Here now is "1785 e 1786 - Vendita di carte da gioco in Toscana," at https://www.naibi.net/A/8-34-DOGANA.pdf,
dated Oct. 2, 2024. Comments in brackets are mine, for clarification.
Numbers by themselves in the left margin are the page numbers of
Franco's pdf, with footnotes at the bottom of these pages.
1785 and 1786 - Sale of playing cards in Tuscany
Frank Pratesi
1. Introduction
The Miscellanea medicea collection of the
State Archives of Florence (ASFi) contains, as can be deduced from its
very name, a lot of scattered material, collected without rigorous
ordering criteria from what was found in the archives of many government
offices of Florence and Medici secretariats, without being included in
the "institutional" collections such as the Mediceo del Principato and others of that kind.
In this jumble of disparate documentation, the archival unit under
examination would seem to contain eleven files of documents dedicated to
similar topics, as can be deduced from the title, Maremma e [and] Val di Chiana,
places where the Grand Dukes worked for a long time to drain the
marshes, fight malaria, and make the land usable for agriculture.
Despite this, the miscellaneous nature of the collection is evident
here, too: in particular, among these files, we find an extraneous one,
which has nothing in common either with the title of the unit or with
the other documents.
It happens that this extraneousness to the general subject is useful for
us, interested in the history of playing cards in Tuscany. The file in
question contains, in fact, some accounts of the Royal Income, and in
particular, some connected precisely with the Company of the tax stamp
and the sale of playing cards. [note 1]
In this study the main data contained in the file will be indicated and
discussed, but it seems necessary to preliminarily define the limits of
this information. First of all, it must be noted that the documented
period of time is very short, limited to the two years 1785 and 1786.
Another serious limitation is that this data concerns points of sale
scattered throughout Tuscany. Naturally, the fact that the documentation
for the tax stamp and sales within the city of Florence is absent means
that what we encounter on the subject must therefore be considered in
its partial aspect, that is, referred to the outskirts of the Grand
Duchy of Tuscany, excluding the main part, the capital, the city center
where all the production of playing cards was located and the largest
part of their sale and use.
Within the limits mentioned, the documentation studied integrates what
we already know from the Florentine offices and provides us with a
general picture of the different distribution of playing cards
throughout the Grand Ducal territory.
2. Account of 1785
___________________General Administration
Second Department
Playing Cards Tax Stamp
Account of the Administration of Playing Cards, and of the sale of said Cards, aggregated to the Company, drawn up on the book kept for the aforementioned Administration for the year 1785
Entries of Cards
Single Art.
Cards Purchased
One thousand three hundred twenty-seven Dozens and ten packs of various Cards purchased in the year 1785 are put in Input, both from the year 1784 and from the Cardmakers of Florence in the current year 1785, as can be seen from the Book of said administration, correlative to the following detail, namely.
1. ASFi, Miscellanea medicea, Scatola 277 “Maremma e Val di Chiana”. Fasc. N. 7. RR. Rendite: bilanci relativi alle gabelle su tabacco, carta bollata, carte da gioco, gabella dei contratti, farine, sigillo della carne, cc.1-252 [II metà sec. XVIII] [Medici Miscellany, Box 277, “Maremma and Val di Chiana.” File No. 7. RR. Income: balance sheets relating to taxes on tobacco, stamped paper, playing cards, tax on contracts, flour, seal on meats, pp.1-252 {2nd half of the 18th century}].
2
(Note that the figures recorded below with decimals are not in decimals but refer to the decks, that is, twelfths of a dozen.)
Total [Decks of] Cards Entered……………………………….……...Dozens 1327.10
[For the sake of keyword searches on this
Forum, which does not register words in images, I am listing here what
the above table includes: Various French-style small cards [Cartine alla
francese diverse]; Local cards: Ordinary of swords and batons,
Picchetto, Low Cards [Carte Basse], Minchiate, since the year 1784 and
from the Cardmakers in the year 1785, in dozens of decks]
Cards Released
First Art.
3
There follows a Recapitulation of the Output, which I will not transcribe because no further data appears.Cards sold
There is put in Output the amount of Seven Hundred and Eighty-Six Dozens and six packs of various Cards sold throughout the year 1785 in the various places designated for sale, as can be seen from the Accounts of the same, correlative to the following Detail, namely.
[The above table includes: Various small cards in French style; Local cards, Picchetto, Low Cards, Minchiate, in dozens of decks]
Art. II
Remaining Cards up to December 1785
The quantity of Five Hundred and Forty-One Dozens and Four Packs found in existence on December 31, 1785, both in the General Warehouse and in the Sale Places, as can be seen from the Demonstration made in the book Debtors and Creditors at 227, correlative to the following Detail, namely.The above quantities amount to the first total of……………...Dozens 541.4
[The above table includes: Various French-style small cards; Local cards: Ordinary of swords and batons, Picchetto, Low Cards, Minchiate. In the general warehouse and at the places of sale, in dozens.]
Result
Card Input rises to…………………………………………………….1327.10
The output amounts to …………………………………………………786.6
The stocks as of December 1785 are…..........…….......……….……541.4
…………………………………………………………………… -----------------
……………………………………………...…………………..………1327.10
………………………………………………..…….………………It matches.
3. Account of 1786
General Administration
Second Department
Playing Cards Tax Stamp
Account of the Administration of the Stamp Duty of Playing Cards and of the sale of said Cards, aggregated to the Company, drawn up in the book kept for the aforementioned Administration for the year 1786.
Card Input
Single Art.
Cards Purchased
The amount of one thousand three hundred and eighteen Dozens and four packs of various cards purchased in the year 1786, both from the year 1785 and from the cardmakers of Florence in the current year 1786, is entered into Input, as can be seen from the Book of said administration correlating to the following detail, namely.
5
Total Card Input……………………………….………Dozens 1318.4
[The above table includes the following: Various small cards In the French style, Local cards, Ordinary of swords and batons, Of Picchetto, Low Cards, Minchiate, Since the year 1785, From the Cardmakers in 1786.]
Card Output
Art. First
Cards sold
Five Hundred and Sixty-One Dozens and eight packs of various Cards were placed in Output as sold throughout the year 1786 in the various Places designated for sale, as can be seen from the Accounts of the same, correlative to the following Detail, namely.[The above table includes the following: French Cards, Complete, Small Cards; Local cards, Picchetto Cards, Low Cards, Minchiate, in Dozens.]
Art. II
Remaining Cards up to December 1786
The quantity of Seven Hundred and Fifty-Six Dozens and Eight Packs found in existence on December 31, 1786, both in the General Warehouse and in the Sale Places, as can be seen from the Demonstration made in the book Debits and Credits at 258, correlative to the following Detail, namely.
The above quantities amount to the first total of……….…….Dozens 756.8
There follows a Recapitulation of the Output, which I will not transcribe because no further data appears.[The above table includes the following: Various small Cards in the French style; Local cards: Ordinary of swords and batons, Of Picchetto, Low Cards, Minchiate, In the general Warehouse, At the Places of sale.]
Result
Card Input rises to……………………………………………………….1318.4
The output amounts to …………………………......…...….…...………561.8
The stocks as of December 1786 are…………………............…….…756.8
………………………………………………..…………………-------------------
……………………………………………………....….…………………1318.4
…………………………………………...……………………………It matches.
4. Other information
Most of the accounts concern amounts of money coming in and going out. Of these I have copied only a few that seemed to me of greater interest. The following table shows the income for the sale of playing cards in the various sales points of Tuscany.
[The following are included in the above table: 1785, 1786 [Income] produced from Card Sales in: Arezzo, Bientina, Cortona, Firenzuola, Galeata, Livorno, Marradi, Modigliana, Monte Pulciano {Montepulciano], Palazzuolo, Pescia, Pisa, Pistoia, Pontedera, Poppi, Rocca S. Casciano, S. Sepolcro, S. Pietro in Bagno, Sestina, Volterra; Department of Siena: Siena, Casole, Asciano, Chiusdino, Gerfalco, Montalcino, Sarteano, Sinalunga.]
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The figures are in lire (using the fractions in soldi and denari of the account to approximate the last figure). The dash corresponds to the presence of the sales point without indication of income, the letter x to the absence of the point in the list. The Department of Siena had a separate administration, and only Montalcino appears in the 1786 list.
To get an idea of the variation in the previous years of the company's balance sheet, always positive, I copy the relevant table, with the figures in lire, also approximating the fractions here.
Apart from a clear minimum around the year 1774, a general upward trend can be noted with a more marked increase in recent years.[The above table covers: Demonstration of the surpluses [in lire] of the Playing Cards Tax Stamp Company, from the year 1769 to the whole year 1785, belonging to the General Depository. Average value about 8780.]
Unfortunately, there is no record of the origin of the playing cards; all Florentine card makers are involved, to varying degrees. Some information can be obtained from Chapter VI of the General Budget, in lire (approximating the fractions).
[The above two tables include the following: Balance up to December 1785, Debits/Credits: Giacomo Zoija, Zanobi Rossi, Pietro Molinelli, Emanuele Sacerdote, Gaetano Cambiagi, Domenico Falugi.
Balance up to December 1786, Debits/Credits: Lorenzo Tanini, Pietro Molinelli, Emanuele Sacerdote, Domenico Falugi, Giacomo Zoija.]
7
For comparison, it may be useful to take from a previous publication [note 2] the two tables that report the dozens of cards produced by Florentine cardmakers, with the warning that the data for 1785 do not correspond to the entire year.
It should always be remembered that in these documents of the Miscellanea we find no trace of the decks sold in Florence, nor of those exported. As an order of magnitude, we can say that here we follow the fate of about a tenth of all the cards produced in the year by Florentine cardmakers.[The above tables include the following: 1785, Picchetto, Low cards, Small, Minchiate: Lorenzo Tanini, Pietro Molinelli, Domenico Falugi, Giocomo Zoija]; 372 French + 360 Complete. ** Cucu Cards.
1786, Picchetto, Low cards, Small, Minchiate: Lorenzo Tanini, Pietro Molinelli, Domenico Falugi, Giocomo Antonio Zoja]
* 336 Small + 336 Quadriglio + 144 Complete. ** 12 Cucu.]
5. Comments and conclusion
The information that can be gleaned from the accounts under examination is rather limited, despite its quantitative nature. The general context was already known from previous research. Something more precise is obtained here on the distribution of playing cards among the various Tuscan locations and among the various types of cards produced at the time.
The total indicated for the sale of cards indicates a decline in the two years under examination, as is evident from the frequent decrease in cards sold at the various points of sale. However, in addition to the two documented years, there is a table that reports the result of the annual balance sheets of the last 17 years, which indicates how the grand ducal management of the sale of playing cards produced profits that increased on average over time.
On the other hand, it is clear that the types of cards used outside the capital are very limited: the traditional deck of 40 low cards predominates by a lot, while the minchiate deck endures, even if for a fraction of just over a tenth, as documented by other offices for nearby years. The typical places where minchiate was played were academies and city “conversations,” possibly even barber shops, while in country taverns play was exclusively with low cards, or almost so. However, the data reported includes cities such as Pisa, Livorno and Siena, which could contribute more to the sale of minchiate decks, so much so that the overall number of sales is still more than satisfactory. We know, moreover, that the collapse of interest in the game of minchiate occurred only a century after this data.
Florence, 02.10.2024
___________________
2. F. Pratesi, Playing-Card Production in Florence. Tricase 2018; http://trionfi.com/evx-playing-card-pro ... rand-duchy.
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