Playing cards wiki. Where did the playing cards come from? Some fun facts from the history of playing cards
February 6th, 2015
It would seem that what could be simpler and more familiar playing cards? I went to any kiosk of the Soyuzprint and bought a deck. Usually this will not be a very good deck. good quality, but with drawings by Charlemagne (made in the 19th century!) - satin maps (in the picture below).
Of course, there are still people who prefer to use the more expensive decks of world brands, designed for poker or bridge. But in any case, a deck of cards is a fairly common item in modern everyday life.
At the same time, a number of myths and just plain nonsense are associated with playing cards. For example, the myth that the cards are "the devil's bible", or that they originated from the mysterious tarot cards, or that they were invented by the gypsies to deceive the common people, or the Jews to lead Christians into the temptation of gambling.
And here you can also recall the attempts of various occultists to put the four elements in accordance with the four suits or to link them up. But in a little more detail I would like to dwell 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 “impurity”, that is. something like: "the cursed Jews call our Cross unclean!"
- lances - 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 that 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 came up with playing cards?
Chinese. Like so many other things.
The Chinese were the first to invent paper, and accordingly, the ability to make gambling devices out of paper appeared in China.
Historically, there are several types of playing cards in China. Some Chinese playing cards depict pieces of Chinese chess xiangqi (more precisely, hieroglyphs), others - dominoes, and still others - coins. The last type is called "coin cards".
Now attention! It is from "coin cards" that European playing cards originated.
So let's take a closer look at Chinese coin cards.
A deck of Chinese coin cards looks strange to you and me. In such a deck there are three (or four) suits, each of which has nine (alternatively ten) cards:
1. Coins. Nine cards: from one coin to nine coins.
2. Bundles of coins. And in each bundle - one hundred coins. Nine cards: from one bundle (100 coins) to nine bundles (900 coins).
And what are these bundles of coins?
The fact is that in China the coins were full of holes (see the picture below):
And the coins were carried by stringing them on ropes. In our times, it’s uncomfortable, but then it’s nothing. It looked something like this:
3. Tens of thousands of coins. Such numbers of coins are no longer depicted by drawings, but by hieroglyphs. And again nine cards: from 10,000 coins to 90,000 coins.
So, in Chinese coin cards, the suits are in a hierarchical relationship, and each next 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 (characters) |
| 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 take a look at what Chinese coin cards look like. The picture below shows a part of a deck of Chinese coin cards of one of the types (there are a lot of these types, and even I do not 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 men (the dignity of the card is not indicated by them, but by the hieroglyphs above).
Usually, the designations of the denomination and suit of Chinese coin cards are even more stylized, and only a player or specialist can understand what is depicted on the card.
Here's another not the most difficult drawing:
Here's a hint: coins are in the middle, tens of thousands are on top, and bundles of coins are on the bottom.
In addition to the above picture, you can also see the suits of Chinese coin cards in a game such as mahjong. In this game, which looks more like dominoes, but in fact - like a card game roommy, there are also three suits:
- points (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, a feature of coin cards is that each suit in the deck is not one, as in our usual playing cards, but several.
Moreover, in mahjong the situation is the same: there are four sets of tiles of each suit. Here is a complete set of mahjong "dots" for illustration:
In general, in the case of mahjong, we see a kind of reverse movement of the pendulum: previously, dominoes were depicted on the cards, and now on the dominoes - cards ...
It is also interesting to note that in Europe they can also play not one, but several decks at once, for example, when playing the same rooms 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 (for example, threes):
And, as the attentive reader may have noticed, the "coin" suit clearly originates from China. And indeed it is.
The "stick" ("club") suit - also from China - is, so to speak, a European arrangement of the Chinese "bundle of coins" suit.
But where did the "swords" and "bowls" come from?
The fact is that playing cards did not come to Europe directly from China.
The Europeans took over the cards not from the Chinese, but from the Arabs. Most likely, the so-called Mamluk Playing Cards, then widespread in Egypt (it was the Mamluks who ruled there at that time). It happened in the XIV century. In Europe, playing cards were even called originally by Arabic words - naibi, nayp.
There were already four suits in Mamluk playing cards: coins, polo sticks, bowls and scimitars.
Perhaps the bowls are just an Arabic interpretation of the Chinese "tens of thousands" suit. But maybe not. The "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. For the Arabs, these were, respectively: Sultan, First Vizier, Second Vizier. In a number of decks there was also a fourth court card - a kind of "helper".
Of course, you can build many different hypotheses about why the Arabs needed new suits and court cards, about why they decided to remake Chinese coin cards. You can even weave here any mysticism like the Sufi orders or some Kabbalists who secretly lived among the Arabs. But, in my opinion, here we are simply talking about the fact that the need for such a deck was due to the rules of the card game that developed in Arab culture.
What did the Mamluk playing cards look like? Here are schematic images of the Mamluk deck court cards:
From top to bottom: coins, polo sticks, bowls, scimitars. From left to right: sultan, vizier, second vizier.
The actual Mamluk maps looked like this:
The picture above shows three court cards of the polo stick suit. From left to right: sultan, vizier, second vizier.
So, in the XIV century, Mamluk maps came to Europe, which were changed in accordance with European culture. Just as the Arabs once altered Chinese playing cards for themselves, so the Europeans adapted Arab cards to their own needs.
At the same time, the suits practically did not change (except that scimitars became swords, and polo sticks were just sticks), but they began to draw cards in a European way (in Europe there was no ban on depicting living creatures, unlike in the Muslim East). Court cards have respectively changed to King, Knight and Page (Squire), plus / minus Queen.
And in the 15th century in Europe (namely, in Italy) tarot cards appeared. They evolved from ordinary playing cards by adding trump cards (usually 21 trump cards) and a special card called "Fool".
So it is not playing cards that evolved from tarot cards by simplification, but tarot cards evolved from ordinary playing cards by complication.
Moreover, the tarot cards were created specifically for the game, and not at all for fortune telling or the transmission of some kind of occult wisdom. They played with tarot cards a game called Triumphs. These cards themselves were originally called triumphs (the word "tarot" appeared much later).
By the way, here's an interesting point showing that similar elements in different cultures can develop in a similar way: in addition to spectacle cards, there are also trump cards in tarot. 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 knuckles" (dots, bamboos and symbols), there are also knuckles with allegories of virtues:
- red dragon - moderation;
- green dragon - prosperity;
- white dragon - benevolence, sincerity and filial piety.
And here is a more traditional image of them (hieroglyphic):
How did the familiar suit symbols appear - tambourines, clubs, hearts and spades? Such suits, by the way, are usually called French.
In general, it is not difficult to guess that the French suits are nothing more than a simplification and stylization of the original suits (Italian-Spanish, in Italy and Spain, let me remind you, they are still used). Thus:
- coins turned into tambourines;
- sticks into clubs;
- bowls - into hearts;
- swords - in lances.
- coins - bells - tambourines;
- sticks - acorns - clubs;
- bowls - hearts - hearts;
- swords - leaves - spades.
Obviously, the conclusion about the origin French colors from the German is quite logical, given that the German suits are simpler than the Italo-Spanish ones, but they are still full-fledged drawings, and not simplified signs.
So let's summarize:
- Playing cards were invented in China.
- The Arabs adopted them from the Chinese. The Arabs are Europeans.
- The symbols of the suits (Italian-Spanish, German, French) have nothing to do with either the occult or any devilry.
- Tarot cards are a special form of playing cards that are based on ordinary playing cards.
As always - one has only to get into some topic deeper, and so many new and interesting things are immediately discovered! Seemingly playing cards - so what's wrong with that?
Map history
Those cards 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 (ie starting with sixes) 54-card "French deck".
Around the 15-16th centuries, the French deck was completely formed in the form we are used to and since then has practically not changed. Recent changes are the appearance in 1830 of a pattern symmetrical with respect to the top-bottom (earlier card figures were drawn in full height), 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 the middle of the 15th century, the cards came to France 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 cards 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 the crusaders from the countries of the East.
The first written mention of playing cards in Europe is a decree of 1367 prohibiting card games in the city of Bern. In 1392, Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French king Charles VI, painted card deck for the amusement of your 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 "Chronicles 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, initially there were no queens, but there were kings, jacks and cavaliers. Only golf 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 cards 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 there they drew paper pictures with various images of flowers and birds, somewhat reminiscent of 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 Adolph Iosifovich Charlemagne. Since then, the drawing has not changed, except for the fact that from the card of the jack of hearts and ace of diamonds the image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire was removed.
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 based on A. Charlemagne's sketch
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). It is interesting that 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), the images are inscribed 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 suits of cards familiar to us - 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").
V different countries the names of the suits now sound different.
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 - spades, 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 other male characters - nonter (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:
Playing cards are famous all over the world. But no one knows where and when they appeared. Some medieval theologians considered them a "devilish invention" that Satan invented to multiply human sins. The more sane argued that this could not be, because initially the cards were used for fortune telling and other magical rituals, that is, for knowing the will of God.
As evidence, very curious testimonies were cited, which will certainly be of interest to everyone who has ever taken a satin deck in their hands. According to one version, the invention of cards was attributed to the ancient Egyptian god Thoth - the ancestor of writing, counting and calendar. With the help of maps, he told people about the four components of the universe - fire, water, air and earth, which personify four card suits... Much later, already in the Middle Ages, the Jews-Kabbalists concretized this ancient message. According to them, the suits embody four classes of elemental spirits: tambourines - the fire spirits of salamanders, worms - the lords of the air elements of the sylphs, clubs - the water spirits undines and pikes - the lords of the underworld of the gnomes.
Other medieval mystics believed that the cards symbolized four "main aspects of human nature": the suit of hearts represents love; clubs the pursuit of knowledge; tambourines a passion for money, and peaks warn of death. The extraordinary variety of card games, the complex logic of relationships and subordination, the alternation of ups and downs, sudden failures and amazing luck reflects our life in all its complexity and unpredictability. This is where the bewitching power of excitement comes from, lurking in them to the great indignation of the Puritans and bigots of all times and peoples, in this sense, neither chess, nor dominoes, and indeed no other games, can be compared with cards.
However, no less curious is the version according to which the cards supposedly reflect ... time. Indeed, red and black are consonant with the concept of day and night. 52 leaves correspond to the number of weeks in a year, and not everyone understands the joker also symbolizes a leap year. The four suits are quite consistent with spring, summer, autumn and winter. If each jack is estimated at 11 points (it comes immediately after the ten), the queen is at 12, the king is at 13, and the ace is taken as one, then the sum of the points in the deck will be 364. Adding the "single" joker, we get the number of days in a year ... Well, the number of lunar months - 13 corresponds to the number of cards of each suit.
If we descend from the transcendental-foggy heights of mysticism to the soil of reality, then the most probable are two versions of the origin of the cards. According to the first, they were created by the Indian Brahmins around 800 AD. Another version says that the cards appeared in China in the 8th century during the reign of the Tang dynasty. The fact is that paper money served the subjects of the Celestial Empire not only for settlements, but also for gambling. In addition to digital nominations, the banknotes depicted emperors, their wives, and provincial governors, which signified the value of a particular bill. And since the players did not always have enough banknotes, they used duplicates drawn on sheets of paper instead, which eventually drove real money out of games.
The time of the appearance of the maps in Europe is equally uncertain, although most historians agree that most likely they were brought with them by the participants of the crusades in the 11th-13th centuries. True, it is possible that this subject of excitement appeared on our continent as a result of the invasion of Italy in the 10th century by the Saracens, as the Arabs were then called, from whom the locals borrowed cards. In any case, in 1254, Saint Louis issued an edict forbidding, on pain of punishment with a whip, card games in France.
In Europe, the Arabic original has undergone significant revision, since the Qur'an forbade the faithful to paint images of people. Presumably, the birthplace of cards with figures of kings, queens and squires - jacks was France, where at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries the artist Gregonner painted cardboard sheets for Charles VI.
The earliest known European tarot card deck (sometimes called Tarot or Tarok - ed.) Was made in the XIV century in Lombardy. It had four suits, depicted as bowls, swords, money and wands or clubs. Each suit consisted of ten cards with numbers and four pictures: king, queen, knight and squire. In addition to these 56 cards, it included 22 more trump cards with numbers from 0 to 21, bearing the following names: jester, magician, nun, empress, emperor, monk, lover, chariot, justice, hermit, fate, strength, executioner, death, moderation, devil, inn, star, moon, sun, peace and judgment.
As the popularity of card games in Europe grew throughout the 14th century, all the trump cards and the four knights gradually disappeared from the Tarot deck. True, the jester remained, renamed in our days in the "joker". The complete decks were preserved only for fortune telling.
There were several reasons for this. Firstly, the desire to separate the world of excitement from the mysteries of occultism and magic. Then, the rules of games with so many cards were too hard to memorize. And finally, the fact that before the invention of the printing press, cards were marked and painted by hand, and therefore they were very expensive. Therefore, in order to save money, the deck "lost weight" to the current 52 cards.
As for the designation of suits, then from the original Italian system with its swords - an analogue of future peaks, clubs - clubs, cups - worms and coins - boo-bey, later three emerged: the Swiss one with acorns, roses, leaves and heraldic shields; German with acorns, leaves, hearts and bells, and French with clubs, spades, hearts and tambourines. The most stable was the French system of depicting suits, which after the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) supplanted the rest of the symbolism and is now used almost everywhere.
Over the next 300 years, more than one artist tried to introduce new card symbols into everyday life. From time to time, decks appeared in which four suits were presented in the form of animals, plants, birds, fish, household items, dishes. At the very beginning of this process in Germany, suits were depicted in the form of caskets for church donations, a comb, bellows and a crown. Allegorical figures of Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood and Health appeared in France. Later, adherents of socialism even tried to issue cards with images of presidents, commissars, industrialists and workers. However, all these "inventions" turned out to be too artificial and therefore never took root. But with picture cards, things turned out differently.
Today, rarely any of the players are interested in the biographies of the long-disappeared characters of the card figures, and the drawings on the picture cards in modern decks little resemble real-life personalities. This is nothing more than a stylization of stylizations, infinitely far from the original originals. Meanwhile, initially, for example, four kings symbolized the legendary heroes-rulers of antiquity, whom Europeans could admire in the Middle Ages: Charlemagne, King of the Franks, headed the red suit, the shepherd and singer David - the peak, because thanks to his exploits he became the legendary Hebrew king; Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great were given the suit of diamonds and clubs, respectively.
True, in some decks the king of hearts was alternately depicted as a hairy Esau, then Constantine, then Charles I, then Victor Hugo, then the French general Boulanger. And yet, in the dispute over the possession of the crown, Charlemagne won a bloodless victory. Modern cards lovingly, practically unchanged, preserve the heroic features of this illustrious husband in the form of a wise old man wrapped in an ermine mantle - a symbol of wealth. In his left hand he has a sword - a symbol of courage and power.
The image of David was originally decorated with a harp - as a reminder of the musical talent of the legendary king of Judea. During the Napoleonic Wars, the king of peak was briefly depicted as Napoleon Bonaparte in France and the Duke of Wellington in Prussia. But then justice prevailed and David again took his rightful place among the royal royal persons.
Although Julius Caesar was never king, he also entered the crowned Areopagus. He was usually drawn in profile, and on some old French and Italian maps, Caesar was depicted with an outstretched hand, as if he intended to grab something. This should have indicated that the suit of diamonds was traditionally identified with money and wealth.
Alexander the Great is the only one of card kings, in whose hand the orb was placed the symbol of the monarchy. True, on modern maps it is often replaced by a sword - as evidence of his military leadership talents. Unfortunately, the appearance of the king of clubs fell victim to a ruthless fashion and from a courageous hero with a fierce gaze he turned into a pampered courtier with a dapper beard and elegant mustache.
The first lady of worms was Elena Troyanskaya. In addition to her, Elissa, the founder of Carthage, in Roman mythology - Dido, Jeanne d'Arc, Elizabeth I of England, Roxanne, Rachel and Fausta played the role of contenders for this throne. decks to deck.
As for the lady of spades, it was customary to depict her in the form of the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, Athena Pallas. True, the Teutons and Scandinavians preferred their own mythological characters who personified the war.
In the XIV-XV centuries, artists could not agree on who to choose as the prototype of the lady of the tambourine. The only exception was France, where they became the queen of the Amazons, in Greek mythology - Panfiselia. In the 16th century, someone gave the lady a tambourine the features of Rachel, the heroine of the biblical legend about the life of Jacob. Since, according to legend, she was a greedy woman, her role as "queen of money" was to the taste of the general public, and she established herself on this throne.
For a long time, none of the mythological or historical heroines pretended to be the lady of clubs. Sometimes in the decks flashed figures of the ruler of Troy Hecuba or Florimela, the personification of female charm created by the talent of the English poet Spencer. But they failed to establish themselves in this role. In the end, the French came up with the idea to depict the lady of clubs in the form of a sort of, as they say now, a sex bomb and call her Argina (from the Latin word "regina" - "regal"). The idea turned out to be so successful that it took root and became a tradition. Moreover, all the queens, the next favorites and mistresses of the French monarchs, the heroines of evil libels and frivolous witticisms, began to bear the name of Argin.
Initially, four nameless knights played the role of jacks. Although the name of this card is translated rather as "servant, lackey", and among players this figure was traditionally identified with an adventurer who does not always respect the law, but is alien to low cunning. This interpretation of the word "jack" perfectly matches the image of the jack of hearts. Trying to choose a worthy image for him, the French opted for the famous historical character - Etienne de Vignele, who served in the troops of Charles VII. He was a valiant warrior, brave, generous, ruthless and sarcastic. For some time he was an advisor to Jeanne d'Arc and was preserved in the memory of descendants as a hero of folklore, like Thiel Ulenspiegel, William Tell and Robin Hood. Perhaps that is why, without any objections from other nations, Etienne de Vignel firmly took the place of the jack of hearts.
The prototype for Jack of Spades was Ogier Danish. According to historical chronicles, in numerous battles, his weapons were two blades of Toledo steel, which were usually painted on this map. In numerous legends, this hero performed numerous feats: he defeated the giants, returned their possessions to the bewitched princes, and he himself enjoyed the patronage of the fairy Morgana, the sister of the fairy king Arthur, who, having become engaged to Gier, gave him eternal youth.
The first jack of the tambourine was Roland, the legendary nephew of Charlemagne. However, later, for no apparent reason, he was replaced by Hector de Marais, one of the Knights of the Round Table and half-brother of Sir Lancelot. At least, this particular hero is today associated with the jack of tambourine, although the famous nobility of the knight de Marais does not fit well with the notoriety attributed to this jack.
Sir Lancelot himself, the eldest of the Knights of the Round Table, was chosen as the jack of clubs of card business. It was originally the brightest of the jacks. But gradually the manner of drawing changed, and the jack of clubs lost its luxurious jacket, although in his hands he still had a bow, a symbol of his unsurpassed skill as an archer. However, in the modern jack of clubs it is difficult to recognize that mighty warrior who, being wounded in the thigh by an arrow, nevertheless managed to defeat thirty knights ...
This is the gallery of family portraits that none of the players suspects when they pick up a satin deck.
Well known all over the world, playing cards have found many uses. With their help, they predict the future, a variety of people are entertained with them, they become participants in almost every show of a magician or illusionist. However, the past of the cards is so contradictory and vague that it is still unknown where exactly they appeared.
There are many scientific treatises that talk about the possible sources of their origin. But let's start with the fact that initially the maps looked quite different from what we are used to seeing them.
When there was no paper, they already existed
As you know, paper was invented in China around 105 AD. However, there have been various finds from earlier years that may well be the progenitors of modern maps. Initially, images of animals, objects or weapons were applied to metal plates, pieces of leather, bark, bamboo, or even bone tablets. However, it is too difficult to attribute such finds to playing cards as such.
According to the theories of scientists, initially playing cards appeared in China, and already thanks to trade routes they got to India and Persia. There is also an opinion that the homeland of the cards is India, where round plates with images similar to ancient playing cards were found. There are quite a few other versions, but so far no one has been able to prove one specific and for certain to find out the real homeland of the maps.
The beauty of this kind of entertainment initially was that the cards did not require a separate field, as for checkers, chess or similar games. It is not surprising that interested traders took them home. However, the earliest finds still raise enough doubts about their connection with today's playing cards.
Why China is considered the birthplace of maps
China has many inventions, including various games- for example, dominoes or mahjong. However, it is he who is considered on this moment the most obvious birthplace of modern playing cards. There are many reasons for this conclusion.
This is primarily due to the fact that the first mention in historical sources associated with playing cards was in China, in 1294 AD.
Secondly, it was China that was the birthplace of the printing press, which greatly simplified the production of playing cards. And this is also taking into account the fact that it was China that was the birthplace of paper.
Third, the playing cards that were in China at the time have great amount similarities with modern maps. So, for example, they had a suit, which was designated by coins. In addition, they had an oblong shape, and the images on them were extremely similar to modern kings and ladies.
Where did the very first card suits come from?
It is noteworthy that if coins already appeared in the ancient maps that were found in China, then later they underwent some changes. After the cards came to Egypt, they changed significantly, because there was a period of Mamluk rule. This was primarily due to the fact that their religion did not allow them to map images of people. Thanks to this, the four suits turned into coins (already established in China), clubs, swords and cups.
Why golf clubs, you ask? Everything is simple enough. Images of household items and surroundings, in which these people were interested, were applied to the cards. And it is known for certain that the Mamluks had an addiction to a game similar to modern polo. Subsequently, when playing cards had already reached Europe, the clubs turned into maces or clubs.
A special detail that should be paid attention to is that regardless of the number of cards themselves in the deck, which varied from 12 to more than a hundred, there were exactly four suits. Both in Chinese maps and in the Mamluks, who helped the maps get to Europe.
How playing cards appeared in Europe
As soon as playing cards from Alexandria reached the south of Europe, they began to spread rapidly. It was so widespread and large-scale that such a fact was even given the name "Invasion of Playing Cards." And such a threatening name can be easily justified.
At that time in Europe there were many different clashes, hostilities between countries and small skirmishes. Due to their lightness, ease of transportation and small size, the cards were very popular with the soldiers. And, it turns out, with the offensive of the troops, the cards also attacked. The cards also came to Great Britain with the onset of hostilities.
Quite a lot of documentary references to maps have been found throughout Europe. In 1377 - the first mention of the appearance of cards in Switzerland, in 1392 they were already ordered in gold for the king, and what can we say only about the number of prohibitions on gambling that were almost everywhere!
How different decks and suits of cards appeared
As soon as playing cards get into any new country, they immediately tried to remake them for themselves. Only the Tarot cards, which retained the division into minor and major arcana, have undergone not too much changes. For games as such, they were not so convenient. If we talk specifically about playing cards, then they changed very often.
It turns out that each nation tried to express its own features and national preferences in maps. Thanks to this, the suits were constantly changing. However, each suit has a rather curious evolution. Let's take a look at the most famous decks out there today.
Italian-Spanish deck
It was not in vain that we started with it, because it is extremely similar to the ancient playing cards of the Mamluks, in which the clubs have slightly changed.
- Swords (spades);
- Cups (worms);
- Clubs (clubs);
- Coins (tambourines).
Existing until now, with its full complement it should consist of 50 cards (including two jokers, without them 48). Numeric cards started with one and ended with nine. Then there were the senior cards, which were denoted by a page, a knight (knight) and a king. In some variants there was a reduced deck without eights, and there were also variants with additional card"Queen".
It is noteworthy that numbers were not written on the cards of this deck, and there were no letter designations either.
German deck
When this particular deck of cards was created, they wanted to make it as much as possible showing the tremendous importance of agricultural crops in Germany.
- The swords turned into leaves that met the requirements of the culture of Germany and were conditionally similar in shape (peaks);
- Cups in hearts, since an association was made with the wine that filled these cups (worms);
- The clubs no longer became rough branches of trees, but turned into acorns (clubs);
- The coins turned into bells, since they were also round (tambourines).
Even later, when the French deck captured the whole world, its German variants had not two, but four colors of suits. To preserve the pre-existing green (leaves) and yellow (bells) suits.
This deck has about the same number of cards as Italo-Spanish. It is similar that there were no Ladies in it in the same way, but only kings or knights. This is easily explained by the fact that it was men who played the main role in the ruling class.
Swiss deck
Compared to German, it has undergone relatively small changes. The suits of this deck are:
- Shields, which have become swords (lances);
- Roses, former hearts(worms);
- Acorns (clubs);
- Bells (tambourines).
French deck
It was she who became the most iconic. And the most popular of all the other decks. Seeing modern suits, you see exactly the French deck.
In her, the suits turned into:
- Peaks;
- Worms;
- Clubs;
- Diamonds.
As we know them, they appeared when it was necessary to simplify the production of cards. Suit symbols had to be created easily and by almost everyone in order to lower their cost. And the suits were simplified to the very symbols that are now known to the whole world. But not only this has become an amazingly true marketing ploy.
It was the French deck that introduced the designation of suits in two colors: red and black.
Such decisions made her the easiest to perform, memorable, versatile, and, in addition, she was more delicate in relation to women. It was in the French deck that the Queen was originally present as a permanent card. And its weight was undeniable.
Where did the playing cards come from?We have all seen a deck of cards, more than once played a throw-in or an ordinary fool.
But, probably, few people thought about where, in fact, playing cards came from. And yet they have a very old and interesting story! And jacks, queens, kings have prototypes.
Mystic Tarot
A deck of cards in the form to which we are accustomed appeared relatively recently. However, the history of playing cards begins in ancient times.
According to the occult version, the cards were invented by priests in Ancient Egypt, and all the knowledge of mankind is encrypted in them. The priests created 78 gold tablets on which they applied magical signs. 56 of these tablets are called the Minor Arcana, and it was they that became common cards. And the 22 Major Arcana are mystical cards Tarot, which to this day are used by fortune-tellers and soothsayers.
This is what modern tarot cards look like.
However, there is no scientific confirmation of this version. However, the data of archaeological research show that maps really appeared a very long time ago.
On ancient frescoes, you can see that in Ancient Egypt there was a kind of cards - cuttings with numbers printed on them, and there was a game very similar to a card game. The same games amused the people of India, only the first cards made there were made of ivory and shells.
Interestingly, the Arab maps confirm the occult version of their appearance. They also have 56 Minor and 22 Major Arcana. At the same time, Muslims are forbidden by the Koran to depict people on maps, so there are only arabesque ornaments on them.
Analogs of the cards appeared in China and Japan, but they were tricky and intricate in the oriental way and did not resemble modern ones. Maps in the East were drawn on paper - these were stripes on which various symbols were depicted.
In the X-XII centuries, travelers from Europe reached the Middle Kingdom. Europeans liked the clever chinese games which they brought home.
Chinese map, Ming dynasty,
about 1400
The four main kings
Maps began to spread throughout Europe. There is a story about how the usual deck with kings and queens appeared. It is said to have been invented in 1392 by Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the French king Charles VI the Mad, who, as his nickname might guess, suffered from mental illness. To entertain his master, the jester began to come up with various card games and at the same time modified the deck.
Gringonner, to flatter the master, drew four kings and announced that each of them has its own prototype. The king of hearts is Charlemagne, the king of hearts is King David, the king of hearts is Julius Caesar, and the club of clubs is Alexander the Great.
The jester declared himself a joker.
This is a very interesting card character - he seems to be a fool, but in fact he is the strongest in the deck. And in real life it was the jester who could tell the truth to the kings under his mask.
Later, jacks appeared in the deck, which also had historical or mythical prototypes. The Knave of Hearts is the French knight Etienne de Vignoles, nicknamed La Guire, a loyal ally of Jeanne d'Arc; peak - the hero of the French epic Ogier the Dane; tambourine - Roland from "Song of Roland"; club of clubs - Lancelot Lakes from the legends about King Arthur.
It is interesting that for a long time there were no queens in the deck. Only in the 16th century did the playing cards appear female characters... And each of the beautiful ladies again had a prototype! The lady of hearts is the heroine of the biblical legend Judith. The lady of tambourine - Rachel, Jacob's wife. Interestingly, the suit of diamonds means money, and Rachel, according to legend, was stingy. The Queen of Spades was the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, Pallas Athena. At first, Dido of Virgil's Aeneid was considered the lady of clubs. But then the lady of clubs turned into an insidious seductress Argina - this is an anagram of the word regina, that is, "queen". The court painters who created maps for the monarchs gave Argina a resemblance to a royal mistress. Interestingly, in the event of a new mistress, the painters had to draw another deck.
During the years of the French Revolution, cards lost their popularity.
Playing card of the French revolution,
symbolizing freedom and brotherhood
Kings and ladies, albeit painted, were dethroned from their throne. Well-known oppositionists and fighters against the regimes appeared on the maps: Brutus, Voltaire, Horace, Lafontaine, Moliere, Rousseau, Saint-Simon ...
Shovels and batons
Card suits also did not appear on empty space... In the first decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarii" (monetary unit) and "wands". Later, swords turned into spades, cups - into worms (from the adjective red - red), denarii - into tambourines, and wands - into crosses, or clubs (the last word from the French "clover").
In other countries, the suits are called in their own way: for example, in England and Germany - spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, in Italy - spears, hearts, squares and flowers.
Damn Churchelli
There is a legend about how the cards appeared in Russia. They say that under Ivan the Terrible, a certain adventurer appeared in Moscow - the Italian Chercelli, whom the townspeople immediately called Certello. However, his Italian origin is questionable, for in Italy Certello was called French, in France - German, in Germany - Pole, and in Poland he was Russian.
Paul Cezanne. "Card Players". 1895 year
He brought to Moscow a chest with cards, wrapped in a black and red shawl that matched the colors of the suits. But Muscovites said they were the colors of hellfire.
And then a real epidemic began in Moscow: cards began to be in great demand, and Churchlli decided to establish their printing. However, he was soon expelled from Moscow for his demonic toys, and cards were banned for a long time.
However, despite all the obstacles, the cards took root in Russia and became closely included in its history and even culture - just remember “ The Queen of Spades"Pushkin or the famous card loss of Nikolai Rostov from" War and Peace ".
After the October Revolution in 1917, Russia even appeared Soviet maps, on which workers and peasants appeared instead of kings and jacks. Moreover, the suits also changed: instead of tambourines and spades, sickles, hammers and stars flaunted on the cards. Then the cards were banned altogether.
Now you can play cards, and moreover, decks are produced for every taste: souvenir, fortune-telling, with various historical characters. You can even order cards with the image of yourself and your friends, with whom you can then play a fool. Just do not lose it - what if someone will be offended that he is not a king, but some kind of nine ...