50 cards: 8 trumps, 14 virtues, 14 vices, 14 indifferent

1
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/c ... .70&page=1
(I get no picture)

Fanciful pack without suits: Virtues and Vices
Circa 1700
Print made by: Anonymous
style: Italian
Dimensions
Height: 87 millimetres
Width: 60 millimetres
Each card has its name and number above, and some also have a statement of their value below.
Pack of 50 drawn and etched somewhat in the manner of Mitelli; composed of 42 emblematical figures of the Virtues, Vices and Indifferent Qualities, and 8 'trionfi'. Two of the cards are taken from another pack. (See Italian Sheets, No. 5).
Bibliography
Schreiber III, pl. 29 and 30 bibliographic details
Schreiber Italian 138 bibliographic details

From Hofmann, Wahrsagekarten 1972, p. 9 (he gives a reference to Schreiber 29+30), I get this ...

Image


... with a Bologna 1770, Cassa di Risparmio.

************

Has somebody better information to it?
Last edited by Huck on 08 Feb 2014, 08:38, edited 1 time in total.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: unknown deck / 50 (?) cards

3
I found in the Donoghue catalog (1901) ...
https://archive.org/stream/aen4312.0001 ... 8/mode/2up
... the following detail:

Image


First I thought, that it is a German edition of the above described game, cause of the "50 cards", but it seems to be different. My attempt to find it in the British Museum, often successful, wasn't successful.

Anyway, the Leipzig Industrie Comptoir had been active after 1800 and the description speaks of pairs (25 ?).

I've found an announcement of the game for 1817. Ein Gesellschaftsspiel für die Jugend.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: unknown deck / 50 (?) cards

4
Huck wrote:Having researched something around I finally get, that Franco Pratesi already had written about it, long ago:

http://naibi.net/
11. Les Vices et les Vertus: quelques jeux italiens du XVIIIe siècle. L’As de Trèfle, N. 34 (1988) 12-15
Hello Huck,
thank you for posting the images and the link to that very informative paper by Pratesi.

Pratesi notes that the 50 cards deck is similar to "il Gioco del Passatempo" by Mitelli. We discussed it here.

There also is some documentary evidence of a game of Virtues and Vices played in Portugal during the XVI Century.

Apparently, the subject of Vices and Virtues has been used for the creation of different decks during the centuries. We can include Boiardo's Tarot in the list.

Re: 50 cards: 8 trumps, 14 virtues, 14 vices, 14 indifferent

5
Apparently, the subject of Vices and Virtues has been used for the creation of different decks during the centuries. We can include Boiardo's Tarot in the list.
Yes, this is also my summary.

It's interesting, that the composition looks like a "reduced Tarot". Three 14-card-suits (virtues, vices, indifferent), and 8 trumps, from which 6 are common trumps and 3 are new inventions:

New: Premio. Castigo, Buona Indole

Known: Angelo, Mondo, Tempo, Diavolo, Morte

It looks, as if Premio, Castigo and Buona Indole have a government in the 3 suits (Castigo for vices, Premio for Virtues, Buona Indole for indifferent)), and the other 5 seem to balance itself with the good Mondo + Angelo on one side, the bad Diavolo + Morte on the other, and the neutral Tempo reigning in the middle.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: 50 cards: 8 trumps, 14 virtues, 14 vices, 14 indifferent

6
Something I found in Moore's Utopia...just for fun :)
They do not so much as know dice, or any such foolish and mischievous games. They have, however, two sorts of games not unlike our chess; the one is between several numbers, in which one number, as it were, consumes another; the other resembles a battle between the virtues and the vices, in which the enmity in the vices among themselves, and their agreement against virtue, is not unpleasantly represented; together with the special opposition between the particular virtues and vices; as also the methods by which vice either openly assaults or secretly undermines virtue; and virtue, on the other hand, resists it.