The invention of this entertainment, an inexhaustible source of joys and sorrows, is attributed to the cunning Egyptians, the fatalistic Indians, and the cheerful Greeks in the person of Palamedes. However, during the excavations, if they found a "toolkit" of gambling, it was mainly in the form of hexagonal cubes.
It is generally accepted that the first maps appeared later, in the XII century in China. Masters in filling their leisure time, court aristocrats, found in drawing small pictures with allegorical signs of animals, birds and plants at first aesthetic fun. Then - a convenient way to transfer secret information in the case of palace and love intrigues. And later - the possibility of risky games with the all-powerful Fatum.
But much more popular is the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists. They claimed that in ancient times the 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 - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Senior Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for divination. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors the French Eliphas Levy and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. This name allegedly comes from the Egyptian "ta rosh" ("the way of the kings"), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by Arabs or by gypsies, who were often considered to come from Egypt.
");True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.
According to the third version (European version), regular cards appeared on the European continent no later than the 14th century. Back in 1367, the card game was banned in the city of Bern, and ten years later, a shocked papal envoy watched with horror as the monks enthusiastically cut into cards near the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacquemain Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards for the amusement of his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were not enough four ladies, whose presence seemed then superfluous. Only in the next century, Italian artists began to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.
Just at this time, Europe began to carry out major military expeditions to the East - the Crusades (1096-1270), and for the first time Europeans discovered a new and already highly developed culture. Returning home, the crusaders did not forget to take with them the exotic that struck them: light porcelain, the finest silk, painted fans and, of course, charming miniatures on thick rice paper for magic tricks and divination.
However, it took a long time until card games became commonplace. In any case, the first mention in the chronicles of the Saracen game "naib" (Arabic "naib" - cards) dates back to the last quarter of the 14th century. It is characteristic that, in full accordance with the Arabic sound, the word "cards" in Italian is "naibi"; in Spanish "naipes"; in Portuguese "naipe" (this was due to the brisk trade with the Arab countries and close contact with local merchants, known for their passion to pay for goods "by chance", i.e. according to the principle of the unforgettable Nozdryov).
");In other European countries, another single-root word was firmly established: in France - "carte", in Germany - "Karten, SpielKarten", in Denmark - "Kort, SpelKarten", in Holland - "Kaarten, SpeelKarten", in England - "card ".
At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, cards were made directly by the artist and by individual order. Naturally, its productivity was not high, and only with the invention of engraving did card printing take on a large scale.
");Three main types of playing cards are added at the same time: Italian, French and German. All of them had differences both in suits and in the figures themselves.
The Italian type of cards originated with the invention of the game "tarok". These maps, made like engravings on copper, were very peculiar. In a normal, or "Venetian", tarok, the deck consisted of 78 cards, the suits were divided into bowls, denarii, swords and clubs. Each suit contained 14 cards: king, queen, knight, jack, point cards from ten to six, ace of swords, point cards from five to two. The rest of the cards, 21 in number, starting from Figlyar and ending with the card called Light, were trump cards, or Triumphs. Finally, there was another card called the Fool (by the way, the prototype of the future Joker). In Florence, cards were issued in the amount of 98 pieces, where graces, elements and 12 constellations were added to the usual Triumphs.
There is an assumption that the deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are the four seasons. The green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted with the help of a wand, a staff, a stick with green leaves, which, when printed, were simplified to black peaks. The red suit symbolized beauty, the north, spirituality. Cups, bowls, hearts, books were depicted on the card of this suit. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lit torch, the sun, fire, a golden bell. The blue suit is a symbol of simplicity, decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.
");The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.
There was no uniformity in card suits. In early Italian decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarii" (coins) and "wands". It seems, as in India, it was associated with the estates: the nobility, the clergy and the merchant class, while the wand symbolized the royal power standing above them. In the French version, swords turned into "spades", cups into "worms", denarii into "tambourines", and "batons" into "crosses" or "clubs" (the latter word in French means "clover leaf") . On different languages these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany these are "shovels", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", and in Italy - "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German cards, you can still find the old names of suits: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves". As for the Russian word "worms", it comes from the word "red" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally referred to the red suit.
");The early card games were quite complex, because in addition to the 56 standard cards, they used 22 "Major Arcana" plus 20 more trump cards, named after the signs of the Zodiac and the elements. IN different countries these cards were called differently and the rules were so confused that it became simply impossible to play. In addition, the cards were painted by hand and were so expensive that only the rich could buy them. In the 16th century, the cards were radically simplified - almost all the pictures disappeared from them, with the exception of the four "highest suits" and the jester (joker).
Cards of the Italian type appeared in France at the end of the 14th century, and already under Charles VII (1403-1461) cards appeared with their own national suits: heart, crescent moon, shamrock and spade. And at the end of the 15th century, the type of suits that is still used is finally established in French cards: worms (coeur), diamonds (carreau), clubs (trefle) and spades (pique). Since that time, French cards have acquired a stable type, which is characterized by such figures: David - the king of spades, Alexander - the king of clubs, Caesar - the king of tambourines, Charles - the king of hearts, Pallas - the queen of spades, Argina - the queen of clubs, Rachel - the queen of tambourines , Judith is the Queen of Hearts, Hector is the Jack of Diamonds, Ogier is the Jack of Spades, Lancelot is the Jack of Clubs, and Lagier is the Jack of Hearts. This type of card came down to the French Revolution of 1789-1894.
It should also be said that for many centuries the cards were "single-headed", i.e. the figures on them were depicted in full growth. The first cards that did not have a "top" and "bottom", "two-headed", were released by Italy at the end of the 17th century. At that time, these cards were not widely used. Then a similar attempt was made in Belgium, and at the beginning of the 19th century, France began to issue such cards.
In addition to these basic types of cards, so-called "thematic" cards were issued in various European countries. There were "pedagogical" decks that taught players geography, history, or grammar. Enjoyed the success of illustration cards for the dramas of Shakespeare, Schiller, Moliere. In "toys for adults" heraldry, palmistry and even fashion have been displayed. For example, in the middle of the last century, cards were printed in France, on which the clothes of kings, ladies and jacks were the latest models of the season ...
");
For example, in France in the 17th century, householders in whose apartments gambling card games were played were fined, disenfranchised, and expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could recover a large amount from a person who won money from their child. After the French Revolution, indirect taxes on the game were abolished, which stimulated its development. The "pictures" themselves have also changed - since the kings were in disgrace, it was customary to draw geniuses instead of them, 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 playing cards was only abolished in France in 1945.
");
A decree of 1696 under Peter I ordered to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards, "... and whoever had the cards taken out, beat with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar subsequent ones were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling card games. Along with them, there were so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards to show tricks and play solitaire.
The development of "innocent" forms of using cards was facilitated by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of 1761 on the division of the use of cards into those prohibited for gambling and permitted for commercial games. It is not entirely clear how cards penetrated into Russia. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the intervention during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.
The card game, which found a warm welcome in boyar houses and palace chambers, was certainly forbidden for the common people. In 1648, shortly after the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich, a royal decree followed, aimed at eradicating harmful customs and beliefs that still persisted among the urban and especially rural population. The decree listed in detail the numerous sins that required immediate eradication:
");“... Many people, male and female, converge on the dawns, and in the night they enchant, from the first sunrise of the first days of the moon they look, and in a thunderous thunderstorm (in a thunderstorm) on rivers and lakes they swim, they hope for themselves from this health, and from silver they wash themselves, and they drive bears, and they dance with dogs, they play with grains (bones), and chess, and they play with anklets, and they jump and splash without order, and sing demonic songs; and on Holy Week, young women and girls jump on boards (on a swing), and about the Nativity of Christ and before the Epiphany days, many people converge, male and female, into a demonic host due to devilish charm, many demonic actions are played in every demonic game ... ".
It should be noted that along with gambling, such completely innocent fun as riding a swing fell under the ban!
The decree of 1648 introduced a whole range of measures to combat the card game and other "disturbances". It was ordered to be read out “many times” at auction, lists from it “word for word” were sent to the largest villages and volosts, so that “this strong order of ours was known to all people” and no one could then dissuade him with ignorance. Buffoon clothes, hari and masks, musical instruments, chessboards and decks of cards were ordered to be taken away and burned, and in relation to people who were seen in violation of the decree, the governors were ordered “where such outrage will be declared, or who will say such outrage against whom, and you would they ordered to beat the batogs; and which people will not lag behind such outrages, but will take out such bogomer card games and others, and you would order those disobedient to beat the batogi; and which people do not lag behind, but turn up in such guilt in the third and fourth, and those, according to our decree, are ordered to be exiled to the Ukrainian (i.e., border) cities for disgrace. Yes, and the governors themselves, so that they would not skimp on the implementation of the decree, a strict suggestion was made: “But you won’t do this according to our decree, and you will be from us (Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich) in great disgrace”
It must be assumed that initially the decree was carried out with all its inherent rigidity, and more than one gambler was stripped of his back with whips or sticks at the auction. But according to the saying “the cruelty of laws in Rus' is mitigated by the possibility of their non-execution”, the effect of this decree gradually came to naught - mainly due to the physical impossibility of its execution.
Another and very tangible blow to playing cards was dealt in the following year, 1649. The compilers of the famous "Code" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich attributed the card game and its consequences to the crimes of a purely criminal offense, severely punished by mutilation and death. In the edition of the Code of 1649, an article related to the "card game" is placed in the chapter "on robbery and tatin affairs."
“And which thieves,” this article says, “steal in Moscow and in the cities, play cards and grains, and, losing, steal, walking the streets, they cut people, tear off their hats and rob ...”, then they should have, after interrogation with torture, “make a decree (sentence) the same as that written above about tatehs (robbers), that is, imprison, confiscate property, beat with a whip, cut off ears (in the subsequent edition of the Code - fingers and hands) and execute death ".
The classification of the card game as a serious crime had a great influence on the trading of playing cards. The surviving customs books show that after 1649 the import of cards, for example, to Veliky Ustyug, was halved compared to previous years, and after 1652 it stopped altogether. But has the card game stopped?
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By special nominal royal decrees of 1668 and 1670, a special regime was introduced in the Kremlin: people of various ranks - from the steward and below - were strictly forbidden to enter the Kremlin on horseback, to gamble during the sovereign's exits to the cathedral churches, when the tsar appeared, they were ordered to stand without caps "peacefully and serenely."
Significant government spending on the conduct of hostilities required a constant search for new sources of income. A curious document has been preserved dating back to the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and testifying that among the Moscow administration, which was probably convinced of the ineradicability of the card game, a happy idea arose to turn it into a source of state income. The Moscow government has repeatedly acted so wittily before, replacing the cruel persecution of the use of vodka and tobacco for a monopoly state-owned trade in these goods, to a greater increase in the treasury.
The mentioned document is a charter given to Siberia to the Turin governor Alexei Beklemishev in 1675. It turned out that before that, from Tobolsk to Moscow, “voivode Pyotr Godunov and clerk Mikhailo Postnikov wrote that they (it is not known on what basis) gave away grain and cards in Tobolsk”, in other words, allowed at the expense of the treasury and under its cover to open gambling Houses. (Let's note in parentheses that along with the cards, the enterprising voivode also farmed out "unmarried wives for fornication" - and all for the good of the treasury!)
The seductive initiative of Godunov and Postnikov wanted to be followed by many other cities of the “Tobolsk category”. From Verkhoturye and Surgut, the voevodas wrote, “so that grain and cards were given to them for the same reason.” The great sovereign pointed out to these ingenuous writings: in Tobolsk and other cities, "grain and cards should be set aside and pay off from the grain and cards from the salary." The letter prescribed that the governor of the Turin prison, Beklemishev, do the same, even if, following the example of Tobolsk and according to Godunov's "replies", he had already given away grain and maps. Knowing the morals of local rulers, who easily found loopholes in decrees, the royal charter especially indicated: "the tax farmer himself, he will suddenly be sent from Tobolsk, and not a Turin tenant, and send him from Turinsk, and henceforth make a strong order."
The persecution of the card game was not only limited to prohibition decrees. In 1672, on the orders of Alexei Mikhailovich, the Lutheran pastor Johann Gottfried Gregory set up a new theatrical temple in Preobrazhensky, and in November the first performance was given before the tsar - the comedy Artxer's Action. This was followed by new productions of a comedic and moralizing nature. The play “History or action of the gospel parable of the prodigal son”, composed by Simeon Polotsky, gained fame. This production is remarkable in that a kind of theatrical "program" was published for it, in which scenes from the action were shown in the drawings, accompanied by explanations. According to the plot, the prodigal son, having received part of the estate from the hands of his father, leaves home and begins a wild life. He hires many servants, plays grain and cards, mingles with mistresses, and, finally, squanders all his estate.
In one of the pictures of this “program”, the prodigal son is shown playing cards and grains at the table, surrounded by players. This is the earliest depiction of a card game in Russia.
");After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676, the persecution against gamblers was significantly mitigated. In the royal decrees sent to the localities, there was no longer the former intimidation of players with mutilations and executions for the very fact of a card game; the whole threat is limited to an indefinite expression - "an order to repair a strong one." The import of playing cards to Russia resumed and even increased significantly, only in Veliky Ustyug in 1676-1680 they were brought in 17136 decks.
Soon after the permission of card games in Russia, its own production of playing cards appeared. Already in 1765, the government of Catherine II established a tax on both imported playing cards and domestically produced cards, and the duty on foreign cards was twice as high. The printing of playing cards in Russia was farmed out, i.e. was in private hands and brought tax-farmers, who sold an average of about one million decks a year, decent incomes. The money received as a result of taxes, came in favor of Orphanages. And on the lands of the family estate of the princes Vyazemsky (P.A. Vyazemsky - one of the descendants of this ancient family - was a close friend of A.S. Pushkin), near the village of Alexandrovo near St. Petersburg, Abbot Ossovsky, having received financial assistance from the government, built in 1798 in the year of the building of the Alexander Manufactory, which at the beginning of the 19th century became one of the largest enterprises in Russia. After a year of work, the manufactory passed into the treasury and was donated by Paul I to the Orphanage. In 1817, the manufactory manager A.Ya. Wilson proposed to the Board of Trustees to open a card factory at the manufactory. A note was drawn up, which was approved by Alexander I on October 12, 1817. The government was going to make a huge profit, because. a factory with a monopoly on the production of cards eliminated any competition from outside. The decision not to grant ransoms, which expired in 1819, and the ban on the import of cards from abroad, provided the treasury with the opportunity to charge any selling price for the cards.
Hello everybody.
Today I will tell you one of the many versions of how playing cards appeared in Russia. Many versions are a reflection of the era in which the cards were born. And this version is one of the most curious.
Modern playing cards are a multi-stage development of history, with its ups and downs, the development of that history that is constantly evolving and looking for new ways of perfection.
This fact alone is something to be proud of.
One of the mysteries remains that no one still knows exact date, the year of origin of playing cards, and the place of their invention remains a mystery to this day.
The birthplace of maps
Of course, you must have read many theories about this or that place and date of origin. In one old Chinese dictionary Ching jie Tung (this dictionary gained popularity in 1678 in Europe), it is said that playing cards were invented in 1120 in China, but in 1132 they became widespread in China.
But let's look at several options for the appearance of cards today, in addition to the Chinese version, we will also consider the Indian and Egyptian versions.
With all the interest in cards, the Japanese and Chinese decks are unusual for us, which sometimes surprises and misleads our minds.
Appearance, the nature of the game, which is similar to dominoes - all this is of interest. However, there is evidence that in China in the 8th century, sticks were used for games, and after strips of paper with various symbols.
These distant progenitors 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 had 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 a year.
There is also another theory of the origin of playing cards. Before the appearance of paper cards familiar to all of us, the Japanese played with special plates that looked like cards carved from ivory or wood with cut figures.
And in Medieval Japan, the founders of playing cards were mussel shells, such cards were one of the most amazing.
With the help of playing cards-shells, solitaire was laid out on the table, shells with the same patterns were searched in the laid out shells. At such a pace, the cards became famous in both India and Egypt in the 13th century.
One of the most interesting moments was that in India, on the pictures of playing cards, a four-armed Shiva was depicted, who had a goblet, a sword, a coin and a rod in his hands.
After such images of the four-armed Shiva in India, it became more popular that these objects in the hands of Shiva denoted estates and this was 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 argue 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 as symbols of playing cards.
The tablets were divided into parts: 1. "Minor Arcana" - 56 pieces (later they became ordinary playing cards); 2. "Senior Arcana" - 22 pieces, were considered mysterious cards of the Tarot deck, and used them exclusively for divination.
This version was launched to the masses in 1785 by the French accultist Ettail, and his numerous successors not only supported and continued, but also created their own system for interpreting Tarot cards.
The name Tarot supposedly comes from Egyptian word“ta rosh”, which means “the way of the king”, and they were brought to Europe, again allegedly, they were either Arabs or gypsies, who, by the way, were often considered to be immigrants from Egypt, and maybe they still think so.
The only thing I can tell you is that not a single evidence of such an early occurrence of Tarot cards has been found, not a single scientist has been able to prove it.
Emergence of maps in Europe
There are several versions about the appearance of maps in Europe. One of the versions is that the appearance of the cards is associated with the appearance of gypsies in Europe in the 15th century.
And another version reveals to us interesting fact, as if a little-known painter invented cards for entertainment, to 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 with 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 the handles with images of numbers on them was played in Ancient Greece already in those days, and in India - these are shells or plates of ivory; and in China, playing cards are similar to our modern cards, they have been known since the 12th century.
In 1379, the first documentary evidence of the appearance of maps was published. In the chronicle of one of the cities in Italy, a note appeared: “A game of cards has been introduced, which came from the country of the Saracens and is called by them“ naib ”.
By the name of this game "naib" - one can make an assumption 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, these cards depicted only numbers, the prohibition was on the image of human figures, such was the law of Mohammed. Therefore, the French rather did not invent maps, and only transformed the existing ones with all kinds of drawings.
The suits of card decks have always been varied. In some of the earliest Italian decks, for example, the suits were named: “swords”, “cups”, “wands”, “denarii” (coins).
It was very similar to the Indian theme: the clergy, the nobility and the merchant class, and the rod itself symbolized the royal power that stood us all.
But the French came up with their own version of the suits and instead of swords they had “spades”, cups became “worms”, denarii turned into “tambourines”, and wands were called “crosses” or “clubs” “club - from French means “clover leaf” ).
Variety of names
These names, in different languages, now sound differently, for example: England and Germany are “shovels”, “diamonds”, “hearts” and “clubs”, Italy is “spears”, “hearts”, “flowers” and "bells" and "leaves". And in Russia, the word "worms" comes from the word "chervonny", i.e. red, now it is clear why the worms originally belonged to the red suits.
Cards, cards, cards .. Ah, this word, many people's eyes lit up at this word, the excitement took over them, the mind could no longer cope. Cards spread rapidly to many European countries.
The government, watching all this, tried to tame the excitement in people, taking measures and banning card games, but ... all attempts turn out to be insignificant. Along with the taming of gambling, more and more gambling card games appeared.
In Germany, handicraft workshops began to appear that were engaged in the manufacture of cards, the methods of dressing were also improved.
In France, in the 15th century, card suits were established, which still exist today. It is believed that the suit of each card speaks of the four main items of knightly use: clubs - a sword, worms - a shield, spades - spears, tambourines - a banner and coat of arms.
What is encrypted in the cards?
There is a mystical connection in the 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 values of the cards, then the total will be 364 - like the number of days in a year without one. Amazing nearby.
The first card games were very intricate, because not only 56 standard cards took part in the game, 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 painted by hand and the price for them was quite high, and that is why only rich people could buy them.
Radical changes took place in the 16th century, when almost all the pictures disappeared, leaving only the four “highest suits” and the jester “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: Cartes the Great (worms), Julius Caesar (diamonds), the biblical king David (spades), Alexander the Great (clubs). Regarding the ladies on the cards, there was no unanimity - the lady of worms was either Judith, then Dido, then Helen of Troy.
Queen of Spades personified the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva, Joan of Arc. Cast femme fatale, ladies of spades, after many disagreements, began to portray the biblical Rachel, she, like no one else, was better suited for the role of the “queen of money”, because she robbed her own father.
The lady of clubs acted as a virtuous Lucretia, gradually turned into Argina - symbolizes vanity and vanity.
One of the most difficult card pieces is the jack, which means squire in English.
At first, the word "jack" was the meaning of servants and even jesters, but then it was established in a different meaning. The French knight La Hire, whose nickname was Satan (worms), the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spade), Roland (tambourine) and Lancelot of the Lake (clubs).
The first cards 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 was, at that time, 22 cm, which was a very inconvenient size, but it was convenient for card drawers.
Satin cards
In our life, where we are used to everything that is familiar to us from childhood, it seems ordinary. Here are the satin cards, they are familiar and familiar to us, looking at other cards, they may seem somehow ridiculous to us.
For more than a dozen years, satin maps have been distributed all over the world and that is why it has earned our trust.
They are so familiar to us, like fairy tales, like myths and epics. But cards appeared in Russia only in the middle of the 19th century.
One of the highest specialists, academician Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (Bode-Charlemagne) and Alexander Egorovich Beideman, dealt with the issues of artistic design.
These people made the era with their talent, your skill, after the era, the card images designed by these people are the standard and wonderful card graphics. At present, these masterpieces adorn the collections 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 calculation), gambling (the will of chance). The first option (screw, whist, preference, bridge, poker) took root in educated people who liked to play, then the second direction (seka, "point", shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless "throw-in fool") reigned in the common people.
The West has progressed in the direction of cards, developing logic and thinking games have been included in the school curriculum of children. However, what to judge and reason, play, think, win. My story about how playing cards appeared ended.
I advise you to learn:
Good luck with your story, be lucky.
In the countries of Western Europe, the first playing cards appeared in the 13th century. In our country, they appeared much later - according to the most common version, cards began to be played in Rus' at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. There is no complete unanimity among historians about the country from which the first maps came to Russia. The most popular version is that cards came to Russia from the Czech Republic - after all, cards appeared in this country at the same time as in Western Europe. But there are also "Polish" and "German" versions.
The first reliable written mention of playing cards in Russia dates back to 1649. In the "Code" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich - a harsh and strict code of laws, playing cards fell into the chapter "On robbery and tatin affairs." In this "criminal code" gamblers are equated with "tats" - thieves and robbers. And the punishments for thieves in those days were severe. Those caught playing cards for the first time were ordered to flog with a whip, cut off their left ear and put them in jail for two years. If the player turned out to be a recidivist and neither the whip nor the executioner's knife could wean him from his destructive passion, he was shackled and sent to hard labor. If this did not help, the "Code" prescribed a very extreme remedy - "execution by death." However, such harsh measures applied only to ordinary ("black") people. The boyars were not flogged with a whip, their ears were not cut off, they were not shackled. Aleksey Mikhailovich himself played cards, quite possibly. In any case, there are maps in the inventory of property in one of the palaces belonging to this monarch.
Peter the Great was not fond of cards. But among his associates there were many gamblers. For example, "to have fun playing cards", Alexander Menshikov himself, a friend and associate of Peter, loved. Foreigners in their memoirs described in detail a kind of "Russian game of kings", which they called "incomparable and smart." As in Europe, in our country, the nobility and merchants played cards first of all. And even then they played not only “for fun”. The game was played for large sums of money. Estates and entire villages with serfs were lost at cards. As a result, in 1717, Peter I issued a decree strictly forbidding playing cards for money. Empress Anna Ioannovna issued an even stricter decree in 1733 - the players had to pay a fine in the amount of triple the amount of money that the game was played on. For a repeated game for money, the nobles were sent to prison for a month, and the "mean people" were to be "mercilessly beaten with batogs."
Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, shortly before her death, issued a decree in 1761 dividing card games into permitted and prohibited. Forbidden games are games for money, of course. True, there was an honest clause in the decree - this ban does not apply to the palaces of Her Imperial Majesty.
Catherine the Great was not indifferent to cards - she played with favorites, and with courtiers, and with European monarchs. During the years of her reign, numerous manuals on card games were published.
However, the empress did not cancel the prohibitions on gambling issued by her predecessors. Which, however, did not prevent her associates from losing huge sums at that time.
As we have already said, cards appeared in our country at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. But until the 18th century, playing cards were imported to Russia from Europe. There were no Russian-made cards for a long time. And European maps were divided in those days into three types - French, Italian and German. They differed in the names of the suits - for example, the Italian cards had cups, coins, swords and wands. But French cards were the most popular in our country. Their suits bore well-known names to us - hearts, diamonds, spades, clubs. In France, by the way, back in the 15th century they came up with “prototypes” for card kings Charlemagne became the king of hearts, King David the king of spades, Julius Caesar the king of diamonds, and Alexander the Great the king of clubs. But there was no such unanimity with the card ladies - the role of the lady of worms was assigned either to the biblical Judith, then to Helen of Troy, the goddess Athena and ... Joan of Arc were the lady of spades, the virtuous Lucretia was the lady of clubs.
The production of domestic cards began in the 1760s, after the decree of Elizaveta Petrovna, officially allowing "power" games (games not for money). The first advertisement for Russian-made maps appeared in the St. Petersburg Vedomosti newspaper in 1769. And even earlier - in 1766, the customs duty on foreign cards was raised from 87 kopecks for a dozen cards to two rubles. And a year earlier, a tax on branding cards was introduced - 10 kopecks for cards brought from Europe and 5 kopecks for cards printed in Russia (playing cards that did not have a hallmark was punishable by large fines). With such simple and effective measures, the government showed concern for the domestic manufacturer. The cards were produced in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Arkhangelsk and other Russian cities. By the way, the card branding tax went to the maintenance of Orphanages (a prototype of orphanages) organized by the famous educator I. I. Betsky. In 1798, during the reign of Paul I, Orphanages were granted the monopoly right to print and brand cards. In the same year, the first mechanical paper-spinning factory appeared in Russia. The enterprise was redeemed by the treasury and donated to the Orphanage in St. Petersburg. Already under Alexander I, a decree was issued that finally consolidated the monopoly of Educational Houses on the production of playing cards.
Meanwhile, high society was shaken by scandals related to playing cards, not money, estates, serfs. The strict decree prohibiting gambling, issued by Alexander I in 1801, "did not work." Let us give the most striking example of a card scandal - in 1802 in Moscow, Prince Alexander Golitsyn lost to Count Lev Razumovsky ... his wife, Princess Maria Grigorievna (nee Vyazemskaya). By agreement of all three parties, the marriage was annulled and the princess married the winner. And happily lived with him for a long sixteen years.
All Russian fans of card games are accustomed to the so-called "satin cards". It is hard to even imagine that the maps in our country once looked different. But we have just talked about the history of playing cards in our country. Let's talk about the history of the playing cards we use today.
The production of cards in our country is inextricably linked with the Imperial Card Factory, the former Alexander Manufactory. The issue of cards at this enterprise was established back in 1819. For almost forty years, the factory was headed by A. Ya. Wilson, and literally from the first years of his work, he tried to improve the appearance of playing cards. New drawings were developed, but they needed to be approved at the highest level. Unfortunately, the Russian autocrats saw no reason to change the established map design.
Everything changed after the abolition of serfdom in 1861. Until now, serfs worked at the card factory, now they have been replaced by civilian workers. Sixty new machines were purchased, the production was headed by an experienced master Winkelman. Finally, the question arose about new drawings on playing cards. The problem was again solved at the highest level. The development of a new design was entrusted to the academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne and Alexander Egorovich Beideman. Both of them were famous artists. They managed to create real masterpieces of card graphics. But Beideman's sketches were found to be too complex and pretentious, and maps based on Charlemagne's simpler and more concise works were put into production.
Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (1826 - 1901), the creator of modern Russian maps, was born into a family of Russified Frenchmen. His grandfather was a sculptor-decorator, his father was a famous St. Petersburg architect. Adolphe Charlemagne decided to become a painter and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in the class of battle and historical painting. For the painting "Suvorov on St. Gotthard" he was awarded a gold academic medal and the right to a six-year foreign internship. For the canvas "The Last Night of Suvorov in Switzerland", written during a trip abroad, he was awarded the honorary title of academician of painting.
Returning to his homeland, Charlemagne painted not only battle paintings. He also worked for the State Securities Expedition, did illustrations for popular magazines, and even worked on sketches of costumes for balls. But of all the works of this talented artist in people's memory remained ... yes, you are right, exactly those that he made by order of the Imperial Card Factory. Let's talk about them in more detail.
Making his sketches, Charlemagne did not seek to come up with something fundamentally new. He creatively reworked those drawings that existed before him. First of all, the French deck of 1816. During the years of the French Revolution, the monarchy in France was overthrown and in the cards - counter-revolutionary kings, queens and jacks were replaced ancient gods and great philosophers. But in 1816, the monarchy in French maps was restored. These French maps served as role models for Russian artists. However, the kings on the Russian maps of those years resembled bearded men from the rural outback. Yes, and the ladies lacked grace.
In the drawings of Charlemagne, royal persons look exactly as they should. At the same time, the drawings are simple and concise - no unnecessary details. And, besides, these drawings were also technologically advanced - they were made for printing in four colors.
"Satin" maps of Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne.
The word "satin" itself came from the name of the type of paper, which was compared with a shiny and smooth silk fabric - satin. Sheets of this paper were rubbed with talc on special machines. Satin paper favorably differed from ordinary paper of those years - poorly glued, rough, easily soaked. And the cards printed on satin paper were not afraid of moisture and glided easily. True, they were not cheap - in 1855 a dozen satin maps cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks (the annual income of a peasant in those years was 10-20 rubles). Handmade cards made for the imperial court cost about the same. However, from elite cards for the rich and aristocrats, “satin” drawings were also transferred to cards of the first and second grade, which are more accessible to the common public.
Road maps (which were smaller) with drawings by Charlemagne were also put into production:
Charlemagne cards successfully survived the October Revolution and the Civil War. In the Soviet Union, the production of playing cards was concentrated on the State Card Monopoly. Initially, the division into satin, extra, first and second grade cards was preserved according to the type of paper on which they were printed. But already by the beginning of the thirties, cards were printed only on satin paper, since the technology for its manufacture was no longer so complicated and expensive. True, the cost of the cards remained quite high - in the "price list of consumer goods" for 1935, the cost of a deck of 52-53 cards is 6 rubles.
Subsequently, Charlemagne's drawings were converted to offset printing.
And the originals of Charlemagne's famous drawings have survived to this day - at first they were kept in the archives of the State Card Monopoly (the former Imperial Card Factory). After the closure of this enterprise, the sketches were acquired by the famous collector Alexander Perelman, who transferred them to the Museum of Maps in Peterhof.
Rare modern man did not hold playing cards. There are several versions of their appearance, and researchers have not yet come to a consensus on this matter.
The cards have an ancient and very dramatic history. The long held belief that cards were invented in France for the entertainment of 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, sticks were used for games, and then strips of paper with symbols for various symbols. 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 the four-armed Shiva, who held a goblet, a sword, a coin and a wand. Some believe that these symbols of the four Indian estates gave rise to modern card suits.
The Chinese have complicated the game of dice and got dominoes. Then, instead of dots, the tablets began to depict figures, flowers, and everyday scenes. Such tablets were used for the solitaire-like game of "mahjong", common in China and Japan. The essence of the game is to make pairs of the same from the many tablets on 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 much more popular is the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists. They claimed that in ancient times the 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 - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Senior Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for divination. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors the French Eliphas Levy and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. This name allegedly comes from the Egyptian "ta rosh" ("the way of the kings"), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by Arabs or by gypsies, who were often considered to come from Egypt.
True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.
According to the third version (European version), ordinary maps appeared on the European continent no later than the 14th century. Back in 1367, the card game was banned in the city of Bern, and ten years later, a shocked papal envoy watched with horror as the monks enthusiastically cut into cards near the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacquemain Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards for the amusement of his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were not enough four ladies, whose presence seemed then superfluous. Only in the next century, Italian artists began to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.
There is an assumption that the deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are the four seasons. The green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted with the help of a wand, a staff, a stick with green leaves, which, when printed, were simplified to black peaks. The red suit symbolized beauty, the north, spirituality. Cups, bowls, hearts, books were depicted on the card of this suit. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lit torch, the sun, fire, a golden bell. The blue suit is a symbol of simplicity, decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.
The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.
There was no uniformity in card suits. In early Italian decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarii" (coins) and "wands". It seems, as in India, it was associated with the estates: the nobility, the clergy and the merchant class, while the wand symbolized the royal power standing above them. In the French version, swords became spades, cups became hearts, denarii became diamonds, and wands became crosses or clubs (the latter word in French means clover leaf) . In different languages, these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany these are "shovels", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", and in Italy - "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German cards, you can still find the old names of suits: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves". As for the Russian word "worms", it comes from the word "red" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally referred to the red suit.
The early card games were quite complex, because in addition to the 56 standard cards, they used 22 "Major Arcana" plus 20 more trump cards, named after the signs of the Zodiac and the elements. In different countries, these cards were called differently and the rules were so confused that it became simply impossible to play. In addition, the cards were painted by hand and were so expensive that only the rich could buy them. In the 16th century, the cards were radically simplified - almost all the pictures disappeared from them, with the exception of the four "highest 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). With regard to the ladies, there was no such unanimity - for example, the lady of worms was either Judith, then Helen of Troy, then Dido. The lady of spades has traditionally been portrayed as the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva and even Joan of Arc. After much debate, the biblical Rachel began to be portrayed as the lady of spades: she was ideally suited for the role of the "queen of money" because she robbed her own father. Finally, the lady of clubs, early Italian maps acting as a 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 human head strung on it, which is now replaced by humane artists with musical "cymbals". In pre-revolutionary stage performances, a similar character was called Fradiavolo. " " is above all, she 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 - the devil. It is quite possible that Daus is a corruption of the Greek diabolos, a slanderer.
The most complex figure of 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 its other meaning was established - not quite honest, albeit a brave adventurer. These were all the real prototypes of jacks - the French knight La Hire, nicknamed Satan (worms), as well as the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spades), Roland (tambourines) and Lancelot of the Lake (clubs).
"Trump" cards, their very name, have their own special purpose. "Kosher" i.e. Talmudists call ritual sacrifices “clean”… which, as you understand, is connected with Kabbalah.
Nevertheless, each researcher gives his own interpretation of suits and figures. Father Menestrier believed that cards are symbols of great monarchies (Jewish, Greek, Roman, French), and four ladies are nothing more than the main female virtues: piety, motherhood, wisdom and beauty. Others believe that such historical figures as Mary of Anjou, Agnes Sorel, Isabella of Bavaria and Joan of Arc are depicted as "ladies". But hypotheses remain hypotheses.
One Greek legend ascribes the invention of maps to Palamedes, the son of the Euboean king Nauplius, very clever and cunning, who managed, for example, to expose Odysseus himself. Odysseus wanted to stay out of 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 harnessed a donkey to the plow to his bulls, and began to sow the field not with grains, but sprinkle salt into the furrows. However, Palamedes immediately figured out the deception.
He returned to the palace, took the son of Odysseus, Telemachus, from the cradle, brought him into the field and laid him in a furrow in front of a team of oxen and a donkey. Odysseus, of course, turned aside, giving himself away. This cunning of Palamedes was the basis for various inventions to be attributed to him. He allegedly invented scales, letters, dice, some measures, and during the long-term siege of Troy -. And it happened 1000 years before our era!
By the 13th century, cards were already known and popular throughout Europe. From this point on, the history of the development of cards becomes clearer, but rather monotonous. In the Middle Ages and divination, and were considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times and peoples. Therefore, from the middle of the XIII century, the history of the development of maps turns into a history of prohibitions associated with them.
For example, in France in the 17th century, householders in whose apartments gambling card games were played were fined, disenfranchised, and expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could recover a large amount from a person who won money from their child. After the French Revolution, indirect taxes on the game were abolished, which stimulated its development. The "pictures" themselves have 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 playing 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 incitement of passions. In the "Regulations" of 1649, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, it was instructed to act with the players "as it is written about taty", that is, to beat them with a whip and deprive fingers and hands by cutting off.
By decree of 1696 under Peter I, it was ordered to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards, "... and whoever has the cards taken out, beat with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar subsequent ones were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling card games. Along with them, there were so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards to show tricks and play solitaire.
The development of "innocent" forms of using cards was facilitated by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of 1761 on the division of the use of cards into those prohibited for gambling and permitted for commercial games. It is not entirely clear how cards penetrated into Russia. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the intervention during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.
In the 19th century the development of new drawings of playing cards began. Academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charleman and Alexander Egorovich Beideman were engaged in it. It is worth noting that at present their sketches are kept in the State Russian Museum and in the Peterhof Card Museum. However, the drawings of Academician Adolf Iosifovich Charleman, which we now know as Atlas Maps, were put into production.
AI Charleman did not create a fundamentally new card style. The drawings on the Atlas cards had as their fundamental principle the so-called "North German picture", which also came from a completely ancient folk French card deck.
The new map sketches created did not have their own name. The concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century referred to the technology of their manufacture. Satin is a special kind of smooth, glossy, lustrous silk fabric. The paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talc on special wheeled machines. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks.
From the end of the 18th century, the real one began, covering the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth Derzhavin lived mainly on money won in cards, and Pushkin was listed in police reports not as a poet, but as "a well-known banker in Moscow." Gambling Nekrasov and Dostoevsky often lost their last pennies, while the cautious Turgenev preferred to play for fun. In the then secular society, especially provincial, almost the only entertainment was cards and the scandals associated with them.
Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance ruled everything. If the first (screw, whist, bridge,) established themselves among educated people, then the second (seka, "point", shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless "thrown fool") reigned supreme among the common people.
In the West, "mental" card games that train logical thinking were even included in the school curriculum. However, the cards began to serve for very non-intellectual activities. If they show naked girls, it's not up to the bridge. But this is a completely different game.
It must be said that over the centuries there have appeared many who wished 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 the cards and even introduce new suits - "sickles", "hammers" and "stars". True, such amateur activity was quickly suppressed, and the cards were stopped for a long time to be printed as "attributes of bourgeois decay."
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Happens often with the player:
Sat down rich - got up poor.
Who took the cards, seduced by profit,
Tom does not know the game of happy.
Gambling is sinful:
It is not given to us by God,
Satan invented it!
(Sebastian BRANT, 1494)
Who among us hasn't played cards? If now in our super-fast world we have no time to play card games, then in childhood everyone at least once in their life threw themselves into the “throw-in”, “in the transfer” or in the “believe-do not believe” game. There are people for whom cards are work. For example, professional players or magicians.
Where did playing cards come from?
Some suggest that the cards were borrowed by Christians from the Muslim East. However, there are other opinions as well.
The first mention of cards as a gambling tool appeared in Europe towards the end of the 14th century. It is assumed that the Saracen part of Spain had a great influence on the gambling fun of Europe on the part of the Muslims. And yet, the main versions of the origin of the cards remain three: the first is Chinese, the second is Egyptian and the third is European.
Chinese version
The Chinese version of the origin of the cards is hard to believe. For Europeans, Chinese and Japanese maps look too unusual. And by the nature of the game, they are more like dominoes for us. But on the playing cards of India, you can see the image of the figure of the four-armed god Shiva, holding a rod in one hand, a coin in the other, a sword in the third, and a rod in the fourth. This is more clear to us. There is an assumption that these objects, symbolizing four different classes, gave rise to the appearance of four card suits.
Egyptian version
Modern occultists believe that the cards were created by Egyptian priests, who thus wrote down the wisdom of the whole world on 78 golden tablets.
European version
The main version of the origin of playing cards remains European. The first ban on playing cards was proclaimed as early as 1367 in the town of Bern. True, a little later, the papal envoy was shocked to see that the monks were happy to play cards next to the walls of God's monastery. Evidence remains that a certain court jester named Jacquemain Gringonner, in 1392, drew a deck of cards in order to somehow entertain his sick master. There were only 32 cards in the deck, since four ladies were missing, which they began to depict on the cards a little later.
A bit of history...
During the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the authorities of Moscow were at first loyal to card games, but a little later, seeing in them the presence evil spirits, began to prosecute the players under the law. Code of 1649 ordered the players in the B cards to "beat with a batog, cut off their hands, like caught thieves".
Decree of 1696. a search was introduced, "so that it would not be customary to carry cards with you." In 1717 there was a ban on playing cards, and those who were disobedient were fined. In 1733 many were imprisoned and beaten with batogs for playing cards.
Suits and meanings of cards
The cards in the deck are distributed according to the hierarchy - from the highest "ranks" to the lowest: first an ace, then a king, then a queen, and then a jack. Now there are tens, followed by nines, and so on, up to sixes or twos, in the case of a full (54 cards) deck.
Separately from the rest of the cards is the Joker - the most powerful card, which is depicted as a jester in a cap with bells, holding a scepter in his hands. It used to be called Fradiavolo. "Joker" is considered to be above all, while it does not have a suit.
Ace- a Polish word derived from German - Daus, which is interpreted in dictionaries as B "devil". It seems that Daus is a variant of the distortion "diabolos" (Greek) - a spreader of slander.
King- slightly lower in rank than an ace. It is believed that 4 kings correspond to their prototypes in antiquity: Alexander the Great - king of clubs, Julius Caesar - diamonds, Charlemagne - hearts and the biblical king David - spades.
ladies depicted in different ways: worms - either Helen of Troy, or Dido. The Queen of Spades was often the goddess of war - Athena, and sometimes even Joan of Arc. The lady of clubs was often portrayed as Lucretia.
Jack- came from the French - В"valetВ", which means В"servant", В"lackey", and the old Russian name - В"kholopV".
trump call those cards that are privileged, i.e. In “kosher” (In “clean” cards). Most likely, this is connected with bondage and ritual sacrifices.
The designation of suits, as a rule, comes down to the following occult explanation:
"Christen" or B "clubs" - these are cards on which a cross is depicted. Everyone knows that Jesus was crucified on the cross, so the word "club" when translated from Yiddish means "bad".
"Vini" or peak - a symbol of the gospel peak, which pierced the belly of Jesus Christ on the cross.
"Worms"- means the gospel sponge, which the soldier filled with vinegar and served to drink to Christ.
"Diamonds"- denote the nails with which the hands and feet of Jesus were nailed to a wooden cross.
A number of entertaining facts from the history of playing cards
The very first playing rooms in Europe were very expensive, although they were drawn by hand. The length of the cards reached 22 centimeters, which made the game very uncomfortable.
- A real card boom swept the entire culture in Rus' somewhere from the end of the 18th century. Historians claim that Derzhavin in his younger years earned money by playing cards, and Pushkin was listed in police papers as "as a well-known gambler in Moscow".
- The games of educated people of high society are: poker, screw, whist, bridge, preference. And such games as seka, "point", shtos, and the harmless "thrown fool" - these are the games of the common people.
- In the Soviet Union, the Leningrad Color Printing Plant was engaged in mass production of maps.
- The smallest deck of playing cards was released in 2010 in Omsk. Its dimensions are 6.3x8.8mm.
- In the old days (until the 19th century), a deck of cards contained a unit, which was the smallest card.
- The smallest house of cards was built by the inhabitants of Omsk brothers Konenko (Stanislav and Anatoly) in 2011.
- It is noteworthy that the design of the satin deck, which is traditional for Russia, has not changed for almost a century and a half.
How modern maps are made
