Sunday, July 5, 2015

chapter 10: Florentine printed cards, 245-262

Dummett's Chapter 10 is about Florence. I have already discussed much of it earlier, in Chapter 3, but there is more.

For Dummett, you will recall, the oldest Florentine reference is 1450, probably to a cheap deck (since Dummett, it has become 1440, hand-painted), and the Rosenwald sheet exemplifies the standard Florentine model. I have already discussed, in my post on Dummett's Chapter 3, his reconstruction of the order of trumps on that sheet and of the numbers on the "Charles VI'", which while different from those of the Rosenwald probably reflect Florence at some point in time. A good reproduction of the sheet is at http://a-tarot.eu/p/jan-11/fra/rosenwald-sheet-3.jpg.

Unlike in the Bolognese tarot, the Popess, Empress, Emperor, and Pope are all distinct and numbered. Dummett does not propose that the Popess was no longer part of the game when the "Charles VI" numbers were added, although, as I have mentioned, that is in fact a realistic possibility, especially given the Strambotto of c. 1500 Rome found by Depaulis, which explicitly lists all the triumphs but omits the Popess (the relevant pages from The Playing Card 2007 are at http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=975&p=14909&hilit=strambotto#p14909).

Around 1520-1530, he estimates (although later in the chapter, p. 257, he says "most plausibly" 1535), the game of Minchiate was invented, at first called Germini, and it soon eclipsed that of Tarot. Dummett considers Florence the home of Minchiate. In fact, he says that the main reason for considering the Rosenwald Florentine is by comparison with the Minchiate (p. 245):
Giuliana Algeri ha avanzato l’ipotesi che i tarocchi Rosenwald siano d’origine ferrarese 7; ma quest’ipotesi è senza fondamento, poiché la Giustizia è numerata Vili, e l’ordine è evidentemente del tipo A, non del tipo B (ferrarese). Tuttavia, non abbiamo ancora addotto alcun motivo per considerarli fiorentini; ciò risulterà dal confronto dei tarocchi Rosenwald con le carte del mazzo delle Minchiate.

(Giuliana Algeri has suggested that the Rosenwald tarot is Ferrarese in origin (7); but this assumption is without foundation, because Justice is numbered VIII, and the order is obviously of type A, not type B (Ferrara). However, we have not yet put forward any reason to consider it Florentine; this will result from the comparison of the Rosenwald tarot with the cards of the Minchiate pack.
_________________
7. In the catalog I tarocchi, p. 88, n. 17.)
I have already discussed how he considers the Minchiate "papi" to be slight reworkings of the Rosenwald's papal and imperial triumphs.

Pratesi (http://trionfi.com/rosenwald-tarocchi-sheet) has written about whether the Rosenwald, for which there are four sheets extant, should be considered as a version of Minchiate, as a fifth sheet would bring the total to 96 cards (one less than the standard number, perhaps combining the Fool and Bagatto into one, as suggested by the card). If so, it would have been an early version that still distinguished among four imperial and papal figures. There should be a fifth sheet, because on the four extant sheets, six cards of a tarot deck are yet to be accounted for--or one card if the 10s were omitted. Franco suggests one possibility, that the missing Queen of Batons might be have been identified with the Empress; but the number III on it suggests that it had to be the Empress. One idea: perhaps the player could choose which of the two it would be. But such a rule has never been reported.

The oldest datable extant Minchiate deck is 17th century, virtually identical to what was seen later, Dummett says, as are some undatable sheets in the Spielkarten Museum at Leinfelden. The style is consistent with the late 15th or early 16th century. The designs are such that the numbers on the first 15 must have been added after the designs had been accomplished. The 20 additional cards--from XVI through XXXV--have special panels for the purpose, and then the last 5 cards are unnumbered, as they would have been in the tarot.

These cards are the three theological virtues, the cardinal virtue Prudence, the four elements, and the twelve zodiac signs. A slight change is that the Angel is called "Le Trombe" The Trumpets, and has the words "fama fola" [fame flies] at the bottom.Also the card before the Star is called "House of the Devil", and the Devil is called "Demonio" as well as "Diavolo". The one before death was sometimes "The Traitor" as well as "The Hanged Man"; the next card lower was "The Hunchback" and "Time"; Love was called "Papa cinque" [papa five]; and the Bagatto was called "the One" or "papa uno".

When the additional cards are subtracted, Dummett says, they "form a sequence whose order is immediately identifiable as belonging to type A" (p. 247). Some designs are reminiscent of the Bolognese (as well as the Rosenwald). And like the Bolognese, but not the Rosenwald, there are both Jacks and Maids. But the Knights, as centaurs and monsters, are more simlar to the Rosenwald's centaurs (which we also see, strangely enough, on the Budapest cards of Ferrara or Venice). He argues that even though there are many differences between the Rosenwald and Minchiate designs (p. 248):
Le somiglianze fra il mazzo Rosenwald e le carte delle Minchiate sono troppe per mettere in dubbio l’origine fiorentina dei fogli Washington. In entrambi i casi, l’ordine dei trionfi è dì tipo A, ma differisce da quello bolognese in quanto le tre virtù sono collocate immediatamente al di sopra dell’Amore invece che del Carro; possiamo considerare questo tratto come caratteristica debordine fiorentino, diverso in questo riguardo da quello bolognese. (Per questa ragione, i numeri sui tarocchi ‘Carlo VI’ suggeriscono una mano -fiorentina.) In entrambi i mazzi, i semi di Coppe e Denari hanno Fantine, non Fanti; e nel mazzo Rosenwald tutti e quattro i Cavalli sono centauri — un stadio intermedio molto convincente prima dei due centauri e dei due mostri delle Minchiate.)

(The similarities between the Minchiate pack and the Rosenwald cards are too many to cast doubt on the Florentine origin of the Washington sheets. In both cases, the the trump order is of type A, but differs from the Bolognese in that [end of 248] the three virtues are placed immediately above the Chariot instead of Love; we can consider this as a characteristic trait of the Florentine order different in this respect from that of Bologna. (For this reason, the numbers on the tarot 'Charles VI' suggest a Florentine hand.) In both packs, the suits of Cups and Coins have Fantine, not Fanti; and in the Rosenwald pack all four horses are centaurs - a very convincing intermediate stage before the two centaurs and two monsters of the Minchiate.)
As far as differences, he says that the Rosenwald Bagatto has a jester's hat, whereas in the Minchiate he is a "a well-dressed young merchant" ("il Bagatto Rosenwald porta un cappello da buffone, mentre, nelle Minchiate, è un giovane mercante ben vestito"). Since the Bolognese Bagatto also has a jester's hat, that is a curious change. Actually, the Minchiate figure is more ambiguous; he is dressed more like an entertainer than a merchant, but he seems to carry a book. Below left is the 17th century "Uno" in Kaplan vol. 1. The details are clearer on the 18th century version in Kaplan's vol. 2, below the first (I include the other "papi" for anyone who wants to inspect them).



One difference might be the footwear, more practical in the 17th century version. I can't tell if that figure has a wand instead of a book. The auxiliary figures in both tie him to the d'Este and Budapest cards.

In other cards, Dummett is correct when he says that there are differences in detail. at least one detail strengthens the case for a Florentine origin. For example, there is a woman running from the "house of the devil" (http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Minchiate_Tarot). It has been commented by others ("Huck" in particular) that this detail is reminiscent of Masaccio's famous "expulsion from Eden" fresco in Florence (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Masaccio_expulsion-1427.jpg). The Moon card, with one astronomer instead of two (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ6UWHpHx11SzAYkdpb3mvFAjEXyzztKlSZZ5LCfWt24JPMEttmB_K1WN_v3MHB8bL8vl-g8Oa8AVfES6XV9FCHfW0QnxG9PRwlZOgbJuNMNO-zy7r7pBkr3POlPT84YtgEnhm9ehLnhU/s1600/18MinchFaithMoon.jpg), is more like the d'Este version than the Charles VI or Bolognese (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ-_62iVn0Ob1ehqjDifcLtHCqz9kvpM4FzKVJnSeKRfss_SAOm6oHVzbSYPRXA-_P7kIYjrY5nrqvW75pu6mIBd5jPKhlwqoBIFt_iijn9LxkmWPJjeETVmo6jSDPCmag4WVrpkwEgLB2/s1600/18desteGringRothschSM.jpg). This is perhaps an argument in favor of the d'Este as originating in Florence.

Although as in Bologna the game was played in two sets of partners, the scoring in Minchiate is more complicated than in Bologna (p. 252):
Il modo di giocare alle Minchiate appartiene alla stessa categoria del gioco del Tarocchino bolognese, pur differendone totalmente nei dettagli. Come a Bologna, la forma principale del gioco era a quattro, in coppie fisse, almeno dal Seicento in poi. I valori delle carte erano completamente diversi da quelli bolognesi. I Re valevano 5 punti ciascuno, ma le altre figure avevano perso i loro valori di punteggio. Il Matto valeva 5 punti, come pure i seguenti trionfi: il I, il X, il XIII, il XX, il XXVIII e tutti quelli dal XXX al XXXV. Le cinque arie (i trionfi più alti non numerati) valevano 10 punti ciascuna, e i ‘Papi’ dal H al V valevano 3 punti ciascuno, così che la metà esatta dei quaranta trionfi aveva un valore di punteggio. Come a Bologna, l’ultima presa era particolarmente importante: valeva infatti 10 punti. Una caratteristica che non è presente nel gioco bolognese, nella forma a noi nota, era che la coppia che prendeva una carta con valore di punteggio degli avversari ne acquisiva subito i punti, oltre a conteggiarla nel punteggio alla fine della partita. Della carta presa così si diceva che essa ‘muore’; risulta dvìV Invettiva di Lollio e dalla Risposta di Imperiali che questa regola era prevalente anche nel gioco ferrarese, con la stessa terminologia.

(In manner of play, Minchiate belongs to the same category as the Bolognese game of Tarocchino. while differing totally in detail. As in Bologna, the main form of the game was for four, in fixed pairs, at least from the seventeenth century onwards. The point-values of the cards were completely different from those of Bologna. The Kings were worth 5 points each, but the other figures lost their point-values. The Fool was worth 5 points, as well as the following triumphs: the I, X, XIII, XX, XXVIII, and all those from XXX to XXXV. The five aire (the highest triumphs, unnumbered) were worth 10 points each, and the 'Papi' from II to V were worth 3 points each, so that exactly half of the forty triumphs had point-value. As in Bologna, the last trick was particularly important: in fact worth 10 points. One feature that is not present in the game of Bologna, in the form known to us, was that the pair who took a card with a point-value of the opponents immediately acquired points, as well as counting it in the score at the end of the game. Of the card taken so it was said that it 'dies'; the Invective of Lollio and Response by Imperiali shows that this rule was prevalent also in the game of Ferrara, with the same terminology.)
Combinations, i.e. "verzicole", also counted, as in Bologna. Only cards with point-values could be part of these combinations, except for Card XXVIIII.There were also special combinations: "for example, the One, the Fool and the Trumpets, or I, XIII and XXVIII" (p. 253). 13 cards were not dealt, so that each player received 24 cards, but the dealer and the person to his left (from the other partnership) were permitted to draw from them (face up), so that all the cards with point-values would be in play. It was then announced how many cards of each suit had been set aside. Playing well required a good memory and keeping track what cards were left, both of suits and triumphs.

Then there is the question of when the game was invented. Dummet looks at the early literary references (p. 254):
Uno dei primi riferimenti cinquecenteschi si trova nel dialogo di Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) Le carte parlanti, pubblicato nel 1543, in forma di conversazione fra un fabbricante, il Padovano, e le sue carte. Un altro, un po’ anteriore, si trova nella novella Sopra un caso accaduto in Prato di Agnolo Firenzuola (1493-1543), scoperta da Franco Pratesi e datata da lui intorno al 1538 12. Una terza menzione, anch’essa scoperta da Franco Pratesi, è nel Capitolo in lode delle zanzare del pittore Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), che Pratesi colloca nel decennio 1530-40 13. In tutti questi scritti, le carte e il gioco sono chiamate ‘i Germini’.

(One of the earliest references in the sixteenth century is in the dialogue of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) Carte Parlante [Talking Cards], published in 1543, in the form of a conversation between a manufacturer, the Paduan, and his cards. Another, somewhat earlier, is in the novella Sopra un caso accaduto in Prato [On a case that happened in Prato[ by Agnolo Firenzuola (1493-1543), discovered by Franco Pratesi and dated by him to around 1538 (12). A third mention, also discovered by Franco Pratesi, is in the Chapter in praise of mosquitoes by the painter Angelo Bronzino (1503-1572), which Pratesi places in the decade 1530-40 (13). In all of these writings, the cards and the game are called 'Germini'.
______________________
12.. F. Pratesi, ' Italian Cards: New Discoveries ', n. 5, The Playing Card, Vol XVI, 1988, p. 78-83.
13. Ibid.)
Dummett knows of only one 'tarot appropriati' based on the triumphs of this pack: "I Germini sopra quaranta Meretrice della città di Firenze" [The Germini over forty Whores of the city of Florence], anonymous, 1553. (The entire poem, in Italian and English,is online starting at http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Germini_Poem:_Beginning)

As to this word "Germini", Dummett explains (I omit his Italian): "The term 'Germini' is a corruption of the Latin name, Gemini, the Zodiac sign represented by triumph XXXV, the highest supplemental trump." The name was gradually replaced by "Minchiate" over the course of the 17th century.

Since Dummett's time, in fact quite recently, Lothar Teikemeier reported two references to Germini, one in 1517 and the other in early 1518, confirmed in essays by Pratesi (http://trionfi.com/germini-1517-1519). Both are in connection with Lorenzo de' Medici's grandson, also named Lorenzo. Nothing about the content of the game is reported, just the name.

The first known occurrence of the word "minchiate" to refer to a game, Dummett points out, is in a letter from Luigi Pulci to Lorenzo di Medici (grandfather of the one playing "Germini") in 1466, of which Dummett quotes the relevant sentence (p. 256):
Pure, se havessi cavallo, ho sì gran voglia di rivederti ch’io verrei costì per isvisarti alle minchiate, a passadieci, a sbaraglino, come tu sai ch’io ti concio.

(If I only had a horse, I would come to you to challenge you at Minchiate, at Passadieci, at Sbaraglino, and you know how I mistreated you.)
For the full letter, in Italian and English, see Andrea Vitali's essay at http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=338#. (The above translation is with Andrea's input. Andrea says that "you know how I mistreated you" is a reference to the fact that Pulci always beat Lorenzo at these games.) Passadieci, Dummett explains, is a dice game, and Sbaraglino is backgammon. Dummett wonders whether the word in the letter perhaps was read incorrectly, as the original's whereabouts are unknown since 1956. But it has been reprinted by different editors (p. 256, note 15):
15. Sì veda l'artìcolo di F. Pratesi citato nella nota 12. La lettera fu pubblicata per la prima volta da S. Bongi in Lettere di Luigi Pulci a Lorenzo il Magnìfico e ad altri, Lucca, 1868, e poi, in una nuova edizione, nel 1886; secondo Pratesi, è anche contenuta in L. Pulci, Margarite e Lettere, a cura di D. De Robertis, 1962, ristampato 1984.

(15. See the article by F. Pratesi cited in note 12. The letter was published for the first time by S. Bongi in Letters of Luigi Pulci to Lorenzo the Magnificent and others, Lucca, 1868 and then, in a new edition, in 1886; according to Pratesi, it is also contained in L. Pulci, [ Memoranda and Letters, edited by D. De Robertis 1962, reprinted 1984.
Dummett goes on to say that the word also appears as a game in an ordinance of 1477:
Nel 1477 il Comune di Firenze rilasciò una nuova Provvisione sui giochi, nella quale il «giuocho delle minchiate» compare fra ì giochi permessi insieme con il «giuocho de triomphj» e con altri giochi 16.
In 1477, the City of Florence released a new Provision on games, in which the "game of minchiate" appears among the allowed games along with the "game of Triomphi" and other games. 16
______________________
16. See the article by F. Pratesi cited in note 2 ['Italian Cards: New Discoveries', The Playing Card, Vol XIX, 1990, pp. 7-17.]
Also, I would add, words similar to "minchiate", meaning "foolish, stupid" etc. appear in other poems by Pulci, which Andrea gives in full in his essay (with translations that the two of us have worked out). None of these words refer to a game. There is also a poem by a poet named Berchione, perhaps as early as 1440 (http://trionfi.com/0/e/00a/). It contains a reference to "Triumphe"; but the "minch'" word is "minchiatar", which I would guess is a verb.

What kind of game would it be? It's anybody's guess, but one possibility, it seems to me, is a modification of a thesis Moakley and Algeri reportedly advanced, that the Cary-Yale was in fact a Minchiate deck. Dummett is scathing about that suggestion, saying that Minchiate "has nothing in common" with the Cary-Yale, with its 16 cards per suit (p. 52):
Una sola ipotesi, avanzata, per esempio, dalla dottoressa Algeri e dalla signora Gertrude Moakley, può essere esclusa con certezza come del tutto anacronistica, e cioè che si trattasse di un mazzo delle Minchiate. Infatti, a parte la presenza delle virtù teologali, il mazzo delle Minchiate non ha nulla in comune con il mazzo Visconti di Modrone, la cui divergenza principale dalla struttura normale del mazzo dei tarocchi è il maggior numero di figure in ciascun seme: in un mazzo delle Minchiate ce ne sono soltanto quattro. Come vedremo, il mazzo delle Minchiate non è una forma derivata dagli stadi più antichi del mazzo dei tarocchi, ma una deliberata variante inventata a Firenze molto tempo dopo che il mazzo nella sua forma comune era stato standardizzato e cioè nel secondo quarto del XVI secolo.

(One hypothesis, advanced, for example, by Dr Algeri and Mrs. Gertrude Moakley, can be excluded with certainty as completely anachronistic, namely, that it was a Minchiate pack. In fact, apart from the presence of the theological virtues, the Minchiate pack has nothing in common with the Visconti di Modrone pack, whose main divergence from the normal structure of the tarot pack is that of a greater number of figures in each suit: in Minchiate there are only four. As we shall see,the Minchiate pack is not a form derived from earlier stages of the tarot pack, but a variant deliberately invented in Florence a long time after the pack in its common form had been standardized, that is, in the second quarter of the sixteenth century.)
I see no reason to suppose that the Cary-Yale was a Minchiate. But I don't see why that part, the 2 extra courts, couldn't have been dropped, and the four triumphs kept, perhaps in place of some other cards, such as the Popess. Some people might not have liked the theological virtues and prudence being removed and kept them in a deck. That is still not a Minchiate, but it is not a standard tarot either. This hypothesis could explain why the name "Germini" was adopted: to distinguish it from the old deck with some of its characteristics: We'll probably never know the answers to either question (i.e. what the 1466-1477 "minchiate" was or why the name was "Germini" first and a century later "minchiate").
On "Minchiate", the next in time, after 1477, for Dummett is a comment by Berni in his 1526 book on games, primarily Primiera:
"Un altro... ha trovato che Tarocchi sono un bel gioco, & pargli essere in regno suo quando ha in mano un numero di dugento carte che a pena le può tenere, et per non essere appostato le mescola cosi il meglio che può sotto la tavola, viso proprio di Tarocco colui a chi piace questo gioco, che altro non vuol dir Tarocco che ignocco, sciocco, Balocco degno di star fra fomari & calzolari & plebei a giocarsi in tutto di un Carlino in quarto a tarocchi, o a trionfi, o a Sminchiate che si sia..."

(Another found that... Tarot is an excellent game, & he seems to be in his glory when he has in his hand a number of two hundred cards that he can scarcely hold, and so as not to be seen shuffles them as best he can under the table. Let him look to it, one who is pleased with this game of Tarocco, that this word Tarocco says nothing other than stupid, foolish, simple, fit only to be used by cobblers & bakers & the vulgar, to play at most the fourth part of a Carlino, at tarocchi, at triumphs, or any Sminchiate whatever.
(This translation is a slightly modified version of that in Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards, p. 28, at http://books.google.com/books?id=_WAOAA ... te&f=false.)
About this quote Dummett says:
Molti hanno ipotizzato che la parola «Sminchiate» in questo passo si riferisca al gioco delle Minchiate. Tuttavia, il termine «sminchiate», usato come verbo, era comune fra i giocatori bolognesi dal XVII al XIX secolo, come risulta dai libri sui giochi dì carte, compreso quello di Pisani. Naturalmente, non aveva connotazioni indecorose, ma era usato dal giocatore che era di mano per chiedere che il suo compagno giocasse il trionfo più alto che aveva in mano e restituisse un trionfo se faceva la presa. In mancanza di una prova che prima del XVII secolo la parola «Minchiate» fosse usata per il gioco noto come ‘i Ger-[end of 255] mini’, non sembra possibile cogliere nel passo del Comento un’allusione a quel gioco. In assenza dì tale prova, sembra più plausibile il contrario, e cioè che il gioco dei Tarocchi fosse praticato a Firenze a quell’epoca, mentre quello dei Germini non esisteva ancora. In tal caso, la sua invenzione è databile molto precisamente fra il 1526 e il 1538,

(Many have speculated that the word "Sminchiate" in this passage refers to the game of Minchiate. However, the term "sminchiate", used as a verb, was common among Bolognese players from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, as shown by the books on card games, including that of Pisani. Of course, it had no unseemly connotations, but it was used by the player who was on hand to ask that his partner play the highest triumph in his hand and give back a triumph if he won the trick. In the absence of evidence that before the seventeenth century the word "Minchiate" was used for the game known as 'Ger-[end of 255]mini ', it does not seem possible to gather from this passage in the Comento an allusion to that game. In the absence of such evidence, it seems more plausible than the opposite, namely that the game of Tarot was practiced in Florence at that time, while that of Germini did not yet exist. In this case, his invention can be dated very precisely between 1526 and 1538.
Part of what Dummett says about "Sminchiate" is on Wikipedia; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarocchini). I do not understand how one "gives back" (restituisse) a triumph after winning a trick. Vitali has a different interpretation of the rule at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=243&lng=ENG, footnote 14.

It is certainly true that "sminchiate" could be used as a verb. But Dummett has unaccountably left out the rest of the sentence (even putting a period at the end of his quote), which in fact continues, as Singer has it (p. 27, footnote), after merely a comma:
:.., che si sia, che ad ogni modo tutto importa minchioneria e dapocagine, passendo l'occhio col Sol, et co la Luna, et col Dodici, come fanno i puti.

(...: 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).
The part at the end obviously refers to the cards of Minchiate, which include the signs of the Zodiac. The Minchiate deck clearly existed in 1526. However it must not have been very popular yet, because he merely ridicules it, and it may have in fact been called "Minchiate". This is not to say that Pulci's game was with such a deck. We just don't know.

To be sure, the word "sminchiate" existed at some point as a verb. The word probably has the same root as Berni's word "minchioneria", foolery. "Taroccare" was also a verb, meaning "play tarocchi" (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/568c.html) as well as many other things (http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=220&lng=ENG). So was "trionfare", both within the game, meaning to win the trick, and outside it (http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio/search/595c.html).

That did not stop versions of these words from being the names of games. Likewise, "passadieci" means "pass ten", and "sbaraglino" means "to triumph". Andrea says in his footnote on "sminchiate" (http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=199&lng=ITA, note 45, in English at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=243&lng=ENG, note 14):
Sminchiare = Giocare il trionfo più grande e proseguire con gli altri (dal gioco fiorentino delle Minchiate). Questo termine è rimasto anche oggi nel dialetto bolognese ad indicare un'azione ripetuta e molto decisa.
(Sminchiare = To play with the greatest triumph and go on with the others (from the Florentine game Minchiate). This term is still present in the Bolognese dialect to mean a very strong repeated action.
It sounds to me as though it is applied here as an application of a more general meaning of "to make a fool of everyone". But the etymology is obscure

Either as "germini" or as "minchiate" the game was referred to often in literature of the late 16th and the 17th century. Dummett continues (p. 257f):
Dopo il Berni non sentiamo più parlare da alcuna fonte fiorentina del gioco dei Tarocchi, ma solo dei Germini; ma di questi ne sentiamo parlare moltissimo. Divenne un gioco molto famoso non solo in tutta la Toscana, ma anche a Roma e in tutti gli Stati Pontifici, inclusa Bologna.

(After Berni we do not hear more about the game of Tarot from any Florentine source, but only Germini; but of this we hear a lot. It became a very famous game not only in Tuscany, but also in Rome and in all the Papal States, including Bologna.)
He next observes that both "Menchiatte," and "Germini" are in the Italian/English dictionary of John Fiorio, A Worlds of Wordes, published in London in 1598. These entries are online at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio1598/169.html and http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/florio1598/245.html.
There follow some references to to "Germini" and "Minchiate" in Tuscan literature (p. 257ff):
Un riferimento al gioco, sotto il nome dei ‘Germini’, compare in una prosa del poeta fiorentino Alessandro Allegri (c. 1560-1629) pubblicata nel 1613 17. Nella parte I della Sfinge, pubblicata nel 1640, una collezione di indovinelli in versi ad opera di un altro poeta fiorentino, Antonio Malatesti (1610-1672), la risposta all’indovinello 20 è: «L’Uno de’ Germini»; e la risposta all'indovinello 71 nella parte II, pubblicata nel 1643, è: «Il giuoco delle Minchiate». Le prime due parti furono ristampate nel 1683 con una parte III postuma, la cui terza sezione era intitolata ‘Quaderni delle Minchiate’ e consìsteva di sessantasei quartine dedicate ciascuna a una delle principali carte del mazzo delle Minchiate. Un amico di Malatesti, il pittore e poeta fiorentino Lorenzo Lippi (1606-1665), compose un lungo poema, Il Malmantile racquistato, due stanze del quale (la 61 e la 62 del VIII canto) avevano a che fare con le Minchiate. La prima edizione di que-[end of 257]sto poema fu pubblicata postuma nel 1676, sotto lo pseudonimo anagrammatico di Perlone Zipoli, con un commento dell’amico Paolo Minuccì, che usava lo pseudonimo di Puccio Lamoni: è questo commento che contiene la prima esposizione delle regole del gioco. Le note di Minucci furono integrate da Antonio Maria Biscioni, con ulteriori osservazioni sulle Minchiate, in occasione di una nuova edizione del 1731. L’opera di Lippi e il commento di Minucci non solo ci forniscono informazioni dettagliate molto utili, ma attestano che il gioco continuò a essere ben noto a Firenze per tutto il XVII secolo. Minucci comincia la sua lunga nota come segue:
MINCHIATE. E un giuoco assai noto detto anche Tarocchi, Ganellinì, o Germini.
L’uso della rara parola «Ganellini» o simile è confermato da un passo del libretto Del giuoco dell’ombra pubblicato a Roma nel 1674 18:
Alcuni dandolo alla primiera, giuoco veramente nobile et altri (con maggior lontananza però del dovere) dandolo alle minchiate, overo a tarocchi, 6 canelini, ò pure al tre sette, overo al trionfino, ò alla bazica, overo alla staffetta, e simili.
La nota di Minucci continua:
Ma perché è poco usato fuori della nostra Toscana, o almeno diversamente da qualche usiamo noi, per intelligenza delle presenti Ottave stimo necessario sapersi, che il giuoco delle Minchiate si fa nella maniera che appresso.
Segue la sua esposizione delle regole del gioco. Nella penultima frase della nota, Minucci estende la sua osservazione ai modi diversi di giocare:
E tanto mi pare che basti per facilitare l’intelligenza delle presenti ottave a chi non fusse pratico del giuoco delle Minchiate, che usiamo noi Toscani, che è assai differente da quello, che con [end of 258] le medesime carte usano quelli dalla Liguria, che lo dicono Gallerini; perché Minchiate in quei paesi è parola oscena.
Quanto alla parola «Minchiate», le leggi fiscali toscane attestano il momento in cui soppiantò «Germini»: dal 1636 al 1677 queste leggi parlano dei ‘Germini’, ma dal 1696 in poi delle ‘Minchiate’19.
____________________________
17. A. Allegri, Rime piacevoli, parte IV, Verona, 1613, in una prosa dedicata ‘al Sìg. Francesco Niccoli*. Le quattro parti delle Rime piacevoli furono ristampate insieme come Rime e Prose, Amsterdam, 1754; si veda p. 207. Sono debitore per questo riferimento a F. Pratesi, nel suo articolo citato nella nota 12.
18. Alfredo Lensi, Bibliografia italiana di giuochi di carte, Firenze, 1892, attribuisce il libretto al cardinale Giovanni Battista de Luca.19. Per essere esatti, le leggi del 1636, 1641, 1646, 1656, 1672 e 1677 parlano dei Germini, e quelle del 1696, 1701, 1706 e così via fino al 1820 delle Minchiate. Questa informazione è fornita da Alberto Milano, ‘Financial Legislation on Tuscan Playing Cards from the beginning of the 17th century to the unification’, The Playing Card, Vol. X, 1983, pp. 102-6.
Rather than translate verbatim, I think these will make more sense in the form of a list (with my comments after each, in brackets).

1. 'Germini' appears in a prose work of the Florentine poet Alessandro Allegri (c. 1560-1629), published in 1613. [Also the names of four triumphs: the world, the trumpets, the fool, the devil. The whole passage is available in Italian and English at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=243&lng=ENG.]

2, In Part I of the Sphinx, published in 1640, a collection of riddles in verse by the Florentine poet Antonio Malatesta (1610-1672), the answer to riddle 20 is: "the One of 'Germini'; and in Part II, published in 1643, the answer to riddle 71 is: "The Game of Minchiate." The first two parts were reprinted in 1683 with a posthumous Part III, the third section of which was entitled 'The Cards of Minchiate' and consisted of 66 quatrains, each dedicated to one of the main cards in the Minchiate pack.

3. The Florentine painter and poet Lorenzo Lippi (1606-1665), a friend of Malatesta's, composed a long poem, Il Malmantile Racquistato (Malmantile Reconquered), two stamzas of which (61 and 62 of canto VIII) had to do with Minchiate. [These stanzas may be found in both Italian and English at http://www.associazioneletarot.it/page. ... 15&lng=ENG, You will also find there stanzas with the words "Germini". "bagatino", and the word "tarocchi" applied to the Devil card. These last two are more appropriate to the game of Tarot than to Minchiate.].

4. The first edition of Lippi's poem, 1674, contained a commentary by his friend Paolo Minuccì. This commentary contains the first explanatio of the rules of Minchiate. The note begins:
(MINCHIATE. It is a well-known game also known as Tarocchi, Ganellini, or Germini.
Later he explains why he is writing these comments (p. 258):
But because it is rarely used outside of our Tuscany, or at least unlike some we use, for intelligence of these present Octaves I deem necessary for it to be known, that the game of Minchiate, is done in such a way as below.
Manucchi later explains why the name "Ganellini" is used in Liguria instead of "Minchiate".
(p. 258f), this time called "Gallerini":
And so I think that enough to facilitate the understanding of these octaves to those who would practice the game of Minchiate, that we use [i.e. say in] Tuscan, which is very different from that which with the same cards are used for that in Liguria, who say Gallerini; because Minchiate in those countries is an obscene word.
[More of Manucchi's essay can be read in Italian and English at http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=215&lng=ENG.]

5. The word "Ganellini" or similar is also in the book Gioco di Ombre published in 1674:
Some giving to Primiera, [the title of] truly noble game, and others (with greater distance, however, owed) giving that to Minchiate , or to tarot, or canelini, or indeed to treseta, to bazica or to staffetta , and the like.
6. Tuscan tax laws: from 1636 to 1677 these laws speak of 'Germini ', but from 1696 onwards, 'Minchiate' .

Then he turns to an important source for Minchiate in Sicily, Emanuele, Marchese di Villabianca (1720-1802), who wrote a pamphlet called “De' Giuochi volgari in genere” [Of common Games in general]. Villabianca informs us that:
Dal fu Viceré Francesco Gaetani, duca di Sermoneta, che fiorì nel 1663, fu portato in Sicilia il giuoco di carte che noi dicciam de’ Gallerini.

(By Viceroy Francesco Gaetani, Duke of Sermoneta, who flourished in 1663, was brought to Sicily the game of cards that we call Gallerini.)
Again, the name was chosen out of modesty ("per modestia"). He also guesses at its derivation. I apologize if my translation of 17th century Italian has errors (this one was not reviewed by Andrea)
E chisà chisà se il nome di Gallerini fu a derivarvi dalle prime Levate di Galleria che diede in Palermo quel Governante Sermoneta, commutandone i nostri, per modestia, il nome da Manchiate come venivano appellate in Roma, ove tal voce non è di ingiuria, secondo apprendesi nella Sicilia.

(And perhaps the name of Gallerini was to be derived from the first Construction in Palermo, the Galleria, which gave Governor Sermoneta, our commander, for modesty, the name, from Manchiate as it was called in Rome, where such word is not abusive, accordingly it was taught in Sicily.)
As to why the word was obscene in Genoa and Sicily, two rather separated areas, Dummett explains (p. 261):
At that time, Genoa hosted many immigrants from Southern Italy and Sicily, and it seems very likely that the game of Gallerini was brought to them from Sicily, and did not arrive directly from Florence.
Dummett offers no alternative explanation for the derivation of "Gallerini"/"Ganellini". In fact, the name seems to come from what the first triumph was called, the Gannelino. This name for triumph I is in a manuscript that Andrea Vitali found, Regole del nobile e dilettevole gioco delle Minchiate (Rules of the noble and pleasant game of Minchiate) written by the lawyer Niccolò Onesti (Rome, 1716). Andrea writes (http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=257#; http://www.letarot.it/page.aspx?id=257&lng=ENG):
Di seguito riportiamo il Capitolo Primo, da cui siamo informati che il gioco consisteva di 97 carte, di cui 40 Tarocchi e 56 carte dette La Cartiglia. I Tarocchi erano quelli contrassegnati con i numeri ad iniziare dall'uno detto Ganellino (altro nome utilizzato al plurale per questo gioco, con sua variante Gallerini utilizzato in Liguria e Sicilia) fino al numero XXXV, cioè il segno zodiacale dei Gemelli, per poi proseguire con le cosiddette Arie, cioè la Stella, la Luna, il Sole, il Mondo e infine le Trombe. A questi 40 Tarocchi veniva aggiunto il Matto, senza numero, posto per il quarantunesimo Tarocco.

(In the following we report the First Chapter, by which we are informed that the game consisted of 97 cards, of which 40 were Tarots and 56 were called Cartiglia. The Tarots were those marked with numbers beginning from one, called Ganellino (another name, used in the plural, for this game, with its variant Gallerini used in Liguria and Sicily) up to the number XXXV, which is the zodiacal sign of Gemini; then it continues with the so-called Airs, which are the Star, the Moon, the Sun, the World and finally the Trumpets. To these 40 Tarots was added the Fool, without number, set as the forty-first Tarot.)
Indeed, in Onesti's text itself we read:
Li Tarocchi son quelli che son contrasegnati à capo di ciascuna carta con il numero; incominciando dall'uno che si chiama Ganellino sino al numero XXXV, doppo il quale seguita in ordine la Stella, che viene ad essere il 36. Dopoi la Luna. 37. poscia il Sole. 38. Il Mondo 39. e finalmente le Trombe che compiscono il numero di 40 e le dette cinque si domandano le Arie. Aggiungendosi alli detti Tarocchi anche il Matto che non ha numero et' è' cosi detto perché è vario e si mista con tutte le carte e da esse tassativamente si scioglie come si dirà in apresso, che si pone per il 41. Taroccho.

(Tarots are those marked at the top of each card with the number; starting from the one that is called Ganellino until number XXXV, then follows in order the Star, which comes to be be 36. Then the Moon. 37. then the Sun. 38. the World 39. and finally the Trumpets which are number 40, and these five are called the Airs [Arie]. Adding to the Tarots also the Fool which doesn’t have number and it is so called because it is various and mixes with all the cards and from them detaches absolutely as it will be said later, it is set for 41. Taroccho.)
It might be of interest to know the etymology of this "Gannelino" or "Gallerini". If Dummett is right about the game spreading from Sicily to Genoa, then "Gallerini" would have been first. Is it perhaps related to "gallo" *rooster") by way of "gallino" (analagous to "gallina", hen), thus a variation on "little rooster"?

Villabianca makes one more interesting comment about the game in Sicily (p. 261):
Si maneggia il Giuoco con 98 carte nelle quali 42 trionfi...

(The Game is managed with 98 cards in which 42 are triumphs...)
Dummett says that there are in fact Minchiate decks with six unnumbered triumphs at the top of the hierarchy instead of the usual five. The sixth "depicts a naked woman running with her feet on the rim of a wheel; Woman and wheel are enclosed in a circle governed by two male figures that rise from the earth." He supposes the subject is Fortune. Such a deck was manufactured in Genoa by Solesio with tax stamps that were used 1896-1913.

Then there is the game of Minchiate in Rome, Dummett says (261f):
Nonostante Tasserzione di Minucci, il gioco delle Minchiate, praticato esattamente nel modo fiorentino, era ampiamente diffuso a Roma alla fine del primo quarto del XVIII secolo; è probabile che vi fosse stato introdotto molto tempo prima, poiché deve essere stato da Roma che il Viceré Francesco Gaetani, duca di Sermoneta, lo introdusse in Sicilia nel [end of 261] 1663.

(Despite Manucci's assertion, the game of Minchiate, practiced exactly in the Florentine way, was widespread in Rome at the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century; it is likely that it had been introduced there much earlier, because it must have been from Rome that the Viceroy Francisco Gaetani, duke of Sermoneta, introduced it into Sicily in 1663.
He ends by noting that Minchiate also existed in other countries (p. 262):
Sembra che le Minchiate fossero note in Francia fin dal 1730 circa, quando Nicholas de Poilly ne realizzò un mazzo in- [end of 262] ciso su rame di disegno molto diverso da quello standard 26. Sono usati i segni di seme francesi; le quattro figure di ciascun seme rappresentano uno dei quattro continenti (per esempio, il seme di Quadri rappresenta l’Asia). Non c’è il Matto, ma ci sono quarantadue trionfi con soggetti non standard, tutti numerati con numeri arabi. Può trattarsi di una pura curiosità, ma verso il 1775 fu stampato un libretto, Regies du Jeu des Min-quiattes, che forniva istruzioni sul modo di usarlo 27.
_________________
26. Un esemplare era nella collezione del defunto Claude Guiard di Parigi, e fu esposto al Musée des Arts Décoratifs nel 1981. È riprodotto nel catalogo Cartes à Jouer Anciennes: un rève de collectionneur.
27. Una copia è nella Bìbliothèque Nationale di Parigi; devo questa informazione a Thierry Depaulis,

(It seems that Minchiate was known in France since 1730, when Nicholas de Poilly made a pack en- [end of 262] graved on copper with depictions very different from the standard ones 26. Abbreviations are used for French suits; the four courts in each suit are one of the fourhttp://www.associazioneletarot.it/page.aspx?id=261 continents (for example, the suit of pictures representing Asia). There is the Fool, but there are forty-two non-standard trumps, all numbered with Arabic numerals. It may be a mere curiosity, but towards 1775 was printed a booklet, Regles du Jeu des Minquiattes, which provided instructions on how to use it 27.
____________________
26. A copy was in the collection of the late Claude Guiard of Paris, and was exhibited at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in 1981. It is reproduced in the catalog Cartes à Jouer Anciennes: un rève de collectionneur.
27. A copy is in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; I owe this information to Thierry Depaulis,
You can read about these cards, and see them, in their own little THF thread, starting at http://forum.tarothistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=782&hilit=Poilly#p11174.

There also survive instruction booklets in German. There is even one strange Austrian version printed by Piatnik in the 1930s, with 40 triumphs illustrating scenes from ordinary life. Dummett speculates that the Austrian company started producing it when Solesio stopped producing 97 card packs for Genoa in 1932.

No comments:

Post a Comment