Old Essays 2, 1993: On the usefulness of swear words for the history of minchiate

 Advancing to 1993, the following is a translation from Franco's French original, if that's what it should be called, originally "De l'utilité des jurons pour l'histoire du minchiate," published in L’As de Trèfle, No. 52, (1993), pp. 9-10, online at https://naibi.net/p/51-JURON-ZOCR.pdf. He has referred to this 1470 testimony in a couple of other articles posted here, but always as a brief aside. It is always good to get the details and Franco's reflections on them as well, which in this case are rather bold for the time.

The Aretino Franco refers to would be Le Carte Parlanti, 1543, and the poem I Germini would be I Germini sopra Quaranta Meritrice della Città di Fiorenza, 1553, online (in Italian) at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=887 and a recent edition reviewed here by Nathaniel at viewtopic.php?t=1850. The footnotes (including the asterisk) are at the bottom of the first page, as they were in the original.

I have added, with Franco's help, a translation of the Italian text left untranslated in the article.
 

On the usefulness of swear words for the history of minchiate
L’As de Trèfle, No. 52, (1993), pp. 9-10

Franco Pratesi

All historians agree today to admit that minchiate* is a derivative of tarot. Additional cards form a new sequence, inserted in one block inside the usual sequence of trumps. We notice distinctive signs on these same additional cards, probably intended to indicate to the card-seller that these cards were specific to that game. But if we push the examination, many questions remain in suspense, starting with the type of tarot which is at the origin of the figures of minchiate.

Let us first limit ourselves to considering the context in general and especially dates. The first traces of minchiate seemed to date back to the mid-16th century, with quotes from Aretino and the poem I Germini. Thus, it was admitted that minchiate had not appeared under this name, since the first mentions used the synonym germini, which then gave way to the more common term minchiate. [note 1]

In a first study of the question, I had drawn attention to an older reference, going directly back to Pulci, in a letter written to the young Lorenzo de Medici (known as "the Magnificent"). The letter is said to be dated 1466, but as it was lost track of between antique dealers and American collectors, the testimony left room for doubt. [note 2] Subsequently, in studying the communal legislation of Florence, I discovered a testimony that is certain: minchiate is named in a law which lists allowed games!

The date is 1477, and it is sure. The spelling of the word must also be considered sure. Yet we should check if the game has some chance of being the same. In fact, this document speaks about playing "at who makes the most cards," which indicates a simpler way of playing than that which became usual subsequently. [note 3]

I am now able to add a new document to the series of testimonies from the 15th century: this time it is a conviction for blasphemy. The game of minchiate was not prohibited in itself, but it was forbidden to swear while playing (it seems that the two have been commonly associated, especially in the past; nowadays, minchiate no longer exists, and the swear words have lost much of their local color).

At the end of trials, the judgments were transcribed on a sheet of parchment. In many cases, only this transcription has been preserved in the court records. Subsequently, many of these sheets were collected according to various criteria. The section in question is a small series of manuscripts in chronological order, among which is a volume more than 20 cm in thickness containing sentences made by the "Ufiziali Intriseci" from 1464 to 1472, that is to say, sentences pronounced in these years by various urban magistrates. [note 4]

The sheet which interests us bears the number 10 in the second part of the volume. This is a judgment due to the Conservators of the laws (Conservatori delle leggi), judges responsible for monitoring certain aspects of public morality, such as the good conduct of government officials and also, closer to our subject, forbidden games and blasphemy. It is here exactly a matter of a sentence to pay 100 lire, a fine – remarkably high - intended for any swearing. The front of the document has rather faded writing but still readable (when you can decipher it!). The text on the back is better preserved, but its readability is not the best. The main obstacles are due to the writing of the notaries, particularly difficult in this case, for its abbreviations and mixing of Latin and Italian. The technical parts that make up the traditional form of any such judgment are in Latin; the passages which concern the case itself are in Italian. Fortunately, I am not obliged to provide a precise transcription of the entire text!

We can take as secure the transcription of the most interesting passage, which I give here:

In Dei nomine Amen. Anno Domini nostri Yesu Christi / millesimo cccclxxj. Inditione iv, die xx mensis maij. Bartolo- / meo di Giovanni da Vaglia de Mugello provigionato / nel cassero di Cortona com'egli a bastemiato / Iddio et the vergine Maria giuchando chon al- / chuni provigionati and maximamente giuchava alle / minchiate del mese di giugno luglio et agosto e / molte volte etc...

[Approximate translation, added for this translation: "In the name of God Amen. Year of our Lord Jesus Christ / one thousand ccccixxj (1471). Calling 4th, on day 20 of month May. Bartolo- / meo di Giovanni da Vaglia of Mugello soldier / in the fortress of Cortona as he has blasphemed / God and the Virgin Mary playing with some [other] soldiers and maximally played at / minchiate for the months of June July and August and / many times etc."]

This short text presents several interesting aspects. First and foremost, its date: 1471, the oldest that is confirmed (after the unfindable letter from Pulci); moreover, we must not forget that in reality the testimony
_________________
* We have become accustomed, in French, to speaking of "le" minchiate, in the singular. This is to forget that in Italian the word is plural. (Editor's note.)
(1) M. Dummett, The game of tarot, London, 1980, chap. 17.
(2) F. Pratesi, “Tarot in Florence in the 16th century: its diffusion from literary sources,” The Playing-Card, XVI-3, Feb. 1988, pp. 78-83.
(3) F. Pratesi, “Carte da gioco a Firenze: il primo secolo (1377-1477)," The Playing-Card, XIX-1, August 1990, pp. 7-17.
(4) Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Giudice degli Appelli e Nullità, 86.

10
relates to the summer months of 1470! Concerning the places mentioned, there is not much to say about Vaglia, in the Mugello. We can also notice that this same valley is the cradle of several illustrious families, starting with that of the Medici themselves and that it was precisely in its vicinity that Pulci wrote the letter already mentioned to Lorenzo the Magnificent.

More interesting is Cortona, an old city, already important in the Etruscan era (and today a privileged place of visit for the Italian stays of the president Mitterrand!). As with many of the Etruscan cities, its position is high up; here, it dominates the wide Chiana Valley. In the Middle Ages, the city was independent or subjugated to Perugia or Arezzo. At the time of our document, it was part of the Commune of Florence, which had bought it back from the King of Naples in 1411. Cortona ended up representing a real frontier town of the powerful Florentine State, which explains the importance of both the fortress and the garrison.

The date and place of these facts are not the only ones that interest us. For example, the very ambiance in which the game is played, day after day, during the summer months, is significant: nothing more ordinary can be imagined. Scenes of card games are quite frequent in artistic and literary descriptions of the activity of garrison soldiers in times of peace, including in the following centuries, throughout Europe.

It is certainly difficult to put forward hypotheses going back further in time. However, this game of minchiate practiced by soldiers garrisoned in Cortona has nothing of the characteristics of a "noble" game of recent introduction: on the contrary, it has all the aspects of a well-known game widely diffused among the population. One usually reads about tarot and minchiate that these games, old and complex, could only have arisen in princely courts and would have been played by an aristocratic, cultured, and intelligent elite. It is assumed that the game then moved into the little people. In Florence, however, we cannot speak of a court limited to a small group of learned people surrounded by an ignorant populace. There were even magistrates at that time whose main task was to ensure that the noble families no longer obtain precedence! Culture, wealth, access to public office had not been the privilege of the nobility for more than two centuries.

In short, if we want to support that tarot was introduced into the courts of Northern Italy and from there would have gone down to Tuscany where, later, it would have been flanked by a variant later known by the name of minchiate..., the only possibility is to admit that the term minchiate was used in the 15th century to designate something different.

But it is also true that a game commonly practiced, as minchiate came to be, does not normally attract the attention of one who records the facts of the city. On the other hand, a sort of general rule is that the first citations of a game represent only a provisional lower limit, still subject to being pushed back in time thanks to new discoveries. The same thing can happen, even if we are in the 15th century: one never reads - nor understands between the lines - that it is a game recently introduced!

But if this is true, and if the minchiate of the years 1460-70 has already acquired the character of a common game widely diffused in the city and the countryside, when did it first appear? For the time being, the answer can only be given in a relative way: a few years would be too few, but a few centuries would obviously be impossible. Let us therefore propose a few decades - say, around 1420, that is, at a date which, according to what we know today, practically coincides with the introduction of the tarot itself...

In reality, what interests us here is not the origin of tarot but of minchiate. Yet, following the documents examined here, their respective origins come closer. We see that the time necessary to ensure the slow propagation of the game of tarot and its variants in various Italian regions is missing!