Cards were not introduced into Medieval Europe until the second half of the 14th century. At this time they were referred to as “Saracen Cards,” and were brought to Europe by merchants. Cities were burgeoning with rural folk who had survived the Plague and moved to the urban centers. Here, they became a new group of middle class merchants and craftspeople. With the easing of the poverty and ignorance that marked the middle ages, new trade groups, guilds, and universities began to emerge once again, and science was no longer relegated to sorcerers. There was more time for the pursuit of pleasure, leisure, and play.
During the early Renaissance, books, cards, and paintings were manufactured by hand. A community of art and science appreciators formed and became the primary factor in the spread of card games across Italy. By late–th century many illustrated card-manual manuscripts had appeared in a number of key cities in several countries, including Viterbo near Rome in Italy, in Paris, and in Barcelona. Thanks to traveling artists and scholars, the popularity of the game steadily grew: in the early 15th century a single craftsman sufficed to satisfy the card requirements of a city; but by mid century there was need in multiple fulltime shops.
Because this was a somewhat foreign form of amusement, not everybody embraced it. Some felt it threatened the fabric of society’s mores and morals. They saw it as a game where gamblers and bettors were in cahoots with the devil. During the protestant Reformation cards were rather dramatically referred to as “devil pictures.”
In spite of or because of this, the popularity of cards persisted. Even Mary, Queen of Scots was a major bettor and enjoyed the game, shockingly, even on Sunday. The compleat Gamester was published in the late 17th century in London, relating details of more than a dozen games and their basic strategies. Particular facilities – casini – were established in Venice for aristocrats and courtesans especially for card games. From these Venice casini, a game called primero found its way all over Europe and was transformed into poker some time later.
After a while, the game was played and enjoyed by women as well as men, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants as well as courtesans and aristocrats. The suits at the time from a popular Swedish deck were in order of rank: sun, king, queen, knight, dame, valet and maid. In Florence, cards were depicted as nude dames and dancers, with dancers being the lowest rank.
The design and number of cards in a deck was not uniform at the time, varying from 36 to 40 or 52 cards. Popular suits were symbols of wealth, victuals, military security, and popular court sports: coins, cups, sabers, and clubs. Already in the 15ht century signs familiar to us were used in France: in red, Coeurs (hearts) symbolized the church, and carreaux (a rectangle floor tile) symbolized the merchant class; in black, piques (spear and arrow heads) standing for state authority, and trefles (trefoil clover leaf) symbolizing farmers. At some point, a daring artisan substituted the precedent vice-royals with queens.
After a period of time, the deck of cards that we know today took form. 52 cards with- ranks comprising 4 distinct suits. The suits include Spades, Diamonds, Hearts, and Clubs with the Ace, King, Queen, and Jack counting for ten and the rest of the cards, 2 through 10, being counted at their face value.
The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at True Poker and Rakeback at Poker Heaven.
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