Once again, a deck of cards flashed before my eyes and I thought, who even drew the cards with which we usually play? Now there are many different cards, but since the time of the Soviet Union, the deck has been about the same, just like in the top picture.

Those cards that we are accustomed to since childhood came to us at the beginning of the 17th century through Poland and Germany from France. The "Russian deck" of 36 cards is a truncated (i.e., starting with sixes) 54-card "French deck". But let's start from the beginning...

The invention of this entertainment, an inexhaustible source of joys and sorrows, is attributed to the cunning Egyptians, and the fatalistic Indians, and the cheerful Greeks in the person of Palamedes. However, during the excavations, if they found the "tools" of gambling, then mainly in the form of hexagonal cubes.

It is generally accepted that the first maps appeared later, in the XII century in China. Masters in filling their leisure time, court aristocrats, found in drawing small pictures with allegorical signs of animals, birds and plants at first aesthetic fun. Then - a convenient way to transfer secret information in the case of palace and love intrigues. And later - the possibility of risky games with the all-powerful Fatum.

But much more popular is the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists. They claimed that in ancient times the Egyptian priests wrote down all the wisdom of the world on 78 golden tablets, which were also depicted in the symbolic form of cards. 56 of them - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Senior Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for divination. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors the French Eliphas Levy and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. This name allegedly comes from the Egyptian “ta rosh” (“the way of the kings”), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by Arabs or by gypsies, who were often considered to come from Egypt.

True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.

According to the third version (European version), ordinary maps appeared on the European continent no later than the 14th century. Back in 1367, the card game was banned in the city of Bern, and ten years later, a shocked papal envoy watched with horror as the monks enthusiastically cut into cards near the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacquemain Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards for the amusement of his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were not enough four ladies, whose presence seemed then superfluous. Only in the next century, Italian artists began to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.

Just at this time, Europe began to carry out major military expeditions to the East - the Crusades (1096-1270), and for the first time Europeans discovered a new and already highly developed culture. Returning home, the crusaders did not forget to take with them the exotic that struck them: light porcelain, the finest silk, painted fans and, of course, charming miniatures on thick rice paper for magic tricks and divination.

However, it took a long time until card games became commonplace. In any case, the first mention in the chronicles of the Saracen game "naib" (Arabic "naib" - cards) dates back to the last quarter of the 14th century. It is characteristic that, in full accordance with the Arabic sound, the word "cards" in Italian is "naibi"; in Spanish "naipes"; in Portuguese "naipe" (this was due to brisk trade with the Arab countries and close contact with local merchants, known for their passion to pay for goods "by chance", i.e. according to the principle of the unforgettable Nozdryov).

In other European countries, another single-root word has firmly established itself: in France - “carte”, in Germany - “Karten, SpielKarten”, in Denmark - “Kort, SpelKarten”, in Holland - “Kaarten, SpeelKarten”, in England - “card ".

At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, cards were made directly by the artist and by individual order. Naturally, its productivity was not high, and only with the invention of engraving did card printing take on a large scale.

Three main types of playing cards are added at the same time: Italian, French and German. All of them had differences both in suits and in the figures themselves.

The Italian type of cards originated with the invention of the game "tarok". These maps, made like engravings on copper, were very peculiar. In a normal, or "Venetian", tarok, the deck consisted of 78 cards, the suits were divided into bowls, denarii, swords and clubs. Each suit contained 14 cards: king, queen, knight, jack, point cards from ten to six, ace of swords, point cards from five to two. The rest of the cards, 21 in number, starting from Figlyar and ending with the card called Light, were trump cards, or Triumphs. Finally, there was another card called the Fool (by the way, the prototype of the future Joker). In Florence, cards were issued in the amount of 98 pieces, where graces, elements and 12 constellations were added to the usual Triumphs.

There is an assumption that the deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are the four seasons. The green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted with the help of a wand, a staff, a stick with green leaves, which, when printed, were simplified to black peaks. The red suit symbolized beauty, the north, spirituality. Cups, bowls, hearts, books were depicted on the card of this suit. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lit torch, the sun, fire, a golden bell. The blue suit is a symbol of simplicity, decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.

The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.

There was no uniformity in card suits. In early Italian decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarii" (coins) and "wands". It seems, as in India, it was associated with the estates: the nobility, the clergy and the merchant class, while the wand symbolized the royal power standing above them. In the French version, swords turned into "spades", cups into "worms", denarii into "tambourines", and "batons" into "crosses" or "clubs" (the last word in French means "clover leaf") . In different languages, these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany they are "spades", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", while in Italy they are "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German cards, you can still find the old names of suits: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves". As for the Russian word "worms", it comes from the word "chervonny" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally referred to the red suit.

Mamluk cards. Ten of Cups, Three of Cups, First Counselor of Cups, Second Counselor of Cups

The Hofämterspiel deck reflects the political situation in Central Europe in the middle of the 15th century. Instead of suits, the coats of arms of the four most influential kingdoms of that time were taken: France, Germany, Bohemia and Hungary. The single-headed eagle represents the "regnum teutonicum" kingdom of Germany (as opposed to the double-headed eagle representing the Holy Roman Empire).

Learn more about her HERE.

Early card games were quite complex, because in addition to the 56 standard cards, they used 22 "Major Arcana" plus 20 more trump cards, named after the signs of the Zodiac and the elements. In different countries, these cards were called differently and the rules were so confused that it became simply impossible to play. In addition, the cards were painted by hand and were so expensive that only the rich could buy them. In the 16th century, the cards were radically simplified - almost all the pictures disappeared from them, with the exception of the four “highest suits” and the jester (joker).

Cards of the Italian type appeared in France at the end of the 14th century, and already under Charles VII (1403-1461) cards with their own national suits appeared: heart, crescent moon, shamrock and spade. And at the end of the 15th century, the type of suits that is still used is finally established in French cards: worms (coeur), diamonds (carreau), clubs (trefle) and spades (pique). Since that time, French cards have acquired a stable type, which is characterized by such figures: David - the king of spades, Alexander - the king of clubs, Caesar - the king of tambourines, Charles - the king of hearts, Pallas - the queen of spades, Argina - the queen of clubs, Rachel - the queen of tambourines , Judith is the Queen of Hearts, Hector is the Jack of Diamonds, Ogier is the Jack of Spades, Lancelot is the Jack of Clubs, and Lagier is the Jack of Hearts. This type of card came down to the French Revolution of 1789-1894.

The new republican government entrusts not to anyone, but to the most famous painter of that time, J.L. David (the author of the famous painting "Death of Marat") to create new map drawings. Instead of kings, David portrayed the geniuses of war, trade, peace and the arts, replaced the ladies with allegories of freedom of religion, the press, marriage and crafts, and instead of jacks he painted figures symbolizing equality of status, rights, duties and races. It was in France that forms of four colors originally appeared: ivy leaves, acorns, bells, hearts. It is highly plausible that the French suits are symbols of knightly life: a peak is a spear, a club is a sword, a tambourine is a coat of arms or oriflamme (banner, standard), worms is a shield.

On these cards of the French "deck on legs" (1648), the images are signed with their names.

It should also be said that for many centuries the cards were “single-headed”, i.e. the figures on them were depicted in full growth. The first cards that did not have a "top" and "bottom", "two-headed", were issued by Italy at the end of the 17th century. At that time, these cards were not widely used. Then a similar attempt was made in Belgium, and at the beginning of the 19th century, France began to issue such cards.

Traditional deck. Germany

Traditional deck. Switzerland

By the way, the tradition of magnificently decorating the ace of spades came from the fact that during the reign of King James I of England (1566-1625) a decree was issued according to which information about the manufacturer and its logo should be printed on the ace of spades (since this card is the first in the deck). . A special seal was placed on the same ace, indicating the payment of a special tax on cards.

In addition to these basic types of maps, so-called "thematic" maps were issued in various European countries. There were "pedagogical" decks that taught players geography, history, or grammar. Enjoyed the success of illustration cards for the dramas of Shakespeare, Schiller, Moliere. In "toys for adults" heraldry, palmistry and even fashion were displayed. For example, in the middle of the last century, cards were printed in France, on which the clothes of kings, ladies and jacks were the latest models of the season ...

By the 13th century, cards were already known and popular throughout Europe. From this point on, the history of the development of cards becomes clearer, but rather monotonous. In the Middle Ages, both fortune-telling and gambling were considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times and peoples. Therefore, from the middle of the XIII century, the history of the development of maps turns into a history of prohibitions associated with them.

For example, in France in the 17th century, householders in whose apartments gambling card games were played were fined, disenfranchised, and expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could recover a large amount from a person who won money from their child. After the French Revolution, indirect taxes on the game were abolished, which stimulated its development. The “pictures” themselves have also changed - since the kings were in disgrace, it was customary to draw geniuses instead of them, ladies now symbolized virtues - in other words, a new social structure came to card symbolism. True, already in 1813 jacks, queens and kings returned to the cards. The indirect tax on playing cards was only abolished in France in 1945.

Maps appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. The largest Russian critic and art historian V.V. Stasov believed that the maps came to the Slavic peoples from the Germans, without denying, however, that Poland played the role of the main mediator in this matter. But no matter how the playing cards got to Little Russia or Muscovy, they spread extremely quickly. Of the legislative monuments, the Code of 1649 first mentions the maps and their undeniable harmfulness to society. For more than a century, card games were prosecuted in Russia by law, and players caught hot were subjected to various punishments, until in 1761 there was an establishment on the division of games into prohibited - gambling and permitted - commercial.

By decree of 1696, under Peter I, it was ordered to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards, "... and whoever had the cards taken out, beat with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar subsequent ones were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling card games. Along with them, there were so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards to show tricks and play solitaire.

The development of "innocent" forms of using cards was facilitated by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of 1761 on the division of the use of cards into those prohibited for gambling and permitted for commercial games. It is not entirely clear how the maps penetrated into Russia. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the Polish-Swedish intervention during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.

The card game, which found a warm welcome in boyar houses and palace chambers, was certainly forbidden for the common people. In 1648, shortly after the accession of Alexei Mikhailovich, a royal decree followed, aimed at eradicating harmful customs and beliefs that still persisted among the urban and especially rural population. The decree listed in detail the numerous sins that required immediate eradication:

“... Many people, male and female, converge along the dawns, and in the night they enchant, from the first sunrise of the first days of the moon they look, and in a thunderous thunderstorm (during a thunderstorm) on rivers and lakes they bathe, they hope for themselves from this health, and wash themselves with silver, and bears lead, and dance with dogs, grains (bones) and cards, and chess, and play with anklets, and disorderly jumping and splashing, and singing demonic songs; and on Holy Week, young women and girls jump on boards (on a swing), and about the Nativity of Christ and before the Epiphany days, many people converge, male and female, into a demonic host due to devilish charm, many demonic actions are played in every demonic game ... ".

It should be noted that along with gambling, such completely innocent fun as riding a swing fell under the ban!

The decree of 1648 introduced a whole range of measures to combat the card game and other "disturbances". It was ordered to be read out “many times” at auction, lists from it “word for word” were sent to the largest villages and volosts, so that “this strong order of ours was known to all people” and no one could later excuse him with ignorance.

Buffoon clothes, hari and masks, musical instruments, chessboards and decks of cards were ordered to be taken away and burned, and in relation to people seen in violation of the decree, the governors were ordered “where such outrage will be declared, or who will say such outrage against whom, and you would they ordered to beat the batogs; and which people will not lag behind such outrages, but will take out such bogomer card games and others, and you would order those disobedient to beat the batogi; and which people do not lag behind, but turn up in such guilt in the third and fourth, and those, according to our decree, are ordered to be exiled to the Ukrainian (i.e., border) cities for disgrace. Yes, and the governors themselves, so that they would not skimp on the implementation of the decree, a strict suggestion was made: “But you won’t do this according to our decree, and you will be from us (Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich) in great disgrace”

It must be assumed that initially the decree was carried out with all its inherent rigidity, and more than one gambler was stripped of his back with whips or sticks at the auction. But according to the saying “the cruelty of laws in Russia is mitigated by the possibility of their non-execution”, the effect of this decree gradually came to naught - mainly due to the physical impossibility of its execution.

Another and very tangible blow to playing cards was dealt in the following year, 1649. The compilers of the famous "Code" of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich attributed the card game and its consequences to the crimes of a purely criminal offense, severely punished by mutilation and death. In the edition of the Code of 1649, an article related to the "card game" is placed in the chapter "on robbery and tatin affairs."

“And which thieves,” this article says, “steal in Moscow and in cities, play cards and grains, and, losing, steal, walking the streets, they cut people, tear off their hats and rob ...”, then they should have, after interrogation with torture, “make a decree (sentence) the same as that written above about tatehs (robbers), that is, imprison, confiscate property, beat with a whip, cut off ears (in the subsequent edition of the Code - fingers and hands) and execute death ".

The classification of the card game as a serious crime had a great influence on the trading of playing cards. The surviving customs books show that after 1649 the import of cards, for example, to Veliky Ustyug, was halved compared to previous years, and after 1652 it stopped altogether. But has the card game stopped?

By special nominal royal decrees of 1668 and 1670, a special regime was introduced in the Kremlin: people of various ranks - from the steward and below - were strictly forbidden to enter the Kremlin on horseback, to gamble during the sovereign's exits to the cathedral churches, when the tsar appeared, they were ordered to stand without caps "peacefully and serenely."

Significant government spending on the conduct of hostilities required a constant search for new sources of income. A curious document has been preserved dating back to the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich and testifying that among the Moscow administration, which was probably convinced of the ineradicability of the card game, a happy idea arose to turn it into a source of state income. The Moscow government has repeatedly acted so wittily before, replacing the cruel persecution of the use of vodka and tobacco for a monopoly state-owned trade in these goods, to a greater increase in the treasury.

The mentioned document is a charter given to Siberia to the Turin governor Alexei Beklemishev in 1675. It turned out that before that, from Tobolsk to Moscow, “voivode Pyotr Godunov and clerk Mikhailo Postnikov wrote that they (it is not known on what basis) gave away grain and cards in Tobolsk”, in other words, allowed at the expense of the treasury and under its cover to open gambling Houses. (Let's note in parentheses that along with the cards, the enterprising voivode also farmed out "unmarried wives for fornication" - and all for the good of the treasury!)

The seductive initiative of Godunov and Postnikov wanted to be followed by many other cities of the “Tobolsk category”. From Verkhoturye and Surgut, the voevodas wrote, “so that grain and cards were given to them for the same reason.” The great sovereign pointed out to these ingenuous writings: in Tobolsk and other cities, "grain and cards should be set aside and pay off from the grain and cards from the salary." The letter prescribed that the governor of the Turin prison, Beklemishev, do the same, even if, following the example of Tobolsk and according to Godunov's "replies", he had already given away grain and maps. Knowing the morals of local rulers, who easily found loopholes in decrees, the royal charter especially indicated: “the tax farmer himself, he will suddenly be sent from Tobolsk, and not a Turin tenant, and send him from Turinsk, and henceforth make a strong order.”

The persecution of the card game was not only limited to prohibition decrees. In 1672, on the orders of Alexei Mikhailovich, the Lutheran pastor Johann Gottfried Gregory set up a new theatrical temple in Preobrazhensky, and in November the first performance was given before the tsar - the comedy Artxer's Action. This was followed by new productions of a comedic and moralizing nature. The play “History or action of the gospel parable of the prodigal son”, composed by Simeon Polotsky, gained fame. This production is remarkable in that a kind of theatrical “program” was published for it, in which scenes from the action were shown in the drawings, accompanied by explanations. According to the plot, the prodigal son, having received part of the estate from the hands of his father, leaves home and begins a wild life. He hires many servants, plays grain and cards, mingles with mistresses, and, finally, squanders all his estate.

In one of the pictures of this “program”, the prodigal son is shown playing cards and grains at the table, surrounded by players. This is the earliest depiction of a card game in Russia.

After the death of Alexei Mikhailovich in 1676, the persecution against gamblers was significantly mitigated. In the royal decrees sent to the localities, there was no longer the former intimidation of players with mutilations and executions for the very fact of a card game; the whole threat is limited to an indefinite expression - "an order to repair a strong one." The import of playing cards to Russia resumed and even increased significantly, only in Veliky Ustyug in 1676-1680 they were brought in 17136 decks.

Soon after the permission of card games in Russia, its own production of playing cards appeared. Already in 1765, the government of Catherine II established a tax on both imported playing cards and domestically produced cards, and the duty on foreign cards was twice as high. The printing of playing cards in Russia was farmed out, i.e. was in private hands and brought tax-farmers, who sold an average of about one million decks a year, decent incomes. The money received as a result of taxes, came in favor of Orphanages. And on the lands of the family estate of the princes Vyazemsky (P.A. Vyazemsky - one of the descendants of this ancient family - was a close friend of A.S. Pushkin), near the village of Alexandrovo near St. Petersburg, Abbot Ossovsky, having received financial assistance from the government, built in 1798 in the year of the building of the Alexander Manufactory, which at the beginning of the 19th century became one of the largest enterprises in Russia. After a year of work, the manufactory passed into the treasury and was donated by Paul I to the Orphanage. In 1817, the manufactory manager A.Ya. Wilson proposed to the Board of Trustees to open a card factory at the manufactory. A note was drawn up, which was approved by Alexander I on October 12, 1817. The government was going to make a huge profit, because. a factory with a monopoly on the production of cards eliminated any competition from outside. The decision not to give the ransoms, which expired in 1819, and the ban on the importation of cards from abroad, provided the treasury with the opportunity to charge any selling price for the cards.

In 1819, the factory produced its first products. During this year, 240 thousand decks were made, which began to be sold throughout the Russian Empire (in 1820, the production of cards increased to 1380 thousand decks).

The new map sketches created did not have their own name. The concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century referred to the technology of their manufacture. Satin is a special kind of smooth, glossy, lustrous silk fabric. The paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talc on special wheeled machines.

Let us return to our question about the maps of the Pushkin era (“Queen of Spades” was written in 1833). At this time, and up to 1860, the back of the cards had an image of a pelican feeding two children with the meat of its own heart. This allegorical sign was explained by the inscription: "Not sparing himself, he feeds the chicks." The ironic phrase of one of the heroes of the story by N.S. Leskov “Interesting Men”: “In order not to get bored, they sat down to the evening ringing“ cut ”, or, as they say,“ work for the benefit of the imperial educational home. And there was a benefit. In 1835, a dozen decks cost 12 rubles, and were sold for 24. By the mid-50s, cards were produced three times more than the tax-farmers produced in 1818, while the profit increased 4.5 times and amounted to 500 thousand rubles a year .

The maps of that time that we are interested in had the character of popular popular prints (professional artists have not yet been involved in the activities of the factory). They depicted funny German knights on horseback, the size of a pony, and big-headed clumsy ladies. For example, the Queen of Spades, if she wanted to, could not scare the player out of her mind, as happened with the impressionable Hermann. But the more obvious is the brilliant idea of ​​Pushkin, who built the intrigue of the story on the outward discrepancy between funny card characters and their hidden fatal role.

The graceful drawings of cards without top and bottom familiar to us today were born thanks to the talent of the academician of painting A.I. Charlemagne. In 1860, the assortment of the factory expanded incredibly: reduced-sized cards, solitaire, travel, children's, educational and fortune-telling cards began to be produced. But the more intensively the production developed, the more “archaic” the drawings on the maps looked in the taste of the folk primitive.

Being a historical painter and battle painter, A.I. Charlemagne tries himself in different areas of art. He makes illustrations for the works of A.S. Pushkin and other famous writers, makes sketches for the Imperial Porcelain Factory and, in addition, creates originals for playing cards. The merit of the artist lies in the fact that he, a talented draftsman and connoisseur of history, managed to find the right tone in solving the figurative structure of all cards. Thanks to him, playing cards began to differ in their original style and integrity of symbolic images.

The factory's products were successfully demonstrated at the World Industrial Exhibitions in Paris in 1867 and 1878. In 1893, playing cards with drawings by Charlemagne were presented at the Chicago World's Fair and received a bronze medal and an honorary diploma.

The created new map sketches did not have their own name and were not called Atlas. The very concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century did not refer to a pattern or a special style of cards, but to the technology of their manufacture. Atlas itself was called then, and even now they call a special variety of smooth, glossy, shiny silk fabric. The paper from which the cards were then made was rough, with spots and stains, poorly glued, and often had different thicknesses in the sheet. To give the cards an improved look, the paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talcum powder on special wheeled machines, the work on which was extremely unhealthy. Cards made on satin paper were not afraid of moisture, glided well when shuffled and cost more. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks, on a par with gold-edged cards made by hand for the imperial court.

A.I. Charlemagne. Solitaire playing cards.1862.

Charlemagne's drawings were used in the manufacture of satin cards, cards of the first and second grade, as well as "Extra" cards already in the 30s of the 20th century. Gradually, all card products began to be made on satin paper, and the own name Satin was firmly entrenched in Charlemagne's cards. In the "Price Courant of retail prices for 1935" of the State Card Monopoly, which was administered by the People's Commissariat for Finance, a deck of "Satin" cards in 52-53 cards cost 6 rubles.

An interesting question - who was the prototype of the card characters? Russian card figures are anonymous, but the French cards that served as the basis for Charlemagne's work have their exact names, which were written and are still written directly on the cards. Charlemagne, king of the Franks, led the suit of hearts; shepherd, singer and Hebrew king David - peak; Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great were given diamonds and clubs. The heroine of the biblical legend Judith became the Queen of Hearts, and the Greek goddess of wisdom and war, Athena Pallas, became especially famous in Russia as the Queen of Spades. The diamond suit has traditionally been associated with wealth, the very symbol of the diamond suit, which we are used to seeing in the form of a rhombus, is still called "diamond" - a diamond.

Playing cards are road. 1870s Based on the originals by A.I.Charlemagne Petersburg. Card factory at the Imperial Orphanage. Collection of A.S. Perelman

In the 16th century, the lady of the tambourine was given the features of Rachel, the heroine of the biblical legend about the life of Jacob. According to legend, she was a greedy woman, which is quite consistent with her new card position. The image of the lady of clubs has become collective. She began to be portrayed in the form, in modern terms, of a sex bomb, to which the nickname Argin, regal, tightly stuck. This word became so popular that all the queens, as well as the favorites and mistresses of the French kings, were called by this name behind their backs. In the form of jacks, Etienne de Vignel, a knight of the times of Charles VII (worms), the noble Ogier of Denmark (spades), one of the knights of the Round Table, Hector de Mare (tambourines), and finally Sir Lancelot himself, the senior knight of the Round Table (clubs), entered the history in the form of jacks. During the time of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, Russian players also called cards by their names. The poet V.I. Maikov in the poem “The Ombre Player” boldly throws Ogier, the jack of spades, onto the table.

From the end of the 18th century, a real card boom began, engulfing the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth, Derzhavin lived mainly on money won in cards, and Pushkin was listed in police reports not as a poet, but as “a well-known banker in Moscow.” Gambling Nekrasov and Dostoevsky often lost their last pennies, while the cautious Turgenev preferred to play for fun. In the then secular society, especially provincial, almost the only entertainment was cards and the scandals associated with them.

A.E. Beideman Playing cards. Paper, watercolor, ink, pen

Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance ruled everything. If the first ones (screw, whist, preference, bridge, poker) established themselves among educated people, then the second ones (seka, “point”, shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless “thrown fool”) reigned supreme among the common people.

Traditional deck. Italy

In the West, “mental” card games that train logical thinking have even been included in the school curriculum. However, the cards began to serve for very non-intellectual activities. If they show naked girls, it's not up to the bridge. But this is a completely different game.

It must be said that over the centuries there have been many who wish to modernize card images, replacing them with animals, birds, and household items. For political purposes, decks were produced, where Napoleon or the German emperor Wilhelm acted as kings. And in the USSR, during the NEP years, there were attempts to depict workers with peasants on the cards and even introduce new suits - “sickles”, “hammers” and “stars”. True, such amateur activity was quickly suppressed, and the cards were not printed for a long time as "attributes of bourgeois decay."
So, what cards do we usually play now?

A.I.Charlemagne. Playing cards. Cardboard, ink, pen, watercolor, gouache. Collection of A.S. Perelman

1875 Satin maps, designed by A. Charlemagne

Drawings of card figures with the monogram of Charlemagne are made in full size of a card deck. Created by order of the card factory in the 1860s - 1870s and still remain the most famous and popular card drawings in Russia.

Sources
http://ta-vi-ka.blogspot.com/
http://www.jokercards.ru
http://lizi-black.com

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A rare modern man did not hold playing cards in his hands. There are several versions of their appearance, and researchers have not yet come to a consensus on this matter.

The cards have an ancient and very dramatic history. The long held belief that cards were invented in France for the entertainment of the mentally ill King Charles VI the Mad is just a legend. Already in ancient Egypt they played with cuttings with numbers marked on them, in India - with ivory plates or shells; in China, maps similar to modern ones have been known since the 12th century.

There are two main versions. The first is Chinese, although many still do not want to believe in it. Chinese and Japanese cards are too unusual for us both in appearance and in the nature of the game, which is more like dominoes. However, there is no doubt that already in the 8th century in China, sticks were used for games, and then strips of paper with symbols for various symbols. These distant ancestors of cards were also used instead of money, so they had three suits: a coin, two coins and many coins. And in India, playing cards depicted the figure of the four-armed Shiva, who held a goblet, a sword, a coin and a wand. Some believe that these symbols of the four Indian estates gave rise to modern card suits.

The Chinese have complicated the game of dice and got dominoes. Then, instead of dots, the tablets began to depict figures, flowers, and everyday scenes. Such tablets were used for the solitaire-like game of "mahjong", common in China and Japan. The essence of the game is to make pairs of the same from the many tablets on the table. From Asia, Italian travelers brought to Europe the idea of ​​using picture cards for games. Surprisingly, neither dice, nor dominoes, nor mahjong disappeared with the advent of cards - a perfect example of the coexistence of different branches of evolution.

But much more popular is the Egyptian version of the origin of the cards, replicated by the latest occultists. They claimed that in ancient times the Egyptian priests wrote down all the wisdom of the world on 78 golden tablets, which were also depicted in the symbolic form of cards. 56 of them - "Minor Arcana" - became ordinary playing cards, and the remaining 22 "Senior Arcana" became part of the mysterious Tarot deck used for divination. This version was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila, and his successors the French Eliphas Levy and Dr. Papus and the English Mathers and Crowley created their own systems for interpreting Tarot cards. This name allegedly comes from the Egyptian "ta rosh" ("the way of the kings"), and the cards themselves were brought to Europe either by Arabs or by gypsies, who were often considered to come from Egypt.

True, scientists have not been able to find any evidence of such an early existence of the Tarot deck.

According to the third version (European version), ordinary maps appeared on the European continent no later than the 14th century. Back in 1367, the card game was banned in the city of Bern, and ten years later, a shocked papal envoy watched with horror as the monks enthusiastically cut into cards near the walls of their monastery. In 1392, Jacquemain Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards for the amusement of his master. The then deck differed from the current one in one detail: it had only 32 cards. There were not enough four ladies, whose presence seemed then superfluous. Only in the next century, Italian artists began to depict Madonnas not only in paintings, but also on maps.

There is an assumption that the deck is not a random collection of cards. 52 cards are the number of weeks in a year, four suits are the four seasons. The green suit is a symbol of energy and vitality, spring, west, water. In medieval cards, the sign of the suit was depicted with the help of a wand, a staff, a stick with green leaves, which, when printed, were simplified to black peaks. The red suit symbolized beauty, the north, spirituality. Cups, bowls, hearts, books were depicted on the card of this suit. The yellow suit is a symbol of intelligence, fire, south, business success. The playing card depicted a coin, a rhombus, a lit torch, the sun, fire, a golden bell. The blue suit is a symbol of simplicity, decency. The sign of this suit was an acorn, crossed swords, swords.

The cards at that time were 22 centimeters long, which made them extremely inconvenient to play.

There was no uniformity in card suits. In early Italian decks, they were called "swords", "cups", "denarii" (coins) and "wands". It seems, as in India, it was associated with the estates: the nobility, the clergy and the merchant class, while the wand symbolized the royal power standing above them. In the French version, swords became spades, cups became hearts, denarii became diamonds, and wands became crosses or clubs (the latter word in French means clover leaf) . In different languages, these names still sound differently; for example, in England and Germany these are "shovels", "hearts", "diamonds" and "clubs", and in Italy - "spears", "hearts", "squares" and "flowers". On German cards, you can still find the old names of suits: "acorns", "hearts", "bells" and "leaves". As for the Russian word "worms", it comes from the word "chervonny" ("red"): it is clear that "hearts" originally referred to the red suit.

The early card games were quite complex, because in addition to the 56 standard cards, they used 22 "Major Arcana" plus 20 more trump cards named after the signs of the Zodiac and the elements. In different countries, these cards were called differently and the rules were so confused that it became simply impossible to play. In addition, the cards were painted by hand and were so expensive that only the rich could buy them. In the 16th century, the cards were radically simplified - almost all the pictures disappeared from them, with the exception of the four "highest suits" and the jester (joker).

Interestingly, all card images had real or legendary prototypes. For example, the four kings are the greatest monarchs of antiquity: Charlemagne (hearts), the biblical king David (spades), Julius Caesar (diamonds) and Alexander the Great (clubs). With regard to the ladies, there was no such unanimity - for example, the lady of worms was either Judith, then Helen of Troy, then Dido. The lady of spades has traditionally been portrayed as the goddess of war - Athena, Minerva and even Joan of Arc. After much debate, the biblical Rachel began to be portrayed as the lady of spades: she was ideally suited for the role of the "queen of money" because she robbed her own father. Finally, the lady of clubs, on early Italian maps, acting as the virtuous Lucretia, turned into Argina - an allegory of vanity and vanity.

- a frivolous figure in tights, a jester's cap, bells ... And in his hands - a scepter with a human head strung on it, which is now replaced by humane artists with musical "cymbals". In pre-revolutionary stage performances, a similar character was called Fradiavolo. " " is above all, she has no suit and is considered the strongest in the game. Thus, at the top of the pyramid is not the King, but Daus ...

Ace is a word of Polish origin from the German Daus. The German-Russian dictionary indicates the meaning of the word: Daus - the devil. It is quite possible that Daus is a corruption of the Greek diabolos, a slanderer.

The most complex figure of the card pantheon is the jack, or, in English terminology, the squire. The very word "jack" at first meant a servant or even a jester, but later its other meaning was established - not quite honest, albeit a brave adventurer. These were all the real prototypes of jacks - the French knight La Hire, nicknamed Satan (worms), as well as the heroes of the epic Ogier the Dane (spades), Roland (tambourines) and Lancelot of the Lake (clubs).

"Trump" cards, their very name, have their own special purpose. "Kosher" i.e. Talmudists call ritual sacrifices “clean”… ​​which, as you understand, is connected with Kabbalah.

Nevertheless, each researcher gives his own interpretation of suits and figures. Father Menestrier believed that cards are symbols of great monarchies (Jewish, Greek, Roman, French), and four ladies are nothing more than the main female virtues: piety, motherhood, wisdom and beauty. Others believe that such historical figures as Mary of Anjou, Agnes Sorel, Isabella of Bavaria and Joan of Arc are depicted as "ladies". But hypotheses remain hypotheses.

One Greek legend attributes the invention of maps to Palamedes, the son of the Euboean king Nauplius, very smart and cunning, who managed, for example, to expose Odysseus himself. Odysseus wanted to stay out of the Greek war against Troy. When Palamedes found him in connection with this. Odysseus pretended to be crazy. And he did it this way: he harnessed a donkey to the plow to his bulls, and began to sow the field not with grains, but sprinkle salt into the furrows. However, Palamedes immediately figured out the deception.

He returned to the palace, took the son of Odysseus, Telemachus, from the cradle, brought him into the field and laid him in a furrow in front of a team of oxen and a donkey. Odysseus, of course, turned aside, giving himself away. This cunning of Palamedes was the basis for various inventions to be attributed to him. He allegedly invented scales, letters, dice, some measures, and during the long-term siege of Troy -. And it happened 1000 years before our era!

By the 13th century, cards were already known and popular throughout Europe. From this point on, the history of the development of cards becomes clearer, but rather monotonous. In the Middle Ages and divination, and were considered sinful. In addition, cards have become the most popular game during the working day - a terrible sin, according to employers of all times and peoples. Therefore, from the middle of the XIII century, the history of the development of maps turns into a history of prohibitions associated with them.

For example, in France in the 17th century, householders in whose apartments gambling card games were played were fined, disenfranchised, and expelled from the city. Card debts were not recognized by law, and parents could recover a large amount from a person who won money from their child. After the French Revolution, indirect taxes on the game were abolished, which stimulated its development. The "pictures" themselves have also changed - since the kings were in disgrace, it was customary to draw geniuses instead, ladies now symbolized virtues - in other words, a new social structure came to card symbolism. True, already in 1813 jacks, queens and kings returned to the cards. The indirect tax on playing cards was only abolished in France in 1945.

Maps appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. By the middle of this century, they had already gained popularity as a "path" to crimes and incitement of passions. In the "Regulations" of 1649, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, it was ordered to act with the players "as it is written about taty", that is, to beat them with a whip and deprive fingers and hands by cutting off.

By decree of 1696 under Peter I, it was ordered to search all those suspected of wanting to play cards, "... and whoever has the cards taken out, beat with a whip." These punitive sanctions and similar subsequent ones were due to the costs associated with the spread of gambling card games. Along with them, there were so-called commercial card games, as well as the use of cards to show tricks and play solitaire.

The development of "innocent" forms of using cards was facilitated by the decree of Elizabeth Petrovna of 1761 on the division of the use of cards into those prohibited for gambling and permitted for commercial games. It is not entirely clear how cards penetrated into Russia. Most likely, they became widespread in connection with the intervention during the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 18th century.

In the 19th century the development of new drawings of playing cards began. Academicians of painting Adolf Iosifovich Charleman and Alexander Egorovich Beideman were engaged in it. It is worth noting that at present their sketches are kept in the State Russian Museum and in the Peterhof Card Museum. However, the drawings of Academician Adolf Iosifovich Charleman, which we now know as Atlas Maps, were put into production.

AI Charleman did not create a fundamentally new card style. The drawings on the Atlas cards were based on the so-called "North German picture", which also came from a completely ancient folk French card deck.

The new map sketches created did not have their own name. The concept of "satin" in the middle of the 19th century referred to the technology of their manufacture. Satin is a special kind of smooth, glossy, lustrous silk fabric. The paper on which they were printed was previously rubbed with talc on special wheeled machines. In 1855, a dozen decks of satin cards cost 5 rubles 40 kopecks.

From the end of the 18th century, the real one began, covering the entire Russian culture. For example, in his youth Derzhavin lived mainly on money won in cards, and Pushkin was listed in police reports not as a poet, but as "a well-known banker in Moscow." Gambling Nekrasov and Dostoevsky often lost their last pennies, while the cautious Turgenev preferred to play for fun. In the then secular society, especially provincial, almost the only entertainment was cards and the scandals associated with them.

Gradually, card games were divided into commercial, based on a clear mathematical calculation, and gambling, where chance ruled everything. If the first (screw, whist, bridge,) established themselves among educated people, then the second (seka, "point", shtoss and hundreds of others, up to the harmless "thrown fool") reigned supreme among the common people.

In the West, "mental" card games that train logical thinking have even been included in the school curriculum. However, the cards began to serve for very non-intellectual activities. If they show naked girls, it's not up to the bridge. But this is a completely different game.

It must be said that over the centuries there have been many who wish to modernize card images, replacing them with animals, birds, and household items. For political purposes, decks were produced, where Napoleon or the German emperor Wilhelm acted as kings. And in the USSR, during the NEP years, there were attempts to depict workers with peasants on the cards and even introduce new suits - "sickles", "hammers" and "stars". True, such amateur activity was quickly suppressed, and the cards were stopped for a long time to be printed as "attributes of bourgeois decay."

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Well known throughout the world, playing cards have found many uses. With their help, they predict the future, they are entertained by a variety of people, they become participants in almost every show of a magician or illusionist. However, the past of the cards is so contradictory and vague that it is still unknown where exactly they appeared.

There are many scientific treatises that talk about the possible sources of their occurrence. But let's start with the fact that the original maps looked completely different from what we are used to seeing them.

When there was no paper - they already existed

As you know, paper was invented in China around 105 AD. However, there were various finds dating back to earlier years, which may well be the progenitors of modern maps. Initially, images of animals, objects or weapons were applied to metal plates, pieces of leather, bark, bamboo, or even bone tablets. However, it is too difficult to attribute such finds specifically to playing cards as such.

According to the theories of scientists, playing cards originally appeared in China, and already thanks to trade routes they got to India and Persia. There is also an opinion that the birthplace of cards is India, where round plates with images similar to ancient playing cards were found. There are quite a few other versions, but so far no one has been able to prove one specific and for certain find out the real homeland of the cards.

The beauty of this entertainment initially lay in the fact that the cards did not require a separate field, as for checkers, chess or similar games. It is not surprising that interested merchants took them to their homeland. However, the earliest finds still raise enough doubts about their connection with the current playing cards.

Why China is considered the birthplace of maps

China has many inventions, including various games - for example, dominoes or mahjong. However, it is he who is currently considered the most obvious birthplace of modern playing cards. There are many reasons for such a conclusion.

First of all, this is approved due to the fact that the first mention in historical sources related to playing cards was in China, in 1294 AD.

Secondly, it was China that was the birthplace of the printing press, which greatly simplified the production of playing cards. And this is taking into account the fact that it was China that was the birthplace of paper.

Thirdly, the playing cards that were in China at that time have a huge number of similarities with modern cards. So, for example, they had a suit, which was indicated by coins. In addition, they had an oblong shape, and the images on them were very similar to modern kings and ladies.

Where did the very first card suits come from?

It is noteworthy that if the ancient maps that were found in China already featured coins, then further they underwent some changes. After the cards came to Egypt, they changed significantly, because there was a period of Mamluk rule. This was primarily due to the fact that their religion did not allow them to put images of people on maps. Thanks to this, the four suits turned into coins (already established in China), clubs, swords and goblets.

Why clubs, you ask? Everything is quite simple. Images of household items and the environment in which these people were interested were applied to the cards. And it is known for certain that the Mamluks had an addiction to a game similar to modern polo. Subsequently, when playing cards had already reached Europe, clubs turned into maces or clubs.

A special detail that you should pay attention to is that regardless of the number of cards themselves in the deck, which varied from 12 to more than a hundred, there were exactly four suits. Both in Chinese maps and in the Mamluks, who helped the maps get to Europe.

How playing cards appeared in Europe

As soon as playing cards from Alexandria came to the south of Europe, they began to spread rapidly. It was so ubiquitous and large-scale that such a fact was even given the name "Invasion of the Playing Cards." And such a threatening name can be easily justified.

At that time in Europe there were many different clashes, hostilities between countries and minor skirmishes. Due to their lightness, ease of transportation and small size, the cards were very popular with soldiers. And, it turns out, with the onset of the troops, maps also advanced. The cards also came to the UK with the onset of hostilities.

Quite a lot of documentary references to maps have been found throughout Europe. In 1377 - the first mention of the appearance of cards in Switzerland, in 1392 they were already ordered in gold for the king, and what can we say only about the number of gambling bans that were almost everywhere!

How different decks and card suits appeared

As soon as playing cards got into some new country, they immediately tried to remake them for themselves. Only Tarot cards have undergone not too big changes, which have retained the division into minor and major arcana. For games as such, they were not so convenient. If we talk specifically about playing cards, then they changed very often.

It turns out that each people tried to express in the cards precisely their own traits and national preferences. Thanks to this, the suits were constantly changing. However, each suit has a rather curious evolution. Let's look at the most famous decks that currently exist.

Italo-Spanish deck

It was not in vain that we started with it, because it is extremely similar to the ancient Mamluk playing cards, in which clubs have slightly changed.

• Swords (pikes);
• Cups (worms);
• Clubs (clubs);
• Coins (tambourines).

Existing until now, it should consist of 50 cards at full strength (including two jokers, without them 48). Numerical cards began with one and ended with nine. Next came the senior cards, which were designated by the page, the horse (knight) and the king. In some variants, there was a reduced deck without eights, and there were also variants with an additional Queen card.

It is noteworthy that numbers were not written on the cards of this deck, and there were no letters.

German deck

When this particular deck of cards was created, they wanted to make it as much as possible showing the great importance of agriculture in Germany.

• The swords turned into leaves that met the requirements of German culture and were conditionally similar in shape (pikes);
• Cups in the hearts, since an association was made with wine, which filled these cups (worms);
• Clubs have already become not rough branches of trees, but have turned into acorns (clubs);
• The coins turned into bells because they were also round (diamonds).

Even later, when the French deck took over the whole world, its German variants had not two, but four colors of suits. To keep the pre-existing green (leaves) and yellow (bells) suits.

This deck has about the same number of cards as the Italo-Spanish. It is also similar that there were no Ladies in it, but only kings or knights. This is easily explained by the fact that it was men who played the main role in the ruling class.

swiss deck

Compared to German, it has undergone relatively small changes. The suits of this deck are:

• Shields, which became swords (pikes);
• Roses, former hearts (worms);
• Acorns (clubs);
• Bells (tambourines).

French deck

It was she who became the most iconic. And the most popular among all other decks. Seeing modern suits, you see exactly the French deck.

In it, the suits turned into:

• Peaks;
• Worms;
• Clubs;
• Diamonds.

In the form that we know them, they appeared when it was necessary to simplify the production of maps. The suit symbols had to be easy to create and by almost everyone in order to keep their cost down. And the suits were simplified to the very symbols that are now known to the whole world. But not only this has become a surprisingly true marketing ploy.

It was the French deck that introduced the designation of suits in two colors: red and black.

Such decisions made her the easiest to perform, memorable, universal, and on top of that, she was more delicate towards women. It was in the French deck that the Lady was originally present as a permanent card. And its weight was undeniable.

Very long time invention of playing cards was attributed to the 14th-century French painter Jacqueline Grangonner, who allegedly first invented these small painted cardboard sheets. And he did this in order to amuse them with Charles VI in the moments of enlightenment of the darkened mind of His Majesty.

This version was first refuted in the 18th century by two learned men of letters, the Abbés de Longrue and Rive, who convincingly proved in their dissertations that cards and card games appeared long before the reign of this poor sovereign.

The first indisputable proof of this is the original act of the Cologne Cathedral, which forbade the card game for clergy.

This act predates the time when Grangonner handed the maps he had drawn to the insane monarch. The decent fee he received for these cards prompted the artist to be creative, and he began to actively work on improving the design of the cards. He replaced some figures on the maps, and in the reign of Charles VII made further changes to the images on the maps and came up with the names of the figures that they still bear.

So, at the whim of the artist, David, peak King, was the emblem of Charles VII, and the king of hearts was named Charlemagne. Queen Regina in clubs lady portrayed Mary, wife of Charles VII.

Pallas, the Queen of Spades, personified the Virgin of Orleans, Joan of Arc. Rachel, the lady of diamonds - gentle Agnes Sorel, and the lady of hearts Judith - light "in morality" Isabella of Bavaria. Four jack(squires) designated themselves four brave knights: Ogier and Lancelo under Charlemagne, Hector de Gallard and La Hire under Charles VII. And other names of the cards were sustained by the artist in the taste of that time - a warlike allegory. Worms were the emblem of courage, spades and tambourines represented weapons, clubs - food, fodder and ammunition. And finally ace(ac) in its Latin meaning was what has always been recognized as the main wealth of war - money.

The painter Grangonner, thus, although not map inventor, but left to his compatriots and everyone for an inheritance, which in many ways contributed and continues to contribute to the entertainment of people, and not only idle, but also businessmen, and led to a variety of occupations in all strata of society.

The phenomenon of the rapid distribution of maps around the world is unparalleled. Cards are played all over the world. Maps can be a topic of study for a philosopher and psychologist, a statistician and an economist, for a moralist and a clergyman...

It must be admitted that the origin of the cards still shrouded in impenetrable darkness. Scientists realized too late, time managed to destroy monuments that could shed light on the history of maps. However, many learned people devoted most of their lives to the study of the history of playing cards.

But, despite all their efforts, this story is still replete with many white spots, confusing, and it can be said with confidence that hardly anyone will ever be able to find out when the cards actually appeared and when for the first time the first players sat down at the playing table.

What are playing cards made of?

In fact, for a card game, it is not necessary to have the playing cards that we currently know: rectangular, oval, round, or some other shape made of thick cardboard. They can be made from wood, leather, ivory, or even metal. Such maps can be seen in many museums around the world. In some countries, and still today, cards are made of wood, in some places of plastic materials in the form of dominoes, especially for such card games as Rams And Canasta. Thus, the material from which the cards are made can be different. The most suitable, however, turned out to be cards made from special paper. Moreover, such paper appeared almost simultaneously in many countries.

If paper was indeed invented in China as early as 105 AD, then apparently paper maps appeared not much later.

There are many legends about the invention of cards. According to one of them, in prehistoric times, a beautiful princess was kidnapped by a robber. While imprisoned, she made cards from leather and taught her enslaver to play them. The robber would allegedly be so enamored with playing cards that he released the princess as a token of gratitude.

One Greek legend attributes the invention of maps to Palamedes, the son of the Euboean king Nauplius, very smart and cunning, who managed, for example, to expose Odysseus himself. Odysseus wanted to stay out of the Greek war against Troy. When Palamedes found him in connection with this. Odysseus pretended to be crazy. And he did it this way: he harnessed a donkey to the plow to his bulls, and began to sow the field not with grains, but sprinkle salt into the furrows. However, Palamedes immediately figured out the deception. He returned to the palace, took the son of Odysseus - Telemachus - from the cradle, brought him into the field and put him in a furrow in front of a team of oxen and a donkey. Odysseus, of course, turned aside, giving himself away. This cunning of Palamedes was the basis for various inventions to be attributed to him. He allegedly invented scales, letters, dice, some measures, and during the long-term siege of Troy, playing cards. And it happened 1000 years before our era!

There are researchers who name another person who allegedly invented the cards. He is allegedly one of the seven sages of ancient Greece, namely the philosopher Cylon, who wanted to help the poor forget about food. To do this, he invented cards that the poor began to play and completely forgot about hunger during the game.

The list of legends and tales about the invention of cards can be continued, but it is clear that they are not the invention of a single person.

How were the rules of the old card games developed?

It can be assumed that these were, first of all, combination games of the type of the current games of Rams and Canasta, i.e. such games in which it was considered necessary to combine cards as quickly as possible according to pictures, colors, etc. This is evidenced by the fact that there were games that used cards not only with 3 and 4 images, but also with 5, 6 and more. In Korea, they play cards with the image of 8 figures: men, horses, antelopes, rabbits, pheasants, crows, fish and stars. And for each of these figures there are 10 different cards, that is, the deck consists of 80 cards.

The Chinese in the old days even played on depreciated banknotes. Since there were few coins, and a long journey with a lot of money was dangerous, already in the 7th century the state allowed the so-called "flying money". For the wasteful life of their courts, the rulers needed more and more money and ordered to print them in heaps. Money depreciated with catastrophic speed, and it came to the point that in the 9th century they lost all value. Old banknotes were exchanged for new ones in the ratio of 1:100, 1:500, 1:1000, 1:2000... It was at this time that they began to play cards with old money. And these money cards existed in China almost until the end of the 9th century. In China, even now they play cards that depict a general, two advisers, elephants, horses, war chariots, guns, and 5 soldiers. These 16 figures are colored red, white, yellow and green. Each suit is repeated twice, and thus, the total number of cards in the deck is 128 pieces. Characteristic of Chinese maps has always been their shape: they are long and narrow.

Indian cards have a completely different shape, they are square, and sometimes round. Indian cards usually had 4 suits, but there were also 12 color cards, and each color had 12 cards, i.e. the number of cards in the deck was 144.

When playing cards appeared in Russia

Presumably, cards appeared in Russia shortly after their appearance in Europe, in particular in Germany and France. They quickly penetrated primarily into the ruling circles. In any case, already under Anna Ioannovna and Elizabeth Petrovna, card games, especially in court circles, flourished, and card games reached their peak in the reign of Catherine II. It is authentically known that Catherine's grandees played almost all without exception. Many of them put colossal fortunes at stake, while losing lands worth tens of thousands of acres and serfs. Peasants very often, waking up in the morning, found out that, at the whim of the owner, they were lost to another person and become his property. Yard girls, especially beautiful ones, sometimes went on the map for a colossal sum, and along with them hunting dogs and thoroughbred horses went on the map.

There is no exact information about when the cards appeared in Russia. Some researchers believe that this happened rather late, approximately in the second quarter of the 9th century. However, this contradicts other obvious facts. Researcher Yu. Dmitriev reports that back in 1759, the mechanic Pyotr Dyumolin, who arrived in Moscow, demonstrated "moving cards" in one of the houses in the German Quarter. And another Russian researcher A. Vyatkin relates the appearance of cards in Russia to an even earlier date, to the 7th century, and substantiates this with the famous royal code of 1649, which ordered the players to act "as with tatami", i.e. with thieves. According to the same Vyatkin, the cards came to Russia through Ukraine, from Germany ("the local Cossacks whiled away the time playing a card game").

The fact that the cards appeared in Russia simultaneously with their arrival in Europe is also evidenced by the fact that the Russians "kept pace" with the Europeans in mastering the secrets of many card games.

Video: History of playing cards

Every inhabitant of our country has played cards at least once in his life. Whether it's a simple throw-in fool or an aristocratic preference. At the same time, most fans of card games are sure that some abstract characters are depicted as jacks, queens and kings. This is not true…

Joker: a fun sorcerer

The most surprising thing is that the only card in the deck that does not have a real prototype is the Joker. In many card games, it is not used at all, while in others it acts as the highest trump card. At the same time, the word Joker itself, translated into Russian, means a merry fellow, a jester and a mischievous one. True, sometimes the Joker is drawn in the form of a little imp, thereby emphasizing the story of his appearance from fortune-telling Tarot cards. In a deck of magic cards, the Joker is an evil wizard. At the same time, the most popular version of the origin of the word "Joker" is the name of the game Juker, in which this card character first appeared.

Card Kings: The Best Among Equals

According to historical chronicles, people started playing cards in Europe in the 14th century. They did not disdain to spread to the cards and persons of royal blood. At this time, by the middle of the 15th century, the main images of ladies, jacks and kings appeared in Europe. At that distant time, as today, a deck of cards consisted of 52 sheets, divided into four suits. Such a figure is not accidental, because 52 is the number of weeks in a year, and the suits are the four seasons. The most amazing thing is that today it is known exactly who was the prototype of the images of kings in a card deck. The King of Spades was King David, known to readers from the Old Testament. The role of the king of clubs was played by the great conqueror Alexander the Great. King of tambourine, no less famous ruler - Julius Caesar. The youngest from a historical point of view was the king of worms - Charlemagne. It is symbolic that each of the prototypes of the card kings left its indelible mark on the history of mankind. Alexander the Great conquered half the world. King David turned out to be the most famous crowned figure in the Old Testament. Well, Charlemagne created the Holy Roman Empire. Gaius Julius Caesar - became famous as the most popular dictator of ancient Rome.

Card ladies: perfection itself

Card ladies also had their real prototypes. However, these were not wives at all, people who gave the prototype to the card kings, but completely strangers to them. The Lady of Hearts is the warlike Judith, who accomplished many feats on the pages of the Old Testament. It was she who cold-bloodedly cut off the head of the leader of the Assyrians, saving the city of childhood from the invasion of the conquerors. According to other sources, which are considered more reliable, the magnificent Elena of Troy became the Queen of Hearts. According to legend, her mother was the queen of Sparta, Leda, and Zeus himself was her father. Lady of Diamonds is the wife of one of the Knights of the Round Table - Ragnel. As a lady of clubs, the artists depicted either the Greek goddess Argina, who was responsible for vanity and empty fuss, or Lucretia, representing virtue. It turned out to be more difficult with the lady of spades. Three real women claim her role at once, the image of each of which appeared on card sheets at different times. Most often it is Minerva - the goddess of wisdom, war and victory. Less often, Athena, who was also responsible for successful military operations, or the legendary heroine of the Middle Ages, Joan of Arc, became the lady of spades.

Jack: servant of kings

Real historical figures acted as jacks in a deck of playing cards, as in the case of queens and kings. True, if these people found out how the treacherous artists who created decks of cards treated them, they would be very offended. Jack in French means servant or lackey. However, the prototype jacks never were. The Jack of Hearts is the knight Etienne de Vignelet, Joan of Arc's closest associate. The jack of spades is the noble knight Ogier of Denmark. According to legend, he repeatedly killed dragons, exterminated many giants, and in general was a bosom friend of the fairy Morgana. Subsequently, the sorceress rewarded Ogier with the gift of eternal youth for nights of passionate love. Jack of clubs - the famous knight Lancelot. The frantic Roland plays the role of the jack of diamonds.

Chinese and dominoes

Who invented playing cards: Italians, Spaniards, French, or are they a gift to humanity from evil spirits? Alas! The author of playing cards is known - these are the Chinese. The most surprising thing is that cards in China are not an independent game, but a simpler and cheaper variety of dominoes to manufacture. Once upon a time, the Chinese recklessly played dice, then they transformed into dominoes, which in turn were reborn into cards. It happened at the moment when the dominoes were transferred to cardboard. We got cards with a scale of points, to which figures were added over time. Ching-tse-tung's dictionary mentions that cards were invented in 1120 AD, and after 12 years they were distributed throughout China. True, there is an alternative version of the origin of playing cards from ancient Egypt. As if thousands of years ago, Egyptian priests encrypted all the wisdom of the world in 78 golden tablets. Some of them were symbolically depicted in the form of cards, and 56 of them (Minor Arcana) were playing, and 22 (Major Arcana) were used exclusively for divination. However, both the Chinese and the Egyptian versions of the origin of playing cards are nothing more than a legend, while in Europe the cards have been known since the 14th century. For example, in 1367 in Bern, card games were banned by an official decree, and in 1377, the envoy of the Pope complained that the monks were cutting cards right at the walls of their monastery.