. 15.

page 159 note [h] The epitaph on him at the end of his Chronicle is dated 1458, and he is styled in the first chapter a page to John king of France, at the age of thirteen, so that if he was page in the last year of John 1364 he would be one hundred and seven at his death.

page 162 note [i] M. Bullet affirms Hector is the Trojan prince, from whom the French claim descent. Lancelot is one of Arthur's heroes, Ogier one of Charlemagne's peers, and de la Hire the famous Stephen de Vignoles, surnamed la Hire, who contributed so much by his valour to establish Charles VII. on the throne.

page 163 note [k] What we now call Honours or Court cards are by Sir John Harrington styled Coate cards. In his Metamorphosis of Ajax he says “When Brutus had discarded the kings and queens out of the packe and shewed himself a sworn avowed enemie to all the Coate cards, then crept in many new formes of government.” I conceive the name originally implied no more than figures of men and women in particular dresses.

page 164 note [l] B. Platina, who died 1481, in his book “De tuenda Valetudine, Basil. 1541,” 4°, section “de joco et ludo,” says, “ludus fit talis, tessera, scacho, chartis variis imaginibus pictis.”

page 164 note [m] The game of Lansquenet took its name from the Lansquenets or light German troops employed by the kings of France in the 15th century. Bullet, p. 152.

page 164 note [n] I rather apprehend this to mean sheet of lead, as we say sheet of paper: and that this name was given them from the material and substance; those of the articles used in other games being very different.

page 165 note [o] Tamen nunquam castellum aut vicum ullum adeo abjectum et obscurum transire potui in quo non cartulæ veneunt. Bullet, p. 131—135.

page 165 note [p] Bullet, p. 136.

page 165 note [q] Du Cange et Charpentier voc. Ludi de rege et regina. It rather seems to refer to the king and queen of Twelfth-day derived from the Roman Saturnalia.

page 166 note [r] Decuanara de la lengua Castellana. Madr. 1734. IV. 646. col. 1.

page 166 note [s] Covarruvias derives Naipa from the Arabic.

page 166 note [t] It occurs first ia the Chronicle of John Morelli of the year 1393, printed at Florence 1728, and prior to the life of St Bernard of Sienna fifty years.

page 166 note [u] Will these instrumenta lignea take in the arietes of the Worcester canon? They seem to be the same with the Equi lignei forbidden by the laws of the emperor Justinian. Cod. de Aleatoribus. “Non licet ludere his qui vocantur Equi lignei vel quavis alia aleæ specie.” On this see Balsamon and Bullet, p. 11. n.

page 166 note [x] In his Chronicle before referred to.

page 169 note [y] They were prohibited in France 1426, and to the clergy of that kingdom 1404. See before, p. 137. This was a second prohibition; for we have seen a former thirty years earlier. See p. 158.

page 169 note [z] Hall's Chronicle sub anno.

page 169 note [a] Rymer, Fœd. XIV. 707. The king ordains and constitutes Gilbert Clerc and Nicholas Dainporte keeper of the playes of Hand oute and Keiles, without the Lantern gate as at dyce, tables, and cardes on the market place of the said town of Calais.

page 169 note [b] Her intended husband, as said (p. 140) at Newbotle castle. Miscell. Additions to Leland's Collect. III. 285.

page 170 note [c] III. 847.

page 170 note [d] Hist. of Cambridge, p. 103.

page 171 note [e] Letter to Mr. Barrington, p. 150.

page 171 note [f] Etym. v. Cards.

page 171 note [g] The substance is white. Quære, if those cards are the wooden cards mentioned by Osbeck, Voyage to China, II. 247. Le Comte, p. 299, speaks of the Chinese hazarding their estates, houses, children, and wives on a card.

Had the learned Dr. Hyde completed his third part of the Eastern games, which was to have treated on card-playing, we should have received the fullest information on this subject.

page 137 note [h] Joseph Banks, Esq. shewed the Society 1723–1724, an old pack of cards with the history of the Spanish Invasion. (Min.)

page 137 note [i] Orig. Typog. c. ix. p. 223. See also the Postscript to the second edition of the Origin of Printing, 1776, by Bowyer and Nichols, p. 177.

page 138 note [k] P. 237—249.

page 138 note [l] See the Art of Card-making by Hamel du Monceau in the description of arts and trades of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris.

page 138 note [m] Carte e figure stampide che si fanno in Venezia, and le carte de zugar e figure dipinte stampide fatte di Venezia. Petition of the Card-makers to the Senate of Venice 1441. Lettere Pittoriche, v. 321.