Nov. 12, 2024: Information about Antonio di Luca (Florence 1385-1428)

This note presents another Florentine inventory, this time one which Thierry Depaulis, in correspondence with Franco, has judged "the oldest detailed postmortem inventory of a card maker with his tools." Franco has transcribed the inventory verbatim in its original language in his "Notizie su Antonio di Luca (Firenze 1385-1428)," at https://naibi.net/A/8-37-ANTONIO.pdf,  Now Franco and I have tried to translate all its items into modern English. Of the Italian original, I have reproduced here only the items pertaining to the card maker's trade.

Comments in brackets are mine in consultation with Franco, for explanatory purposes, except for an Appendix added here (originally in Italian) by Thierry Depaulis. In this translation, footnotes 1-9 are as in Franco's Italian pdf. Footnotes A-D are in reference to Thierry's comments about the inventory and specific items within it, which form an Appendix that we have added after Franco's own presentation. Numbers by themselves in the left margin are those of Franco's Italian pdf. 

 Probably this essay and its Appendix will be published sometime in the future in The Playing-Card, but meanwhile, here it is for readers of this blog.

Information about Antonio di Luca (Florence 1385-1428)

Franco Pratesi

1. Introduction.

There is little information about the artisans who produced naibi in Florence in the first decades after the introduction of playing cards, documented only from 1377 (which is one of the oldest dates known for Europe). Werner Jacobsen's book on the painters of the time can be cited, [note 1] as well as some details that I reported years ago; [note 2] this information has recently been re-discussed and better inserted into the Florentine context by Ada Labriola. [note 3]

Here I intend to add some information about Antonio di Luca: in particular, in the first section I expand on what is already known from the Catasto of 1427, and in the second I report the data resulting from an inventory, also kept in the State Archives of Florence (ASFi), of everything found in the house after his death.

Contrary to the usual, I did not locate the inventory in question personally; in this case, the collection is the Notarile antecosimiano [pre-Cosimo Notarial Archive], which for my non-professional level is too vast and usually impossible to read. As has already happened in a couple of previous cases, the discovery is due to a friend who knows my research sector, and who, for his studies, can read these papers with ease.

2. Information from the Catasto

If you search for Antonio di Luca on the Tarot History Forum site, you will find a notice by Ross Caldwell. [note 4] The reference is to an old publication by Ludovico Zdekauer, republished by Gherardo Ortalli, [note 5] based on the Florentine Catasto [Property Tax Register] of 1427.

In addition to the internal catalogues of the ASFi, a detailed inventory is also available for the Catasto by Brown University, which can be consulted online; [note 6] our Antonio di Luca can be identified among a few namesakes. What immediately distinguishes him is above all his surname: Fainarbi. In fact, the Florentines who had a family name already at the time were a small minority; typically, the patronymic was used, often with the addition of the paternal grandfather's first name.

This surname of Fainarbi is not familiar in Florence, but it is immediately understandable for those who know that “narbi” was an incorrect transcription of naibi, also documented in printed texts. Then two important things are understood.

The first is that it is not the surname Fainarbi, but the profession "fa i naibi" [makes the naibi]. The second is that serious scholars, of academic level, do not know enough about either the narbi or the naibi and can therefore fall into the trap. This also means that there may be a lot of information about our naibi that has escaped the attention of the few users of the archive able to read even the most difficult writing.

Zdekauer confirms only the gonfalone [subdistrict] of the Golden Lion in the quarter of San Giovanni and the 42 years of Antonio di Luca who, correctly in that case, “fa i naibi”. The online inventory adds other data, in addition to the fact that in 1427 Antonio was 42 years old: in particular, that he was the head of a family of three, that he lived in a rented house, and that he did not have a taxable income; enough, in short, to understand that he was not the master of a flourishing workshop, but a poor craftsman.

I wanted to check the Catasto better; it can be consulted in the internal photo library of the ASFi. The data I can add is not much, but it is quite indicative.
___________________
1. W. Jacobsen, Die Maler von Florenz zu Beginn der Renaissance. Munich 2001.
2. For example, Playing-Card Trade in 15th-Century Florence. IPCS Papers No. 7. North Walsham 2012.
3. In: Tarots enluminés. Paris 2021, pp. 113-121.
4. viewtopic.php?f=12&t=334&p=5526&hilit=a ... luca#p5526
5. L. Zdekauer, Il gioco d’azzardo nel Medioevo italiano. Florence 1993.
6. https://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/ ... d=50006649


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The three members of the family were Antonio, 42 years old, his wife Sandra, only 21, and a Luca, 12. The wife Sandra was evidently too young to be Luca's mother, but that Luca was Antonio's son is also suggested by the fact that, as often happened, he was baptized with the name of his paternal grandfather. So, it must be assumed that Antonio had remained a widower with little Luca before marrying this Sandra as a second wife.

ASFi, Catasto, 78, f. 214v

It appears from several examples that the profession of naibi painter was usually passed down from father to son, but in the family under examination it appears evident that there could not have been a proliferation of craftsmen specialized in that production. Limiting our attention to Antonio, we can still recognize, also using Jacobsen's list, that he was one of the first to practice that profession. From the Catasto we obtain other data of a certain interest. In particular, we read that the house that the family lived rented ‒ for seven florins a year ‒ was located in Campo Corbolini, at the beginning of the current Via Faenza, a location distant from the one around Borgo Santi Apostoli where several painters' workshops were concentrated. On the other hand, in the case of Antonio di Luca, his production could have been carried out within the same family home.

The essential part of the Catasto is the economic balance sheet determining the tax to be paid to the Commune [i.e. the Republic of Florence]. The sum of the debts is thus recorded (to an apothecary, a grain seller, a stationer, a dyer, and four haberdashers [merciai, American English: dry goods merchants]), the amount owed for the house and for the three "mouths" of the family. Usually, the painters sold groups of packs of cards to the haberdashers, who resold them at retail at increased prices; therefore, the fact that our Antonio found himself in debt with the haberdashers presents itself as a further demonstration of the poor economic performance of his business.

In the end, the balance sheet is completely in the red and Antonio only has to pay the minimum tax of 3 soldi.

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3. Information from the notarial deed of 14 September 1428

The document in question is preserved in a manuscript with the protocols of the Florentine notary Lodovico di Antonio. [note 7] Fortunately, the inventory that interests us is compiled in Italian, as is the rule, also using a handwriting that is easier to read than the remaining part of the text of the deed, written in Latin and with frequent abbreviations. After the initial part of two pages, the inventory occupies a page and a half (the first in two columns); immediately after the line of greatest interest to us, the last of the actual inventory, the difficult-to-decipher Latin writing begins again, which continues for another two pages. [note A]

ASFi, Notarile Antecosimiano, 11848, f. 134v-135r

At the beginning, we read the personal details of Donna Sandra: daughter of the late Lapo di Nicola, a shoemaker, and widow of Antonio di Luca, a painter of the parish of San Lorenzo. In the notarial deed, we read, repeated several times, the reference to the dowry of seventy gold florins (a below-average amount). In a deed from 1421, cited with the references, six artisans from the neighbourhood [note 8] had been reported as guarantors of the bride and her dowry; now the widow does not become the deceased's heir but has the right to the return of the dowry. In this notarial deed, Donna Sandra declares herself satisfied with maintaining possession of the goods present inside the house as equivalent to the dowry and therefore forever frees the six artisans from their guarantee on the dowry itself.

As has been found in other cases, it is not this most relevant part of the deed that interests us, but practically only the detail of the inventory of the household goods in Italian, and indeed even of that especially a minority part.

I propose, however, to transcribe the entire inventory, in which we find all the objects present in the home, both for domestic use and for work, as follows.

_________________
7. ASFi, Notarile antecosimiano, 11848, ff. 133-136.
[A. See point A of the Appendix.]
8. Giovanni, son of Paolo, was a barber; Dato di Cristofano Pucci was a wool worker; Mirco, son of Matteo, was a carpenter; Corsino di Ventura was a shoemaker; Giovanni, son of Simone, was a blacksmith; Sandro, son of Giovanni, was a shearer.

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Five wine barrels / Twenty bottles [with straw covers] / One bucket with pulley /
(f. 134v first column) Two trestles [table-legs and supports] with broken tabletop /
One chicken coop / Two crates for goods / One small basket /
Two small [dining?] tables and a cooking pan /
One small frame and one small plate of majolica / 1 colander /
Four arm-lengths of large boards /
Two trestles with the old table /
One chest for [making] bread /
1 Chest ["Chest" crossed out] wooden tub for flour /
One bowl and two trays
     of earthenware / 1 oil jar /
One barrel /
Two [copper] cauldrons / 1 copper jug
     and 1 pair of tongs /
One overused double-locked chest /
Two overused chests /
One overused chest / 1 terracotta measuring cup /
One half quarter [measuring bottle for liquids] /
four bushel containers for milling [of grain] /
One basket and 1 bench /
One commode chair /
One cheese cage / two
     Earthen basins / 1 Mattress
One bag mattress [2 sheets sewn together and stuffed] / 1 Quilt /
Two feather mattresses / 1 vermilion cloth /
One white blanket /
Two cane chairs /
One standard bench / 1
     Shelf with bowls and
     cutting boards
Two grain barrels with
     1 bushel container of grain
Two iron andirons / two tripods
     of iron /
(f. 134v second column) Two pans /
One hatrack / 1 iron candleholder /
One bed frame/ two chests nearby /
One chest of 3 arm-lengths / 1 women’s undergarment /
Two pillows with mesh pillowcases
     hemmed with cloth / 1 men’s garment with
     black sleeves with 3 buttons
     of gilded silver /
One old doublet /
One cap / 1 small jar /
One women’s board [or painting of Madonna] /
One pillow with pillowcase /
Three hats / 4 pairs of breeches /
One tablecloth / two belts /
Two belts / 1 with black band with
     buckle and tongue and six belt loops, the other 

 

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     with flower decoration in its band [?: in su fetta] with buckle and one tongue
     and four gilded belt loops
Two rows of black amber rosaries /
Three brass candleholders /
One used light grey cloak /
One used women’s dark brown robe /
One used black cloak
One double coarse grey cloth robe / 1
     women’s Romagna skirt / 1 Double
     dark brown robe of smooth cotton fabric /
One women’s red dress with 52 buttons
     of gilded silver / 1 used pink hood /
One boys’ double tunic of pink fabric
     with two silver buttons and one cast
One boys’ grey tunic with twelve
     silver eyelets / 1 doublet of
     good white cotton blend / One boys’
     little striped double cloak in wool
     with two silver buttons
(f. 135r) Three pairs of shears / 1 flat brass basin /
Three tin plates and one small plate /
VII supper plates / 1 tablecloth / 1 towel [or other cloth] /
Two towels / 1 napkin / two shirts, 1 men's
     and 1 women’s / one cap of velvet and pink fabric
     with silver cups in stitching / three handkerchiefs
One used double light grey robe [or tunic] of smooth cotton fabric /
One used hood of pink fabric / One used men's simple
     white tunic / Five used men’s stockings / Two
     yarn towels / Five used children’s towels /
Two caps and one with cups on the seam /
Four hundred and forty painted cards of the Virgin Mary
     stories and saints / One small Marble with two grinders /
Two pairs of used sheets / 157 pounds of low-quality paper,
     new / forty-six pounds of fine paper [or: cards of the fine type] /
One hundred pounds of royal[-sized] sheets written and unwritten / 72 woodblocks
     for naibi and saints both small and large 

[Here is the Italian original for the last six lines of the inventory, which relate his activity as a card maker:

 Quatrocento quaranta carte dipinte di vergine maria
     storie e santi / Uno Marmo piccholo con due macinatoi /
Due paia di lençuola usate / libre 157 di carte da straccii
     nuove / libre quarantasei di carte fini nuove / libri
Cento di fogli reali iscripti e non scripti / 72 forme
----da naybi e santi tra piccholi e grandi] 

The information that can be obtained from this notarial inventory is decidedly detailed, and we are especially interested in the products and work tools. The few objects of clothing and household use, often overused, are consistent with what could be expected from the data in the Catasto: he was truly a poor craftsman. [note B]

More indicative are the few objects of work and what was being worked on at the time of the craftsman's death. It can be said in this regard that at the very least, a line of information on the work of Antonio di Luca has been added: "72 woodblocks [forme] of naibi and saints both small and large."

This simple element already contains several useful pieces of information. The initial number of 72 is much higher than we could have expected. The forme at this time could only have been the woodblocks used for xylography [woodcut printing]: this technique for paper is not documented from much earlier, but it seems that it had been used on fabrics for centuries. For playing cards, considering their typical dimensions, it is unthinkable to use a woodblock for less than a number of cards close to ten.
________________
[B. See point B of the Appendix.]

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Finding naibi together with saints is not unexpected news, because we know that sacred images, such as those on playing cards, were among the first to be reproduced in series. However, finding them mixed together like this creates some problems for a plausible reconstruction. Certainly, this promiscuity makes us understand how easy it was to move from a pack of naibi to one of triumphs: it was enough to combine the naibi with prints of equal size available to the card maker with other subjects ‒ sacred or profane ‒ present together.

Even the attributes of small and large are not precisely definable. On the one hand, we know that naibi were produced in different sizes; there was not, nor could there be, a standardization of sizes as was achieved later, so that at most each card maker could produce his packs of cards in a size of his choice, depending on the sheets he used and the number of cards he obtained from each woodblock. For the sheets, there could have been some standardization, but for the woodblocks I believe there could only have been approximation.

Since the same naibi painter could produce packs of cards of different sizes, we arrive at a multiplication of the forms by a factor of two or even three. Furthermore, it is probable that new or nearly new woodblocks coexisted alongside others that had been used for a long time, perhaps considering different qualities of workmanship. In this way, the number of woodblocks whose presence would be foreseeable can be multiplied; but even so, arriving at 72 is not possible.

It would then be concluded that it was above all the sacred images that required more woodblocks for production: for example, it is clear that a playing card cannot reach the size of a sheet of paper similar to our A4 to A3 format [210 mm x 297 mm to 297 mm x 420 mm], while this is possible, if desired, for a sacred image of the type of the painted cards with the Madonna present in the workshop.

For the images of saints, there is also a peculiarity different from that of playing cards. For the different saints, it would not have been easy to consider them of equal importance, as happens for the individual playing cards, of which equal numbers must be produced to use the available paper without waste. The saints are appreciated and sought after in very different ways, from the patron saint of the city to saints considered protectors of individual villages, parishes, or families. In this case, a diversification of the number of specimens is as important as that of the differentiation of dimensions.

There is one last factor to consider. In the line under consideration, only naibi and saints are mentioned, but in the sheets with the Madonnas, in addition to the saints, there are also stories. Images with chronological episodes would require woodblocks other than those already considered, and in quantities that are difficult to predict. This has the consequence that the number of woodblocks necessary increases significantly.

Although the added details allow us to get a little closer to the starting number 72, I still cannot explain so many woodblocks at the painter's disposal. In particular, this overabundance of woodblocks also appears to be in contrast with the scarcity of all the other objects of use. I had encountered one case, for example, in which seven woodblocks were in question, of which only four seemed essential to produce a pack of cards. [note 9]

Some comments can be made on other entries in the inventory. Thus, the one hundred pounds of royal sheets written and unwritten [fogli reali iscripti e non scripti] appear to be directly linked to the craftsman's production. It would seem that for printing, the large royal sheets were especially used, which had a size similar to our A2 format [420 mm x 594 mm, double the size of A3, which is double the size of A4], with one sheet corresponding to four A4 sheets placed side by side.

The unwritten sheets were those on which the images would be printed and then painted. With the written royal sheets, we encounter another problem of interpretation. We can think of the participle “written” as meaning “already printed”, with the images ‒ perhaps still to be painted or perhaps already painted ‒ present on the sheet, certainly still to be cut. The alternative of considering them as royal sheets written by others and then discarded seems unlikely because these large sheets, folded in two, were used only for writings of great importance, to be preserved for a long time. We also encounter sheets of other types of paper, which were evidently also necessary for production. [note C]
______________________
9. http://trionfi.com/cardmakers-woodblock-trial
[C. See point C in the Appendix.]

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Among the products, the high number of 440 Madonnas, saints, and stories stands out. In this case, however, it must be kept in mind that paintings or bas-reliefs of Madonnas were hung in several rooms of each house, and this type of image was probably the cheapest.

Among the other objects, the presence of the three pairs of shears is well understood, considering the need to cut out the individual playing cards from the group printed and painted together. The marble with grinder could be a mortar, [note D] necessary to reduce the dyes used to paint the images into a very fine powder.

It is not certain, but it seems likely, that the 46 pounds of new carte fine [fine, i.e. good quality, paper, or: cards of the fine type] are in fact new playing cards of the fine type, ready for sale. In those years, using the names of naibi or carte for the same objects is already documented. If so, a little more detail would have been useful.


4. Conclusion

That the painter Antonio di Luca produced naibi was already known by the nineteenth century, but the source of the information, present in the Florentine Catasto of 1427, had been used only to a minimal extent. The re-examination of that source has allowed us to obtain further information on the family’s economic situation when Antonio was 42 years old.

Even more important was the discovery of the inventory of what was present in the house of Antonio di Luca the following year, immediately after his death. The objects of clothing and household use confirm the indigent state of the family, while we obtain other important information from the presence of work objects.

In particular, the sheets of paper used for production are documented, as well as the associated woodblocks. Production was mainly aimed at two parallel sectors, sacred images and naibi. In both cases, the outlines of the images were printed on the sheets, which were then painted and cut to size.

The number of woodblocks present for the production of sacred images and playing cards is 72, so large as to create problems of interpretation. Other more convincing hypotheses will be possible in this regard, or perhaps further data will be found, in order to obtain the desired precision.

However, the information that has been added in this study to the little that we knew about the personage and his production is already of considerable interest, also because it informs us, albeit indirectly, about the production of his fellow painters specialized in the production of sacred images and playing cards, about whom we know even less.

Florence, 12.11.2024
________________
[D. See point D in the Appendix.]


[APPENDIX

Thierry Depaulis has shared with me [Franco] the following comments regarding this study.

A. This is the oldest detailed postmortem inventory of a card maker with his tools. It is the 3rd oldest written, dated reference to woodcuts, and here again for playing cards (and saints). (The 1st in Palermo in 1418, the 2nd also in Palermo, in 1422.)
B. I am not sure Antonio is that poor, with 72 woodblocks and some expensive garments, as well as a commode chair, a clear element of snug comfort.
C. Antonio has: 1) fine paper, which he probably uses for the front and back of his cards; and 2) 157 pounds of “carte da straccii nuove”. The latter is what until the late 19th century was called littress by English and American card makers, derived from the French l’étresse; it was similar to what is now called “kraft paper”. Also called main-brune [brown-hand] in the 18th century, it is the middle paper, grey or brown, made with little glue, that forms the core of the card.
We may add that straccio (plural straccii) or straccia is the same as Provençal estrasse (probably through Piedmontese strassa), and estrasse became estresse (later étresse) in French.
D. The “Marmo piccholo con due macinatoi” is a grinding stone (or grinding marble), as found in later French inventories. The grinder is generally called a “molette”. For me, it is not a mortar. {For more on molette, see French Wikipédia, which has a picture. The term translates roughly as “serrated wheel”.}]