Invented playing cards. Who invented playing cards

It would seem that what could be simpler and more familiar than playing cards? I went to any kiosk of the Soyuzprint and bought a deck. Usually this will not be a very good deck. good quality, but with drawings by Charlemagne (made in the 19th century!) - satin maps (in the picture below).

Of course, there are still people who prefer to use the more expensive decks of world brands, designed for poker or bridge. But in any case, a deck of cards is a fairly common item in modern everyday life.

At the same time, a number of myths and just plain nonsense are associated with playing cards. For example, the myth that the cards are "the devil's bible", or that they originated from the mysterious tarot cards, or that they were invented by the gypsies to deceive the common people, or the Jews to lead Christians into the temptation of gambling.

And here you can also recall the attempts of various occultists to put the four elements in accordance with the four suits or to link them up. But in a little more detail, I would like to dwell on the myth, according to which the suits are declared symbols of the instruments of Christ's death on the cross:

• clubs are, of course, the cross itself. Here, by the way, they again slander the Jews, in whose language "clubs" means "impurity", that is. something like: "the damned Jews call our Cross unclean!"


• lances - naturally, the spear with which the centurion Longinus pierced the heart of the Savior.


• tambourines are the nails with which Jesus was nailed to the cross.


• worms - a sponge soaked in vinegar that was given to Christ.

Moreover, the word "trump" is also derived from the word "kosher". In general, as usual, the Jews are to blame for everything, they are accomplices of the devil, and playing cards means, unknowingly, blaspheming.

And so, this short article is designed to dispel these myths and show the reader the main milestones in the history of playing cards.

So who invented playing cards?

Chinese. Like so many other things.

The Chinese were the first to invent paper, and accordingly, the ability to make gambling devices out of paper appeared in China.

Historically, there are several types of playing cards in China. Some Chinese playing cards depict pieces of Chinese chess xiangqi (more precisely, hieroglyphs), others - dominoes, and still others - coins. The last type is called "coin cards".

Now attention! It is from "coin cards" that European playing cards originated.

So let's take a closer look at Chinese coin cards.

A deck of Chinese coin cards looks strange to you and me. In such a deck there are three (or four) suits, each of which has nine (optionally ten) cards:

1. Coins. Nine cards: from one coin to nine coins.

2. Bundles of coins. And in each bundle - one hundred coins. Nine cards: from one bundle (100 coins) to nine bundles (900 coins).

And what are these bundles of coins?

The fact is that in China the coins were full of holes (see the picture below):

And the coins were transferred by stringing them on ropes. In our times, it’s uncomfortable, but then it’s nothing. It looked something like this:

3. Tens of thousands of coins. Such numbers of coins are no longer depicted in drawings, but in hieroglyphs. And again nine cards: from 10,000 coins to 90,000 coins.

So, in Chinese coin cards, the suits are in a hierarchical relationship, and each next suit is obtained by multiplying the previous suit by 100:

• 1 -> 100 -> 10000


• 2 -> 200 -> 20000



• 9 -> 900 -> 90000

Or in tabular form:

Coins	Bundles of coins	Tens of thousands (characters)
1	100	10000
2	200	20000
3	300	30000
4	400	40000
5	500	50000
6	600	60000
7	700	70000
8	800	80000
9	900	90000

Now let's take a look at what Chinese coin cards look like. The picture below shows a part of a deck of Chinese coin cards of one of the types (there are a lot of these types, and even I do not understand them).

From top to bottom: coins, bundles of coins, tens of thousands of coins.

As you can see, the bundles of coins here look more like some kind of worms, and the cards of the “ten thousand” suit depict funny little people (the value of the card is indicated not by them, but by the hieroglyphs above).

Usually, the designations of the denomination and suit of Chinese coin cards are even more stylized, and only a player or specialist can understand what is depicted on the card.

Here's another not the most difficult drawing:

Let me tell you: coins are in the middle, tens of thousands are on top, and bundles of coins are below.

In addition to the above picture, you can also see the suits of Chinese coin cards in a game such as mahjong. This game, which looks more like dominoes, but in fact - like a card game roommy, also has three suits:

• points (these are coins);


• bamboos (bundles of one hundred coins);


• symbols (tens of thousands of coins).

It looks like this:

From top to bottom: dots, bamboos, symbols.

By the way, a feature of coin cards is that each suit in the deck is not one, as in the usual playing cards, but several.

Moreover, in mahjong the situation is the same: there are four sets of tiles of each suit. Here is a complete set of mahjong "dots" for illustration:

In general, in the case of mahjong, we see some kind of reverse movement of the pendulum: previously, dominoes were depicted on the cards, and now on dominoes - cards ...

It is also interesting to note that in Europe they can also play not one, but several decks at once, for example, when playing the same rooms or when playing solitaire.

Now about the symbolism of the suits and their origin. The ancient European deck had four suits: coins, sticks, cups and swords. I note that these suits are preserved today in Italy and Spain. These are the suits (for example, threes):

And, as the attentive reader may have noticed, the "coin" suit clearly comes from China. And indeed it is.

The "stick" ("club") suit - also from China - is, so to speak, a European arrangement of the Chinese "bunch of coins" suit.

But where did the "swords" and "bowls" come from?

The fact is that playing cards did not come to Europe directly from China.

The Europeans took over the cards not from the Chinese, but from the Arabs. Most likely, the so-called Mamluk Playing Cards, then widespread in Egypt (it was the Mamluks who ruled there at that time). It happened in the XIV century. In Europe, playing cards were even called originally by Arabic words - naibi, neyp.

There were already four suits in Mamluk playing cards: coins, polo sticks, bowls and scimitars.

Perhaps the bowls are just an Arabic interpretation of the Chinese “tens of thousands” suit. But maybe not. The "swords" (scimitars), apparently, were invented by the Arabs.

It was the Arabs who introduced the so-called court cards into the deck - the familiar King, Queen and Jack. For the Arabs, these were, respectively: Sultan, First Vizier, Second Vizier. In a number of decks there was also a fourth court card - a kind of "helper".

Of course, you can build many different hypotheses about why the Arabs needed new suits and court cards, about why they decided to remake Chinese coin cards. You can even weave here any mysticism like the Sufi orders or some Kabbalists who secretly lived among the Arabs. But, in my opinion, here we are simply talking about the fact that the need for just such a deck was due to the rules of the card game that developed in Arab culture.

What did the Mamluk playing cards look like? Here are schematic illustrations of the Mamluk deck court cards:

From top to bottom: coins, polo sticks, bowls, scimitars. From left to right: sultan, vizier, second vizier.

The actual Mamluk maps looked like this:

The picture above shows three court cards of the polo stick suit. From left to right: sultan, vizier, second vizier.

So, in the XIV century, Mamluk maps came to Europe, which were changed in accordance with European culture. As the Arabs once remade Chinese playing cards for themselves, so the Europeans adapted Arab cards to their own needs.

At the same time, the suits practically did not change (except that scimitars became swords, and polo sticks were just sticks), but they began to draw cards in a European way (in Europe there was no ban on depicting living creatures, unlike the Muslim East). Court cards have respectively changed to King, Knight and Page (Squire), plus / minus Queen.

And in the 15th century, tarot cards appeared in Europe (namely, in Italy). They evolved from ordinary playing cards by adding trump cards (usually there are 21 trump cards) and a special card called "Fool".

So it is not playing cards that evolved from tarot cards through simplification, but tarot cards evolved from ordinary playing cards through complication.

Moreover, the tarot cards were created specifically for the game, and not at all for fortune telling or the transmission of some kind of occult wisdom. They played with tarot cards a game called Triumphs. These cards themselves were originally called triumphs (the word "tarot" appeared much later).

By the way, here's an interesting point showing that similar elements in different cultures can develop in a similar way: in addition to the spectacle cards, there are also trump cards in tarot. On these trump cards, we see various allegorical images, including virtues.

Here are three virtues from the so-called "Marseilles" tarot (other types of tarot decks may have different sets of virtues):

And in mahjong, in addition to "spectacle knuckles" (dots, bamboos and symbols), there are also knuckles with allegories of virtues:

• red dragon - moderation;


• green dragon - prosperity;


• white dragon - benevolence, sincerity and filial piety.

These dragons are:

And here is a more traditional image of them (hieroglyphic):

How did the familiar suit symbols - tambourines, clubs, hearts and spades - appear? Such suits, by the way, are usually called French.

In general, it is not difficult to guess that the French suits are nothing more than a simplification and stylization of the original suits (Italian-Spanish, in Italy and Spain, let me remind you, they are still used). In this way:

• coins turned into tambourines;


• sticks into clubs;


• bowls - into hearts;


• swords - in lances.

Moreover, apparently, the French suits did not come from the Italian-Spanish ones directly, but through the German system of suits (bells, acorns, hearts, leaves):

• coins - bells - tambourines;


• sticks - acorns - clubs;


• bowls - hearts - hearts;


• swords - leaves - spades.

Or as a picture:

Obviously, the conclusion about the origin of the French suits from the German ones is quite logical, given that the German suits are simpler than the Italian-Spanish ones, but they are still full-fledged drawings, and not simplified signs.

So let's summarize:

1. Playing cards were invented in China.


2. The Arabs adopted them from the Chinese. The Arabs are Europeans.


3. The symbols of the suits (Italian-Spanish, German, French) have nothing to do with either the occult or any devilry.


4. Tarot cards are special form playing cards, which is created on the basis of ordinary playing cards.

Hope it was interesting.

Well known all over the world, playing cards have found many uses. With their help, they predict the future, they are used to amuse the most different people, they become participants in almost every magician or illusionist show. 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 origin. But let's start with the fact that initially the cards did not look at all the way we used to see them.

When there was no paper, they already existed

As you know, paper was invented in China around 105 AD. However, there have been various finds from earlier years that 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 to playing cards as such.

According to the theories of scientists, initially playing cards appeared in China, and thanks to trade routes they got to India and Persia. There is also an opinion that the homeland of the 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 to find out the real homeland of the maps.

The beauty of this kind of entertainment initially was that the cards did not require a separate field, as for checkers, chess or similar games. Not surprisingly, interested traders took them home. However, the earliest finds still raise enough doubts about their connection with today's playing cards.

Why China is considered the birthplace of maps

China has many inventions, including various games such as dominoes and mahjong. However, it is he who is considered on this moment the most obvious birthplace of modern playing cards. There are many reasons for this conclusion.

This is primarily due to the fact that the first mention in historical sources associated with 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 also 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 designated by coins. In addition, they had an oblong shape, and the images on them were extremely similar to modern kings and ladies.

Where did the very first card suits come from?

It is noteworthy that if coins already appeared in the ancient maps that were found in China, then later 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 map images of people. Thanks to this, the four suits turned into coins (already established in China), clubs, swords and cups.

Why golf clubs, you ask? Everything is simple enough. Images of household items and surroundings in which these people were interested were put on 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, the clubs turned into maces or clubs.

A special detail that should be paid 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 reached the south of Europe, they began to spread rapidly. It was so widespread and large-scale that such a fact was even given the name "Invasion of Playing Cards." And such a threatening name can be easily justified.

At that time in Europe there were many different clashes, military actions between countries and small skirmishes. Due to their lightness, ease of transportation and small size, the cards were very popular with the soldiers. And, it turns out, with the offensive of the troops, the cards also attacked. The cards also came to Great Britain 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 prohibitions on gambling, which were almost everywhere!

How different decks and suits of cards appeared

It was only necessary for playing cards to hit any new country, as they immediately tried to remake them for themselves. Not too much big changes only the Tarot cards were subjected, which 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 nation tried to express its own features and national preferences in maps. Thanks to this, the suits were constantly changing. However, each suit has a rather curious evolution. Let's take a look at the most famous decks out there today.

Italo-Spanish deck

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

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

Existing until now, with its full complement it should consist of 50 cards (including two jokers, without them 48). Numeric cards started with one and ended with nine. Then there were the senior cards, which were designated by a page, a knight (knight) and a 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 letter designations either.

German deck

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

• The swords turned into leaves that met the requirements of the culture of Germany and were conditionally similar in shape (peaks);
• Cups in hearts, since an association was made with wine that filled these cups (worms);
• The clubs no longer became rough branches of trees, but turned into acorns (clubs);
• The coins turned into bells, since they were also round in shape (tambourines).

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

This deck has about the same number of cards as Italo-Spanish. It is similar that there were no Ladies in it in the same way, 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 have become swords (lances);
• Roses, former hearts(worms);
• Acorns (clubs);
• Bells (tambourines).

French deck

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

In her, the suits turned into:

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

As we know them, they appeared when it was necessary to simplify the production of cards. Suit symbols had to be created easily and by almost everyone in order to lower their cost. And the suits were simplified to the very symbols that are now known to the whole world. But not only this has become an amazingly correct 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, versatile, and, in addition, she was more delicate in relation to women. It was in the French deck that the Queen was originally present as a permanent card. And its weight was undeniable.

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

This version was first refuted in the 18th century by two learned writers, the abbots de Longrue and Reeve, 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 clergy to play cards.

This act came much earlier than 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 maps, and during 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 bear now.

So, at the whim of the artist David, the peak King, was the emblem of Charles VII, and the king of hearts was named Charlemagne. Queen Regina in the club 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 - the gentle Agnes Sorel, and the lady of hearts Judith - the light "moral" Isabella of Bavaria. Four jack(squires) stood for four brave knights: Ogier and Lancelo under Charlemagne, Hector de Gallard and La Gira 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 bravery, spades and tambourines represented weapons, clubs - food, fodder and ammunition. Finally, ace(as) in its Latin meaning represented what has always been recognized as the main wealth of war - money.

Thus, the painter Grangonner is not the inventor of maps, but left to his compatriots and everyone for an inheritance, which in many ways contributed and contributes now to the entertainment of people, and not only idle, but also business, and led to a variety of activities in all strata of society.

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

I must admit that origin of maps is still covered with impenetrable darkness. Scientists realized too late, time managed to destroy monuments that could shed light on the history of the emergence of maps. However, many learned people have devoted most of their lives to researching the history of playing cards.

But, despite all their efforts, this story is still replete with many blank spots, confused, and it is safe to say 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 gambling table.

What playing cards were made of

Actually, for a card game it is not necessary to have those playing cards that we know at the present time: rectangular, oval, round or any 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, cards are still made from wood, in some places from plastic materials in the form of dominoes, especially for card games such 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 of special paper. Moreover, such paper appeared almost simultaneously in many countries.

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

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

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

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

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 one 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 by pictures, colors, etc. This is evidenced by the fact that there were games in which cards were used not only with 3 and 4 images, but also with 5, 6 and more. In Korea, cards are played with the image of 8 figures: a man, a horse, an antelope, a rabbit, a pheasant, a crow, a fish and a star. And for each of these figures there are 10 different cards, that is, the deck consists of 80 cards.

In the old days, the Chinese even played with depreciated banknotes. Since there were few coins, and long-distance travel 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 overlords needed more and more money and ordered them to be printed in heaps. Money depreciated at a catastrophic rate, and it got to the point that in the 9th century it 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 old money began to play cards. And these money cards existed in China almost until the end of the 9th century. In China, they still play cards, which depict a general, two advisers, elephants, horses, war chariots, guns, as well as 5 soldiers. These 16 figures are colored red, white, yellow and green color a. Each suit is repeated twice, and thus, the total number of cards in the deck is 128 pieces. The shape of the Chinese cards has always been characteristic: 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 colored cards, and each color had 12 cards, that is, the number of cards in the deck was 144.

When playing cards appeared in Russia

Presumably in Russia, the cards appeared soon after their appearance in Europe, in particular in Germany and France. They quickly penetrated, first of all, into the ruling circles. In any case, already under Anna Ioannovna and Elizaveta Petrovna, card games, especially in court circles, flourished, and card games reached their peak during the reign of Catherine II. It is reliably known that Catherine's grandees played almost everyone without exception. Many of them gambled colossal fortunes, while losing tens of thousands of dessiatines and serfs. The peasants quite often, waking up in the morning, learned that they, at the whim of the owner, were lost to another person and became his property. Courtyard girls, especially beautiful ones, sometimes went to the stake for a colossal sum, and along with them hunting dogs and thoroughbred horses went to the stake.

There is no exact information about when the cards appeared in Russia. Some researchers believe that this happened quite late, around the second quarter of the 9th century. However, this contradicts other obvious facts. Researcher Y. Dmitriev reports that as early as 1759 the mechanic Pyotr Dumolin, who arrived in Moscow, was demonstrating "moving maps" in one of the houses in the Nemetskaya Sloboda. And another Russian researcher A. Vyatkin attributes the appearance of cards in Russia to an even earlier date, to the 7th century, and substantiates this with the well-known tsarist Code of 1649, which instructed players to act "like with tats," that is, 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 cards appeared in Russia simultaneously with their arrival in Europe is evidenced by the fact that Russians "kept pace" with the Europeans in mastering the secrets of many card games.

Video: History of Playing Cards

Cards - rectangular pieces of material made of heavy-duty plastic, specially prepared cardboard or tissue paper, with the image of various motives, assembled in a set for use in a variety of card games, in fortune telling, in magic tricks or for card tricks. As a rule, all cards are palm-sized so that they are comfortable to hold in your hands.
A complete set of cards is called a card deck, a deck in which 32 cards are called a small deck of playing cards, a 52-card deck is called a large or Anglo-American deck, and the cards that the player holds during the game are called his (player's) card hand. The deck of cards is unified, one deck of cards can be used in many different games, some of which include the gambling component - the game for money.
The front side of each card, as it is also called the picture or the face of the card, is marked. The index of playing cards includes the designation of the strength of the card - two (from English deuce) ... five (from English five) ... ten (from English ten), jack (from English jack), queen (from English queen), king (from English king), ace (from English ace) and card suit - heart (from English hearts - hearts), tambourine (from English diamonds - diamonds), spades (from English spades - spades), clubs (from English clubs - club). The style of playing cards, as a rule, each country has its own: there is a Russian series of playing cards, French playing cards, rich traditions in Italian masters, cards from Germany, Sweden, Austria also have their own distinctive feature, their own national flavor.
The back of the cards is called a back, in most cases it is a simple and at the same time exquisite pattern, each card manufacturer uses its own unique design, sometimes brand manufacturers place their logo on the back of the cards. The color of the back of a deck of cards is rarely not blue or red, sometimes green and brown, less often there are cards with a white and black back. In exceptional cases, the difference is cardinal, for example, cards for tricks "Bicycle" with a transparent back or playing cards with a multicolored back "Rainbow cards" of the same company "Bicycle".

Maps by destination are divided into:

1. Playing cards - the most common type of cards on our planet, 92% of the population at least once held one of them in their hands. The history of playing cards is more than four thousand years old, the most ancient playing (playing, not fortune-telling) cards came to us from China and date back to 1400 BC. Nowadays, there are more than 10,000 basic card games, plus a lot of variations and varieties of basic card games, for example, the game Poker has more than 200 subspecies, the main of which is Texas Hold'em (from the English Texas Hold "em). There are many types of playing cards, we will look at them in more detail in the next chapter.

2. Divination cards , or the most common among them are the Tarot cards - depending on the style used, various famous decks were named:
- Egyptian Tarot - Egyptian motives in the pictures of cards
- Marseille Tarot - cards in the French style of the 17th century
- Tarot cards Visconti-Sforza - the cards are made in the style of the Italian Renaissance
- Tarot cards Ryder-Waite - the cards were drawn at the beginning of the twentieth century, this is the most popular deck of Tarot cards, which left many clones and descendants behind
- Tarot cards Thoth - the last fundamental work of the master Aleister Crowley, which summarizes all his knowledge and beliefs
- Tarot cards Lenormand - cards of Lenormand also belong to the category of divination cards

3. Magic cards or cards for magic tricks (from the English magic tricks cards) - manipulations with cards and small card magic shows will be available to you with these cards. The best cards for focuses in terms of their characteristics, and this is quality, high sliding (which makes them much easier to manipulate) and durability, are the cards of the Bicycle company, this brand is the undisputed leader in this area. In our store you can buy a large assortment of magic cards of this company. You can find videos of card tricks on these sites:
- //www.howtodotricks.com/
- //www.trickmagic.com/
- //www.goodtricks.net/cardmagic.html

4. Solitaire Cards (from the English Solitaire Cards Game) - for playing your favorite solitaire, in most cases, standard playing cards are suitable (whether it is a small 32-card deck or a 52-card large deck of playing cards, it all depends on the type of solitaire). For exclusive solitaire, separate decks are sold with the required number of specific cards by suit, in addition to the set, there is a booklet with the rules for this solitaire.

5. Specific maps - cards that could enter one of the categories above, but for some reason did not get there, since the emphasis is not on the game or the convenience of handling them in card tricks, namely on their specifications, are divided into their subcategories
- cards for kids- educational cards with very bright and memorable pictures with fairytale characters
- comic cards- cards with funny pictures, parodies of famous people, also includes political cartoons and the like
- cards with erotic pictures- erotic cards and cards with porn photos, I think, do not need comments

The cards are divided according to the material of manufacture:

- cardboard cards (from English paper playing cards) - standard cards are usually the cheapest on the market. But remember - good (means branded) paper / cardboard cards will serve you for a long time, as the firm manufacturers use high quality thin corrugated and pressed cardboard.
- plastic coated cards (from English plastic coated playing cards) - high-tech cards with a thin layer of plastic applied over the card to give strength and excellent sliding characteristics. Again, in our concept, plastic-coated cards are associated with cheap Chinese consumer goods, what to choose - 5 decks brought from China or 1 normal brand name - it's up to you.
- plastic cards (from the English plastic playing cards) - the most durable and durable cards among all the others for the production of one deck of plastic cards use ultra-technological PVC plastic. 100% plastic cards with proper care and will serve you up to 500 times more than cardboard ones,
- exclusive cards - a gold deck of playing cards, cards with added silver or with inserts of other precious metals - the most elite and expensive cards, but you must admit that they will be a wonderful gift for a gambler.

Playing cards (in English. Playing cards). Diversified characteristics of playing cards, division of playing cards into groups, systematization of playing cards according to the version of the site N ashP oker.N et

Playing Cards by Size:

- playing cards of standard size or bridge size (from the English bridge size) - playing cards with the following physical parameters: 2.25 "x 3.50" - width 2.25 inches, length 3.50 inches, this is approximately 5.72 centimeters by 8.89 centimeters.

- poker playing cards or poker size cards (from the English poker size) - playing cards with a wider base, the width of the poker cards is 2.50 "", the height of the cards is 3.50 "" or 6.35 cm by 8.89 cm.

- maps of unusual shapes (triangular, round or 5x magnified) - these cards are more made for fun than for serious card game and can be a great and original gift for a gambler.

Playing cards are divided according to the number of cards in the deck:

- small deck of cards - there are 36 cards in the deck, the rules of such games as fool, whist, preference, point, king, thousand allow playing with a small deck ...
- large deck of cards - there are 52 cards in the deck plus 2 additional jokers, a large deck of cards is a prerequisite for such card games: poker, bridge, blackjack, baccarat, sec ...
- maps for a specific game - the number of cards in such decks is non-standard, such a deck always includes the rules of this game. For example, a deck of cards for playing with pinocle or pinochle has 48 cards - 2 sets of tens, jacks, queens, kings and aces; for another exciting game of canasta (from canasta), a double large deck with additional jokers is assumed ... There are also a lot of new card games, often decks for such exclusive games are produced by branded manufacturers of playing cards: Modiano, Copag, Bicycle, Piatnik, Bee, Dal Negro, Kem, Fournier.

Playing cards by index size are classified:

- standard index cards (in English Regular Index or Standard Index) - cards with a regular index of medium size

- large index cards (in English Jumbo Index or Large Index) - playing cards with the optimal index size in our opinion

- maps with huge index (in English Magnum Index or Super Index) - these cards are made especially for people who have poor vision

Playing cards for the number of indices are divided into:

- (abbreviated designation 2 Pips) - one index is located in the upper left corner, the second in the lower right, this arrangement of indexes is more familiar to us and is generally accepted in the United States, but does not take into account left-handed fans of card games.

- (abbreviated designation 4 Pips) - these cards are more common in Europe and are available in a large assortment of any European manufacturer of playing cards, be it Modiano, Piatnik, Dal Negro or Fournier.

Maps are divided by the color of the index and the picture:

- (from the English standard color playing cards) - the most common playing cards in our time with a standard color of indices and suits - for hearts and tambourines, red is provided, for spades and crosses - black, drawings of senior cards are painted in free colors.

- four color playing cards (from the English 4 color playing cards) - these playing cards are gradually going down in history, they were popular in Europe until the middle of the last century, their hallmark there are four (instead of two for regular cards) reserved colors for suits and indices. For the suit of hearts, red is provided, for tambourines, blue is responsible, the suit of spades corresponds to black, and green is reserved for crosses, jacks, queens, kings and aces are painted in a moderate style only in basic colors.

- two-color exclusive playing cards (from the English 2 color exclusive playing cards) - special and rare playing cards, can be made in one color or two colors with different variations of shades. These cards also include gold and gilded playing cards - they look very impressive.

Gradation of playing cards by color of the back:

- playing cards with one main back color - the pattern of the picture and the edges on the back of the cards are made in the same color, as a rule, this color is blue or red, although others are no exception.
- playing cards with colorful background on the back - there are playing cards where the back of cards is painted in all the colors of the rainbow, a very interesting effect arises when such a deck is shuffled, also this includes cards with a multi-colored pattern on the back.
- playing cards with a picture on the back - the drawings on the shirt are different, perhaps it is something neutral - a flower, a landscape, a cute animal, a picture of a car, a frame from a film, or just an advertisement ...

Maps by manufacturer:

- brand playing cards - you can find the highest quality playing cards in the line of one of the world leaders in the production of cards, whether it be cardboard cards, playing cards with a plastic cover or 100% plastic cards - the pleasure of the game is guaranteed to you. Giants manufacturers in the playing card market:
1. The American company United States Playing Card Company (abbreviated as U. S. Playing Card Co. or USPC) owns such well-known brands of playing cards - Bicycle Bee KEM Hoyle Aviator Congress Maverick Streamline.
2. The Italian company Modiano is a leader in the production of cards in Europe.
3. The Brazilian playing card company Copag is a major player in the American playing card market.
4. The Spanish company Fournier - produces high-quality and affordable playing cards.
5. Austrian company Piatnik - the accumulated 150 years of experience in the production of playing cards affected the quality of products, the company Piatnik is rightfully proud of its traditions.
6. Another representative of the Italian school of playing cards - Dal Negro - quality, quality and again the quality of the products.
7 ... There are a lot of manufacturers on the playing card market, but the share of these companies is very small ...

- non-branded playing cards - as a rule, playing cards made in China, the name written on the box resembles or is consonant with the world brand-manufacturer of playing cards, the quality is naturally several times lower, of course this also applies to the price.

- playing cards on order - you can order your own deck featuring your friends, family or your colleagues. The design can be either yours or the manufacturer's. The cost of a deck of cards to order depends on the quantity of the order, the more decks with cards you need, the lower the price of one deck.

We have considered the main categories of playing cards and now we can easily read the symbols on any deck, for example:
Example # 1: Modiano Cristallo red plastic playing cards poker size 4 pips jumbo index - plastic playing cards with a red back from the Italian company Modiano, model Cristallo, poker size cards with four large indexes.
Example No. 2: Copag 139 blue plastic coated playing cards poker size 2 pips regular index, which means - blue plastic coated playing cards from the Brazilian company Copag brand 139, poker cards with two standard indexes.

We hope this article will become a guide to playing cards and will help you make the right choice when buying playing cards. The article is live, send your wishes and clarifications to us by mail ...

As always - one has only to get deeper into some topic, and so many new and interesting things are immediately discovered! Seemingly playing cards - so what's wrong with that?

Map history

The 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 stripped-down (ie starting with sixes) 54-card "French deck".

Around the 15-16th centuries, the French deck was completely formed in the form we are accustomed to and since then has practically not changed. Recent changes are the appearance in 1830 of a pattern symmetrical with respect to the top-bottom (previously, card figures were drawn in full growth), the appearance of rounded corners, the appearance of small figures-indexes in the corners of the map (in 1864 in America they were patented by a certain Saladi).

1658, Guinea, France. Modern reprint of the deck with the addition of indices and rounding of the corners of the cards

In the middle of the 15th century, cards came to France from Italy, where they had their own deck of cards with suits that were unusual for us (about suits, see below), slightly different from region to region (62 cards from Bologna, 78 in Venice, 98 in Florence) ... A feature of these cards was 21 trump cards - "Major Arcana". Apparently this is how the Tarot cards appeared, which were playing until the 18th century, and only then they began to be used by occultists).

Italian maps belong to the so-called "Latin" (Spanish, Portuguese) - these are the first European maps brought to the Apennines at the end of the 14th century by the crusaders from the countries of the East.

The first written mention of playing cards in Europe is a decree of 1367 prohibiting card games in the city of Bern. In 1392, Jacques Gringonner, the jester of the mentally ill French King Charles VI, drew a deck of cards to amuse his master. That deck was different from the modern one - it had only 32 cards (there were no ladies).

The further history of the cards is lost over the centuries. There are several versions of their origin.

One of them is the borrowing of a card game from Persia through India. It is in the Persian sources that there is the earliest mention of this game. In the "Chronicles of Egypt and Syria" there is a mention of the fact that the nobility at court played the game "Kanjifah", using cards of 8 suits of 12 cards. But under the influence of Muslims, this game was forgotten already in the middle of the 17th century.

In India, the cards took root, the local deck was called ganjifa. This word was first mentioned in 1527 in the diary of Emperor Babur, where he writes that he sent the deck to his friend.

The Indian round playing cards depicted the figure of the four-armed Shiva, who was holding a goblet, sword, coin and wand. It is believed that these symbols of the four Indian classes gave rise to the suits of the "Latin deck".

Ganjif cards are still produced in the Rajistan region (India)

Another common version is Turkic. In the 12-13 centuries, the Egyptian Mamelukes played with a deck of 52 cards with denominations from 1 to 10, in which there were four suits (swords, clubs, bowls and coins), "malik" (emir - king) and his two assistants - "naib malik "and" tani naib ". This is very reminiscent of the "Latin deck", there were no queens in it either, but there were kings, jacks and cavaliers. Only golf clubs became ceremonial wands (or clubs) in Europe. And the word "naib", "helper", became the name of the card game.

In 1939, L.A. Mayer discovered an incomplete deck of Mamluk cards in Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.

Mamluk cards. Ten cups, three cups, first cups advisor, second cups advisor.

There is a version that seems to me to be simply an attempt at a hoax that the cards came to us from Egypt. It was first published in 1785 by the French occultist Etteila. Allegedly, Egyptian cards are 78 gold tablets on which the priests wrote down all their knowledge. 56 of them - " Minor Arcana"- became common playing cards, and with 22" Major Arcana "they made a tarot deck used for fortune telling. But scientists have not found any archaeological confirmation of this version.

Another version, which also does not inspire confidence in me personally, that card game manifested itself in the 12th century in China. But although they drew paper pictures with various images of flowers and birds, somewhat resembling cards, the rules of the game in them are more like dominoes.

Chinese "money" cards

Drawing cards

The most widespread design of playing cards in Russia - the traditional "Satin Cards" - was created in the middle of the 19th century by the academician of painting Adolph Iosifovich Charlemagne. Since then, the drawing has not changed, apart from the fact that the image of the coat of arms of the Russian Empire was removed from the card of the jack of hearts and the ace of diamonds.

But Charlemagne did not create a fundamentally new style of cards. When developing the drawings, he relied on the tradition of the "North German picture", which originated from the ancient popular French deck of cards.

1875 year. Satin maps based on A. Charlemagne's sketch

The Anglo-American pattern of playing cards, now prevalent throughout the world, evolved from the Rouen (variation of the French) pattern.

Anglo-American pattern

The "Paris Template" maps were created in the mid-17th century from the maps of the artist Hector de Troyes. Nowadays, the image of the Parisian pattern is most often found on playing cards for preference (a deck of 32 cards) of French production.

Cards of the Parisian template, model 1895

In French maps, unlike ours, where "pictures" are just abstract kings and queens, each map has its own prototype:

king of hearts - Charlemagne
King of Spades - King David
King of Diamonds - Julius Caesar
King of Clubs - Alexander the Great
lady of hearts - Judith (earlier images - Helen of Trojan or Dido, the founder of Carthage)
Queen of Spades - Pallas Athena (in other versions Minerva or Jeanne d "Arc)
lady of tambourine - Rachel (Biblical character. Represents greed and love of money)
the lady of clubs - Argina (an anagram of the word "queen" - "regina". The name of Argin soon began to be called the mistresses of French kings). It is interesting that this card most often changed its prototype: it depicted the virtuous Lucretius, a symbol of charm to Philo, Hecuba).
Jack of Hearts - Etienne de Vignoles (nicknamed La Gere - "Fury"). Counselor to Jeanne d "Ark, who became a hero of folklore.
Jack of Spades - Ogier (Ogier) Dane. Cousin of Charlemagne, National Hero of Denmark
jack of tambourine - Hector (but not a Trojan prince, but Hector de Marais, knight of the Round Table and brother of Lancelot)
jack of clubs - Lancelot. Knight of the Round Table.

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

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 had to be printed on the ace of spades (since this card is the first in the deck). A special seal was put on the same ace, indicating the payment of a special tax on cards.

Card suits

The usual card suits - spades, clubs, diamonds, hearts - also have their own history. They were invented in France and, together with the "French deck", have now gained worldwide distribution, practically replacing the other two main types of playing cards - the "Italian and German" decks.

The suits originally symbolized the attributes of a knight - a spear (spades), a sword (clubs), a shield (worms) and a coat of arms (tambourines).

These suits are the result of the transformation of the old suits of the "Italian deck" - "swords", "cups" (bowls), "pentacles" (coins, denarii, discs) and "wands" (clubs, clubs). It seems, as in India, they symbolized the estates: the nobility, clergy, merchants and the royal power standing over them.

In the French version, "swords" became "spades", "cups" - into "worms", "pentacles" - into "tambourines", and "wands" - into "crosses" or "clubs" ("clubs" French means "cloverleaf" or "shamrock").

V different countries the names of the suits now sound different.

In France, they literally translate as follows: lances (spears), shamrocks, hearts, tiles (pavement).
In Italy - spikes (spears), flowers, hearts, squares.

In Spain, the original names have been preserved - swords, clubs, bowls (cups), coins.

In Germany and England - spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds.

In addition, on German maps (southern and eastern regions of Germany), you can still find ancient designations: acorns, bells, leaves, hearts. They are also used in Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia. Croatia, Hungary and Romania.

Switzerland also has its own national version of the suits - flowers (roses), bells, shields (coats of arms) and acorns.

In Russia, the name of the card suit "worms" apparently came from the French "ker" - heart, or from the word "chervonny" i.e. "red", also associated with the heart.

Traditional deck. Spain, 1590

Traditional deck. Italy

Traditional deck. Germany

Traditional deck. Switzerland

Interestingly, the jack (from the French valet - servant, lackey) is associated with an adventurer, a brave, but roguish adventurer.

In some variants of card decks (for example, in the old "Spanish", "Swiss", "German" decks) there are no queens, but besides the king there are two more male character- unter (low jack) and ober (high jack).
Card queens first appeared in Italy, from where they were borrowed by the French.

Map of the modern distribution of national decks:

Taken from here: