Continuing with Franco's series of articles about early books about
minchiate (the others, in reverse sequence are in the sidebar on the left, for June 2024, next is one published in Rome of 1747, of which Franco
summarizes and quotes the relevant part. It is actually a fairly helpful
introduction to the game, I thought, including reasonably intelligible
explanations of the terms used.
This translation is of Franco's "Libro del 1747 sulle minchiate, e altri giochi," at https://www.naibi.net/A/86.pdf, originally published in The Playing-Card
49, no 2 (Oct.-Dec. 2020), pp. 64-69. Comments in
brackets are by me for explanatory purposes, the numbers by themselves
are the page numbers in the original publication, and the notes are at
the bottom of the corresponding page. The Italian original is preceded by a short summary originally in English.
1747 book on minchiate and other games
Franco Pratesi
English Summary
The book under study was published in Rome in 1747 by Brunetti, a canon
of the Roman church, who was also publishing books on religious,
mathematical, and scientific topics. All of them were dedicated (and
addressed) to noblewomen and aristocrats. The largest part of this book
describes the card game of Minchiate, followed by a short treatment of
Hombre and a series of examples of chess endgames and openings; a few
final pages contain some problems of algebra, intended to provide
elements for computations required in everyday trade. We are mainly
interested in the part on Minchiate, which is organized in sequential
chapters, with literary digressions separately placed between each of
them. A first part explains the laws of the game, whereas the
suggestions on how to play are listed in a second part; in the present
study, this account of the game has been briefly reviewed. A survey has
also been conducted on the copies of this work that have been preserved,
and the rather surprising result is that more items can be found abroad
than in Italy, with a significant portion in the USA.
The book on games
The book we are examining is certainly an important work on the subject. [note 1] Among
the games presented in the book, minchiate, ombre (hombre), and chess,
the game of minchiate is treated first and alone occupies half of the
volume; at the end. there are also a few pages with some algebra
problems intended as useful examples for solving practical business
cases.
In some respects, Brunetti's book - in relation to the part on minchiate
- is not too different from the one attributed to the Ferrarese abbot
Luigi Bernardi and also printed in Rome as early as 1728, the first on
the subject.[note 2] The main
structural difference is that here the literary-erudite contribution is
carefully kept confined in the Allegorical Notes that follow the
chapters dedicated to the technique of the game. For us, this means that
we can easily skip all the literary part and the frequent quotations
from the Latin
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1. D. Francesco Saverio Brunetti da Corinaldo, Giuochi delle Minchiate, Ombre, Scacchi, Ed altri d’ingegno. [Games of Minchiate, Ombre, Chess, And others of ingenuity.] Rome, for Bernabò, and Lazzarini, 1747.
2. F. Pratesi, “Minchiate le Regole Generali di Roma e Macerata” [Minchiate, the General Rules of Rome and Macerata]. The Playing-Card, vol. 48 no. 3 (2020), 96-102. [Here on THF, it is the immediately preceding post.]
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classics; those interested can refer to a recent study by an
authoritative source, which briefly takes in examination this book,
including its Allegorical Notes. [note 3]
The following table can then serve as a first presentation of the book,
in which the index is reproduced, with the page numbers. The chapters on
topics other than minchiate are listed in italics, which here, as with
the Allegorical Notes, will not be examined.
Summary of the text in question
Information and explanations
In this part, the chapters follow one another without an order number, which here - as already in the table with the index - will be inserted for greater clarity. Often, the author describes the situation in a concise and precise way, so much so that it seems useful to quote his own text in quotation marks. The Italian language is not what it is today, but it remains understandable.
1. Deck of Cards. “This game is played with a deck of 97 cards. These are the 4 common sequences of Swords, Batons, Coins, and Cups; each sequence has 14 Cards. Then there are 40 Tarocchi and the Fool.”
2. The four Sequences. The order of taking suit cards is 10 to 1 for swords and batons, but 1 to 10 for cups and coins. Only the King counts as 5, the other [suit] cards count as 1 if won from the opponents.
3. Tarocchi. “The Tarocchi are marked with Roman numerals from I to XXXV; the first five are called Papi, the last five Arie, and they are 36 Star, 37 Moon, 38 Sun, 39 World, 40 Trumpets. Their value is 3 from 2 to 5, and 1, 10, 13, 20, 28, Fool, 30 to 35 are worth 5, and Arie 10.”
4. Fool. “This is neither Tarocco nor [Cartiglia [suit cards except King]; it enters all the verzicole, and forms one with the maximum and minimum Tarocco; you never lose it if you don't lose all the cards, because when you play it, you take it back, and in its place you give a Cartiglia.”
5. Verzicole. He lists the verzicole [combinations]. Three or 4 Kings. 1+Fool+Trumpets. 1+13+28. 10+20+30 (or 20+30+40 or 10+20+30+40). Three or more Papi in a row. Three or more cards in a row from 28 to Trumpets. (The 29 counts only in the verzicola; the Fool in all of them). “At the end of the game, all the cards count 354, and the last [trick] adds 10 more.” 60 points form a resto.
6. Manner of play. “This game is played with four people, either in a game with the entragnos (as is commonly used) or in a game without entragnos (entragnos means that, after robbing, all the counting cards that are found in the residual [the fola, the cards not dealt] are seen and taken.)” [See also his point 9.]
7. Way of playing in a hand with entragnos. Explains how to form partners by drawing lots, cutting, robbing, dealing the cards, using the fola. “The first time a suit is played, the King is given by default, and the Fool cannot
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3. http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page. ... 84&lng=ITA
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be given in this one case; to save a King you have to hang it, that is, you first play [lead] your suit without playing it [non giucarlo la prima vola, che si giuoca al suo palo].”
8. Manner of counting. “Once the game is over, the cards are placed three by three, that is, two that do not count, and a counting one on top, and make as many of these mounds as there are counting cards that you have. Fourteen of these mounds make up the number of cards you had, that is, forty-two, all the others are earned, and as many as you earn, that many you immediately write down. . . . Then you count as much as you have from cards declared from the beginning, then all the verzicole that you have, then all the cards, the last [trick], and the [points] marked [segnati]; from all this calculation the count of the opponents is subtracted, and the remainder gives the victory of as many resti as there are times sixty enters into said remainder, and one more, if there is any point left over, which is also called entragnos.”
9. Explanation of the terms of this Game. “I don't think there is any game in which more extravagant terms are used than this one.” “Drowning a King, or hanging a King, means not playing the King the first time that you play to [lead] a suit, you hang the Kings so as not to lose them.” “Dying means taking [actually, losing] any counting card.” “To smash [smattare] means responding with the Fool.” To make [Fare], to play a tarocco with no more cards in the suit. To make a hunt [far caccia], to leave the play, postponing the capture until a more advantageous opportunity. To do a hold [fare tenuta], play a higher card than the one you want to take from your opponent. “To make a pass [fare passata] is to play a jealous [or delicate] tarocco to a cartiglia, with risk” [because a higher trump could take it]. “To turn [or rotate: girare] the game is to play the major tarocchi from the beginning. To smoke [Fumare] is to play a small papa [[papino], as a sign to your partner that you have a good game, you also smoke with an over-twenty [sopreventi – tarocco higher than XX].” Dropping [cascare], you no longer have tarocchi, and you can put the cards face up on the table for the person who takes the trick to play them. “Entragnos are the counting cards that are in the fola, and the points that are left over, which make a resto. Fola are the last thirteen cards, which remain out of play [a monte].”
10. Laws of the Game. Abrogated Law [only this one]: anyone who found nothing in the fola paid a resto. Twenty points to pay to your opponents for the first wrong card and ten for subsequent ones. In the end, whoever has more or fewer cards counts only the verzicole declared at the beginning, the cards, and the last trick. Whoever refuses pays a resto to each one of the opponents. Verzicole not declared before playing the first card do not count. “Whoever drops and puts his cards on the table is no longer the master of picking them up again. If some cards are missing from the deck, you don't redo the cards or change the deck, the card on the floor goes in the fola discards."
11. Turning game [Giuoco di giro]. If you understand that the pair has a strong game, you signal to your partner by playing a little papa or a sopreventi, and then you try to make all the tricks to capture the jealous cards of your opponents.
Warnings for playing well
What playing well consists of: “I reduce all the ways of playing well in Minchiate into four heads. First, discard. Second, answer cartiglia to cartiglia, tarocco to cartiglia, and tarocco to tarocco. Third, play cartiglia. Fourth, play tarocco, for which twelve very useful precepts follow.”
Precepts
1. “First of all, once you have received the cards, you must be careful not to give any sign of their quality.”
2. “ Discard. Let voiding [of suits] be done, as much as you can. . . . Be careful to discard in that suit of which there are the fewest in the fola . . . if then you have few Tarocchi, [for them] to be supported, discard where there are more in the fola."
3. “You shouldn't do a voiding [far un faglio] when you have the Trumpets and few Tarocchi, that is, fewer than nine. . . . Be careful when discarding in that suit where you have the most in your hand.”
4. “Keep in memory the number of cards of each suit, which are in the fola, and from trick to trick that you play, count how many are left, and in whose hand, so as to figure it out... and this is the most useful Precept of this game”. Many know this precept but do not put it into practice "since it requires very laborious attention."
5. “Reply Cartíglia to Cartíglia. First, pass [passate] the King, or hang him. . . second, put the Queens on the second ones [tricks in the suit?] to make the tricks, and then be able to quickly play in the voided suits or discard of the partner; if you then want him to play for you in yours, lay down inferior cards.”
6. “ Replying Tarocco to Cartíglia. . . . On the first, you can pass anything, and on the second again, on the third you can risk a papino, or another counting card, but one of little importance; on the third on the Tarocco it is easier to risk one over thirty, however, make sure that there are no more than three in the fola.”
7. “ Replying Tarocco to Tarocco. If the Tarocco is played in your face, that is, below your hand, or from the right, do what you want and you can; if above [your] hand you turn [girate] to your partner; if from your partner, when you don't have any play to make chase [far caccia], cover to support your partner, or make a hold [tenuta] on some important card.”
8. Don't respond to your partner's negative comments about the game.
9. “ Playing a Tarocco. If it's your turn to play a Tarocco, and you have a play to make a hunt [gioco da fare caccia], smoke to your partner so that he can support you, and then leave the game in the hands of others."
10. “Dropping [cascare]. You must not drop when you have drowned Kings in your hand, until they are given, if possible, in the captures of your partner, or when probably all still have cartiglia. . . . However, I recommend keeping them until the end.”
11. “Value of the Tarocchi. In order to know the value of the Tarocchi, how much it means to have them or not have them,
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here is the following table [reproduced later], in which the value of the lack of a single counting card is expressed. Altogether the counting cards count 354, to which must be added the verzicole declared at the beginning, and the earned cards, and ten for the last [trick], with points for the revealed [those taken when cutting or robbing] and the [counting cards] killed.”
12. “At the end of the game, if you win or lose, always remain the same, and don't give signs of too much displeasure from one or too much joy from the other event; and above all, remember to be economical with the money you win... Above all, if you have lost, do not worry, because there is no worse harm than anxiety of the soul.”
Game in four to each one for himself.Chapter Three.
This type of game is no longer used, and the author only proposes four precepts which summarize, with the foreseeable small differences, what has already been presented.
Information about the author
Among the manuals printed in the eighteenth century with the intention of teaching the complex game of minchiate, this is the only one that did not appear anonymous. The author Francesco Saverio Brunetti was born in 1693 in Corinaldo, in the Ancona region; coming to Rome in 1711, he became a popular teacher and preceptor as well as papal chaplain to Clement XII, Benedict XIV, and Clement XIII; thanks to his activities, he was able to establish close relationships with several members of the most prestigious Roman nobility.
The games in the book are dedicated to the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent Lady Princess Donna Giulia Albani Chigi. As if the merits of the noble recipient were not enough, in the preface, our author extends praise to her sons Sigismondo and Francesco and her cardinal brother Gianfrancesco, created cardinal in those days (10 April 1747), and his personal devotion towards him since he was a child. The position of cardinal was frequent in the Albani family: this Gianfrancesco was the great-grandson of Pope Clement XI and of Cardinal Alessandro, nephew of Cardinal Annibale, and uncle of Cardinal Giuseppe; evidently, a transmission of the seat between uncles and nephews could continue, especially if the noble family resided in or near Rome.
Other works by the same author had a similar didactic intent, but concerned more traditional subjects. The religious booklets were certainly not surprising, [note 4] but the true "specialty" of this teacher of Roman noblemen and noblewomen was mathematics, in its most varied and most modern aspects; thus you can find entire booklets dedicated to statistics and also to "dyadic" arithmetic, the one used today in computers with only the digits 0 and 1. [note 5] Furthermore, our author undertook to provide updated information on all natural philosophy, or on the physical sciences that flourished at the time. [note 6]We also find scientific works written by him as Melantius Trifiliano, academic of Roman Arcadia, for a colleague; [note 7] in one of the booklets with scientific content, he also expands the part on the game of chess already present in the book under review.
All this production appears particularly abundant towards the middle of the century. In the absence of precise information, we can imagine that they were works that Brunetti considered useful to guarantee him better access to the top of Roman society and the favor of Pope Benedict (the Bolognese Prospero Lorenzo Lambertini, 1675-1750, pope from 1740), also patron, unusually, of the medical and physical sciences.
Our author also does not disdain to deal with gaming, starting with minchiate.
To validate the seriousness of his commitment, however, Brunetti underlines the didactic importance for young people of the Allegorical Notes that he interposes into his treatment.An appropriate entertainment, enjoyed with pleasure, is gaming, this perchance is sometimes an appropriate interval-filler to entertain oneself with cheerful application in civil conversation, where the spirit is employed in something of light interest, and cheerful amusement restores weakened vigor. . . . Among these, I consider the game of Minchiate to be very suitable for making credible conversation, which, being long, varied, and full of risk and ingenuity, can at the same time retain, delight, and educate the person who occasionally plays it.
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4. Modo di assistere fruttuosamente al Santo Sacrificio della Messa ed altre orazioni cotidiane. [Manner of fruitfully assisting the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and other daily prayers]. Rome 1735. Notizie delle cose più importanti del calendario gregoriano dedicate alla Santità di N. Signore Clemente papa 13. felicemente regnante. [Information on the most important things of the Gregorian calendar dedicated to the Sanctity of N. Lord Clement, Pope 13 happily reigning.] Rome 1758.
5. Dell'aritmetica comune e speciosa. [Of common and specious arithmetic.] Rome 1731. Arimmetica binomica, e diadica, in cui tutte le operazioni si fanno colle sole figure uno, e zero. [Binomic and dyadic arimmetic, in which all operations are performed with only the figures one and zero.] Rome 1758.
6. Trattenimenti scientifici su la sfera, geografia istorica, meteore, ed astronomia. [Scientific lectures on the [celestial] sphere, historical geography, meteors, and astronomy...] Rome 1755. Trattenimenti scientifici su l'idrografia, nautica, blasone, statica, meccanica, architettura, pirotecnia, e suono. [Scientific lectures on hydrography, nautics, blazons, statics, mechanics, architecture, pyrotechnics, and sound.] Rome 1755.
7. Compendio sferico, mitologo, istorico, geografico, e poetico alla nobilissima pastorella Euridice Ajacidense da Melanzio Trifiliano pastore arcade. [Spherical, mythological, historical, geographical, and poetic compendium to the noble shepherdess Euridice Ajacidense by Melanzio Trifiliano, arcadian shepherd.] Rome 1755.
8. Dialoghi analittici di D. Francesco Saverio Brunetti da Corinaldo...Quesiti utili, e giocondi risoluti dall'Eccellentissima Signora D. Gioconda Orsini de' duchi di Gravina. Con altre piacevolezze d'ingegno su varie materie, e singolarmente sul giuoco degli scacchi. [Analytical dialogues by D. Francesco Saverio Brunetti from Corinaldo...Useful and cheerful questions resolved for the Most Excellent Lady D. Gioconda Orsini of the Dukes of Gravina. With other intellectual delights on various subjects, and especially on the game of chess.] Rome 1754.
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Comments on the book
As regards the content, we are in the presence of a book that teaches not one game but the three games which at the time could be considered the most popular in the living rooms of Roman high society. A similar work was compiled in London by Edmond Hoyle, starting from the first publication on whist in 1742, and with its countless re-editions it became the bible of English players, and indeed it soon spread worldwide thanks to its countless reprints and translations. The players in the Roman salons were not as numerous as the gentlemen who frequented the famous clubs of London, in an era in which the industrial revolution had led to the formation of an increasingly large and flourishing bourgeois class in England.
The recipients of our cleric's works were noblemen and noblewomen of the papal court, personages who belonged to the narrowest circle of Roman patricians; evidently, the print run of this edition proved sufficient to fulfill those requests, and there are no known reprints. Also taking into account the nobility and culture of the recipients, we cannot be surprised if these works are enriched with numerous digressions of an erudite nature, such as here the Allegorical Notes that accompany every single chapter of the manual.
In the book on games examined, it can be noted that among card games, the space reserved for the game of ombre, i.e. hombre, is incomparably less than that dedicated to minchiate. Instead, the final part on chess once again takes on a broader scope, but the numerous examples presented of the end and start of the game are not an original compilation but are based on the technical literature on chess that was already circulating in Italy.
However, there is another peculiarity that makes this work unique of its kind: here, we perceive not only the display of classical erudition but also the specific competence in combinatorics, something that is never encountered in books about minchiate. So we can read right from the preface that in the game of minchiate, as many as "96,141,308,410,784,017,049 different cases" can occur. Furthermore, toward the end of the description, we come across the following table, which provides us with a calculated value (numbers that vary from a minimum of 9 to a maximum of 55) for each single card that is missing among those taken at the end; the second coumn gives us the estimated value if the Fool were also absent together with that missing card.
However, even with today's mathematical knowledge, a complete statistical study of the distribution and game combinations that can be encountered in minchiate is indeed quite difficult. It's not even easy to find someone who has sufficient knowledge of both minchiate and statistics; some results in this regard can be obtained by contacting Nazario Renzoni of the Accademia dei Germini. [note 9]
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9. http://germini.altervista.org/
Preserved specimens
As was done for the other books on the game of minchiate, research was also conducted on the specimens preserved in various public libraries around the world, listed in the following list.
There are not many copies of the book in question preserved in Italy; understandably they are encountered in particular in the territory that belonged to the State of the Church. The "high" destination of this book, as mentioned, evidently also made it appreciated by foreign gentlemen, who in those years visited Italy in large numbers, including the Roman salons, and it is plausibly also thanks to them that a significant number of copies are still present in numerous libraries abroad, unexpectedly more than in Italy.Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma - Roma
Biblioteca Casanatese - Roma
Biblioteca Nazionale - Napoli
Biblioteca Civica - Cosenza
Biblioteca Oliveriana - Pesaro
Istituto Campana - Osimo (An)
Biblioteca Provinciale - Salerno
Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria - Torino
Biblioteca Civica Bertoliana - Vicenza
Biblioteca Vaticana (Stamp.Chig.V.2606) - Città del Vaticano
Biblioteca Vaticana (Stamp.Chig.V.3279) - Città del Vaticano
Universität Mozarteum - Salzburg, Austria
Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Paris, France
The British Library, St. Pancras - London, UK
Bodleian Library, Oxford University - Oxford, UK
University of London, Warburg Institute - London, UK
British Museum Library - London, UK
Biblioteca Nacional de España - Madrid, Spain
Koninklijke Bibliotheek - Den Haag, Netherlands
Maastricht University Library – Maastricht, Netherlands
Erasmus University – Rotterdam, Netherlands
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – Amsterdam, Netherlands
The National & University Library of Iceland - Reykjavik, Iceland
Pierpont Morgan Library - New York, NY USA
New York Public Library - New York, NY USA
Library of Congress - Washington, DC USA
Cleveland Public Library - Cleveland, OH USA
University of Wisconsin - Madison, WI USA
University of Louisville - Louisville, KY USA
Colorado College - Colorado Springs, CO USA
Vanderbilt University Library - Nashville, TN USA
It is therefore not too surprising to note the presence of a copy in the main European capitals, but the quantity of copies preserved in the USA is quite unexpected. A possible explanation can be traced back not to the description of the game of minchiate but to that of chess, which attracted the interest of bibliophiles more and earlier than other games (it does not seem coincidental that Cleveland and The Hague have the two largest chess libraries worldwide).
Overall, it can be concluded that no other edition on the game of minchiate has been preserved in such an abundant and so dispersed manner on the European and North American continents; perhaps the only comparable one, albeit remaining on a lower level, is the edition of the General Rules reprinted in Florence in 1820 (even in that case a significant fraction of the copies is preserved in the USA, and in that book, chess is not spoken of).
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