A playing card is a piece of specially prepared heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic, marked with distinguishing motifs and used as one of a set for playing card games. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling.
A complete set of cards is called a pack (UK English), deck (US English), or set (Universal); and the subset of cards held at one time by a player during a game is commonly called a hand. A deck of cards may be used for playing a variety of card games, with varying elements of skill and chance, some of which are played for money. Playing cards are also used for illusions, cardistry, building card structures, cartomancy and memory sport.
The front (or "face") of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the other cards in the deck and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each card is identical for all cards in any particular deck, and usually of a single color or formalized design. Usually every card will be smooth; however, some decks have braille to allow blind people to read the card number and suit. The backs of playing cards are sometimes used for advertising.[1] For most games, the cards are assembled into a deck, and their order is randomized by shuffling.
Early history
Playing cards were invented in Imperial China.[2][3][4] They were found in China as early as the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907).[5][6][7] The first reference to card games dates from the 9th century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang, playing the "leaf game" in 868 with members of the Wei clan, the family of the princess' husband.[4][8][9]:131 The Song Dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that playing cards and card games existed at least since the mid-Tang Dynasty and associated their invention with the simultaneous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium.[3][4] The first known book on cards called Yezi Gexi was allegedly written by a Tang era woman, and was commented on by Chinese writers of subsequent dynasties.[3]
By the 11th century, playing cards could be found throughout the Asian continent.[9]:309 During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), characters fromnovels such as the Water Margin were widely featured on the faces of playing cards.[9]:132
Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four suits: coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads (of coins or of strings), and tens of myriads (a myriad is 10,000). These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits and numerals 1–9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for,[2] as in trading card games. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However, it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. In Kuei-t'ien-lu, a Chinese text redacted in the 11th century, domino cards were printed during the Tang Dynasty, contemporary to the first printed books. The Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles.
Introduction into Europe
Further information: Tarot
Playing cards first entered Europe in the early 14th century, probably from Mamluk Egypt, with suits (sets of cards with matching designs) very similar to the tarot suits of Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins (also known as disks or pentacles), and which are still used in traditional Italian,Spanish, and Portuguese decks.[10] The first documentary evidence is a document written in Vitoria-Gasteiz (now Spain) in 1334, in which theKnights of the Band are categorically prohibited from playing cards.[11] Their presence is attested in Catalonia in 1371.[12] Wide use of playing cards in Europe can, with some certainty, be traced from 1377 onwards.[13]
The Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four "suits:" polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten "spot" cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three "court" cards named malik (King), nā'ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), andthānī nā'ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens), though they did bear the names of military officers.
A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by Leo Mayer in the Topkapı Palace, Istanbul, in 1939.[14] This particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck was matched to a privately owned fragment dated to the 12th or 13th century. It is not a complete deck, but there are cards of three packs of the same style.[15]
It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of Ganjifa, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits—often as many as thirty two, like a deck in the Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, painted in the Mewar, a city inRajasthan, between the 18th and 19th century. Decks used to play have from eight up to twenty suits.
Spread across Europe and early design changes
In the late 14th century, the use of playing cards spread rapidly throughout Europe. Documents mentioning cards date from 1371 in Spain, 1377 in Switzerland, and 1380 in many locations including Florence and Paris.[16][17] A 1369 Paris ordinance does not mention cards, but its 1377 update does. In the account books of Johanna, Duchess of Brabant and Wenceslaus I, Duke of Luxemburg, an entry dated May 14, 1379 reads: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two forms, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of cards". In his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, Charles or Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI of France, records payment for the painting of three sets of cards.[18]
The earliest cards were made by hand, like those designed for Charles VI; this was expensive. Printed woodcut decks appeared in the 15th century. The technique of printing woodcuts to decorate fabric was transferred to printing on paper around 1400 in Christian Europe, very shortly after the first recorded manufacture of paper there, while in Islamic Spain it was much older. The earliest dated European woodcut is 1418.
No examples of printed cards from before 1423 survive. But from about 1418 to 1450[19]professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks. Playing cards even competed with devotional images as the most common uses forwoodcut in this period.
Most early woodcuts of all types were coloured after printing, either by hand or, from about 1450 onwards, stencils. These 15th-century playing cards were probably painted.
The Master of the Playing Cards worked in Germany from the 1430s with the newly invented printmaking technique of engraving. Several other important engravers also made cards, including Master ES and Martin Schongauer. Engraving was much more expensive than woodcut, and engraved cards must have been relatively unusual.
In the 15th century in Europe, the suits of playing cards varied: typically a deck had four suits, although five suits were common and other arrangements are also known. In Germany, hearts (Herz/Rot), bells (Schellen), leaves (Grün), and acorns (Eichel) became the standard suits and are still used in Eastern and Southeastern German decks today for Skat, Schafkopf, Doppelkopf, and other games. Italian and Spanish cards of the 15th century used swords, batons (or wands), cups, and coins (or rings). The Tarot, which included extra trump cards, was invented in Italy in the 15th century.
The four suits now used in most of the world — spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs — originated in France in about 1480. The trèfle (club) was probably derived from the acorn and the pique (spade) from the leaf of the German suits. The names "pique" and "spade", however, may have derived from the sword of the Italian suits.[20] In England, the French suits were eventually used, although the earliest decks had the Italian suits.[citation needed]
Also in the 15th century, Europeans changed the court cards to represent European royalty and attendants, originally "king", "chevalier" (knight), and "knave". The original meaning of knave was male child (cf German Knabe), so in this context the character could represent the "prince", son to the King and Queen; the meaning servant developed later.[21][22] In a German pack from the 1440s, Queens replace Kings in two of the suits as the highest card. Decks of 56 cards containing in each suit a King, Queen, Knight, and Valet (from the French tarot court) were common.
Court cards designed in the 16th century in the manufacturing centre of Rouen became the standard design in England, while a Parisian design became standard in France. Both the Parisian and Rouennais court cards were named after historical and mythological heroes and heroines. The Parisian names have become more common in modern use, even with cards of Rouennais design.
| Modern Paris court card name | Traditional Paris court card name |
|---|---|
| King of Spades | David |
| King of Hearts | Charles (possibly Charlemagne, or Charles VII, in which case Rachel (see below) would be the pseudonym of his mistress, Agnès Sorel) |
| King of Diamonds | Julius Caesar |
| King of Clubs | Alexander the Great |
| Queen of Spades | Pallas |
| Queen of Hearts | Judith |
| Queen of Diamonds | Rachel (either biblical, historical (see Charles above), or mythical as a corruption of the Celtic Ragnel, relating to Lancelot below) |
| Queen of Clubs | Argine (possibly an anagram of regina, which is Latin for queen, or perhaps Argea, wife of Polybus and mother of Argus) |
| Knave of Spades | Ogier the Dane/Holger Danske (a knight of Charlemagne) |
| Knave of Hearts | La Hire (comrade-in-arms to Joan of Arc, and member of Charles VII's court) |
| Knave of Diamonds | Hector |
| Knave of Clubs | Judas Maccabeus or Lancelot |
Who do the kings, queens and jacks on the courts represent?
Last modified : 05 Mar 2007
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Please send feedback to faq@i-p-c-s.org
The kings, queens and jacks of the standard English (International) pattern are not thought to represent anyone. They havenever carried names, nor is it probable that they originally portrayed anyone.
However, French (Paris pattern) court cards do have names.
| Hearts | Spades | Diamonds | Clubs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | CHARLES | DAVID | CAESAR | ALEXANDER |
| Q | JUDITH | PALLAS | RACHEL | ARGINE |
| J | LA HIRE | OGIER | HECTOR | JUDAH MACCABEE (or JUDAS MACCABEUS) |
The use of names printed on French cards meant for use in France goes back a very long way—probably before the emergence of the English or French patterns. The courts on the French pack must not be taken as portraits of the persons named; there can have been no known portraits of some of them, e.g. Hector of Troy. In fact the link between the name and the figure is in the (imaginative) heraldry displayed by some of them.
Playing-cards used in England, and from there exported to the rest of the world, are based on a pattern originating in Rouen, France. Emblems, gestures and clothes on the Paris pattern can be compared with the relevant Rouennais pattern in order to discover the identities of its unnamed courtiers.
| Hearts | Spades | Diamonds | Clubs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K | ALEXANDER | DAVID | CAESAR | CHARLES |
| Q | RACHEL | PALLAS | ARGINE | JUDITH |
| J | LA HIRE | HECTOR | OGIER | JUDAH MACCABEE |
It is possible that these figures became corrupted over time as they were copied by illiterate copiers, and that the following legendary heroes and heroines from ancient sources were those figures which inspired the original card makers.
- Jewish: David, Judith and Judah Maccabee
- Greek: Alexander, Argeia and Hector
- Roman: Caesar, Pallas and Aulus Hirtius
- Christian: Charlemagne, Ragnel and Ogier
See Paris and Rouen pattern figures for further explanation.
More misconceptions
Is Queen Elizabeth I shown on the courts? No. Queen Elizabeth I was born in 1533; this was after the courts were designed.A contemporary portrait of Lord Burleigh playing cards shows the typical Jack of Hearts of the English pattern, confirming that the pattern was already in evidence during her reign. She reigned over England and Ireland 1558-1603.
What is the significance of the objects the court figures carry? The objects carried have no particular significance. They indicate the rank of the court card and differentiate one court card from another. One exception is Charlemagne (on the king of clubs) who carries a globe identifying him as emperor of the Christian world. They have become distorted over time.
Why do some of the Jacks have only one eye? Two jacks (and the king of diamonds) only show one eye for the obvious reason that the heads are meant to be in profile.
why is the King of Hearts alone in not having a moustache? The King of Hearts did originally have a moustache. It was lost by poor copying of the original design.
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