known in Europe as early as 1278,
it is very remarkable that Petrarch, in his dialogue that treats of
gaming, never once mentions them; and that, though Boccaccio, Chaucer
and other writers of that time notice various games, there is not a
single passage in them that can be fairly construed to refer to cards.
Passages have been quoted from various works, of or relative to this
period, but modern research leads to the supposition that the word
rendered _cards_ has often been mistranslated or interpolated. An early
mention of a distinct series of playing cards is the entry of Charles or
Charbot Poupart, treasurer of the household of Charles VI. of France, in
his book of accounts for 1392 or 1393, which runs thus: _Donne a
Jacquemin Gringonneur, peintre, pour trois jeux de cartes, a or et a
diverses couleurs, ornes de plusieurs devises, pour porter devers le
Seigneur Roi, pour son ebatement, cinquante-six sols parisis_. This, of
course, refers only to the painting of a set or pack of cards, which
were evidently already well known. But, according to various conjectural
interpretations of documents, the earliest date of the mention of cards
has been pushed farther back by different authorities. For instance, in
the account-books of Johanna, duchess of Brabant, and her husband,
Wenceslaus of Luxemburg, there is an entry, under date of the 14th of
May 1379, as follows: "Given to Monsieur and Madame four peters, two
florins, value eight and a half moutons, wherewith to buy a pack of
cards" (_Quartspel met te copen_). This proves their introduction into
the Netherlands at least as early as 1379. In a British Museum MS.
(Egerton, 2, 419) mention is made of a game of cards (_qui ludus
cartarum appellatur_) in Germany in 1377. The safe conclusion with
regard to their introduction is that, though they may possibly have been
known to a few persons in Europe about the middle of the 14th century,
they did not come into general use until about a half-century later.
Whence they came is another question that has not yet been answered
satisfactorily. If we may believe the evidence of Covelluzzo of Viterbo
(15th century) cards were introduced into Italy from Arabia. On the
authority of a chronicle of one of his ancestors he writes: "In the year
1379 was brought into Viterbo the game of cards, which comes from the
country of the Saracens, and is with them called _naib_." The Crusaders,
who were inveterate gamblers, may have been the instrumen