[217] Some curious particulars--somewhat exaggerated--respecting certain great card-players of this period will be found in 'The Adventures of a Guinea.'
[218] An Address to Persons of Fashion relating to Balls: with a few occasional Hints concerning Play-houses, Card-tables, &c. By the Author of Pietas Oxoniensis. Sixth edition, 1771.
[219] "The causes of infidelity are various. Before the improved sagacity of Dr. Rennell had discovered that it owed its origin to Popery, his wisdom had detected its source, artfully lurking in the 'unmeaning combinations' of a pack of cards."--Reflections on the Spirit of Religious Controversy, by the Rev. Joseph Fletcher, of Hexham, England, p. 192. 12mo, New York, 1808.
OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CARDS AND THE MARKS OF THE SUITS.
Having in the preceding chapters endeavoured to trace the origin of Playing Cards, and to show their progress from the time of their first introduction into Europe, I shall now proceed to give collectively some account of the different kinds of cards, of the various marks that have been employed to distinguish the suits, and of the changes that they have undergone at different periods.
Most authors who have expressly written on the subject, agree in distinguishing two kinds of cards, namely, those which they call Tarocchi, or Tarots; and those, consisting of four suits, which are in common use throughout Europe. It is a subject of dispute, among the learned in these matters, which of those two kinds are of the greatest antiquity; Court de Gebelin considers that Tarocchi cards were known to the ancient Egyptians;[220] and Mons. Duchesne is pleased to assume that certain so-called Tarocchi Cards, preserved in the Bibliothèque du Roi, belonged to one of the three packs painted for Charles VI, by Jacquemin Gringonneur, in 1393. Mons. Duchesne is also of opinion that these cards were the same as those which were formerly called Naibi in Italy; and in support of it, he alleges several authorities, which seem to him to be decisive of the fact, but which really prove nothing more than that Chartæ and Naibi were synonymous.[221] He produces no evidence to show that the series of painted and engraved figures, now usually called Tarocchi, were originally known either by that name, or by that of cards; while from a passage cited by Mons. Leber, from Raphael Volaterranus, it would appear that Tarocchi Cards, properly so called, were not invented till towards the close of the fifteenth century; and from the same author we learn that a pack of such cards consisted of the four suits of common cards, together with twenty-two symbolical figures, similar to those which are assumed by Mons. Duchesne to have been the original Tarocchi. Tarocchi cards--called Tarots by the French--are still used in several parts of France, Germany, and Italy; and an account of the manner of playing the game is to be found in the edition of the 'Académie des Jeux,' published by Corbet, Paris, 1814.
