I asked Franco for recommendations of old essays of his that are as yet only in Italian that would be especially worth translating for a broader readership. He suggested six for me to work on, and as we (collaboratively) finish them, I will post them here. These six are in chronological order, and all have been previously published in one journal or another, in Italian or French.
The first in this series is a translation of "Carte da gioco a Firenze: il primo secolo (1377-1477)," from The Playing-Card 19 No. 1 (1990), pp. 7-17, online at https://naibi.net/A/30-PRISECO-Z.pdf.
Comments in brackets are my additions, in consultation with Franco,
for clarification purposes. A number by itself in the left margin
indicates the beginning of that page of his online pdf. Punctuation and
spelling in the abstract (originally in English) is British, American in the translation.
PLAYING CARDS IN FLORENCE: THE FIRST CENTURY (1377-1477)
Franco Pratesi – 04.06.1990
ABSTRACT
[Florentine Cards − The First Century] Many documents of the Florentine commune are kept in
Archivio di Stato. Among them several witnesses can be found concerning the first century of cards in Florence. Here only the main sources and the first results obtained by their study are indicated. Several Florentine administrations − essentially Podestà, Capitano del Popolo and Esecutore degli Ordinamenti di Giustizia − kept books with lists of gamblers and corresponding fines. They are not very useful since often the gambler did not give his particulars or else he escaped altogether only leaving his cloak to the guards. The same holds for the cash book of the commune. More information can be found among the sentences passed by Conservatori on gamblers accused by third parties.
Other sources of relevant information are represented by revenue books (a maker is found in 1430 using wooden blocks for both holy pictures and naibi), notary deeds, and documents from other places - −as the 1434 record of cards for Niccolo III coming in the renowned Ferrarese court from Florence.
Essential information derives from legislative acts. Specific sections of the Florentine statutes are devoted to games and on several occasions the Councils of Florence dealt with problems related to them. In particular, the strict provision of 1377, prohibiting card games, is tightened even further on a number of later occasions. The laws of 1432 and 1437 lay down that not only do the officials of the various town administrations have the power to detain players, but third parties, too, are entitled to bring charges against them, generally under the guarantee of anonymity and sharing the proceeds of the fine. A further restriction dating back to 1442 concern peasants, who went to town on market days and were threatened with serious legal measures.
Later, however, when neighboring communes began to clamp down on card-players, important opportunities appeared in Florence. 1450 saw the first list of permitted games. They were few but the names are important: “dritta,” “vinciperdi,” “trionfo,” and “trenta." The inclusion of “trionfo” is of particular interest. That inclusion means that trionfo had taken on a traditional character and that the people of Florence (and here we cannot yet speak of a Ducal or a prince’s court) had been playing it for some time. In 1463 the law was reiterated with the addition of “cricca” and “ronfa.” 1477 saw the promulgation of another important law, the last of the period in question. It is extremely noteworthy that among the permitted games listed by this law, besides “pilucchino” we find “minchiate,” referred to by this name. This takes the date of origin back by half a century compared to what had been thought hitherto (not counting the untraceable letter from Pulci to Lorenzo the Magnificent, which now takes on a new plausibility). From the same law it can also be inferred that the rules of “minchiate” must initially have been simpler; payment was made directly on the basis of the difference between the cards taken.
INTRODUCTION
There is little data on the first century of the diffusion of playing
cards. Florence represents one of the main sources of early information.
An investigation into the legislation on card games by communities [comuni]
in Florentine territory has already been published in this journal (see
Vol. 18, 1990). This study was conducted on the statutes, often
preserved with subsequent modifications in a single codex. When one
moves on to study the subject in relation to the capital, what strikes
the researcher first of all is the enormous amount of evidence preserved
in the State Archives of Florence. In this case, there are entire
series of dozens and dozens of large volumes available in which one can
find references to different perspectives connected with games: books of
the Podestà [Chief Magistrate] and other
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administrators, communities’ cash books, [legal] judgments, tax declarations, and so on, in addition to usual legislative sources, which consist of statutes and provisions. In this place we will be able to just indicate such sources and mention the main results obtained following their first examination.
Figure 1 - Example of gambling-game prohibition.
It is known that the office of Podestà was temporary: the Podestà “family,” consisting of a rather high number of judges, notaries, and officials of various grades serving in the Commune [Florentine territory, Florentine Republic] or a semester carrying out police duties and general administration of justice. The acts were collected in several books that later came to be deposited with the Commune. These are usually volumes uniformly bound in parchment with the coat of arms of the Podestà painted on the front cover. One of them (sometimes it is actually a couple of volumes) is written entirely on parchment and contains the sentences pronounced during the period of office. Thick paper volumes contain the minutes of the trials, with the testimonies of the prosecution and defense witnesses. Sometimes there is a book that contains the list of the items of business dealt with and those that the administration leaves to be completed by its successor. One of the books of the Podestà (not, however, always present, or at least not always preserved) concerns the “inventiones,” containing the list of criminals caught in the act, especially in relation to three crimes: going out at night, going armed, gambling.
The case that interests us is that of gambling [del gioco, literally “of the game,” but here with shades of meaning, here negative, but occasionally not, when referring to allowed games played under allowed conditions], games played in such a way as to constitute gambling rather than merely an innocent pastime: for large stakes, and especially at cards. Sometimes it is found specifically indicated that someone is surprised playing naibi, resulting, therefore, in being sentenced to the established penalty. However, the cases of card players recorded must have been a small part of the total. Indeed, in many cases the term ‘di gioco” ["of game" = gaming, gambling] or “di gioco di zara” [“of game of zara,” a particular dice game but also used to indicate any dice gambling-game] was used in a generic sense and can thus also include games of naibi, assimilated by law to Zara. Furthermore, often
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the name of the convicted player is not reported, but only the penalty; in many other cases only the type of cloak abandoned on the spot by the player who escaped capture is described.
The family of the Podestà was not the only one having the task of controlling gambling; the less numerous families of the Captain of the People and the Executor of the Ordinances of Justice also had similar tasks. Therefore, also in the corresponding books, when preserved, one finds in a similar form lists and sentences of players caught in the act [in flagrante].
CHAMBER OF THE COMMUNE − BOOKS OF THE GIGLIO.
Among the documents of the Chamber of the Commune [probably a room in the Commune’s office building, with its employees] in relation to changes in the account registers, the Books of the Giglio [a Fleur-de-Lys of special design] represent a homogeneous set of 73 volumes that go from 1374 to 1511; 66 volumes for the whole 15th century, often one volume per year. They are all large-format paper volumes bound in parchment and usually have, drawn in red on the cover, the Giglio of Florence inscribed in a circle, in accordance with the name of the series.
As regards gambling, the same situations already seen in the books of the main magistrates are found here: payment by people who did not want to reveal their names, proceeds
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from cloaks abandoned by players, and so on. A few more notes are given in the rather rare cases in which the condemned person does not pay; in this case the condemned person is sent to the Stinche, the infamous Florentine prison. If the prisoner has not paid after a month, it is assumed that he is unable to do so and is released after a "baptism." Being plunged into the Arno (this is exactly what that baptism consisted of) it must not have been pleasant if it happened in the month of February, as for example happened in 1436 to Domenico da Uzzano and Battista da Caprese. Usually, this punishment was inflicted on foreigners who found no help in the city.
For the purpose of a more thorough study, the schematic nature of the recordings and the frequency of anonymous or fugitives among the condemned mean that the data stored can only be used in part. More information can be obtained from the judgments on players accused by third parties, which we will now examine.
SENTENCES OF THE CONSERVATORS OF THE LAWS
The main task of this magistracy was to control the accusations, anonymous or not, against administrators: a kind of public advocacy in favor of private citizens and especially the poorest against the possible abuses of the men of government. Usually, sentences of this type are exemplary for the care reserved by the reconstruction of the episodes incriminated. But the Conservators of the Laws also responded to the more common “intamburazioni,” denunciations posted in special boxes, of which the main ones were against blasphemy and gambling. Often the two things went hand in hand, and it is not rare to find cases of players who were happy to pay 10 lire and 19 soldi because the data provided and the testimonies collected were sufficient to reconstruct their participation in gambling but not to document the blasphemies uttered which would have entailed a 100 lire penalty.
The magistracy of the Conservators of the Laws was established in 1428 (it will therefore be useless to look here for evidence of the first half century of playing cards in Florence). Furthermore, the collection of the Conservators' sentences becomes autonomous and complete only starting from 1532. Therefore, for the period that interests us here, we must resort to the scattered sentences inserted among those of all the minor magistracies of the city and currently preserved in a dozen files of the series of the Giudice degli Appelli [Judge of Appeals].
If anyone is interested in reconstructing the blasphemies typical of the time, the case history offered by the accusers is quite rich; much less so for the type of games played. The game most often recalled is Condannata [Condemned], but other games also appear such as Pilucchino. From the set of denunciations we can deduce the existence of places preferentially associated with gambling, such as, in the first instance, the Buondelmonti loggia, the city gates, some taverns in the surrounding area (e.g. Monticelli and Peretola). Dice are often mentioned and it seems that Zara or similar gambling-games [with dice] maintained their followers well beyond the introduction of playing cards. For these games and for board games, we can note a greater frequency of Jews among the accused than expected (perhaps due to a lower fear of reprisals on the part of the accusers). However, the possible greater participation of Jews does not seem to extend to card games.
As regards cards, it should be observed that the players only rarely seem to be of a higher social level than the dice players (with the game practiced in apothecaries' shops and the like); normally they are the same urban proletariat that feeds the ranks of the Zara players. Other typical occasions for clashes at the tables, or rather on the benches outside the shops, occurred when cart-drivers or inhabitants of the surrounding area who were passing through Florence stopped in the city. The most severe penalties were foreseen, and were actually imposed, on those who lent dice and boards. Personages of this kind are not usually encountered with reference to card players, who were probably often able to do without gambling establishment managers. Instead, cheaters and counterfeiters of playing cards appear very early: for example, Francesco di Nicolò di Gambassi “a cheating player ... and a falsifier of naibi or cards” [giuochatore baro ...e falsificatore di naibi overo carte] sentenced in April 1458 for blasphemy and gambling (GdA 84, 207).
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TAX DECLARATIONS
In 1427, the first complete and detailed registration of the assets of all citizens, the Catasto, was held in Florence. The real estate and dependents of each head of family are indicated, the credits and debts in progress are also specified and the tax to be collected by the Commune is calculated on the total. Several card makers already appear in this Catasto. A dozen card makers or cartolari are listed in the Index of families, compiled following a demographic investigation. However, it is not possible to deduce whether the manufacturers of playing cards were also listed among these artisans who dealt with paper. Furthermore, it must be remembered that at the time, card games were prohibited in the Commune. However, at least one family head who appears with the explicit wording “fa i naibi” [makes playing cards] has already been reported, like subsequent ones, by Zdekauer.
Subsequently the Catasto had several updates. Another cardmaker, Antonio di Giovanni di Ser Francesco, appears in 1430, and in this case the testimony is more complete. This cardmaker is also very poor, but the tools of the trade that he reports to the tax office are important. Of particular interest is the documentation of wooden blocks for printing both playing cards and images of saints: “I find many wooden forms for naibj and saints with which I inform the naibj and make my art” [Trovomi tante forme da naibj e da santi di lengname chon che informo i naibj e fo l’arte mia]. Also in the Catasto of 1446, another cardmaker appears, “Jacopo di Poggino painter of naibj” [Jacopo di Poggino dipintore di naibi]; it is likely that others are present and not yet been identified.
NOTARIAL ACTS
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A statement in Orioli's well-known article of 1908 is enough to stimulate our curiosity: in the collections of Florentine notarial deeds from the beginning of the fifteenth century, references to naibi − such as finely crafted paintings − are frequent. Unfortunately, the mass of documents to be examined is such that the research is difficult to propose without some more precise indication of the documents to be consulted.
DOCUMENTS FROM OTHER LOCATIONS
Before moving on to the legislation on games, which represents the most traditional source for the initial data on cards, we can cite a further source of information. This time it is external evidence, that is, deriving from the archives of other cities. One of the most important of these documents was published in 1874 by Campori, from the Este archives: "in 1434 the Marquis Nicolò III made pay to Ser Ristoro and companions in Florence seven florins of gold price of two packs of cards [carticelle, i.e. ordinary cards] sent to him in Ferrara" [nel 1434 il Marchese Nicolò III faceva pagare a Ser Ristoro e compagni in Firenze sette fiorini d’oro prezzo di due mazzi di carticelle mandatogli a Ferrara]. The fact that these cards reached the court of Ferrara is all the more surprising, since in Florence at the time playing cards were prohibited: only a flourishing and renowned production or the use of particular cards could explain the maintenance of that tradition.
STATUTES AND PROVISIONS
Florentine legislation on games was of considerable importance, and even very old Florentine statutes dedicate ample space to gambling-games [gioco]. Here we are interested in the first laws valid in the Florentine Commune [i.e. the Florentine Republic], approved especially in the fifteenth century and contained in the Statutes and Provisions of the Commune. Like the current Codes, the statutes collected the laws that the government officials were required to enforce. Every now and then the statutes as a whole were updated by special delegates, approved by the councils and signed by public notaries. As regards the individual provisions, there were also changes at times to such revisions, simply by discussion and voting on the specific Provisions in the major councils, which in Florence were the two of the People and the Commune, with a third, that of the Cento [Hundred], which was added precisely during the fifteenth century.
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were often found in neighboring communities. However, looking through the documents in their chronological order, one finds that Florentine legislators had to consider the problem of card games and how they should be penalized on several occasions. The already rigid provision of 1377, which prohibited card games, was made even more severe on some subsequent occasions. In 1432 and 1437 it was established that not only could officials of the various city administrations arrest players: third parties could also accuse them, usually with the guarantee of anonymity and the collection of a part of the penalty. The unfortunate players accused by informers were given some guarantee deriving from the possible citation of witnesses in their favor and from investigations carried out or commissioned by the Conservators of the Laws. Another restriction of 1442 refers to people from the countryside who came to the city on Saturdays for the market and were threatened with serious legal consequences.
Subsequently, however, when the neighboring communities were still tightening the reins against the players, important cracks opened up in Florence. In the provision of December 10, 1450, the first list of permitted games appeared: few but important, dritta, vinciperdi, trionfo, and trenta. Of particular interest is the presence of trionfo, probably to be identified with tarocco, because it is usually believed that tarocchi [i.e., tarot, in Italian] arrived in Florence from the Po Valley area of origin only towards the end of the century. If trionfo appeared in the list of permitted games, it meant that it had assumed a traditional character and that the Florentines (and here we cannot yet speak of a princely court) had already been playing it for some time. In 1463 the law was reiterated with the addition of cricca and ronfa: the details are easily consultable in the collection of Tuscan laws published by Cantini at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
Finally, on March 18, 1477, there is another provision, very important for us, the last in the period under examination. It is of extreme interest that in this law, in addition to pilucchino, the game of minchiate appears for the first time among permitted games, listed with that very name. This date also entails an anticipation by half a century compared to that generally believed up to now (with the exception of the untraceable letter of Pulci to Lorenzo the Magnificent, which now acquires new plausibility). From the information provided, it can also be deduced that the rules of minchiate must have been initially simpler; in fact, payment occurred directly on the basis of the difference between the cards taken.
CONCLUSIONS
The documents preserved on the first century of playing cards in Florence are numerous and allow us to study in detail the formulation of the laws on games and their application to numerous specific cases. From an initial study we obtain information that concerns Florence but that is generally useful for the history of the first diffusion of cards and the games that were played with them. From the research some important new data emerge that can also bring about changes to the consolidated picture of the initial diffusion of the tarocchi. It should be remembered in this regard that according to the current view, tarocchi would have arrived in Florence only at the end of the fifteenth century, to be transformed locally around 1530 into germini, then called minchiate only starting from the seventeenth century. Instead, in the lists of permitted card games in the city of Florence, trionfo appears in 1450 and minchiate, with that name, in 1477. The names of other card games are also found cited at rather early dates.
