Rarely a modern person did not hold playing cards in his hands. There are several versions of their appearance, and researchers have not yet come to a consensus on this matter.
Cards have an ancient and very dramatic history. The long-held belief that cards were invented in France to amuse the mentally ill King Charles VI the Mad is just a legend. Already in Ancient Egypt they played with cuttings with numbers marked on them, in India - with ivory plates or shells; In China, maps similar to modern ones have been known since the 12th century.
There are two main versions. The first is 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 and then strips of paper with the designations of various symbols were used for games. These distant ancestors of cards were also used instead of money, so they had three suits: a coin, two coins and many coins. And in India, playing cards depicted the figure of a four-armed Shiva holding a cup, a sword, a coin and a staff. Some believe that these symbols of the four Indian classes gave rise to modern card suits.
The Chinese complicated the game of dice and got dominoes. Then, instead of dots, the tablets began to depict figures, flowers, and everyday scenes. Such signs were used for the solitaire-like game mahjong, common in China and Japan. The essence of the game is to make pairs of identical ones from the many tablets poured onto the table. From Asia, Italian travelers brought to Europe the idea of using picture cards for games. Surprisingly, neither dice, nor dominoes, nor mahjong disappeared with the advent of cards - a perfect example of the coexistence of different branches of evolution.
But the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by modern occultists, is much more popular. They claimed that in ancient times, Egyptian priests wrote down all the wisdom of the world on 78 golden tablets, which were also depicted in the symbolic form of cards. 56 of them - the "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, the French Eliphas Levi and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley, created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. The name supposedly comes from the Egyptian “ta rosh” (“the path of kings”), and the maps themselves were brought to Europe either by Arabs or gypsies, who were often considered to have come from Egypt.
True, scientists were unable 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 14th century. Back in 1367, card games were banned in the city of Bern, and ten years later, a shocked papal envoy watched in horror as the monks enthusiastically played cards near the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacquemin Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards to amuse his master. The deck of that time differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were four ladies missing, whose presence seemed unnecessary at the time. Only in the next century did Italian artists begin to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.
There is an assumption that a deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are the four seasons. Green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted using a rod, staff, or stick with green leaves, which were simplified to black spades when printing cards. The red color symbolized beauty, north, spirituality. Cups, bowls, hearts, and books were depicted on the card of this suit. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, and business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lit torch, the sun, fire, and a golden bell. Blue suit is a symbol of simplicity and decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.
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, to be associated with classes: the nobility, clergy and merchant class, while the rod symbolized the royal power that stood over them. In the French version, swords became “spades”, cups became “hearts”, denarii became “diamonds”, and “wands” became “crosses” or “clubs” (the latter word means “clover leaf” in French). . These names still sound different in different languages; for example, in England and Germany these are “shovels”, “hearts”, “diamonds” and “bludgeons”, and in Italy they are “spears”, “hearts”, “squares” and “flowers”. On German cards you can still find the old names of the suits: “acorns”, “hearts”, “bells” and “leaves”. As for the Russian word "hearts", it comes from the word "chervonny" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally referred to the red suit.
Early card games were quite complex, because in addition to 56 standard cards, they used 22 “Major Arcana” plus another 20 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-colored and were so expensive that only the rich could purchase them. In the 16th century, the cards were radically simplified - almost all the pictures disappeared from them, with the exception of the four “high suits” and the jester (joker).
Interestingly, all card images had real or legendary prototypes. For example, the Four Kings are the greatest monarchs of antiquity: Charlemagne (hearts), the biblical King David (spades), Julius Caesar (diamonds) and Alexander the Great (clubs). There was no such unanimity regarding the ladies - for example, the Queen of Hearts was either Judith, Helen of Troy, or Dido. The Queen of Spades was traditionally depicted as the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva and even Joan of Arc. After much debate, the biblical Rachel began to be portrayed as the Queen of Spades: she was ideal for the role of the “queen of money”, since she robbed her own father. Finally, the Queen of Clubs, on early Italian maps, appearing as the virtuous Lucretia, turned into Argina - an allegory of vanity and vanity.
- a frivolous figure in tights, a jester's cap, bells... And in his hands - a scepter with a man's head strung on it, which has now been replaced by humane artists with musical "cymbals". In pre-revolutionary stage performances, a similar character was called Fradiavolo. " " is taller than 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 corruption of the Greek "diabolos" - a dispeller of slander.
The most complex figure in the card pantheon is the jack, or, in English terminology, the squire. The very word “jack” at first meant a servant or even a jester, but later a different meaning was established - a not entirely honest, although brave, adventurer. These were all the real prototypes of jacks - the French knight La Hire, nicknamed Satan (hearts), as well as the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spades), Roland (diamonds) and Lancelot the Lake (clubs).
“Trump” cards, their very name, have their own special purpose. "Kosher" i.e. Talmudists call ritual sacrifices “pure”... which, as you understand, is connected with Kabbalah.
Nevertheless, each researcher gives his own interpretations of suits and figures. Father Menestrier believed that the cards are symbols of the great monarchies (Jewish, Greek, Roman, French), and the four ladies are nothing more than the main female virtues: piety, motherhood, wisdom and beauty. Others believe that “ladies” depict such historical figures as Maria of Anjou, Agnes Sorel, Isabella of Bavaria and Joan of Arc. But hypotheses remain hypotheses.
One Greek legend attributes the invention of cards to Palamedes, the son of the Euboean king Nauplias, a very smart and cunning man who managed, for example, to expose Odysseus himself. Odysseus wanted to stay away from the Greek war against Troy. When Palamedes found him in connection with this. Odysseus pretended to be crazy. And he did it this way: he also harnessed a donkey to the plow with his oxen, and began to sow the field not with grains, but to scatter salt into the furrows. However, Palamedes immediately saw through the deception.
He returned to the palace, took Odysseus’s son Telemachus from the cradle, brought him to the field and laid him in a furrow in front of a team of oxen and a donkey. Odysseus, of course, turned to the side, thereby giving himself away. This cunning of Palamedes was the basis for various inventions being attributed to him. He allegedly invented scales, letters, dice, some measures, and during the many-year siege of Troy -. And this happened 1000 years BC!
By the 13th century, maps were already known and popular throughout Europe. From this moment on, the history of the development of cards becomes clearer, but rather monotonous. In the Middle Ages, fortune telling was considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times. Therefore, from the middle of the 13th century, the history of the development of cards turns into the history of prohibitions associated with them.
For example, in France in the 17th century, householders in whose apartments played gambling card games paid a fine, were deprived of their civil rights and were expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could recover 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 also 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 to card symbolism. True, already in 1813, jacks, queens and kings returned to the cards. The indirect tax on game cards was only abolished in France in 1945.
Maps appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. By the middle of this century, they had already gained popularity as a “path” to crimes and inciting passions. In the “Code” of 1649 under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, it was prescribed to deal with players “as it is written about the tatas,” that is, to beat them with a whip and deprive them of fingers and hands by cutting off.
A decree of 1696 under Peter I ordered that anyone suspected of wanting to play cards be searched, "... and anyone whose cards are taken out should be beaten with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar ones that followed were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling card games. Along with them, there were the so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards for performing tricks and playing solitaire.
The development of “innocent” forms of using cards was facilitated by Elizabeth Petrovna’s decree of 1761 dividing the use of cards into those prohibited for gambling and those permitted for commercial games. The route 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.
In the 19th century The development of new designs for playing cards began. Academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne and Alexander Egorovich Beideman studied it. It is worth noting that their sketches are currently stored in the State Russian Museum and the Peterhof Card Museum. However, the drawings of Academician Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne, which we now know as Atlas Maps, were put into production.
A.I. Charlemagne did not create a fundamentally new card style. The drawings on the Atlas cards were based on the so-called “North German picture”, which also came from a very ancient folk French card deck.
The new map sketches that were created did not have their own names. The concept of “satin” in the mid-19th century referred to the technology of their manufacture. Satin is a special type of smooth, glossy, shiny silk fabric. The paper on which they were printed was first rubbed with talcum powder on special rolling machines. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks.
From the end of the 18th century, the present began, covering the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth Derzhavin lived mainly on money won at cards, and Pushkin in police reports was listed not as a poet, but as “a well-known banker in Moscow.” Gambling Nekrasov and Dostoevsky often lost their last kopecks, while the cautious Turgenev preferred playing “for fun.” In the secular society of that time, especially provincial ones, almost the only entertainment was cards and the scandals associated with them.
Gradually, card games were divided into commercial ones, based on clear mathematical calculations, and gambling games, where chance ruled everything. If the first (vint, whist, bridge, etc.) established themselves among educated people, then the second (seka, “point”, shtoss and hundreds of others, right down to the harmless “throw-up fool”) reigned supreme among the common people.
In the West, “mental” card games that train logical thinking have even been included in the school curriculum. However, cards began to be used for completely non-intellectual activities. If they depict naked girls, there is no time for bridge. But this is a completely different game.
It must be said that over the centuries there have been many people who want to modernize card images, replacing them with animals, birds, and household items. For political purposes, decks were produced where Napoleon or the German Emperor Wilhelm acted as kings. And in the USSR, during the NEP years, there were attempts to depict workers with peasants on maps and even introduce new colors - “sickles”, “hammers” and “stars”. True, such amateur activity was quickly stopped, and maps were stopped printing for a long time as “attributes of bourgeois decay.”
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As always, you just have to delve deeper into a topic, and so many new and interesting things will immediately appear! It would seem that playing cards - what's wrong with that?
History of cards
Those maps that we are 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 (i.e. starting with sixes) 54-card “French deck”.
Around the 15th-16th centuries, the French deck was completely formed in its familiar form and has remained virtually unchanged since then. Recent changes are the appearance in 1830 of a design symmetrical relative to the top and bottom (previously, card figures were drawn in full height), the appearance of rounded corners, the appearance of small index drawings in the corners of the card (in 1864 they were patented in America by a certain Saladi).
1658, Guinea, France. A modern reprint of the deck with added indexes and rounded card corners
Cards came to France in the mid-15th century from Italy, which had its own card deck with suits that were unusual for us (see below for information on suits), slightly different from region to region (62 cards from Bologna, 78 in Venice, 98 in Florence) . A special feature of such cards was 21 trump cards - the “Major Arcana”. Apparently this is how Tarot cards appeared, which were played until the 18th century, and only then occultists began to use them).
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 countries of the East.
The first written mention of playing cards in Europe is a decree in 1367 banning card playing in the city of Bern. In 1392, Jacquemin 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 queens).
The further history of the cards is lost in the centuries. There are several versions of their origin.
One of them is the adoption of the card game from Persia via India. It is in Persian sources that there is the earliest mention of this game. In the "Annals of Egypt and Syria" there is a mention that the nobles 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 is first mentioned in 1527 in the diary of Emperor Babur, where he writes that he sent a deck to his friend.
Indian round playing cards depicted the figure of a four-armed Shiva holding a cup, a sword, a coin and a staff. It is believed that these symbols of the four Indian classes gave rise to the suits of the “Latin deck”.
Ganjifa cards are still produced in the Rajistan region of India.
Another common version is Turkic. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the Egyptian Mamelukes played with a deck of 52 cards with values from 1 to 10, which included four suits (swords, clubs, cups and coins), a "malik" (emir - king) and his two assistants - "naib malik" " and "tani naib". This is very reminiscent of the “Latin deck”, it also initially did not have queens, but there were kings, jacks and gentlemen. Only hockey sticks became ceremonial batons (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 the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.
Mamluk maps. Ten of Cups, Three of Cups, First Advisor of Cups, Second Advisor of Cups.
There is a version that seems to me to be simply an attempt at hoaxing, that the cards came to us from Egypt. It was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila. Allegedly, Egyptian maps are 78 golden tablets on which the priests wrote down all their knowledge. 56 of them - the "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and with 22 "Major Arcana" they made up a Tarot deck used for fortune telling. But scientists have not found any archaeological evidence for 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 reminiscent of cards, the rules of the game were more like dominoes.
Chinese "money" cards
Drawing cards
The most common design of playing cards in Russia - traditional "Satin cards" - was created in the mid-19th century by academician of painting Adolph Iosifovich Charlemagne. Since then, the design has not changed, except for 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 card style. When developing the drawings, he relied on the tradition of the “North German picture”, which originated from the ancient French folk card deck.
1875 Atlas maps made according to the sketch of A. Charlemagne
The Anglo-American playing card pattern, now common throughout the world, developed from the Rouen (a variation of the French) pattern.
Anglo-American pattern
The "Paris Template" maps were created in the mid-17th century based on maps by the artist Hector de Troyes. Nowadays, the image of the Parisian template is most often found on French-made preference playing cards (a deck of 32 cards).
Paris template cards from 1895
In French cards, unlike ours, where the “pictures” are simply abstract kings and queens, each card is assigned its own prototype:
King of Hearts - Charlemagne
king of spades - King David
King of Diamonds - Julius Caesar
King of Clubs - Alexander the Great
Queen of Hearts - Judith (earlier images - Helen of Troy or Dido, founder of Carthage)
queen of spades - Pallas Athena (in other versions Minerva or Joan of Arc)
Queen of Diamonds - Rachel (Biblical character. Represents greed and love of money)
queen of clubs - Argina (an anagram of the word "queen" - "regina". The mistresses of French kings soon began to be named after Argina). It is interesting that this card most often changed its prototype: it depicted the virtuous Lucretia, a symbol of charm to Philo, Hecuba).
Jack of Hearts - Etienne de Vignolles (nicknamed La Hire - "Fury"). Advisor to Joan of Arc, who became a hero of folklore.
jack of spades - Ogier (Ogier) Dane. Cousin of Charlemagne, national hero of Denmark
jack of diamonds - Hector (but not the 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 from the French "deck on feet" (1648), the images are labeled with their names.
The tradition of magnificently decorating the Ace of Spades comes 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 stamp was placed 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 become widespread worldwide, practically displacing 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 (hearts) and a coat of arms (diamonds).
These suits are the result of the transformation of the ancient suits of the “Italian deck” - “swords”, “cups” (bowls), “pentacles” (coins, denarii, discs) and “wands” (clubs, clubs). It seems, as in India, they symbolized classes: the nobility, clergy, merchants and the royal power standing above them.
In the French version, “swords” turned into “spades”, “cups” into “hearts”, “pentacles” into “diamonds”, and “wands” into “crosses”, or “clubs” (“clubs” in English). French for "clover leaf" or "shamrock").
In different countries, the names of the suits now sound differently.
In France they are literally translated as follows: pikes (spears), trefoils, hearts, tiles (pavement).
In Italy - peaks (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 ancient symbols: acorns, bells, leaves, hearts. They are also used in Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and 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 “hearts” apparently comes from the French “coeur” - heart, or from the word “hearts”, i.e. "red", also associated with the heart.
Traditional deck. Spain, 1590
Traditional deck. Italy
Traditional deck. Germany
Traditional deck. Switzerland
It is interesting that the jack (from the French valet - servant, lackey) is associated with an adventurer, a brave but roguish adventurer.
In some versions of card decks (for example, in the old “Spanish”, “Swiss”, “German” decks) there are no queens, but in addition to the king, there are two more male characters - unter (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:
Hello everybody.
Today I will tell you one of the many versions about how playing cards appeared in Russia. Many versions are a reflection of the eras in which the cards were born. And this version is one of the most interesting.
Modern playing cards are a multi-stage development of history, with its ups and downs, the development of a history that is constantly evolving, and they are looking for new ways of perfection.
This fact alone is worth being proud of.
One of the mysteries remains that no one still knows the exact date, year of origin of playing cards, and the place of their invention remains a mystery to this day.
Birthplace of cards
Of course, you have probably read many theories about this or that place and date of birth. One ancient Chinese dictionary by Ching Tsze Tung (this dictionary became popular in 1678 in Europe) says that playing cards were invented in 1120 in China, but in 1132 they became widespread in China.
But let's look today at several options for the appearance of cards, in addition to the Chinese version, we will also consider the Indian version and the Egyptian version.
With all the interest in cards, the Japanese and Chinese decks are unusual for us, which sometimes surprises and misleads our minds.
The appearance, the nature of the game, which is similar to dominoes - all this arouses interest. However, there is information that in China in the 8th century, sticks were used for games, and then strips of paper with various symbols.
These distant ancestors of cards were also used as or instead of money, which is why there were only three suits: a coin, two coins and many coins.
After some time, the Japanese acquired a fourth suit, and the meaning of the suits also changed; now these suits symbolized the seasons, and the number of cards (52 pieces) in the deck meant the number of weeks in the year.
There is also another theory about the origin of playing cards. Before the appearance of paper cards, which we are all familiar with, the Japanese played with special tablets that resembled cards carved from ivory or wood with cut-out figures.
And in Medieval Japan, the founders of playing cards were mussel shells; such cards were one of the most amazing.
Using shell playing cards, they played solitaire on the table, and searched for shells with the same designs in the laid out shells. At this rate, maps became famous both in India and Egypt in the 13th century.
One of the most interesting points was that in India, the pictures of playing cards depicted a four-armed Shiva, who had a cup, a sword, a coin and a staff in his hands.
After such images of the four-armed Shiva in India, it became believed that these objects in the hands of Shiva denoted classes and this served as the beginning of modern card suits.
But one of the most popular versions of the origin of playing cards is Egyptian. This version is promoted by modern occultists.
They claim that in ancient times, the priests of Egypt wrote down all the wisdom and mysteries of the world on 78 tablets of gold, and these tablets were depicted in the form of symbols of playing cards.
The tablets were divided into parts: 1. “Minor Arcana” - 56 pieces (later they became ordinary playing cards); 2. “Major Arcana” - 22 pieces, were considered mysterious cards of the Tarot deck, and were used exclusively for fortune telling.
This version was launched to the masses in 1785 by the French occultist Etteil, and numerous of his successors not only supported and continued, but also created their own system for interpreting Tarot cards.
The name Tarot supposedly originates from the Egyptian word “ta rosh”, which means “the path of the king”, and they were brought to Europe, again allegedly, by either Arabs or gypsies, who, by the way, were often previously considered to have come from Egypt, and maybe today they think so.
The only thing I can tell you is that not a single evidence of such an early appearance of Tarot cards has been found, not a single scientist has been able to prove it.
The appearance of maps in Europe
There are several versions about the appearance of maps in Europe. One version is that the appearance of maps is associated with the appearance of gypsies in Europe in the 15th century.
And another version reveals to us an interesting fact, that a little-known painter invented cards for the entertainment of the insane King of France Charles VI (1368-1422), and in history he is known to everyone as Charles the Mad. Allegedly, with the advent of such entertainment for the king, he calmed down and his despotic crazy character was distracted.
The opinion that the invention of cards for Charles VI the Mad as entertainment and joy is just another legend. The game on handles with images of numbers on them was played in Ancient Greece already in those days, and in India - these were shells or ivory plates; and in China, playing cards are similar to our modern cards, known since the 12th century.
In 1379, the first documentary evidence of the appearance of cards was published. In the chronicle of one of the cities in Italy, a note appeared: “A card game has been introduced, which came from the country of the Saracens and is called by them “naib.”
Based on the name of this game “naib”, one can assume that this game was invented by the military, or had a military character, because "naib" means "captain", "chief".
Arabic cards
Arabic cards had one feature that distinguished them from other playing cards: only numbers were depicted on these cards, the depiction of human figures was prohibited, this was the law of Mohammed. Therefore, the French rather did not invent maps, and only transformed existing ones with all kinds of drawings.
The suits of card decks have always been varied. In some of the earliest Italian decks, the suits, for example, bore the names: “swords”, “cups”, “wands”, “denarii” (coins).
It was very similar to the Indian theme: clergy, nobility and merchant class, and the rod itself symbolized the royal power that stood before us all.
But the French came up with their own version of the suits and instead of swords they had “spades”, cups became “hearts”, denarii turned into “diamonds”, and the wands were called “crosses” or “clubs” “clubs” means “clover leaf” in French ).
Variety of titles
These names, in different languages, now sound differently, for example: England and Germany are “shovels”, “diamonds”, “hearts” and “bludgeons”, Italy are “spears”, “hearts”, “flowers” and "bells" and "leaves". And in Russia the word “worms” comes from the word “chervonny”, i.e. red, now it’s clear why hearts originally belonged to the red suits.
Cards, cards, cards.. Oh that word, many people’s eyes lit up at this word, excitement took over, and the mind could no longer cope. Cards quickly spread throughout many European countries.
The government, observing all this, tried to tame the excitement in people by taking measures and banning card games, but... all attempts turn out to be insignificant. Along with the taming of gambling, more and more new gambling card games appeared.
In Germany, craft workshops began to appear that were engaged in the production of cards, and manufacturing methods also improved.
In France in the 15th century, card suits were established that still exist today. It is believed that the suit of each card speaks about the four most important objects of knightly use: clubs - a sword, hearts - a shield, spades - spears, diamonds - a banner and coat of arms.
What is encrypted in the cards?
There is a mystical connection in cards with something unearthly and at the same time familiar to all of us, for example, 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year; 4 suits – correspond to the seasons; there are 13 cards in each suit, the same number of weeks in each season; if you add up all the card values, the total will be 364 - the same as the number of days in a year without one. The amazing is nearby.
The first card games were very intricate, because the game involved not only 56 standard cards, but also 22 “Major Arcana” cards, and another 20 cards that were trump cards named after the elements and signs of the Zodiac.
From country to country, the names of these cards were confused and so confused that it became simply impossible to play. And the uniqueness of these cards was that they were hand-painted and the price for them was quite high, and that is why only rich people could purchase them.
Radical changes occurred in the 16th century, when almost all the pictures disappeared, leaving only the four “high suits” and the joker “joker”. An interesting fact is that all the images on the cards were either real or legendary heroes.
We continue to investigate how playing cards appeared.
Who played the role of kings?
For example, four kings, the most amazing people of antiquity: Carth the Great (hearts), Julius Caesar (diamonds), the biblical king David (spades), Alexander the Great (clubs). There was no unanimity regarding the queens on the cards - the queen of hearts was either Judith, Dido, or Helen of Troy.
The Queen of Spades personified the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva, Joan of Arc. In the role of the femme fatale, the queen of spades, after many disagreements, they began to portray the biblical Rachel; she, like no one else, was better suited for the role of “queen of money”, because she robbed her own father.
The Queen of Clubs acted as the virtuous Lucretia, gradually turning into Argina - symbolizing vanity and vanity.
One of the most difficult card figures is the jack, which in English means squire.
At first, the word “jack” meant servants and even jesters, but then it established itself in a different meaning. The French knight La Hire, whose nickname was Satan (hearts), the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spade), Roland (tambourine) and Lancelot the Lake (clubs).
The first maps were very expensive due to the fact that they were drawn by hand; machines for their production did not yet exist. The length of the cards at that time was 22 cm, this was a very inconvenient size, but it was convenient for card drawers.
Atlas maps
In our life, where we are accustomed to everything that is familiar to us from childhood, it seems ordinary. Here are the atlas maps, they are familiar and familiar to us; looking at other maps, they may seem somehow ridiculous to us.
For decades, atlas maps have been distributed all over the world and that is why they have earned our trust.
They are so familiar to us, like fairy tales, like myths and epics. But maps appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 19th century.
Some of the highest specialists, Academician Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (Bode-Charlemagne) and Alexander Egorovich Beideman, dealt with issues of artistic design.
These people made an era with their talent, your skill, after an era, the card images designed by these people are the standard and wonderful card graphics. At this time, these masterpieces adorn the collection of the State Russian Museum and the Peterhof Card Museum. We continue to investigate how playing cards appeared.
Modernity
Over time, card games were divided into two components: commercial (purely mathematical calculations) and gambling (chance). The first option (vint, whist, preference, bridge, poker) took root among educated people who loved to play, while the second direction (sec, “point”, shtoss and hundreds of others, right down to the harmless “throwing fool”) reigned among the common people.
The West progressed towards cards, logic and thinking games being included in children's school curriculum. However, what to judge and reason, play, think, win. My story about how playing cards appeared is over.
I advise you to learn:
Good luck with your story, be lucky.
February 6th, 2015
It would seem that what could be simpler and more familiar than playing cards? I went to any Soyuzpechat kiosk and bought a deck. Usually this will be a deck of not very good quality, but with drawings by Charlemagne (made back in the 19th century!) - satin cards (in the picture below).
Of course, there are still people who prefer to use more expensive decks from world brands designed for poker or bridge. But in any case, a deck of cards is a fairly common item in modern use.
At the same time, a number of myths and simply outright nonsense are associated with playing cards. For example, the myth that cards are the “devil's bible”, or that they originated from the mysterious tarot cards, or that they were invented by gypsies to deceive ordinary people, or by Jews to lead Christians into the temptation of gambling.
And here we can also recall the attempts of various occultists to correlate or link the four suits with the four elements. But I would like to dwell in a little more detail on the myth, according to which the suits are declared symbols of the instruments of Christ’s death on the cross:
- clubs are, of course, the cross itself. Here, by the way, they again slander the Jews, in whose language “club” means “uncleanness,” i.e. something like: “the damned Jews call our Cross unclean!”
- pikes - naturally, the spear with which the centurion Longinus pierced the heart of the Savior.
- tambourines are the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross.
- worms - a sponge soaked in vinegar, which was given to Christ.
And so, this short article is designed to dispel these myths and show the reader the main milestones in the history of playing cards.
So, who invented playing cards?
Chinese. Like so many other things.
The Chinese were the first to invent paper, and accordingly, the ability to make gambling devices from paper appeared in China.
Historically, there are several types of playing cards in China. Some Chinese playing cards depict Chinese chess pieces Xiangqi (more precisely, hieroglyphs), others - dominoes, and still others - coins. The last type is called “coin cards”.
Now attention! It was from “coin cards” that European playing cards originated.
So let's look at Chinese coin cards in detail.
A deck of Chinese coin cards looks unusual for you and me. Such a deck has three (or four) suits, each of which has nine (optionally ten) cards:
1. Coins. Nine cards: from one coin to nine coins.
2. Bundles of coins. Moreover, each bundle contains one hundred coins. Nine cards: from one bundle (100 coins) to nine bundles (900 coins).
What kind of bundles of coins?
The fact is that in China the coins had holes (see picture below):
And the coins were transferred by stringing them on ropes. In our times it was inconvenient, but back then it was quite okay. It looked something like this:
3. Tens of thousands of coins. Such quantities of coins are no longer depicted in drawings, but in hieroglyphs. And again there are nine cards: from 10,000 coins to 90,000 coins.
So, in Chinese coin cards, the suits are in a hierarchical relationship, and each subsequent suit is obtained by multiplying the previous suit by 100:
- 1 -> 100 -> 10000
- 2 -> 200 -> 20000
- 9 -> 900 -> 90000
| Coins | Bundles of coins | Tens of thousands (symbols) |
| 1 | 100 | 10000 |
| 2 | 200 | 20000 |
| 3 | 300 | 30000 |
| 4 | 400 | 40000 |
| 5 | 500 | 50000 |
| 6 | 600 | 60000 |
| 7 | 700 | 70000 |
| 8 | 800 | 80000 |
| 9 | 900 | 90000 |
Now let's see what Chinese coin cards look like. The picture below shows part of a deck of Chinese coin cards of one of the types (there are a lot of these types, and even I don’t understand them).
From top to bottom: coins, bundles of coins, tens of thousands of coins.
As you can see, the bundles of coins here look more like some kind of worms, and the cards of the “ten thousand” suit depict funny little people (the dignity of the card is not indicated by them, but by the hieroglyphs on top).
Typically, the denomination and suit designations of Chinese coin cards are even more stylized, and only a player or an expert can understand what is depicted on the card.
Here is not the most complicated drawing yet:
I'll give you a hint: there are coins in the middle, tens of thousands on top, and bundles of coins on the bottom.
In addition to the above picture, you can see the suits of Chinese coin cards in a game such as mahjong. In this game, which looks more like dominoes, but in essence - like the card game rummy, there are also three suits:
- dots (these are coins);
- bamboos (bundles of one hundred coins);
- symbols (tens of thousands of coins).
From top to bottom: dots, bamboos, symbols.
By the way, the peculiarity of coin cards is that each suit in the deck is not one, as in the usual playing cards, but several.
Moreover, in mahjong the situation is the same: there are four sets of dominoes of each suit. Here is a complete set of mahjong "points" for illustration:
In general, in the case of mahjong, we see a kind of reverse movement of the pendulum: before, dominoes were depicted on the cards, but now dominoes are depicted with cards...
It is also interesting to note that in Europe they can also play not with one, but with several decks at once, for example, when playing the same rummy or when playing solitaire.
Now about the symbolism of the suits and their origin. The ancient European deck had four suits: coins, sticks, cups and swords. I note that these suits are preserved today in Italy and Spain. These are the suits (using threes as an example):
And, as the attentive reader may have noticed, the suit of the “coin” clearly originates from China. And indeed it is.
The "stick" ("club") suit - also from China - is, so to speak, a European adaptation of the Chinese "bundle of coins" suit.
But where did the “swords” and “cups” come from?
The fact is that playing cards did not come to Europe directly from China.
Europeans adopted maps not from the Chinese, but from the Arabs. Most likely, the so-called Mamluk playing cards, common then in Egypt (it was the Mamluks who ruled there at that time). This happened in the 14th century. In Europe, playing cards were even called originally with Arabic words - naibi, neip.
Mamluk playing cards already had four suits: coins, polo sticks, cups and scimitars.
Perhaps the cups are simply an Arabic interpretation of the Chinese "tens of thousands" suit. But maybe not. “Swords” (scimitars), apparently, were invented by the Arabs.
It was the Arabs who introduced the so-called court cards into the deck - the familiar King, Queen and Jack. The Arabs had these, respectively: Sultan, First Vizier, Second Vizier. In a number of decks there was also a fourth court card - a certain “assistant”.
Of course, you can build all sorts of hypotheses about why the Arabs needed new suits and court cards, about the reason why they decided to remake the Chinese coin cards. You can even drag in all sorts of mysticism here, such as Sufi orders or some Kabbalists who secretly lived among the Arabs. But, in my opinion, the point here is simply that the need for just such a deck was determined by the rules of the card game that developed in Arab culture.
What did Mamluk playing cards look like? Here are schematic images of the court cards of the Mamluk deck:
From top to bottom: coins, polo sticks, bowls, scimitars. From left to right: Sultan, Vizier, Second Vizier.
In reality, Mamluk maps looked like this:
The picture above shows three court cards in the polo stick suit. From left to right: Sultan, Vizier, Second Vizier.
So, in the 14th century, Mamluk maps came to Europe, which were changed in accordance with European culture. Just as the Arabs once remade Chinese playing cards for themselves, so the Europeans adapted Arabic cards to their own needs.
The suits remained practically unchanged (except that scimitars became swords, and polo sticks became just sticks), but they began to draw cards in a European way (in Europe there was no ban on the depiction of living beings, unlike the Muslim East). The court cards accordingly changed to King, Knight and Page (Squire), plus/minus Queen.
And in the 15th century, tarot cards appeared in Europe (namely, in Italy). They evolved from regular playing cards by adding trumps (usually 21 trumps) and a special card called "Fool".
So it is not that playing cards evolved from tarot cards through simplification, but that tarot cards evolved from ordinary playing cards through complication.
Moreover, tarot cards were created specifically for play, and not at all for fortune telling or transmitting some kind of occult wisdom. They played a game called Triumphs using tarot cards. These cards themselves were originally called triumphs (the word “tarot” arose much later).
By the way, here is an interesting point that shows that similar elements in different cultures can develop in a similar way: in addition to the point cards in the tarot, there are also trump cards. On these trump cards we see various allegorical images, including virtues.
Here are three virtues from the so-called “Marseilles” tarot (other types of tarot decks may have different sets of virtues):
And in mahjong, in addition to the “spectacle dominoes” (dots, bamboos and symbols), there are dominoes with allegories of virtues:
- red dragon - moderation;
- green dragon - prosperity;
- white dragon - benevolence, sincerity and filial piety.
And here is their more traditional image (hieroglyphic):
How did the familiar suit symbols appear - diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades? Such suits, by the way, are usually called French.
In general, it is not difficult to guess that French suits are nothing more than a simplification and stylization of the original suits (Italo-Spanish, in Italy and Spain, let me remind you, they are still used today). Thus:
- the coins turned into diamonds;
- sticks - into clubs;
- cups - into hearts;
- swords - in spades.
- coins - bells - tambourines;
- sticks - acorns - clubs;
- cups - hearts - hearts;
- swords - leaves - spades.
Obviously, the conclusion about the origin of French suits from German ones is quite logical, given that German suits are simpler than Italian-Spanish ones, but are still full-fledged designs, and not simplified signs.
So let's summarize:
- Playing cards were invented in China.
- The Arabs adopted them from the Chinese. Arabs have Europeans.
- The symbols of the suits (Italian-Spanish, German, French) have nothing to do with the occult or any kind of devilry.
- Tarot cards are a special form of playing cards that are based on regular playing cards.
Every resident of our country has played cards at least once in their life. Be it a simple fool or an aristocratic preference. At the same time, most fans of card games are sure that some abstract characters are depicted as jacks, queens and kings. This is wrong…
Joker: The Jolly Sorcerer
The most surprising thing is that the only card in the deck that does not have a real prototype is the Joker. In many card games it is not used at all, but in others it acts as the highest trump card. Moreover, the word Joker itself, translated into Russian, means a merry fellow, a jester and a mischief-maker. True, sometimes the Joker is drawn as a little imp, thereby emphasizing the story of his appearance from fortune-telling Tarot cards. In a deck of magic cards, the Joker is an evil wizard. At the same time, the most popular version of the origin of the word “Joker” is the name of the game Juker, in which this card character first appeared.
Card kings: best among equals
According to historical chronicles, playing cards began in Europe in the 14th century. Royalty also did not hesitate to play cards. At this time, by the middle of the 15th century, the main images of queens, jacks and kings appeared in Europe. At that distant time, as today, a deck of cards consisted of 52 sheets, divided into four suits. This figure is not accidental, because 52 is the number of weeks in a year, and suits are the four seasons. The most amazing thing is that today it is known exactly who was the prototype of the images of kings in a card deck. The king of spades was King David, known to readers from the Old Testament. The role of the King of Clubs was played by the great conqueror Alexander the Great. The King of Diamonds, an equally famous ruler, is Julius Caesar. The youngest, from a historical point of view, turned out to be the king of hearts - Charlemagne. It is symbolic that each of the prototypes of card kings left its indelible mark on the history of mankind. Alexander the Great conquered half the world. King David turned out to be the most famous crowned character in the Old Testament. Well, Charlemagne created the Holy Roman Empire. Gaius Julius Caesar became famous as the most popular dictator of ancient Rome.
Card queens: sheer perfection
Card queens also had their real prototypes. However, these were not wives at all, the people who gave the prototype to the card kings, but completely strangers to them. The Queen of Hearts is the warlike Judith, who accomplished many feats on the pages of the Old Testament. It was she who cut off the head of the leader of the Assyrians in cold blood, saving the city of her childhood from the invasion of conquerors. According to other sources, considered more reliable, the magnificent Helen of Troy became the Queen of Hearts. According to legend, her mother was the Queen of Sparta Leda, and her father was Zeus himself. The Queen of Diamonds is the wife of one of the knights of the Round Table - Ragnel. As the queen of clubs, artists depicted either the Greek goddess Argina, who was responsible for vanity and empty vanity, or Lucretia, who represented virtue. It turned out to be more difficult with the queen of spades. Three real women are vying for her role, the image of each of whom appeared on card sheets at different times. Most often this is Minevra - the goddess of wisdom, war and victory. Less often, Athena, who was also responsible for successful military operations, or the legendary medieval heroine Joan of Arc became the queen of spades.
Jack: servant of kings
Real historical figures acted as jacks in a deck of playing cards, as in the case of queens and kings. True, if these people found out how the treacherous artists who created the decks of cards treated them, they would be greatly offended. Jack in French means servant or lackey. However, the prototypes of jacks were never such. The Jack of Hearts is the knight Etienne de Vignelet, the closest ally of Joan of Arc. Jack of spades - noble knight Ogier of Denmark. According to legend, he repeatedly killed dragons, exterminated many giants, and was generally a bosom friend of the fairy Morgana. Subsequently, the sorceress awarded Ogier the gift of eternal youth for nights of passionate love. Jack of clubs - the famous knight Lancelot. The frantic Roland plays the role of the jack of diamonds.
Chinese and dominoes
Who invented playing cards: Italians, Spaniards, French, or were they a gift to humanity from evil spirits? Alas! The author of playing cards is known - they are Chinese. The most surprising thing is that cards in China are not an independent game, but a simpler and cheaper to produce variety of dominoes. Once upon a time, the Chinese excitedly played dice, then they transformed into dominoes, which in turn degenerated into cards. This happened at the moment when the dominoes were transferred to cardboard. The result was cards with a point scale, to which figures were added over time. The Ching-chieh-Tung dictionary mentions that cards were invented in 1120 AD, and 12 years later they became widespread throughout China. There is a true, alternative version of the origin of playing cards from ancient Egypt. It’s as if, thousands of years ago, Egyptian priests encrypted all the wisdom of the world on 78 golden tablets. Some of them were symbolically depicted in the form of cards, and 56 of them (Minor Arcana) were playing cards, and 22 (Major Arcana) were used exclusively for fortune telling. However, both the Chinese and Egyptian versions of the origin of playing cards are nothing more than a legend, while in Europe the cards have been known since the 14th century. For example, in 1367 in Bern, card games were banned by official decree, and in 1377, the Pope's envoy complained that monks were playing cards right outside the walls of their monastery.
