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, 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 "king's deputy" (or "king's delegate") and the "second deputy" (or "religious minister"). 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 dropped one court card; a further alteration that concerned the aforesaid cards was the introduction of actual personages instead of their description in words, which made them more easily understandable. They were locally called naibes or naipes, a word of Arabic etymology (as previosly explained), and they were likely made of 52 subjects, i.e. four suits with thirteen cards each.
Similar cards were known in Italy, as well, often described 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 made in northern Italy, and called tarocco ("tarot"); this one had 78 cards. It was very likely obtained by merging the Arabic set of suit cards, i.e. the naibi, with a group of 22 picture cards of local origin, replacing one of the four courts, all male personages, with a female one, and sometimes even more than one. The enlarged pack was soon named trionfi ("trumps"), probably after a composition by Petrarch, and this was also the name of the game played with them. The word tarocco is only found in literature as of the early 16th century. More than one source mentions the "triumph cards" (or "cards of Lombardy") and the "cards for playing" (or "saracen cards") as separate items. Therefore, the two varieties of decks, i.e. with and without trumps, were in use at the same time. The diagram on the left summarizes their relation with the original Arabic cards.

Curiously, the earliest surviving deck of Western playing cards is not a tarot, nor a traditional Spanish deck, but a german creation.

courts from the suit of Deers (Stuttgarter Kartenspiel)	Dating back to 1430, the Stuttgarter Kartenspiel ("Stuttgart deck") was drawn and painted in south-western Germany. These cards belonged to a particular kind of pattern now referred to as "hunting decks", which had no trumps and adopted peculiar suits. They were used in central European areas of German culture, since the first half of the 15th century.	3 of Hounds (Germany, c.1440)

This kind of cards, very few of which still survive, were beautifully illustrated with scenes of royal hunts, as the suit signs adopted were animals such as deers, boars, falcons, etc. Some of these decks were known to have a fifth suit showing 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)

In fact, also the German cards probably originated from the Arabic pattern, considering the structure of both kinds of decks (arranged in suits, with both courts and pip cards).

A much fewer number of German decks, only one of which has survived, known as the Hofämterspiel, 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. Roman numerals from I to X marked each card's value, though two un-numbered subjects, a queen and a king, were the highest cards of each suit. Shields featuring the national emblems of central European countries were the four signs (see also the Hofämterspiel gallery for further details and pictures).

subject from the Hofämterspiel (Germany, c.1460)

German cards such as the aforesaid ones and hunting decks were probably used up to the 17th century, when they became extinct, while the popularity of the classic tarot kept growing. Nevertheless, their peculiar suits are believed to be the ancestors of 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, the cards of Arabic origin were apparently preferred by the common people, because the tarot game was complex, not for gambling, it required a good cultural level to understand the subjects, and because the latter kind of deck was also more expensive.
Although the tarot deck remained alive especially among wealthier players, most European areas started developing decks made of suited cards only, i.e. modelled on the Arabic type, yet based on their own local composition by dropping 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 sprung 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 sprung 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