Once again, a deck of cards flashed before my eyes and I thought, who even drew the cards with which we usually play? Now a lot different cards, but since Soviet Union the deck was about the same, just like in the top picture.
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 truncated (i.e., starting with sixes) 54-card "French deck". But let's start from the beginning...
The invention of this entertainment, an inexhaustible source of joys and sorrows, is attributed to the cunning Egyptians, the fatalistic Indians, and the cheerful Greeks in the person of Palamedes. However, during the excavations, if they found the "tools" of gambling, then 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 - the "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.
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 was still a long time before card games have not become 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 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 Nozdrev).
In other European countries, another single-root word has firmly established itself: 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 are added at the same time playing cards: 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 last word in French means "clover leaf") . On different languages these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany they are "spades", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", while in Italy they are "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 “chervonny” (“red”): it is clear that “hearts” originally referred to the red suit.
Mamluk cards. Ten of Cups, Three of Cups, First Counselor of Cups, Second Counselor of Cups
The Hofämterspiel deck reflects the political situation in Central Europe in the middle of the 15th century. Instead of suits, the coats of arms of the four most influential kingdoms of that time were taken: France, Germany, Bohemia and Hungary. The single-headed eagle represents the "regnum teutonicum" kingdom of Germany (as opposed to the double-headed eagle representing the Holy Roman Empire).
Learn more about her HERE.
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). From now on French cards acquire 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 - the queen of worms, 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.
The new republican government entrusts not to anyone, but to the most famous painter of that time, J.L. David (the author of the famous painting "Death of Marat") to create new map drawings. Instead of kings, David portrayed the geniuses of war, trade, peace and the arts, replaced the ladies with allegories of freedom of religion, the press, marriage and crafts, and instead of jacks, he painted figures symbolizing the equality of states, rights, duties and races. It was in France that forms of four colors originally appeared: ivy leaves, acorns, bells, hearts. It is highly plausible that the French suits are symbols of knightly life: a peak is a spear, a club is a sword, a tambourine is a coat of arms or oriflamme (banner, standard), worms is a shield.
On these cards of the French "deck on legs" (1648), the images are signed with their names.
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 issued 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 in early XIX century, France began to produce such cards.
Traditional deck. Germany
Traditional deck. Switzerland
By the way, the tradition of magnificently decorating the ace of spades came from the fact that during the reign of King James I of England (1566-1625) a decree was issued according to which information about the manufacturer and its logo should be printed on the ace of spades (since this card is the first in the deck). . A special seal was placed on the same ace, indicating the payment of a special tax on cards.
In addition to these basic types of maps, so-called "thematic" maps were issued in various European countries. There were "pedagogical" decks that taught players geography, history, or grammar. Enjoyed the success of illustration cards for the dramas of Shakespeare, Schiller, Moliere. In "toys for adults" heraldry, palmistry and even fashion were 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 ...
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 gambling were considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times and peoples. Therefore, from the middle of the XIII century, the history of the development of 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, the 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.
In Russia, maps appeared in early XVII centuries. The largest Russian critic and art historian V.V. Stasov believed that the cards got to Slavic peoples from the Germans, without denying, however, that Poland played the role of the main mediator in this matter. But no matter how the playing cards got to Little Russia or Muscovy, they spread extremely quickly. Of the legislative monuments, the Code of 1649 first mentions the maps and their undeniable harmfulness to society. For more than a century, card games were prosecuted in Russia by law, and players caught hot were subjected to various punishments, until in 1761 there was an establishment on the division of games into prohibited - gambling and allowed - commercial.
By decree of 1696, under Peter I, it was 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 the maps penetrated into Russia. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the Polish-Swedish intervention during the Time of Troubles. early XVIII V.
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 along 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 (during a thunderstorm) on rivers and lakes they bathe, they hope for themselves from this health, and wash themselves with silver, and bears lead, and dance with dogs, grains (bones) and cards, and chess, and play with anklets, and disorderly jumping and splashing, and singing 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 big influence to trade in 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?
By special nominal royal decrees of 1668 and 1670, special treatment 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 hats "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.” To these simple writings great sovereign pointed out: 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.
In 1819, the factory produced its first products. During this year, 240 thousand decks were made, which began to be sold throughout the Russian Empire (in 1820, the production of cards increased to 1380 thousand decks).
The new map sketches created did not have their own name. The 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.
Let us return to our question about the maps of the Pushkin era (“Queen of Spades” was written in 1833). At this time, and up to 1860, the back of the cards had an image of a pelican feeding two children with the meat of its own heart. This allegorical sign was explained by the inscription: "Not sparing himself, he feeds the chicks." The ironic phrase of one of the heroes of the story by N.S. Leskov “Interesting Men”: “In order not to get bored, they sat down to the evening ringing to “cut themselves”, or, as they say, “to work for the benefit of the imperial educational home.” And there was a benefit. In 1835, a dozen decks cost 12 rubles, and were sold for 24. By the mid-50s, cards were produced three times more than the farmers produced in 1818, while the profit increased 4.5 times and amounted to 500 thousand rubles a year .
The maps of that time that we are interested in had the character of popular popular prints (professional artists have not yet been involved in the activities of the factory). They depicted funny German knights on horseback, the size of a pony, and big-headed clumsy ladies. For example, the Queen of Spades, if she wanted to, could not scare the player out of her mind, as happened with the impressionable Hermann. But the more obvious is the brilliant idea of Pushkin, who built the intrigue of the story on the outward discrepancy between funny card characters and their hidden fatal role.
The graceful drawings of cards without top and bottom familiar to us today were born thanks to the talent of the academician of painting A.I. Charlemagne. In 1860, the assortment of the factory expanded incredibly: reduced-sized cards, solitaire, travel, children's, educational and fortune-telling cards began to be produced. But the more intensively the production developed, the more “archaic” the drawings on the maps looked in the taste of the folk primitive.
Being a historical painter and battle painter, A.I. Charlemagne tries himself in different areas of art. He makes illustrations for the works of A.S. Pushkin and other famous writers, makes sketches for the Imperial Porcelain Factory and, in addition, creates originals for playing cards. The merit of the artist lies in the fact that he, a talented draftsman and connoisseur of history, managed to find the right tone in solving the figurative structure of all cards. Thanks to him, playing cards began to differ in their original style and integrity of symbolic images.
The factory's products were successfully demonstrated at the World Industrial Exhibitions in Paris in 1867 and 1878. In 1893, playing cards with drawings by Charlemagne were presented at the Chicago World's Fair and received a bronze medal and an honorary diploma.
The created new map sketches did not have their own name and were not called Atlas. The very concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century did not refer to a pattern or a special style of cards, but to the technology of their manufacture. Atlas itself was called then, and even now they call a special variety of smooth, glossy, shiny silk fabric. The paper from which the cards were then made was rough, with spots and stains, poorly glued, and often had different thicknesses in the sheet. To give the cards an improved look, the paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talcum powder on special wheeled machines, the work on which was extremely unhealthy. Cards made on satin paper were not afraid of moisture, glided well when shuffled and cost more. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks, on a par with gold-edged cards made by hand for the imperial court.
A.I. Charlemagne. Solitaire playing cards.1862.
Charlemagne's drawings were used in the manufacture of satin cards, cards of the first and second grade, as well as "Extra" cards already in the 30s of the 20th century. Gradually, all card products began to be made on satin paper, and the own name Satin was firmly entrenched in Charlemagne's cards. In the "Price Courant of Retail Prices for 1935" of the State Card Monopoly, which was administered by People's Commissariat Finance, a deck of "Satin" cards in 52-53 cards cost 6 rubles.
An interesting question - who was the prototype of the card characters? Russian card figures are anonymous, but the French cards that served as the basis for Charlemagne's work have their exact names, which were written and are still written directly on the cards. Charlemagne, king of the Franks, led the suit of hearts; shepherd, singer and Hebrew king David - peak; Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great were given diamonds and clubs. The heroine of the biblical legend Judith became the Queen of Hearts, and the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, Athena Pallas, became especially famous in Russia as the Queen of Spades. The diamond suit has traditionally been associated with wealth, the very symbol of the diamond suit, which we are used to seeing in the form of a rhombus, is still called "diamond" - a diamond.
Playing cards are road. 1870s Based on the originals by A.I.Charlemagne Petersburg. Card factory at the Imperial Orphanage. Collection of A.S. Perelman
In the 16th century, the lady of the tambourine was given the features of Rachel, the heroine of the biblical legend about the life of Jacob. According to legend, she was a greedy woman, which is quite consistent with her new card position. The image of the lady of clubs has become collective. She began to be portrayed as saying modern language, a sex bomb, to which the nickname Argin tightly stuck, regal. This word became so popular that all the queens, as well as the favorites and mistresses of the French kings, were called by this name behind their backs. In the form of jacks, Etienne de Vignel, a knight of the times of Charles VII (hearts), the noble Ogier of Denmark (spades), one of the knights of the Round Table, Hector de Mare (tambourines), and finally Sir Lancelot himself, the senior knight of the Round Table (clubs), entered the history in the form of jacks. During the time of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, Russian players also called cards by their names. The poet V.I. Maikov in the poem “The Ombre Player” boldly throws Ogier, the jack of spades, onto the table.
From the end of the 18th century, a real card boom began, engulfing the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth, Derzhavin lived mainly on 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 the cards and the scandals associated with them.
A.E. Beideman Playing cards. Paper, watercolor, ink, pen
Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance ruled everything. If the first ones (screw, whist, preference, bridge, poker) established themselves among educated people, then the second ones (seka, “point”, shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless “thrown fool”) reigned supreme among the common people.
Traditional deck. Italy
In the West, “mental” card games that train logical thinking have even been included in the school curriculum. However, the cards began to serve for 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 not printed for a long time as "attributes of bourgeois decay."
So, what cards do we usually play now?
A.I.Charlemagne. Playing cards. Cardboard, ink, pen, watercolor, gouache. Collection of A.S. Perelman
1875 Satin maps, designed by A. Charlemagne
Drawings of card figures with the monogram of Charlemagne are made in full size of a card deck. Created by order of the card factory in the 1860s - 1870s and still remain the most famous and popular card drawings in Russia.
Sources
http://ta-vi-ka.blogspot.com/
http://www.jokercards.ru
http://lizi-black.com
Every inhabitant of our country has played cards at least once in his life. Whether it's a simple throw-in fool or an aristocratic preference. At the same time, most fans of card games are sure that some abstract characters are depicted as jacks, queens and kings. This is wrong…
Joker: a fun sorcerer
The most surprising thing is that the only card in the deck that does not have a real prototype is the Joker. In many card games, it is not used at all, while in others it acts as the highest trump card. At the same time, the word Joker itself, translated into Russian, means a merry fellow, a jester and a mischievous one. True, sometimes the Joker is drawn in the form of a little imp, thereby emphasizing the story of his appearance from fortune-telling Tarot cards. In a deck of magic cards, the Joker is an evil wizard. At the same time, the most popular version of the origin of the word "Joker" is the name of the game Juker, in which this card character first appeared.
Card Kings: The Best Among Equals
According to historical chronicles, people started playing cards in Europe in the 14th century. They did not disdain to spread to the cards and persons of royal blood. At this time, by the middle of the 15th century, the main images of ladies, jacks and kings appeared in Europe. At that distant time, as today, a deck of cards consisted of 52 sheets, divided into four suits. Such a figure is not accidental, because 52 is the number of weeks in a year, and the suits are the four seasons. The most amazing thing is that today it is known exactly who was the prototype of the images of kings in a card deck. The King of Spades was King David, known to readers from the Old Testament. The role of the king of clubs was played by the great conqueror Alexander the Great. King of tambourine, no less famous ruler - Julius Caesar. The youngest from a historical point of view was the king of worms - Charlemagne. It is symbolic that each of the prototypes of the card kings left its indelible mark on the history of mankind. Alexander the Great conquered half the world. King David turned out to be the most famous crowned figure in the Old Testament. Well, Charlemagne created the Holy Roman Empire. Gaius Julius Caesar - became famous as the most popular dictator of ancient Rome.
Card ladies: perfection itself
Card ladies also had their real prototypes. However, these were not wives at all, people who gave the prototype to the card kings, but completely strangers to them. The Lady of Hearts is the warlike Judith, who accomplished many feats on the pages of the Old Testament. It was she who cold-bloodedly cut off the head of the leader of the Assyrians, saving the city of childhood from the invasion of the conquerors. According to other sources, which are considered more reliable, the magnificent Elena of Troy became the Queen of Hearts. According to legend, her mother was the queen of Sparta, Leda, and Zeus himself was her father. Lady of Diamonds is the wife of one of the Knights of the Round Table - Ragnel. As a lady of clubs, the artists depicted either the Greek goddess Argina, who was responsible for vanity and empty fuss, or Lucretia, representing virtue. It turned out to be more difficult with the lady of spades. Three real women claim her role at once, the image of each of which appeared on card sheets at different times. Most often it is Minerva - the goddess of wisdom, war and victory. Less often, Athena became the queen of spades, who was also responsible for successful fighting or the legendary medieval heroine Joan of Arc.
Jack: servant of kings
As jacks in a deck of playing cards, as in the case of queens and kings, real historical figures. True, if these people found out how the treacherous artists who created decks of cards treated them, they would be very offended. Jack in French means servant or lackey. However, the prototype jacks never were. The Jack of Hearts is the knight Etienne de Vignelet, Joan of Arc's closest associate. The jack of spades is the noble knight Ogier of Denmark. According to legend, he repeatedly killed dragons, exterminated many giants, and in general was a bosom friend of the fairy Morgana. Subsequently, the sorceress rewarded Ogier with the gift of eternal youth for nights of passionate love. Jack of clubs - the famous knight Lancelot. The frantic Roland plays the role of the jack of diamonds.
Chinese and dominoes
Who invented playing cards: Italians, Spaniards, French, or they are a gift to mankind from evil spirits? Alas! The author of playing cards is known - these are the Chinese. The most surprising thing is that cards in China are not an independent game, but a simpler and cheaper variety of dominoes to manufacture. Once upon a time, the Chinese recklessly played dice, then they transformed into dominoes, which in turn were reborn into cards. It happened at the moment when the dominoes were transferred to cardboard. We got cards with a scale of points, to which figures were added over time. Ching-tse-tung's dictionary mentions that cards were invented in 1120 AD, and after 12 years they were distributed throughout China. True, there is an alternative version of the origin of playing cards from ancient Egypt. As if thousands of years ago, Egyptian priests encrypted all the wisdom of the world in 78 golden tablets. Some of them were symbolically depicted in the form of cards, and 56 of them (Minor Arcana) were playing, and 22 (Major Arcana) were used exclusively for divination. However, both the Chinese and the Egyptian versions of the origin of playing cards are nothing more than a legend, while in Europe the cards have been known since the 14th century. For example, in 1367 in Bern, card games were banned by an official decree, and in 1377, an envoy of the Pope complained that the monks were cutting cards right at the walls of their monastery.
Versions of the origin of the cards
The modern deck of cards is the result of a complex development of this ancient game.
The time of the exact origin of the cards is not known, and the place of their invention is also not clear. Ching Tse Tung's old Chinese dictionary, which became famous in Europe in 1678, says that cards were invented in China in 1120, and in 1132 they became widespread there. But in general, there are several versions of the appearance of cards. In addition to Chinese, consider also Indian and Egyptian.
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. Then the Japanese had four suits of cards: they symbolized the seasons, and 52 cards in a deck meant the number of weeks in a year.
There is also evidence that the Chinese and Japanese, even before the appearance of paper playing cards, were already playing with cards like cards made of ivory or wood with painted figures, and in medieval Japan there were original playing cards made from mussel shells. They were decorated with drawings depicting flowers, landscapes, everyday scenes. With the help of such cards, it was possible to lay out "solitaire" - the shells were laid out on the table and searched for "doubles" among them. In the 13th century, maps became known in India and Egypt.
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.
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 - "Junior 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.
Emergence of maps in Europe
There are several versions about the appearance of maps in Europe. According to one of them, the beginning of playing cards dates back to the 15th century and coincides with the appearance of gypsies in European territory. According to another, the general popularity of the cards, according to the testimony of the Jesuit Menestrier, is attributed to the 14th century, when a little-known painter named Zhikomin Gringoner invented cards for the entertainment of the insane King of France Charles VI (1368-1422), who went down in history under the name of Charles the Mad. The cards were allegedly the only means that calmed the royal patient between bouts of insanity. And during the reign of Charles VII (1422-1461) they were improved and at the same time received their present name.
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.
The first documentary news about cards dates back to 1379, when an entry appeared in the chronicle of one of the Italian cities: “A game of cards was introduced, originating from the country of the Saracens and called by them“ naib ”.
The game was apparently of a military nature, since "naib" in Arabic means "captain", "chief". On Arabic maps, only numbers were indicated for the reason that the Mohammedan law forbade the depiction of human figures. Therefore, we can rather talk not about the invention of maps by the French, but about decorating existing maps with figures.
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 “chervonny” (“red”): it is clear that “hearts” originally referred to the red suit.
Cards quickly spread in all European countries, gambling appeared on their basis, and therefore strict measures were soon taken by the authorities to prohibit them. Despite this, more and more new card games were invented. In Germany, handicraft workshops engaged in the manufacture of cards appeared, and the methods for making them improved.
In the 15th century, France established the type of map that still exists today. It is believed that the card suits symbolize the four main items of knightly use: clubs - a sword, spades - spears, tambourines - a banner and coat of arms, hearts - a shield.
There is an assumption that the deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards correspond to the number of weeks in a year; 4 suits are the four seasons; there are 13 cards in each suit, the same number of weeks in each season; the sum of all points of 52 cards is 364, that is, the number of days in a year without one.
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 Queen of Spades has traditionally been depicted as a goddess of war - Athena, Minerva and even Joan of Arc. In the role of the Queen of Spades, after much debate, they began to portray the biblical Rachel: she was ideally suited for the role of the “queen of money”, since she robbed her own father. Finally, the lady of clubs, on early Italian cards acting as the virtuous Lucretia, turned into Argina - an allegory of vanity and vanity.
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).
The first cards played in Europe were very expensive. There was no lithographic printing then, they were drawn by hand. Cards were brought to France from Italy, there is historical evidence of this - the decree of the counting chamber of 1390, which reflects the cost of buying cards to amuse the king. The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.
Maps in Russia
Maps appeared in our country a long time ago, during the time of Ivan the Terrible. Already under the son of the Terrible, Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, playing cards came to Russia in significant quantities among other European goods. The cards were expensive and easily perishable goods, so they were transported in strong oak barrels. Already from the beginning of the 16th century, cards became a common subject of bargaining throughout Russia, and the card game began to bring significant harm to morality and law and order. In 1649, the Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich qualifies the card game as a serious crime. Until the time of Peter the Great, cards in Russia were imported.
The great innovator Peter the Great adopted many European customs, but he did not like go-karts and played them very rarely. But it was under him that the domestic production of playing cards first arose at two small manufactories in Moscow. Personal attention and all-round support of card manufactories by Peter were explained by completely prosaic reasons - exhausted northern war the state needed money, which brought the trade in playing cards.
Throughout the 17th century, playing cards were produced by small workshops in the capitals and even in provincial cities. Some workshops even had a certain assortment of types of cards produced, however, very modest. The drawing of the maps was uncomplicated and practically did not change for decades.
In the reign of Catherine the Second, the good idea of a state monopoly on the production of playing cards was born, and under Alexander the First, the good idea was put into practice. The income from the production of cards went to a charity - it supported the Office of Empress Maria, who took care of orphans. Direct production of cards was launched in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, at the state-owned Alexander Manufactory, in which the Imperial Card Factory began to operate in 1819.
For more than 20 years, the formation of a new production went on, until Russian cards began to be issued on Russian paper and mainly by Russian masters. The director of the Card Factory, A. Ya. Wilson, strove for some improvement appearance maps, new drawings were developed. Emperor Nicholas I was presented with a corresponding report, on which, however, he wrote with his own hand: "I see no reason to change the previous drawings."
After the abolition of serfdom, significant changes began at the Card Factory. Director A. Ya. Wilson, who had held this position for more than 40 years, stepped down from the management of the factory. Free laborers were hired to replace the serfs, more than 60 new machines were purchased, and an experienced master Winkelman became the head of production. Along with the update of the technical side of the matter, it became necessary to change and decorate the maps.
Satin cards
The well-known Satin playing cards are so familiar to our eyes that any other cards seem unusual to us and certainly some kind of “non-Russian”. Indeed, Satin cards have been the most common and popular playing cards in Russia for many decades. It seems that they exist from the very beginning, like Russian folk songs or Russian fairy tales. But this is not so - these maps have an author, and they appeared in Russia in the middle of the 19th century.
The solution to the issue of changing and decorating maps was taken quite seriously. The development of new drawings of playing cards was entrusted to the academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne (Bode-Charlemagne) and Alexander Egorovich Beideman. The artists created several sketches, which still, after a century and a half, are wonderful examples of card graphics and adorn the collection of the State Russian Museum and the Peterhof Card Museum. However, fairly simple and artistically concise drawings by Academician Charlemagne were put into production, which we now know as Atlas Maps.
Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne came from a family of Russified Frenchmen. His father Joseph Ivanovich Charlemagne (1782-1861) and brother Joseph Iosifovich Charlemagne (1824-1870) were famous architects. The future academician of painting studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in the class of historical and battle painting. In 1855, Adolphe Charlemagne was awarded a large gold academic medal for the painting Suvorov on St. Gotthard. Together with the medal, he received the right to a six-year trip abroad, which he went on in 1856. In 1859, Charlemagne paints the painting Suvorov's Last Night in Switzerland, for which he was awarded the title of Academician of Painting.
Returning to St. Petersburg after an internship abroad, Charlemagne works a lot as an illustrator in magazines, collaborates in the State Expedition for the Procurement of Securities, paints temples, and even participates in the preparation of costumes for the Historical Ball with Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich. Work for the card factory was one of those orders. Who knew that this creation of the artist would become immortal!
You can explain why this particular playing card project was so successful. The drawings of Academician Beideman, like other sketches by Charlemagne, were very artistically attractive, but they turned out to be not quite suitable for such mass production as printing playing cards. The sketch of the Satin Maps was made for printing in four colors - black, yellow, blue and red. However, not only "manufacturability" played a role in success. The drawing of card figures turned out to be so concise, so devoid of unnecessary details and complex angles, that success was simply inevitable.
AI Charlemagne did not create a fundamentally new card style. Satin cards were the result of exclusively masterful processing of already existing card drawings, which were used as early as the 17th and early 18th centuries at Moscow card factories maintained by tax farmers. However, these, as one might call them, "old" drawings had as their fundamental principle the so-called "North German picture", which also came from a completely ancient folk French card deck.
A rare artist, poet, writer creates a work that after some time loses its authorship and becomes just a folk song, folk tale. Such creative success fell to Adolf Iosifovich Charlemagne, whose drawings in the form of playing cards are in every home.
Modernity
Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance ruled everything. If the first ones (screw, whist, preference, bridge, poker) established themselves among educated people, then the second ones (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 have even been 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 it's a completely different game...
Very long time invention of playing cards was attributed to the 14th-century French painter Jacqueline Grangonner, who allegedly first invented these small painted cardboard sheets. And he did this in order to amuse them with Charles VI in the moments of enlightenment of the darkened mind of His Majesty.
This version was first refuted in the 18th century by two learned men of letters, the Abbés de Longrue and Rive, who convincingly proved in their dissertations that cards and card games appeared long before the reign of this poor sovereign.
The first indisputable proof of this is the original act of the Cologne Cathedral, which forbade the card game for clergy.
This act predates the time when Grangonner handed the maps he had drawn to the insane monarch. The decent fee he received for these cards prompted the artist to be creative, and he began to actively work on improving the design of the cards. He replaced some figures on the maps, and in the reign of Charles VII made further changes to the images on the maps and came up with the names of the figures that they still bear.
So, at the whim of the artist, David, peak king, was the emblem of Charles VII, and the king of hearts was named Charlemagne. Queen Regina in clubs lady portrayed Mary, wife of Charles VII.
Pallas, the Queen of Spades, personified the Virgin of Orleans, Joan of Arc. Rachel, the lady of diamonds - gentle Agnes Sorel, and the lady of hearts Judith - light "in morality" Isabella of Bavaria. Four jack(squires) designated themselves four brave knights: Ogier and Lancelo under Charlemagne, Hector de Gallard and La Hire under Charles VII. And other names of the cards were sustained by the artist in the taste of that time - a warlike allegory. Worms were the emblem of courage, spades and tambourines represented weapons, clubs - food, fodder and ammunition. And finally ace(ac) in its Latin meaning was what has always been recognized as the main wealth of war - money.
The painter Grangonner, thus, although not map inventor, but left to his compatriots and everyone for an inheritance, which in many ways contributed and continues to contribute to the entertainment of people, and not only idle, but also businessmen, and led to a variety of occupations in all strata of society.
The phenomenon of the rapid distribution of maps around the world is unparalleled. Cards are played all over the world. Maps can be a topic of study for a philosopher and psychologist, a statistician and an economist, for a moralist and a clergyman...
It must be admitted that the origin of the cards still shrouded in impenetrable darkness. Scientists realized too late, time managed to destroy monuments that could shed light on the history of maps. However, many learned people devoted most of their lives to the study of the history of playing cards.
But, despite all their efforts, this story is still replete with many white spots, confusing, and it can be said with confidence that hardly anyone will ever be able to find out when the cards actually appeared and when for the first time the first players sat down at the playing table.
What are playing cards made of?
In fact, for a card game it is not necessary to have the playing cards that we currently know: rectangular, oval, round, or some other shape made of thick cardboard. They can be made from wood, leather, ivory, or even metal. Such maps can be seen in many museums around the world. In some countries, and still today, cards are made of wood, in some places of plastic materials in the form of dominoes, especially for such card games as Rams And Canasta. Thus, the material from which the cards are made can be different. The most suitable, however, turned out to be cards made from special paper. Moreover, such paper appeared almost simultaneously in many countries.
If paper was indeed invented in China as early as 105 AD, then apparently paper maps appeared not much later.
There are many legends about the invention of cards. According to one of them, in prehistoric times, a beautiful princess was kidnapped by a robber. While imprisoned, she made cards from leather and taught her enslaver to play them. The robber would allegedly be so enamored with playing cards that he released the princess as a token of gratitude.
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 put 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, playing cards. And it happened 1000 years before our era!
There are researchers who name another person who allegedly invented the cards. He is allegedly one of the seven sages of ancient Greece, namely the philosopher Cylon, who wanted to help the poor forget about food. To do this, he invented cards that the poor began to play and completely forgot about hunger during the game.
The list of legends and tales about the invention of cards can be continued, but it is clear that they are not the invention of a single person.
How were the rules of the old card games developed?
It can be assumed that these were, first of all, combination games of the type of the current games of Rams and Canasta, i.e. such games in which it was considered necessary to combine cards as soon as possible according to pictures, colors, etc. This is evidenced by the fact that there were games that used cards not only with 3 and 4 images, but also with 5, 6 and more. In Korea, they play cards with the image of 8 figures: men, horses, antelopes, rabbits, pheasants, crows, fish and stars. And for each of these figures there are 10 different cards, that is, the deck consists of 80 cards.
The Chinese in the old days even played on depreciated banknotes. Since there were few coins, and a long journey with a lot of money was dangerous, already in the 7th century the state allowed the so-called "flying money". For the wasteful life of their courts, the rulers needed more and more money and ordered to print them in heaps. Money depreciated with catastrophic speed, and it came to the point that in the 9th century they lost all value. Old banknotes were exchanged for new ones in the ratio of 1:100, 1:500, 1:1000, 1:2000... It was at this time that they began to play cards with old money. And these money cards existed in China almost until the end of the 9th century. In China, even now they play cards that depict a general, two advisers, elephants, horses, war chariots, guns, and 5 soldiers. These 16 figures are colored red, white, yellow and green. Each suit is repeated twice, and thus, total number There are 128 cards in a deck. Characteristic of Chinese maps has always been their shape: they are long and narrow.
Indian cards have a completely different shape, they are square, and sometimes round. Indian cards usually had 4 suits, but there were also 12 color cards, and each color had 12 cards, i.e. the number of cards in the deck was 144.
When playing cards appeared in Russia
Presumably, cards appeared in Russia shortly after their appearance in Europe, in particular in Germany and France. They quickly penetrated primarily into the ruling circles. In any case, already under Anna Ioannovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, card games, especially in court circles, flourished, and card games reached their peak in the reign of Catherine II. It is authentically known that Catherine's grandees played almost all without exception. Many of them put colossal fortunes at stake, while losing lands worth tens of thousands of acres and serfs. Peasants very often, waking up in the morning, found out that, at the whim of the owner, they were lost to another person and become his property. Yard girls, especially beautiful ones, sometimes went on the map for a colossal sum, and along with them hunting dogs and thoroughbred horses went on the map.
There is no exact information about when the cards appeared in Russia. Some researchers believe that this happened rather late, approximately in the second quarter of the 9th century. However, this contradicts other obvious facts. Researcher Yu. Dmitriev reports that back in 1759, the mechanic Pyotr Dyumolin, who arrived in Moscow, demonstrated "moving cards" in one of the houses in the German Quarter. And another Russian researcher A. Vyatkin relates the appearance of cards in Russia to an even earlier period, to the 7th century, and substantiates this with the well-known royal Code of 1649, which ordered the players to act "as with tatami", i.e. with thieves. According to the same Vyatkin, the cards came to Russia through Ukraine, from Germany ("the local Cossacks whiled away the time playing a card game").
The fact that the cards appeared in Russia simultaneously with their arrival in Europe is also evidenced by the fact that the Russians "kept pace" with the Europeans in mastering the secrets of many card games.
Video: History of playing cards
Where did 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 long and interesting history! And jacks, ladies, kings have prototypes.
Mystic Tarot
The 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 the priests in ancient Egypt, and all the knowledge of mankind is encrypted in them. The priests created 78 golden tablets, on which they applied magical signs. 56 such tablets are called Minor Arcana, and it was they who became regular cards. And the 22 Major Arcana are mystical Tarot cards, which are still used by fortunetellers and soothsayers to this day.
What modern tarot cards look like
However, there is no scientific confirmation of this version. However, archaeological data 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 inhabitants of India, only the first cards made there were made of ivory and shells.
Interestingly, Arabic maps confirm the occult version of their appearance. They also have 56 Minor and 22 Major Arcana. At the same time, the Koran forbids Muslims from depicting people on maps, so they only have arabesque ornaments.
Analogues of the cards appeared in China and Japan, but they were intricate and intricate in an oriental way and looked little like modern ones. Cards in the East were drawn on paper - these were strips on which various symbols were depicted.
In the X-XII centuries, travelers from Europe reached the Celestial Empire. The Europeans loved the ingenious Chinese games they brought home.
Chinese map, Ming dynasty,
around 1400
Four main kings
The cards began to spread throughout Europe. There is a story about how the deck familiar to us with kings and queens appeared. They say that it was invented in 1392 by Jacquemain Gringonner, the jester of the French king Charles VI the Mad, who, as you might guess by his nickname, suffered from a mental disorder. To entertain his master, the jester began to invent various card games and at the same time modified the deck.
Gringonner, to flatter his master, drew four kings and announced that each of them has its own prototype. The king of hearts is Charlemagne, the spade is King David, the diamond is Julius Caesar, and the club 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 life, after all, it was the jester who, under his mask, could tell the truth to kings.
Later, jacks appeared in the deck, which also had historical or mythical prototypes. The Jack of Hearts is the French knight Etienne de Vignoles, nicknamed La Hire, a faithful companion of Jeanne d'Arc; peak - the hero of the French epic Ogier the Dane; tambourine - Roland from "The Song of Roland"; clubs - Lancelot of the Lake from the legends of King Arthur.
Interestingly, for a long time there were no ladies in the deck. Only in the 16th century did female characters appear on playing cards. 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 the tambourine is 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. Dido from Virgil's Aeneid was originally considered the queen of clubs. But then the lady of clubs turned into the insidious seductress Argina - this is an anagram of the word regina, that is, "queen". Court artists who created maps for monarchs gave Argina a resemblance to a royal favorite. Interestingly, in the event of the appearance of a new mistress, the painters had to draw another deck.
During the French Revolution, cards lost their popularity.
French Revolution Playing Card,
symbolizing freedom and brotherhood
Kings and ladies, albeit painted ones, were deposed from their thrones. And famous oppositionists and regime fighters appeared on the cards: Brutus, Voltaire, Horace, Lafontaine, Molière, Rousseau, Saint-Simon…
Shovels and clubs
Card suits also did not appear out of nowhere. In the first decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarius" (monetary unit) and "wands". Later, swords turned into spades, cups into worms (from the adjective red - red), denarii into diamonds, 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 cards appeared in Russia. They say that under Ivan the Terrible, a certain adventurer appeared in Moscow - the Italian Churchelli, whom the townspeople immediately called Chertello. However, his Italian origin is questionable, because in Italy Chertello was called a Frenchman, in France - a German, in Germany - a Pole, and in Poland he was a Russian.
Paul Cezanne. "Card Players" 1895
He brought to Moscow a chest of cards wrapped in a black and red shawl, which matched the colors of the suits. But Muscovites said that these were the colors of hellfire.
And then a real epidemic began in Moscow: the cards began to be in great demand, and Churchelli decided to arrange 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 Rus' and closely entered its history and even culture - remember at least Pushkin's "Queen of Spades" or Nikolai Rostov's famous card loss from "War and Peace".
After the October Revolution in 1917, Soviet cards even appeared in Russia, 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 which you can then play the fool. Just don’t guess - what if someone is offended that he is not a king, but some kind of nine ...
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