Once again, a deck of cards flashed before my eyes and I wondered, who drew the cards we usually play? Now there are many different cards, but since the days of the Soviet Union, the deck has been about the same, like the one in the top picture.
Those cards that we got used to since childhood came to us in the early 17th century through Poland and Germany from France. The “Russian deck” of 36 cards is a stripped-down (ie starting with sixes) 54-card “French deck”. But let's start from the beginning ...
The invention of this entertainment, an inexhaustible source of joys and sorrows, is attributed to the cunning Egyptians, and the fatalist Indians, and the cheerful Greeks in the person of Palamed. However, during excavations, if they found a "toolkit" of gambling, it was mainly in the form of hexagonal dice-cubes.
It is generally accepted that the first maps appeared later, in the 12th century in China. The masters of filling their leisure time, the court aristocrats, discovered at first aesthetic fun in drawing small pictures with allegorical signs of animals, birds and plants. Then - a convenient way of transmitting secret information in the matter of palace and love intrigues. And later - the possibility of risky games with the all-powerful Fatum.
But the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists, is much more popular. They argued that in ancient times, the Egyptian priests wrote down all the wisdom of the world on 78 gold tablets, which were also depicted in the symbolic form of maps. 56 of them - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Major Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for fortune telling. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors Eliphas Levi and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. This name allegedly comes from the Egyptian "tara rosh" ("the path of the kings"), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by the Arabs or by the Gypsies, who were often considered to be Egyptians.
True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.
According to the third version (European version), ordinary maps appeared on the European continent no later than the XIV century. Back in 1367, the city of Bern banned the card game, and ten years later, the shocked papal envoy watched in horror as the monks enthusiastically cut cards at the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards to amuse his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were four ladies missing, whose presence seemed then unnecessary. Only in the next century did Italian artists begin to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.
It was at this time that Europe began to carry out major military expeditions to the East - the Crusades (1096-1270), and for the first time Europeans discovered a new and already highly developed culture. Returning home, the crusaders did not forget to take with them the exotic that amazed them: light porcelain, the finest silk, painted fans and, of course, charming miniatures on thick rice paper for tricks and fortune-telling.
However, it was still a long time before card games became widespread. In any case, the first mention in the chronicles of the Saracen game “naib” (Arabic “naib” - cards) dates back to the last quarter of the 14th century. It is characteristic that, in full accordance with the Arabic sound, the word "cards" in Italian is "naibi"; in Spanish "naipes"; in Portuguese “naipe” (it was connected with lively trade with Arab countries and close contact with local merchants, known for their passion to pay for goods “by chance,” that is, according to the principle of the unforgettable Nozdryov).
In other European countries, a different co-root word is firmly established: in France - “carte”, in Germany - “Karten, SpielKarten”, in Denmark - “Kort, SpelKort”, In Holland - “Kaarten, SpeelKarten”, in England - “card ".
At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, cards were made directly by the artist and according to individual orders. Naturally, its productivity was not high, and it was only with the invention of engraving that map printing took on a large scale.
Three basic types of playing cards are stacked at the same time: Italian, French and German. All of them had differences both in suits and in the figures themselves.
The Italian type of cards originated with the invention of the taroc game. These maps, made as copper engravings, were quite peculiar. In the normal, or "Venetian" taroque, the deck consisted of 78 cards, the suits were divided into bowls, denarii, swords and clubs. Each suit contained 14 cards: king, queen, knight, jack, score cards from ten to six, ace of swords, score cards from five to two. The remaining 21 cards, from Figlar to the card called Light, were trump cards, or Triumphs. Finally, there was one more card called the Fool (by the way, the prototype of the future Joker). In Florence, 98 cards were issued, where grace, elements and 12 constellations were added to the usual Triumphs.
There is an assumption that the deck is not a random set of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are four seasons. The green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted with the help of a wand, staff, stick with green leaves, which, when printed, became black peaks. The red suit symbolized beauty, north, spirituality. On the card of this suit, cups, bowls, hearts, books were depicted. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lighted torch, the sun, fire, and a golden bell. The blue suit is a symbol of simplicity and decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.
The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.
There was no uniformity in card suits. In early Italian decks, they were called swords, cups, denarii (coins) and wands. It seems, as in India, it was associated with the estates: the nobility, the clergy and the merchant class, while the rod symbolized the royal power that stood over them. In the French version, swords became "spades", cups - into "worms", denarii - into "tambourines", and "wands" - into "crosses" or "clubs" (the last word in French means "clover leaf") ... In different languages, these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany these are "spades", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", and in Italy - "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German maps you can still find the old names of the colors: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves". As for the Russian word "worms", it came from the word "chervonny" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally belonged to the red suit.
Mamluk cards. Ten Cups, Three Cups, First Cups Advisor, Second Cups Advisor
The Hofämterspiel deck reflects the political situation in Central Europe in the mid-15th century. Instead of suits, the coats of arms of the four most influential kingdoms of that time were taken: France, Germany, Bohemia and Hungary. The one-headed eagle represents the "regnum teutonicum" kingdom of Germany (as opposed to the two-headed eagle representing the Holy Roman Empire).
HERE in more detail about her.
Early card games were quite difficult, because in addition to 56 standard cards, they used 22 "Major Arcana" plus 20 more trump cards named after the signs of the zodiac and the elements. In different countries, these cards were called differently and the rules were so confused that it became simply impossible to play. In addition, the cards were hand painted and were so expensive that only the rich could purchase them. In the 16th century, cards were radically simplified - almost all pictures disappeared from them, except for the four "senior suits" and the jester (joker).
Cards of the Italian type at the end of the XIV century appear in France, and already under Charles VII (1403-1461), cards with their own national suits appear: heart, crescent moon, trefoil and spades. And at the end of the 15th century, the type of suits that are still used is finally established in French cards: hearts (coeur), tambourines (carreau), clubs (trefle) and spades (pique). Since that time, French cards acquire a stable type, for which the following figures are characteristic: David is the king of spades, Alexander is the king of clubs, Caesar is the king of tambourines, Karl is the king of hearts, Pallas is the queen of spades, Argina is the queen of clubs, Rachel is the queen of tambourine. , Judith is the queen of hearts, Hector is the jack of diamonds, Ogier is the jack of spades, Lancelot is the jack of clubs, and Lagir is the jack of hearts. This type of cards reached the French Revolution of 1789-1894.
The new republican government entrusted not to anyone, but to the most famous painter J.L. David (the author of the famous painting The Death of Marat) to create new card drawings. Instead of kings, David portrayed the geniuses of war, trade, peace and the arts, replaced the ladies with allegories of freedom of religion, press, marriage and crafts, and instead of jacks he painted figures-symbols of the equality of states, rights, duties and races. It was in France that the forms of four colors originally appeared: ivy leaves, acorns, bells, hearts. It is very plausible to assume that French suits are symbols of knightly use: a pike - a spear, a club - a sword, a tambourine - a coat of arms or oriflamma (banner, standard), worms - a shield.
On these cards of the French "deck on feet" (1648), images are inscribed with their names.
It should also be said that for many centuries the cards were "single-headed", ie. figures on them were depicted in full growth. The first cards without “top” and “bottom”, “two-headed”, were issued by Italy at the end of the 17th century. At this time, these maps were not widely used. Then a similar attempt was made in Belgium, and at the beginning of the 19th century, France began to issue such cards.
Traditional deck. Germany
Traditional deck. Switzerland
By the way, the tradition of magnificently decorating the ace of spades came from the fact that during the reign of King James I of England (1566-1625) a decree was issued, according to which on the ace of spades (since this card is the first in the deck) it was necessary to print information about the manufacturer and its logo ... A special seal was put on the same ace, indicating the payment of a special tax on cards.
In addition to these basic types of maps, so-called "thematic" maps were issued in various European countries. There were “pedagogical” decks that taught players geography, history, or grammar. Cards-illustrations to the dramas of Shakespeare, Schiller, Moliere were very popular. Heraldry, palmistry and even fashion were found in the "toys for adults". For example, in the middle of the last century in France, cards were printed on which the clothes of kings, queens and jacks represented the latest models of the season ...
By the 13th century, cards were already known and popular throughout Europe. From this point on, the history of the development of maps becomes clearer, but rather monotonous. In the Middle Ages, both fortune telling and gambling were considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times and peoples. Therefore, from the middle of the XIII century, the history of the development of cards turns into the history of the prohibitions associated with them.
For example, in France in the 17th century, householders, in whose apartments they gambled with cards, paid fines, were deprived of civil rights and expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could collect a large sum from the person who won money from their child. After the French Revolution, indirect taxes on the game were abolished, which stimulated its development. The "pictures" themselves have changed - since the kings were in disgrace, it was customary to draw geniuses instead, ladies now symbolized virtues - in other words, a new social structure came into card symbolism. True, already in 1813 jacks, queens and kings returned to cards. The indirect tax on cards for the game was abolished in France only in 1945.
Maps appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. The largest Russian critic and art historian V.V. Stasov believed that the cards fell to the Slavic peoples from the Germans, without denying, however, that Poland played the role of the main mediator in this matter. But no matter how the playing cards got to Little Russia or Muscovy, they spread extremely quickly. From the legislative monuments, for the first time he mentions the cards and their indisputable harm to society by the Code of 1649. For more than a century, card games were prosecuted in Russia by law, and gamblers caught playing hot were subjected to various punishments, until in 1761 there was a decree on the division of games into prohibited - gambling and permitted - commercial.
By the decree of 1696 under Peter I, it was ordered to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards, "... and from whom the cards are taken out, beat with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar ones that followed were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling games. Along with them, there were the so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards for showing tricks and playing solitaire.
The development of “innocent” forms of using cards was facilitated by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of 1761 on dividing the use of cards into prohibited for gambling and permitted for commercial games. The way of penetration of cards into Russia is not entirely clear. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the Polish-Swedish intervention during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.
The card game, which found a warm welcome in boyar houses and palace chambers, was certainly forbidden for the common people. In 1648, shortly after the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich, a royal decree followed, aimed at eradicating harmful customs and beliefs that still held among the urban and especially the rural population. The decree listed in detail the numerous sins that required immediate uprooting:
“... Many people, male and female, converge at dawns, and in the night they perform magic, from the sunny emergence of the first days of the moon they look, and in thunderous thunder (in a thunderstorm) on the rivers and lakes they buy, expect themselves from this health, and wash with silver, and the bears drive, and they dance from the dog, cards and cards, and chess, and play with bats, and unruly jumping and splashing, and sing demonic songs; and on the Holy Week, women and girls jump on boards (on a swing), and about the Nativity of Christ and before the Epiphany days, male and female, many people converge in a demonic host for the devil's charm, they play a lot of demonic action in every demonic game ... ”.
It should be noted that along with the gambling card game, such completely innocent amusements as riding on a swing were also banned!
The decree of 1648 introduced a whole range of measures to combat the card game and other "disorder". It was ordered to be read "many times" at the auction, lists from it were sent "word for word" to the largest villages and volosts, so that "this strong order of ours was known to all people" and no one could then dissuade him from ignorance.
Buffy clothes, hari and masks, musical instruments, chessboards and decks of cards were ordered to be taken away and burned, and in relation to people who were seen in violation of the decree, the governors were told “where such an outrage will appear, or who will say such outrage to whom, and you will ordered to beat the batogs; and which people will not lag behind such an outrage, but will sweep out such bogomer card games and others, and you would order those disobedient ones to beat the batogs; and which people will not lag behind, but will appear in such guilt in the third and fourth, and those, according to our decree, are ordered to be exiled to the Ukrainian (ie border) cities for disgrace. " Yes, and the governors themselves, so that they did not skimp on the implementation of the decree, was made a strict suggestion: "But you will not do according to our decree, and you will be from us (Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich) in great disgrace"
It must be assumed that initially the decree was carried out with all its inherent rigidity, and more than one gambler was stripped with whips or sticks from his back during the bargaining. But according to the saying "the cruelty of laws in Russia is mitigated by the possibility of their non-fulfillment", the effect of this decree gradually came to naught - mainly due to the physical impossibility of its implementation.
Another and very tangible blow to playing cards was inflicted in the next year, 1649. The compilers of the famous "Code" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich attributed the card game and its consequences to crimes of deep criminality, cruelly punishable by injury and death. In the 1649 edition of the Code, an article related to the "card game" was placed in the chapter "on robbery and tatina affairs."
“And who are thieves,” it is said in this article, “they steal in Moscow and in the cities, play cards and grains, and when they lose, they steal, walk the streets, cut people, rip off their hats and rob ...”, this was what followed, after interrogation with torture, “fix the decree (sentence) the same as written above about tatekh (robbers), that is, imprison, confiscate property, beat with a whip, cut ears (in the subsequent edition of the Code - fingers and hands) and execute death ".
The classification of the card game as a serious crime has had a great impact on the trading of playing cards. The surviving customs books show that after 1649 the import of cards, for example, to Veliky Ustyug, was halved against previous years, and after 1652 it stopped altogether. But has the game of cards stopped?
Special nominal royal decrees of 1668 and 1670 introduced a special regime in the Kremlin: people of various ranks - from the steward and below - were strictly forbidden to enter the Kremlin on horseback, to gamble during the sovereign's exits to cathedral churches; when the king appeared, it was ordered to stand without hats "peacefully and unrestrained."
Significant government spending on the conduct of hostilities required a constant search for new sources of income. An interesting document has survived, dating back to the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, and testifying that among the Moscow administration, probably convinced of the ineradicability of the card game, a happy idea arose to turn it into a source of state revenue. The Moscow government has repeatedly acted so wittily in the past, replacing the brutal persecution of the use of vodka and tobacco for a monopoly state trade in these goods, to an increasing increase in the treasury.
The mentioned document is a certificate given to Siberia to the Turin governor Alexei Beklemishev in 1675. It turned out that before that from Tobolsk to Moscow “voivode Pyotr Godunov and dyak Mikhailo Postnikov wrote that they (it is not known on what basis) gave grain and cards in Tobolsk at the mercy”, in other words, they were allowed at the expense of the treasury and under its cover to open gambling houses. (Note in parentheses that along with the cards, the enterprising voivode gave at the mercy of "unmarried wives for fornication" - and all for the good of the treasury!)
Many other cities of the "Tobolsk category" wanted to follow the seductive initiative of Godunov and Postnikov. From Verkhoturye and Surgut, the governors wrote, "so that for the same the grain and maps should be at the mercy." The great sovereign pointed out to these simple-minded writings: in Tobolsk and other cities "to set aside grain and cards, and to lay out the ransom from grain and cards from the salary." The diploma instructed the governor of the Turin prison to do the same, Beklemishev, even if he had already given the grain and cards at the mercy of Tobolsk and according to Godunov's "unsubscribes". Knowing the customs of local rulers, who easily found loopholes in the decrees, the tsar's charter especially indicated: "the tax farmer himself, he will suddenly be sent from Tobolsk, and not a resident of Turin, and send him out of Turinsk, and henceforth make a strong order."
The pursuit of the card game was not limited to restraining orders. In 1672, by order of Alexei Mikhailovich, the Lutheran pastor Johann Gottfried Gregory set up a new theatrical temple in Preobrazhensky, and in November the first performance was given to the tsar - the comedy "Artkserov's Action". This was followed by new performances of a comedic and moral character. The play "The History or Action of the Gospel Parable of the Prodigal Son", composed by Simeon of Polotsk, gained fame. This production is remarkable in that a kind of theatrical "program" was published for it, in which scenes from the action were shown in drawings, accompanied by explanations. According to the plot, the prodigal son, having received part of the estate from his father's hands, leaves home and begins a riotous life. He hires many servants, plays with seeds and cards, ties with his mistresses and, finally, squanders all his property.
In one of the pictures of this "program" the prodigal son is shown playing cards and seeds at the table, surrounded by players. This is the earliest depiction of a card game in Russia.
After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676, the persecution against gamblers eased considerably. In the tsarist decrees, which were sent to the localities, there were no longer the previous intimidations of players with mutilations and executions for the very fact of playing cards; the whole threat is limited to an indefinite expression - "the order to mend strong." The import of playing cards to Russia resumed and even increased significantly, only 17,136 decks were brought to Veliky Ustyug in 1676-1680.
Soon after the permission of card games in Russia, its own production of playing cards appeared. Already in 1765, the government of Catherine II established a tax on both imported playing cards and domestically produced cards, and the duty on foreign cards was twice as high. The printing of playing cards in Russia was farmed out, i.e. was in private hands and brought decent incomes to the farmers, who sold an average of about one million decks a year. The money received as a result of taxes went to the Orphanages. And so on the lands of the family estate of the princes Vyazemsky (P.A.Vyazemsky - one of the descendants of this ancient family - was a close friend of A.S. Pushkin), near the village of Alexandrovo near St. year of the building of the Alexander Manufactory, which at the beginning of the 19th century became one of the largest enterprises in Russia. After a year of operation, the manufactory was transferred to the treasury and was donated by Paul I to the Orphanage. In 1817, the manager of the manufactory A.Ya. Wilson suggested that the Board of Trustees open a card factory at the manufactory. A note was drawn up, which was approved by Alexander I on October 12, 1817. The government was going to get huge profits, because the factory with a monopoly on the production of cards eliminated all competition from outside. The decision not to give ransoms, which expired in 1819, and the ban on the import of cards from abroad, provided the treasury with the opportunity to set any selling price for the cards.
In 1819, the factory released its first products. During this year, 240 thousand decks were made, which were sold throughout the Russian Empire (in 1820, the production of cards increased to 1380 thousand decks).
The new map sketches created did not have their own name. The notion "satin" in the middle of the 19th century referred to the technology of their manufacture. Atlas is a special kind of smooth, shiny, shiny silk fabric. The paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talcum powder on special trolley machines.
Let's return to our question about maps of the Pushkin era (The Queen of Spades was written in 1833). At this time and until 1860 on the reverse side of the cards there was an image of a pelican feeding two children with the meat of its own heart. This allegorical sign was explained by the inscription: "She does not spare herself, feeds the chicks." The ironic phrase of one of the heroes of the story by N.S. Leskov “Interesting Men”: “In order not to get bored, we sat down to the evening bells to“ cut ”, or, as they say,“ to work for the benefit of the imperial educational institution ”. And the benefit was. In 1835, a dozen decks cost 12 rubles, and were sold for 24. By the mid-50s, three times more cards were produced than the tax farmers produced in 1818, while the profit increased 4.5 times and amounted to 500 thousand rubles a year ...
The maps of this time that interest us had the character of folk popular prints (professional artists were not involved in the factory's activities yet). They portrayed funny German knights on horses, the size of ponies, and big-headed clumsy ladies. For example, the queen of spades, at its will, could not frighten the player to madness, as happened with the impressionable Hermann. But the more obvious is the brilliant idea of \u200b\u200bPushkin, who built the intrigue of the story on the external discrepancy between the funny card characters and their hidden fateful role.
The graceful drawings of cards without top and bottom familiar to us today were born thanks to the talent of the academician of painting A.I. Charlemagne. In 1860, the assortment of the factory was incredibly expanded: cards of reduced sizes, solitaire, travel, children's, educational and fortune-telling cards began to be produced. But the more intensively the production developed, the more “archaic” the drawings on the cards looked in the taste of folk primitives.
As a historical painter and battle painter, A.I. Charlemagne tries himself in different fields of art. He makes illustrations for the works of A.S. Pushkin and other famous writers, makes sketches for the Imperial Porcelain Factory and, in addition, creates originals for playing cards. The merit of the artist lies in the fact that he, a talented draftsman and connoisseur of history, managed to find the right tone in solving the figurative structure of all the cards. Thanks to him, playing cards began to be distinguished by a peculiar style and integrity of image-symbols.
The factory's products were successfully demonstrated at the World Industrial Exhibitions in Paris in 1867 and 1878. In 1893, playing cards with drawings by Charlemagne were presented at the World's Fair in Chicago and received a bronze medal and an honorary diploma.
The created new sketches of maps did not have their own name and were not called Atlas. The very concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century did not refer to the drawing or special style of cards, but to the technology of their production. The very word atlas was called then, and even now they call a special kind of smooth, glossy, shiny silk fabric. The paper from which the cards were made then was rough, with spots and streaks, poorly glued, and often had different thickness in the sheet. To give the cards an improved look, the paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talcum powder on special trolley machines, which were extremely harmful to health. Cards made on satin paper were not afraid of moisture; they glided well when shuffled and cost more. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks, on a par with gold-trimmed cards made by hand for the imperial court.
A.I. Charlemagne... Solitaire Playing Cards. 1862.
Charlemagne's drawings were used in the manufacture of satin cards, cards of the first and second grade, as well as cards "Extra" already in the 30s of the 20th century. Gradually, all card products began to be made on satin paper, and the own name Satin was firmly entrenched in Charlemagne's cards. In the "Price Courant of retail prices for 1935" of the State Card Monopoly, which was under the jurisdiction of the People's Commissariat of Finance, a deck of "Satin" cards of 52-53 cards cost 6 rubles.
An interesting question - who was the prototype of the card characters? Russian card figures are anonymous, but the French cards that served as the basis for Charlemagne's work have their exact names, which were written and are still written right on the cards. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, led the suit of hearts; the shepherd, singer and Hebrew king David - the peak; Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great were given the tambourine and clubs suits. The heroine of the biblical legend Judith became the lady of hearts, and the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, Athena Pallas, became the most famous in Russia the lady of spades. The suit of diamonds has traditionally been associated with wealth, the very symbol of the diamond suit, which we are used to seeing in the form of a diamond, is still called "diamond" - a diamond.
Playing cards are road. 1870s Based on the originals of A.I.Sharleman Petersburg. Card Factory at the Imperial Orphanage. Collection of A.S. Perelman
In the 16th century, the lady of the tambourine was given the features of Rachel, the heroine of the biblical legend about the life of Jacob. According to legend, she was a greedy woman, which was quite consistent with her new position of cards. The image of the lady of clubs has become collective. She began to be portrayed in the form, in modern terms, a sex bomb, to which the nickname Argin, regal, firmly stuck. This word became so popular that all the queens, as well as the favorites and mistresses of the French kings, were called by this name behind their backs. In the form of jacks, Etienne de Vignel, a knight of the time of Charles VII (worms), a noble Danish Ogier (spades), one of the knights of the Round Table Hector de Mare (tambourines), and finally Sir Lancelot himself, the senior knight of the Round Table (clubs), went down in history. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, Russian players also called cards by name. The poet V. I. Maikov in the poem "The Ombre Player" boldly throws Ogier on the table - the jack of spades.
From the end of the 18th century, a real card boom began, engulfing the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth, Derzhavin lived mainly on the money he won at cards, and Pushkin was listed in police reports not as a poet, but as a "well-known banker in Moscow." Gambling Nekrasov and Dostoevsky often lost their last penny, while the cautious Turgenev preferred the game "for fun." In the then secular society, especially the provincial one, almost the only entertainment was cards and the scandals associated with them.
A.E. Beideman Playing cards. Watercolor, ink, pen on paper
Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance rules for everyone. While the former (screw, whist, preference, bridge, poker) established themselves among educated people, the latter (seca, “point”, shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless “thrown fool”) reigned undividedly among the common people.
Traditional deck. Italy
In the West, “mental” card games that train logical thinking have even been included in the school curriculum. However, the cards began to serve for completely non-intellectual pursuits. If they depict naked girls, there is no time for the bridge. But this is a completely different game.
It must be said that over the centuries, many people have appeared who want to modernize the card images, replacing them with animals, birds, and household items. For political purposes, decks were produced where Napoleon or the German Emperor Wilhelm played the role of kings. And in the USSR during the NEP years, there were attempts to depict workers with peasants on maps and even introduce new suits - "sickles", "hammers" and "stars". True, such an initiative was quickly suppressed, and the cards were stopped for a long time from printing as "attributes of bourgeois decay."
So what kind of cards do we usually play now?
A.I.Sharlemagne. Playing cards. Cardboard, ink, pen, watercolor, gouache. Collection of A.S. Perelman
1875 year. Satin maps made according to the sketch of A. Charlemagne
Drawings of card figures with Charlemagne's monogram are made in the life size of a deck of cards. Created by order of the card factory in the 1860s - 1870s, and still remain the most famous and popular card designs in Russia.
Sources
http://ta-vi-ka.blogspot.com/
http://www.jokercards.ru
http://lizi-black.com
It often happens with the player:
Sat down as a rich man - got up as a poor man.
Who took the cards, seduced by profit,
Tom does not know the game is happy.
Gambling is sinful:
It is not given to us by God, -
Satan invented it!
Sebastian BRANT. 1494 g.
Have you ever asked yourself the question: What do the suits of playing cards mean? Where did the names come from - jack, ace, clubs, spades, hearts, etc. If - yes! Then this article is for you. Especially impressionable, please do not read)
A few words about the history of the issue:
There are 3 versions of the origin of the cards:
1. First - chinese, although many still do not want to believe in it. Chinese and Japanese cards are too unusual for us both in appearance and in the nature of the game, which is more like dominoes. However, there is no doubt that already in the 8th century in China, first sticks were used for games, and then strips of paper with the designations of various symbols. These distant ancestors of cards were also used in place of money, so they had three suits: a coin, two coins and many coins. And in India, playing cards depicted the figure of the four-armed Shiva, who was holding a goblet, sword, coin and wand. Some believe that these symbols of the four Indian classes gave rise to modern card suits.
2. Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists. They argued that in ancient times, the Egyptian priests wrote down all the wisdom of the world on 78 gold tablets, which were also depicted in the symbolic form of maps. 56 of them - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Major Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for divination. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors Eliphas Levi and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. The name is allegedly derived from the Egyptian "ta rosh" ("the path of the kings"), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by the Arabs, or by the gypsies, who were often considered immigrants from Egypt. True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.
3. European version... (We will dwell on it in more detail - it is considered the main one). Conventional maps appeared on the European continent no later than the 14th century. Back in 1367, the city of Bern banned the card game, and ten years later, the shocked papal envoy watched in horror as the monks enthusiastically cut cards at the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards to amuse his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were four ladies missing, whose presence seemed then unnecessary. Only in the next century did Italian artists begin to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.
4. Occult... According to the writer S.S. Narovchatova, under Ivan the Terrible a certain Churchlli appeared in Moscow. Churchlli, in Italy he was called French, in France - German, in Germany - Pole, and in Poland - became Russian. He brought to Moscow a chest wrapped in a shawl, black with red streaks, which seemed to correspond to the colors - black and red. Cards are in demand. At first, the authorities were tolerant of practicing cards, but then they began to persecute them, because they saw the interference of evil spirits here. From the legislative monuments about cards, he first mentions the Code of 1649, which prescribes with the players at cards to act "as it is written about tats" (thieves), i.e. beat mercilessly, cut off fingers and hands. Decree of 1696. it was introduced to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards "and from whom the cards are taken out, beat with a whip." In 1717. it is prohibited to play cards under the threat of a monetary fine. In 1733. for repeat offenders, a prison or batogi is defined.
So what do the suits and card meanings mean?
The structure of a card deck is known to everyone: ace, king, queen, jack, even lower tens, nines, and so on up to sixes or up to twos in a full deck - a typical hierarchical ladder from highest to lowest:
The Joker is a frivolous figure in tights, a buffoon's cap, bells ... And in his hands is a scepter with a human head strung on it, which is now replaced by humane artists with musical "cymbals". In pre-revolutionary stage performances, a similar character was called Fradyavolo. "Joker" is above all, it has no suit and is considered the strongest in the game. Thus, at the top of the pyramid is not the King, but Daus ...
Ace is a word of Polish origin from the German Daus. The German-Russian dictionary indicates the meaning of the word: Daus - devil. It is quite possible that Daus is a variant of the distortion of the Greek diabolos - a defamator.
King. Interestingly, all of the card images had real or legendary prototypes. For example, four kings are the greatest monarchs of antiquity: Charlemagne (worms), biblical king David (spades), Julius Caesar (tambourines) and Alexander the Great (clubs).
There was no such unanimity with regard to the ladies - for example, the lady of hearts was either Judith, then Helena of Trojan, or Dido. The Queen of Spades has traditionally been portrayed as the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva, and even Joan of Arc. After long disputes, the biblical Rachel was portrayed in the role of the lady of spades: she was ideally suited for the role of the "queen of money", since she had robbed her own father. Finally, the lady of clubs, on the early Italian cards, appeared as the virtuous Lucretia, turned into Argina - an allegory of vanity and vanity.
Valet (fr. Valet, "servant", "lackey", etymologically diminutive of "vassal"; the old Russian name "slave", "hlap") is a playing card depicting a young man. All real prototypes of jacks (according to the European version) are the French knight La Hire, nicknamed Satan (worms), as well as the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spades), Roland (tambourines) and Lancelot Ozerny (clubs).
"Trump" cards, their very name, have their own special purpose. "Kosher" ie Talmudists call ritual sacrifices "pure" ... which, as you understand, is connected with Kabbalah.
Now the suits:
In the French version, swords became "spades", cups - into "worms", denarii - into "tambourines", and "wands" - into "crosses" or "clubs" (the last word in French means "clover leaf") ... In different languages, these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany they are "spades", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", and in Italy - "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German maps you can still find the old names of the suits: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves".
As for the occult principles, their essence is as follows:
1. "Cross" (Trefa) - a card with the image of the cross on which Jesus was crucified and which is worshiped by half the world. Translated from Yiddish, "trefa" means "bad" or "evil"
2. "Blame" (lances) - symbolizes the gospel lance, that is, the spear of the holy martyr Longinus the Centurion, with which he pierced the stomach of Jesus
3. "Worms" - means the Gospel sponge on a reed: “one of the soldiers took a sponge, filled it with vinegar and, putting it on the reed, gave Him to drink”
4. "Tambourines" - a graphic image of the Gospel forged four-sided serrated nails with which the hands and feet of Jesus were nailed to the wooden Cross.
An interesting fact is that in the USSR during the NEP years there were attempts to depict workers with peasants on maps and even introduce new suits - "sickles", "hammers" and "stars". True, such amateur activities were quickly suppressed, and the cards were stopped for a long time from printing as "attributes of bourgeois decay."
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) - Sharkers (1594)Richard Strauss (1864-1949) - Sunrise
Overture to the symphonic poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1896)
Figurines "Peaks, Clubs", "Worms", "Tambourines"
"Nao" Spain - 2000s
Playing cards are rectangular sheets of cardboard or thin plastic used for card games. The complete set of playing cards to play is called a deck. In addition, cards are used for solitaire and fortune telling. And cards are also a favorite attribute of magicians.
The open side of the cards is called the face, the closed side is called the back. On the face, as it should be, there are images of suit and meanings - the weight of the card in card games. The backs of all cards in the deck are the same.
For most modern games, the usual so-called French deck (54 cards), or its stripped-down version (36 cards) is used. There are games that use special decks.
I probably won't be mistaken when I say that every house has at least one deck of ordinary playing cards. Such a familiar, utilitarian object, but it, like everything that surrounds us, has its own history.
The first playing cards appeared in East Asia: in China, there are references to a game in which oblong sheets were used - they date back to the 9th century - the period of the Tang dynasty (618-917). Later, playing with oblong sheets was mentioned in Korea and Japan.
Before the advent of paper maps, the Chinese and Japanese used flat, oblong tablets made of wood, bamboo, or even ivory. In different cultures, cards took different shapes and forms: in India, for example, they played round cards called Ganjifa.
Vintage Chinese cards
Theodore (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - Playing cards (Prado - Madrid)
There is no reliable information about how the cards got to Europe. But, most likely, the route was like this: from China through India and Persia to Egypt, and already from Egypt to Europe. Actually, the Arabs, or rather Arab merchants and sailors, as a rule, were the usual intermediaries of borrowings from China.
In Egypt, during the time of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517), their own cards appeared, which resembled modern tarot cards. The prohibition of the Koran on the image of people was observed by the Mamluks, and therefore only strict geometric ornaments - arabesques - were applied to the maps.
The first mentions of playing cards in Europe date back to the XIV century. Most often, these references are associated with the ban on card games in various European countries. But, despite all the prohibitions, by the middle of the 16th century in Europe, everyone from commoners to kings played cards.
There is a version that the cards, in a form very close to the modern one, were invented by a certain Jacquin Gringonner - the jester of the French king
Charles VI the Mad. The king suffered from a mental disorder, and therefore was in sadness and despondency. In order to somehow entertain his master, the jester occupied him with various card games, which he also invented himself. Had this happened in our time, Gringonner could have patented his inventions and, given the popularity of cards, would be incredibly rich. But it was in the XIV century, about 1392, so Jacquin Gringonner did not receive any material benefits, but it was thanks to him that the modern deck of 54 cards is called French.
Since the cards were played by the jester with the king, the cards were given corresponding values. Now it is clear why there are such cards as kings and jokers, and why the joker became the most important card.)))
All the pictures on the cards with kings, queens and jacks corresponded to specific historical and legendary characters.
Medieval Western European engraving 
Figurine "Card Game"
Germany - early 20th century
Canon - Canon
The ensemble "Nova era" plays
King - a playing card with the image of a king. Usually seniority is higher than the queen and corresponds to the number 13. In different games, the seniority of the king can vary greatly.
In medieval France, card kings were associated with the following persons:
King of Spades: David, the biblical king.
King of Hearts: Charlemagne, the first emperor of the West.
King of tambourines: Julius Caesar, ancient Roman commander.
King of Clubs: Alexander the Great, creator of one of the largest empires of the Ancient World.
At the same time, the list of prototypes varied greatly: various masters signed cards depicting kings with various names, among which, in particular, Solomon, Augustus, Constantine the Great and Clovis appeared.
Initially, the figures on the cards were depicted in full growth, and only after 1830, for the convenience of the game, the images became symmetrical.
Kings from the French deck of 1813
Kings from various European decks from the 20th century
Charles I the Great Guy Julius Caesar Alexander the Great King David
Emperor Charlemagne - portrait by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528).
Caesar is a portrait by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).
Alexander the Great as Pallas Athena - portrait by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669).
King David is a portrait (after 1483) by Pedro Berruguete (1450-1503 or 1504).
The Queen is a playing card with the image of a woman. By seniority it is usually below the king, but above the jack and has a numerical value of 12.
In medieval France, ladies corresponded to the following faces:
Queen of Spades: Athena, the goddess of wisdom in ancient Greek mythology.
Lady of Hearts: Judith, biblical character.
Lady of Diamonds: Rachel, biblical character.
The lady of clubs was called "Argine". The origin of the word has not been precisely established. Perhaps this is an anagram of the Latin word Regina, meaning Queen, or a distorted Argea (Argia) - a name belonging to several characters in ancient Greek mythology. Sometimes the lady of clubs is associated with Guinevere, the legendary wife of King Arthur. According to epic legends, the knight of Arthur Lancelot, who traditionally corresponds to the jack of clubs, was in love with her. But more often than not, French artists on the cards corresponding to the lady of clubs, painted the favorites of the king of their day.
Judith leaving the tent of Holofernes Judith decapitating Holofernes
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) Artemisia Giantileschi (1593-1653)
When fortune-telling on the cards, the lady of hearts denotes love, which cannot but be puzzling, knowing which character this card was originally associated with. To do this, you really needed to have a very peculiar sense of humor.
Something of a similar nature happened 20 years ago in our Lviv: directly opposite one of the city police stations there was a cafe called "Nemesis", where, among others, the officers of this police station had lunch. At first the cops liked the beautiful name, but then, apparently, someone explained it to them and the cafe was "asked" to rename it.
Based on the above, dear men, when it seems to you that you have finally met your lady of hearts and you lose your head because of her, remember that losing your head can go from figurative to literal.)))
Some sources claim that the prototype of the lady of hearts was Helena Troyanskaya, better known as Helen the Beautiful. Of course, this is a more suitable character for the role of the queen of love than a lady with such an active life position as Judith. But this Elena is also, you know, a very peculiar girl. People there, you know, are fighting because of her, and she sits like a fool and waits for her heart to calm down.
Elena Troyanskaya (1898)
Evelyn de Morgan (1855-1919)
Ladies from the French deck of 1813
Ladies from various European decks from the 20th century
Judith Rachel Diana de Poitiers Pallas Athena
Judith - a fragment of the painting "Judith" (about 1504) by Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco - Giorgione (1476 / 1477-1510).
Rachel is a portrait by Maurizio Gottlieb (1856-1879).
Diane de Poitiers - a fragment of the painting "Toilet of a Lady - Diane de Poitiers" (about 1571) by Francois Clouet (1515-1572).
Pallas Athena - a fragment of the painting "Pallas and the Centaur" (1483) by Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).
Having a choice of many favorites of the French kings, Diane de Poitiers, the favorite of Henry II, who was his only love all his life - he fell in love with Diana when he was only six years old - and his official favorite, being at the same time twenty years older than the king.
Jack is a playing card depicting a young man. Has a numerical value of 11, that is, below the lady and above the ten.
In medieval France, jacks corresponded to the following persons:
Jack of Spades: Holger Danish, known as Ogier the Dane or Ogier of the Ardennes (one of the heroes of French epic legends, including the cycle about the deeds of Charlemagne).
True, there is another version, in which the prototype of the jack of spades is Roland - the most famous of the heroes of the French epic legends about Charlemagne, the Margrave of the Breton mark.
The Jack of Hearts: La Hire, nicknamed Satan, a French military leader of the Hundred Years War.
Jack of Diamonds: Hector, leader of the Trojan army.
Jack of Clubs: Lancelot of the Lake, Knight of the Round Table.
Jacks from the French deck of 1813
Jacks from various European decks issued in the 20th century
La Hire Hector Lancelot Holger
Etienne de Vignoles, nicknamed La Guire (one of the associates of the Maid of Orleans - Jeanne d'Arc) - portrait by Louis Felix Amiel (1802-1864).
Hector - a fragment of the painting "Hector Calls Paris to Battle" by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829).
Lancelot is a fragment of the painting "Guinerva and Lancelot" by Herbert James Draper (1863-1920).
Ogier the Dane is a statue of Ogier the Dane at Kronborg Castle in Denmark, near the town of Helsingor on the northeastern tip of the island of Zealand.
The cards are played by royalty ...
William Mau Egley (1826-1916) - Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon playing cards (1852)
The clergy are playing cards ...
Luigi Zuccoli (1815-1876) - Card Players
Gaetano Belley (1857-1922) - Lucky Hand
Jean Georges Vibert (1840-1902) - The Church in Danger
This is where the church is really in danger.)))
Jean Georges Vibert (1840-1902) - Fortune Teller
Cards are played for money ...
Lucas Leiden (1494-1533) - The Card Players (c.1520)
Playing cards takes leisure time and while away the time ...
Theodore (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - Playing cards (Hermitage - St. Petersburg)
Theodore (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - The Card Players and Backgammon (Agnew Gallery - London)
Theodor (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - The Card Players (Royal Museum - Antwerp)
Theodore (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - Playing cards
Serious passions flare up behind the cards ...
Theodore (Dirk) van Rombouts (1597-1637) - Card and Backgammon Players. Battle over cards
Because of the cards, real tragedies are played ...
Leon Marie Constant Dancert (1830-1909) - Duel
In the card game, gullible simpletons are deceived ...
Jean-Louis Ernest Messonier (1815-1891) - The Picket Game, or Sharkers and Simpletons
Georges Dumenil de Latour (1593-5) - Sharpie with the ace of diamonds (around 1630), (Louvre - Paris)
Gallant gentlemen and ladies have a pleasant time at cards ...
Jan van Olis (1610-1676) - The Elegant Company, or The Card Players
Charming young ladies ...
John Everett Millais (1829-1896) - Trump Worms
Solid men ...
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) - Playing cards
Men are simpler ...
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) - The Card Players
Peasants ...
Karl Ostersetzer (1850-1914) - Gamblers
And just couples in love
Wilhelm Flockenhaus - Playing Cards
Unfortunately, I have not found the dates of the artist's life anywhere. Many sites offer to buy posters from this painting, it is not free, but nothing related to the artist's biography is nowhere to be found.
Figurine "Couple playing cards"
Germany - mid XX century
There have been many films about gamblers and playing cards, especially in the late 90s and 2000s. Those who love cinema know these films. In the story, I only cite old foreign films that were shot before 1990 and that became famous. These films were shot in different genres: in the genre of drama and in the genre of comedy, and very famous artists were shot in them.
The Cincinnati Kid (1965) - US production feature film
Big Jackpot for a Little Lady (1966) - US production feature film
Starring Henry Fonda and Joan Woodworth
Scam (1973) - US production feature film
Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford
Poker Alice (1987) - US production feature film
Starring - Elizabeth Taylor
Bluff (1976) - film made in Italy
Ace (1981) - film made in Italy
Starring - Adriano Celentano
Fragment of the film "Ace" (1981) made in Italy
As Asso - Adriano Celentano
Figurine "Gamblers"
Italy - late 20th century
Azzurro - Azure
Singing by Adriano Celentano
The azure sky is too blue tonight. I get on a train and go to you, but the train of my desires goes in the opposite direction ...
Figurine "Card Players"
Italy - late 20th century
Fortune-telling with cards spread almost simultaneously with the game of cards. Gypsies especially fell in love with this business and became, as they say, their main professional skill.
And how many book and opera fortune tellers chilled the soul with their ominous predictions!
Giuseppe Verdi - Ulrika's divination scene from the opera "Masquerade Ball"
Ulrika: Irina Bogacheva
Fragment of the opera performance of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR from the concert film of the Leningrad television "Irina Bogacheva Sings" (1971)
Description
Card decks are available in full and abbreviated form. Separate plastic and satin (high quality paper).
Full deck
A complete deck consists of 54 cards: aces, twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, sevens, eights, nines, tens, jacks, queens, kings and two jokers.
A complete deck is suitable for all card games.
Reduced deck
The reduced deck has 36 cards. The minimum card is six. There are no jokers in the short deck.
The shortened deck is suitable for most card games.
Standard deck options
A standard deck consists of 54 cards:
- 52 basic cards are characterized by one of four suits (two colors) and one of 13 merits.
- 2 special cards, the so-called jokers, usually distinguished by their pattern.
Card deck:
- 54 cards (maximum deck, starts from aces to joker)
- 52 cards (deck, starts from twos to ace),
- 48 cards (deck, starts from threes to ace),
- 44 cards (middle deck, starts from fours to ace),
- 40 cards (deck, starts from fives to ace),
- 36 cards (deck, starting from sixes to ace),
- 32 cards (minimum deck, starting from sevens to ace).
to play a thousand, a deck of 24 cards is used http://www.casinoobzor.ru/html/rules/pravila_igry_tysyacha_1000.php
Other types of decks
Different countries use different decks. The most famous:
- Standard deck
Suits
The names of the suits (only the first indicated is literary):
- ♠ - spades (blame, blame)
- ♣ - clubs (crosses, crosses, acorns, fat)
- - worms (worms, fats, love)
- ♦ - tambourines (tambourines, tambourines, bells).
Cards of spades and clubs are called black, and hearts and diamonds are called red.
In other languages
English names of cards and suits
- Clubs - clubs
- Tambourines - diamonds
- Hearts - hearts
- Spades - spades
Advantages:
- "B" \u003d "J" - Jack
- "D" \u003d "Q" - Queen
- "K" \u003d "K" - King
- "T" \u003d "A" - Ace
Cards under ten are named by their numerical designation (two, three, .. ten), and also by nicknames: two - "deuce", three - "trey".
French names for cards and suits
- Clubs - trèfles
- Tambourines - carreaux
- Hearts - cœurs
- Picks - piques
Advantages:
- "B" \u003d "V" - Valet
- "D" \u003d "D" - Dame
- "K" \u003d "R" - Roi
- "T" \u003d "A" - As
Polish names for cards and suits
- Clubs - trefl, żołądź [trefl, zhóўondzh]
- Tambourines - karo, dzwonek [karo, dzwonek]
- Hearts - czerwień, kier [cherven, ker]
- Peaks - pik, wino [peak, wine]
Advantages:
- "B" \u003d "J" - walet, Jopek [valet, yopek]
- "D" \u003d "Q" - dama [dama]
- "K" \u003d "K" - król [krul]
- "T" \u003d "A" - As [ac]
The values
All Maps
- Numeric ( foci) (9): two (notation 2 ), three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.
- Pictures, broadway cards ( figures or honors, from the English. honor - honor) (3): jack (designation IN or J - English. Jack), lady (designation D or Q - English. Queen), king (notation TO or K - English. King), ace (designation T or A - English. Ace).
The accepted order (seniority, sequence) of cards: ace (lowest card), deuce, three, ..., king, joker. In many games, the ace is the highest card. In some games, the order of the cards is different. For example, in the German deck and the Italian-Spanish deck, queens are completely absent, their place is taken by "high jacks" or horsemen. In the card game "Small Taroks" there is a deck that is, in fact, a complete set of the Small Arcana of the Tarot, but with the European designation of suits. Almost every year, new decks of cards appear on the market, differing in small details from the classic ones, both in the number of honors and in the color designation, the number of suits may also be different. The shape of the cards themselves can also be very diverse: round and oval playing cards will surprise no one! The shape is most often just close to symmetrical, from an equilateral triangle to amoeba-like.
High cards
| № | Fig. | Name | Description and meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joker | The card depicts a jester - color or black and white. The strongest card in the deck. | |
| 2 |  |
Ace | The card shows one suit sign and two letters "T" |
| 3 |  |
King (playing) card |
|
| 4 |  |
Lady | Each of the ladies is depicted in a red dress and shawl. In their hands they have a flower each, and a crown is put on their head. |
| 5 |  |
Jack | Each jack has a shirt and a hat. In their hands they hold halberds. |
Links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
See what a "deck of playing cards" is in other dictionaries:
This term has other meanings, see Museum of Playing Cards. Coordinates: 59 ° 52'57.32 ″ s. sh. 29 ° 54'39.44 "in. d. / 59.882589 ° N w ... Wikipedia
Main article: Tarot cards Cards of a typical tarot deck ... Wikipedia
DECK, decks, wives. 1. A short thick log, a stump of a log. || The same as adaptation to various industries and economic purposes (special). Deck for leatherworking. The deck is part of the joiner's workbench. A deck of lintel above the door. 2. ... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
1. DECK, s; g. 1. A short thick log; the thick trunk of a fallen tree. Only rotten logs remained instead of the forest. Enough to lie like K. 2. A stump of such a log, adapted for what l. needs. Chop meat on a deck. Chop wood for ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
KOLODA, s, wives. 1. A short thick log. Oak k. 2. A kind of wooden trough-beam with a hollowed out middle. Vodopochnaya k. About a fat, clumsy man (simple neod.). Through the stump the deck (cut) (colloquial) do what n. something like ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Playing cards are rectangular sheets of cardboard or thin plastic used for card games. The complete set of playing cards for the game is called a deck of cards. Cards are also used for magic tricks and divination. On one side of the card (open), ... ... Wikipedia
deck - DECK, s, g. A set of playing cards. ◘ A poet who described a deck of cards better than other trees is not always taller than his opponent. K.F. Ryleev. Letter to A.S. Pushkin, 1825. ◘ Seriously, indifferent // The decks were exchanged by his obedient villain // ... ... 19th century card terminology and jargon
deck - I s; g. see also. log 1) Short thick log; the thick trunk of a fallen tree. Only rotten logs remained instead of the forest. Stop lying like a colo / yes. 2) A stump of such a log, adapted for what l. needs. Chop meat on a deck. ... ... Dictionary of many expressions
As always - one has only to get deeper into some topic, and so many new and interesting things are immediately discovered! It would seem that playing cards - so what's wrong with that?
Map history
Those cards that we have become accustomed to since childhood came to us at the beginning of the 17th century through Poland and Germany from France. The "Russian deck" of 36 cards is a stripped-down (ie starting with sixes) 54-card "French deck".
Around the 15th-16th centuries, the French deck was completely formed in the form we are accustomed to and since then has hardly changed. Recent changes are the appearance in 1830 of a pattern symmetrical with respect to the top-bottom (previously, card figures were drawn in full growth), the appearance of rounded corners, the appearance of small figures-indexes in the corners of the map (in 1864 in America they were patented by a certain Saladi).
1658, Guinea, France. Modern reprint of the deck with the addition of indices and rounding of the corners of the cards
In France, in the middle of the 15th century, cards came from Italy, where they had their own deck of cards with suits that were unusual for us (about suits, see below), slightly different from region to region (62 cards from Bologna, 78 in Venice, 98 in Florence) ... A feature of these cards was 21 trump cards - "Major Arcana". Apparently this is how the tarot cards appeared, which were playing until the 18th century, and only then they began to be used by occultists).
Italian maps belong to the so-called "Latin" (Spanish, Portuguese) - these are the first European maps brought to the Apennines at the end of the 14th century by crusaders from the East.
The first written mention of playing cards in Europe is a decree of 1367 banning card games in the city of Bern. In 1392, Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards to amuse his master. That deck was different from the modern one - it had only 32 cards (there were no ladies).
The further history of the cards is lost over the centuries. There are several versions of their origin.
One of them is the borrowing of a card game from Persia through India. It is in the Persian sources that there is the earliest mention of this game. In the "Annals of Egypt and Syria" there is a mention of the fact that the nobility at court played the game "Kanjifah", using cards of 8 suits of 12 cards. But under the influence of Muslims, this game was forgotten already in the middle of the 17th century.
In India, the cards took root, the local deck was called ganjifa. This word was first mentioned in 1527 in the diary of Emperor Babur, where he writes that he sent the deck to his friend.
The Indian round playing cards depicted the figure of the four-armed Shiva, who was holding a goblet, sword, coin and wand. It is believed that these symbols of the four Indian classes gave rise to the suits of the "Latin deck".
Ganjif cards are still produced in the Rajistan region (India)
Another common version is Turkic. In the 12-13 centuries, the Egyptian Mamelukes played with a deck of 52 cards with denominations from 1 to 10, in which there were four suits (swords, clubs, bowls and coins), "malik" (emir - king) and his two assistants - "naib malik "and" tani naib ". This is very reminiscent of the "Latin deck", in it, too, there were initially no queens, but there were kings, jacks and cavaliers. Only clubs became ceremonial wands (or clubs) in Europe. And the word "naib", "helper", became the name of the card game.
In 1939, L.A. Mayer discovered an incomplete deck of Mamluk cards in Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.
Mamluk cards. Ten cups, three cups, first cups advisor, second cups advisor.
There is a version that seems to me just an attempt to hoax that the cards came to us from Egypt. It was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila. Allegedly, Egyptian maps are 78 gold tablets on which the priests wrote down all their knowledge. 56 of them - "Minor Arcana" - became common playing cards, and with 22 "Major Arcana" they made up the Tarot deck used for divination. But scientists have not found any archaeological confirmation of this version.
Another version, which also does not inspire confidence in me personally, is that the card game appeared in the 12th century in China. But although they drew paper pictures with various images of flowers and birds, somewhat resembling cards, the rules of the game in them are more like dominoes.
Chinese "money" cards
Drawing cards
The most widespread design of playing cards in Russia - the traditional "Satin Cards" - was created in the middle of the 19th century by the academician of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne. Since then, the drawing has not changed, apart from the fact that the image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire was removed from the card of the jack of hearts and the ace of diamonds.
But Charlemagne did not create a fundamentally new style of cards. In developing the drawings, he relied on the tradition of the "North German picture", which originated from the ancient folk French deck of cards.
1875 year. Satin maps made according to the sketch of A. Charlemagne
The Anglo-American pattern of playing cards, now prevalent throughout the world, evolved from the Rouen (variation of the French) pattern.
Anglo-American pattern
The "Paris Template" maps were created in the mid-17th century from the maps of the artist Hector de Troyes. Nowadays, the image of the Parisian pattern is most often found on playing cards for preference (a deck of 32 cards) of French production.
Cards of the Parisian template, model 1895
In French maps, unlike ours, where "pictures" are just abstract kings and queens, each map has its own prototype:
king of hearts - Charlemagne
king of Spades - King David
king of Diamonds - Julius Caesar
king of Clubs - Alexander the Great
lady of hearts - Judith (earlier images - Helen of Trojan or Dido, the founder of Carthage)
queen of Spades - Pallas Athena (in other versions Minerva or Jeanne d "Arc)
lady of tambourine - Rachel (Biblical character. Represents greed and avarice)
the lady of clubs - Argina (an anagram of the word "queen" - "regina". The name of Argin soon began to be called the mistresses of French kings). Interestingly, this card most often changed its prototype: it depicted the virtuous Lucretius, a symbol of charm to Philo, Hecuba).
jack of Hearts - Etienne de Vignol (nicknamed La Gere - "Fury"). Counselor to Jeanne d "Ark, who became a hero of folklore.
jack of Spades - Ogier (Ogier) Dane. Charlemagne's cousin, national hero of Denmark
jack of tambourine - Hector (but not a Trojan prince, but Hector de Marais, knight of the Round Table and brother of Lancelot)
jack of clubs - Lancelot. Knight of the Round Table.
On these cards of the French "deck on feet" (1648), images are signed with their names.
The tradition of magnificently decorating the ace of spades came from the fact that during the reign of King James I of England (1566-1625) a decree was issued, according to which information about the manufacturer and its logo had to be printed on the ace of spades (since this card is the first in the deck). A special seal was put on the same ace, indicating the payment of a special tax on cards.
Card suits
The usual card suits - spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts - also have their own history. They were invented in France and, together with the "French deck", have now gained worldwide distribution, practically replacing the other two main types of playing cards - the "Italian and German" decks.
The suits originally symbolized the attributes of a knight - a spear (spades), a sword (clubs), a shield (worms) and a coat of arms (tambourines).
These suits are the result of the transformation of the old suits of the "Italian deck" - "swords", "cups" (bowls), "pentacles" (coins, denarii, discs) and "wands" (clubs, clubs). It seems, as in India, they symbolized the estates: the nobility, clergy, merchants and the royal power standing over them.
In the French version, "swords" turned into "spades", "cups" - into "worms", "pentacles" - into "tambourines", and "wands" - into "crosses" or "clubs" ("clubs" French means "clover leaf" or "shamrock").
In different countries, the names of the suits now sound differently.
In France, they literally translate as follows: lances (spears), shamrocks, hearts, tiles (pavement).
In Italy - spikes (spears), flowers, hearts, squares.
In Spain, the original names have been preserved - swords, clubs, bowls (cups), coins.
In Germany and England - shovels, clubs, hearts, diamonds.
In addition, on German maps (southern and eastern regions of Germany), you can still find old designations: acorns, bells, leaves, hearts. They are also used in Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia. Croatia, Hungary and Romania.
Switzerland also has its own national version of the suits - flowers (roses), bells, shields (coats of arms) and acorns.
In Russia, the name of the card suit "worms" apparently came from the French "ker" - heart, or from the word "chervonny" i.e. "red", also associated with the heart.
Traditional deck. Spain, 1590
Traditional deck. Italy
Traditional deck. Germany
Traditional deck. Switzerland
Interestingly, the jack (from the French valet - servant, lackey) is associated with an adventurer, a brave, but roguish adventurer.
In some variants of card decks (for example, in the old "Spanish", "Swiss", "German" decks) there are no queens, but besides the king there are two more male characters - non-commissioned (junior jack) and ober (senior jack).
Card queens first appeared in Italy, from where they were borrowed by the French.
Map of the modern distribution of national decks:
Taken from here:
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