fourteenth century. Its oldest relics of this kind are eighteen printed cards which may have been made in France during the reign of Charles vii, or between the years 1442 and 1461.[1]
Playing cards seem to have been popular in Spain before they were known in France. They were supposed to be so demoralizing to the people, that John i, king of Castile, in the year 1387, thought it necessary, to prohibit them entirely. To have acquired this popularity, the cards should have been made by some process as economical as that of printing. We have, however, no knowledge that the cards were printed. They could have been made by stencils. Chatto says that the relics of playing cards which he thought were the oldest were made exclusively with stencils.
Cards were known in Italy as early as 1379. An old manuscript history of the town of Viterbo, which states this fact, says that "In this year, a year of great distress [occasioned by the war between the anti-pope Clement vii and the pope Urban vi], was brought into Viterbo, the game of cards, which came from the land of the Saracens, and by them is called Naib."
- ↑ One of the cards bears the name of the maker, F. Clerc. The costumes of the figures are French, and of the fashion of the court of Charles vii. One of the queens is a rude copy of the well known portrait of the queen Marie of Anjou; another queen is from an authentic portrait of the king's mistress, Gérarde Cassinel. The robe of one of the kings is plentifully sprinkled with the fleur-de-lis; the figure of another king is that of a hairy savage with a torch in his hand. These singular cards illustrate a frightful accident which made a profound impression on the people of France. To divert the half-crazed king Charles vi, a masquerade was planned for a ball given by Queen Blanche, on the 29th of January, 1392, in which masquerade the king and five of the gentlemen of the court took the parts of savages, The costumes were made by encasing the actors in tight-fitting linen garments, covered with warm pitch and tow. In this uncouth attire, and linked together with clanking chains, they danced in the ball-room to the amusement of the men and the terror of the ladies. Wishing to discover one of the maskers, the Duke of Orleans snatched a torch from the hand of a servant, and thrust it too near an unhappy masker's face. In a moment he was covered with a blaze which quickly spread to his fellows. The king was rescued in time, but four of the masqueraders were burned to death.
