Old 7, June 13, 2015: 1542: Arrone - Large Triumphs

This is the first in another series of past notes of fundamental importance; these are all from 2015, the time immediately before I started translating Franco's notes and articles. This a translation of "1542: Arrone - trionfi grandi," at https://naibi.net/A/409-ARRONE-Z.pdf, dated June 13, 2015. Comments in square brackets are mine, in consultation with Franco, for explanatory purposes.

1542: Arrone – Large Triumphs


Introduction

Arrone is an ancient Umbrian village located on a hill about twenty kilometers from the administrative seat, Terni. Here we are interested exclusively in a phrase contained in the municipal statutes of 1542, relating to the penalties against gambling. The origin of this interest was a reference present in a well-known Latin dictionary, [note 1] in which there are 14 pages under the entry ludus with indications of the individual games and some references for each one. The entry ad triumphos, triumphorum begins with a definition that appears rather misleading: "card game according to the suit [colore] of the card, called trionfo [triumph], discovered at the beginning of the game." Naturally, this definition is not entirely wrong, because triumph games of this type, with the use of an ordinary deck of cards, really did exist. In the discussion that follows, however, that term is intended to refer to what later became better known as the deck and game of tarocchi.

Among the references cited by Sella, one caught my attention:

“ludus ad triumphos magnos vel smegnatas,” Arrone 1542, f. 24v. [note 2]

From there, a new study began, which is nothing more than another step in a journey undertaken years ago.


Large triumphs [trionfi grandi]

A distinction between small and large cards is found already in the naibi, in the early times of their use; for example, in an account book of an Arezzo merchant from the beginning of the fifteenth century. [note 3] However, it is not at all clear whether, for triumphs, the distinction between large and
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1. Sella, Glossario latino italiano, Citta del Vaticano 1944.
2. Ref. 1, p. 335.
3. http://trionfi.com/evx-arezzo-giglio-di-bettino

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small also consisted only of the difference in the size of the cards. Let us focus on the large triumphs without exploring the possible attributions of the adjective small.

A few years ago, it was reported that in the statutes of Montecatini Val di Cecina of 1529 there is mention of trionfi grandi overo germini [large triumphs or germini]. [note 4] This is a very important association, because, for the first time, we find written that trionfi grandi could be identified with germini, the Florentine tarocchi of 97 cards. Only after some time did I have some doubts about the conjunction “overo” [or]: it cannot be completely excluded that it is instead here to connect two names of different games, both the game of large triumphs, trionfi grandi, and the game of germini. Also because in some other statutes one can find the indication of both games, precisely as if they were two different games. An example of this kind can be found in the statute of Castel del Piano of 1571: some games were excluded from the usual prohibition, and, in particular, it was permitted to play a li trionfi piccoli e grandi di nove carte et al gioco de’ germini [at trionfi small and large of nine cards and the game of germini]. [note 5]

Any confirmation in one sense or the other was highly desirable. Now in Arrone we find a confirmation for the same game identified with two different names.


The game in the statutes of Arrone of 1542

With a quick bibliographical search, you can find a book dedicated specifically to the statutes in question. Unfortunately, this book is not available in bookstores or even in the major Florentine libraries. However, you can find information about it in the fundamental book (for our sector) edited by Alessandra Rizzi: Pirro's book has not, in fact, escaped the attention of the curator and her collaborators, who comment as follows.

The text does not contain editions of statutes; however, on pp. 47-48, it reports in translation rubric 153 containing games.

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4. F. Pratesi, The Playing-Card, Vol. 40, No. 3 (2012), 179-197.
5. http://naibi.net/A/401-NOVECARTE-Z.pdf
6. L. Pirro, 2: Gli statuti del 1542. Arrone 1984.
7. A. Rizzi (ed.), Statuta de ludo. Treviso and Rome 2012, p. 31.

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In short, the book may be important, but we already know that it does not contain the original Latin text of the statutes we are looking for. While waiting to read those two pages of specific interest, I looked for where the manuscript with the Statutes could be found. The fact that Sella cites f. 24v means that the original still existed and can probably be traced. With today's Internet tools, it was not difficult to identify the current location of that exemplar. [note 8]

Thanks to the kind availability of the librarian Alessandra Casamassima, I was able to promptly receive a copy of the paragraphs in the study. The writing is clear but faded, to the point of becoming illegible at the end of the page; the text in question corresponds exactly to what is reported in the Sella reference. In particular, the part of interest is copied below.

De poena ludentibus ad ludum vetitum et prohibitum.
Statuimus et ordinamus ut [+++] blasfemiae et propter inutile tempus quod ludendo amittitur quod nulla persona cuiuscumque conditionis et [+++] et status sit audeat vel praesumat ludere // ad aliquem ludum vetitum et prohibitum; videlicet ad cartas et aleas seu ludum taxillorum. Et qui contrafecerit puniatur poena librarum decem trium pro quolibet et vice qualibet, et simili poena puniatur qui praestiterit cartas et aleas, et dominus domus in qua ludetur; et de nocte poena duplicetur . Et liceat officiali auferre denarios, quos tenerent in ludo ipsi lusores. Et simili etiam poena puniatur qui prestiterit pecunias dictis lusoribus, vel fecerit eos ludere pro se in parte vel in toto. Liceat autem cuilibet ludere ad triumphos magnos vel smegnatas impune sine blasfemia omni tempore. Et volumus etiam quod omni tempore unicuique liceat ludere ad dictos ludos vetitos pro uno scopto tantum, valoris unius grossi pro quolibet lusore, dummodo non ludant pecuniam et non blasfement ipsi lusores. Item liceat cuilibet impune ludere ad omnem ludum in festa nativitatis domini nostri Iesu Cristi cum octo diebus sequentibus sine blasfemia ut supra. Et hoc prae gaudio ipsius nativitatis domini nostri. Necnon liceat impune cuilibet ludere ad omnem ludum sine blasfemia per totum mensem augusti cum licentia curiaearum.

[On the punishment of those playing at a prohibited and forbidden game.
We decree and order that [+++] blasphemy and because of the useless time that is lost by playing that no person of any condition and [+++] and status shall dare or presume to play // at any forbidden and prohibited game; namely at cards and dice [aleas] or the game of dice [taxillorum]. And whoever contravenes shall be punished with a penalty of thirteen pounds [librarum] for each and every occasion, and with a similar penalty shall be punished whoever provides the cards and dice, and the owner of the house in which the game is played; and at night the penalty shall be doubled. And it shall be lawful for the official to take away the money that the players themselves hold in the game. And with a similar penalty shall also be punished whoever lends money to said players, or has them play for himself in part or in whole. But it shall be lawful for anyone to play at large triumphs or smegnatas [sminchiate] with impunity without blasphemy at all times. And we also want that at all times anyone may be permitted to play at said forbidden games for a scopto [=scotto, a meal], of the value of one grosso for each player, provided that they do not play for money and that the players themselves do not blaspheme. Likewise, anyone may be permitted to play with impunity any game on the feast of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the eight days following, without blasphemy as above. And this out of joy at the same nativity of our Lord. And also may anyone be permitted to play with impunity at any game without blasphemy throughout the entire month of August with the permission of the courts.

Let us try to summarize the main points. It begins, as often happened, with the prohibition of games [that are]... prohibited, which here are at least
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8. Rome. Biblioteca del Senato, Statuti MSS 27.

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exemplified by carte [cards] (by now we no longer speak of naibi, assuming that they were previously indicated as such also in Arrone) and dice. For dice games, both typical terms are used as synonyms, the older aleae, and the more recent taxilli. [note 9]

Of course, the definition of the penalty is important, with all the associated cases and exceptions. The general case is 13L [Libre=Pounds]. for each player and for each time. The amount of the penalty already deserves a comment, because it does not correspond to the most frequent values. It seems that it was obtained by successive halvings starting from 100L, which corresponded to the very high penalty often set for blasphemy. By halving a couple of times, we find 25L, which was not rare as a penalty for players; but here it is halved again and rounded to 13L. The same penalty is inflicted on anyone who lends cards or dice and also on the owner of the house in which the game is played. Even anyone who lends money to play or has someone play in his place is sentenced to the same extent. The same penalty, the only one for all the cases indicated, is, however, doubled if the game is played at night.

There are nonetheless several important exceptions, valid in any case only if the game is not accompanied by blasphemy: this additional condition is so indispensable that it is invariably repeated for every occurrence. In the meantime, there are some permitted games: one can play with impunity at large triumphs or sminchiate [triumphos magnos vel smegnatas, with a possible transition from “nchi” to “nghi” to “gn”]. Furthermore, the same prohibited games can be played if one plays only for a meal, with a limit equivalent to one soldo of silver. Other exceptions concern the days to be considered so festive that even the prohibited games become legal: for Christmas, and the eight following days are also added, meaning that in this way Jesus Christ himself is celebrated; then the entire month of August is also added, without explaining who the one celebrated would be.


Discussion

In mathematics, if a = b and a = c one can usually conclude that b = c, and then, if this transitive property were also applicable to our
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9. L. Zdekauer, Archivio storico italiano, 18 (1886) p. 23.

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case of the statutes of Montecatini and Arrone, it would be immediately proven that germini was equal to minchiate, which, moreover, cannot surprise historians of playing cards. In reality, some small probability that there were minimal differences between germini and minchiate had to be taken into consideration, also in view of the use of the term minchiate already in the last quarter of the fifteenth century, when almost all historians do not believe that germini could already exist, nor even that minchiate known from the following century.

In fact, the names germini and minchiate usually indicated the same deck of Florentine cards, and on the other hand, no one will doubt that the Latin term we find here of smegnatas indicated precisely minchiate. Point after point, we end up transferring attention from the names of the games mainly to the conjunctions that bind them: Italian overo, and Latin seu [and vel]. It seems to me that the Latin seu reinforces the Italian overo in the meaning of ossia, that is, or, which already seemed the most plausible.


Parentheses on tarocchi

The noun tarocchi has not been mentioned so far, but over time it was precisely this term that prevailed over the others to indicate these decks of cards and also the games in which they were used. In the tarocchi deck, there are the "normal" cards that are also found in other common decks and that cartomancers later called minor arcana, and the special or superior cards, which some call triumphal cards or triumphs, while they are known as major arcana among cartomancers. Originally, the corresponding nouns were used rather the other way around: the entire deck was called triumphs, and only sometime later is the noun tarocchi attributed to the superior cards documented; shortly after, and with some distinction depending on the location, the noun tarocchi came to include the entire deck and the related game.

Tarocchi decks are known in many different forms. The best known is the “standard” one of 78 cards, of which the so-called Marseille Tarot can be considered the typical example. The enormous success that this particular deck has received in recent times among cartomancers and collectors has

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led to the production of countless examples, sometimes in addition with artistic ambitions. However, throughout history, different tarocchi [decks] have existed (and in part are still used) not only by the design of the figures but also by the number of cards contained in the deck; indeed, often the difference in the number of cards was the determining characteristic. In Bologna, 62 cards were used, in Florence 97, in Sicily 64, in Austria and neighboring countries often 54. Sometimes the tarocchi [deck] had a specific name, as in Florence where it was mostly called minchiate.

I don't think the Florentine triumphs were ever called tarocchi; they were either indicated with the generic name of triumphs or then, probably in the new local variant, with their name of germini or minchiate. Even for the Florentine decks of germini or minchiate, the noun tarocchi is found assigned, in this case, to the upper cards. In years of research, I have found only one law, in 1606 in Florence, where there is talk of decks of tarocchi and germini as two different decks. [note 10]

However, if we move from official public documents to accepting as valid documentation also that found in literary works, sometimes less reliable, we find at least one attestation of games in which, next to the triumphs, which may have also maintained their generic meaning, both tarocchi and sminchiate appear. Obviously, here, too, the problem is not that of reading sminchiate as minchiate, also because other attestations of these two ways of writing the same name can be found.

Viso proprio di tarocco colui a chi piace questo gioco [dei tarocchi] che altro non vuol dire tarocco che ignocco, sciocco… degno di star fra fornari e calzolai, e plebei a giuocarsi in tutto un di carlino in quarto a Tarocchi, o a Trionfi, o a Sminchiate che si sia; che ad ogni modo tutto importa minchioneria e dappocaggine, pascendo l'occhio col sole e con la luna e col dodici, come fanno i putti. [note 11]

[Let him look to it, who is pleased with the game of Tarocco, that the only signification of this word Tarocco, is stupid, foolish, simple, fit only to be used by Bakers, Coblers [sic], and the vulgar, to play at most for the fourth part of a Carlino, at Tarocchi, or at Trionfi, or any Sminchiate whatever: which in every way signifies only foolery and idleness, feasting the eye with the Sun, and the Moon, and the twelve (signs) as children do.]

As with overo and other conjunctions, here, too, the reading lends itself to multiple interpretations. It is not at all certain that the text should be
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10. http://trionfi.com/evx-germini-tarocchi-minchiate
11. F. Berni, Capitolo del gioco della primiera col comento di messer Pietropaulo da San Chirico. Rome 1526. [Translation by Samuel Weller Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards, London 1816, p. 28, in Google Books.]

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read as if it really indicated three different decks or games – Tarocchi, Trionfi, Germini – coexisting at that time. Between three games and just one, it cannot be ruled out that two are indicated, but it cannot be excluded that the author lists three synonyms of a single game; indeed, to me this last interpretation seems the most plausible.

Only in Florence was the situation so ambiguous that among triumphs (possibly with different compositions for small and large), tarocchi, germini and minchiate, it is not possible to reconstruct in a complete and reliable way what the identities, differences, and corresponding chronology were. For the other cities there is only the doubt of how long the local triumphs could have remained unchanged to the time in which they became better known as tarocchi.


Conclusion

We compare two communal statutes from the sixteenth century that identify the trionfi grandi, large triumphs, as the Florentine tarocchi known as germini or minchiate; we then introduce into the discussion a literary text by Francesco Berni from a few years earlier. Despite the small increases that can be recognized in the availability of information on the subject, we still lack a reliable document that can allow us to reconstruct in a unique and convincing way the possible compositions of the decks of the first triumph cards and their evolution, especially in the Florentine territory.

Franco Pratesi – 13.06.2015