Usus te plura docebit and Piscina
Posted: 18 Apr 2021, 10:43
I was reading Giordano Berti's essay "I tarocchi in Piemonte" in Tarocchi: le carte del regno: la storia, i simboli, il mito (Faenza: Associazione Le Tarot, 1997) and came across this sentence:
I assume the "gioco dei pesi" is the 17th century game described on pages 269-276 of Dummett and McLeod's A History of Games Played With the Tarot Pack, Vol. 1, (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) or one of its successors; Dummett and McLeod say this game was called "Partita a Pesi" in the 18th century, and the pesi were a central feature of the scoring method. But I don't know exactly what the "suggestions" were in the Piscina text which gave rise to the conclusion that he knew of that game in particular. Maybe "gioco dei pesi" was simply intended as a reference to Bolognese tarocchino in general, and the hint that Piscina knew of a game like that is the "equal papi" rule, which is mentioned in the text.
In his essay, Berti gives no further information about this group or their findings. Does anyone know anything about this group or any other details of their work?Stando a recenti recerche eseguite dagli esperti giocatori del Gruppo "Usus te plura docebit" di Voghera, il libretto di Piscina contiene alcuni suggerimenti che fanno presumere la sua conoscenza del cosiddetto "gioco dei pesi", di origine bolognese.
[ According to recent researches carried out by the expert players of the "Usus te plura docebit" group of Voghera, the Piscina booklet contains some suggestions that make one think that he knew of the "game of weights", of Bolognese origin. ]
I assume the "gioco dei pesi" is the 17th century game described on pages 269-276 of Dummett and McLeod's A History of Games Played With the Tarot Pack, Vol. 1, (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004) or one of its successors; Dummett and McLeod say this game was called "Partita a Pesi" in the 18th century, and the pesi were a central feature of the scoring method. But I don't know exactly what the "suggestions" were in the Piscina text which gave rise to the conclusion that he knew of that game in particular. Maybe "gioco dei pesi" was simply intended as a reference to Bolognese tarocchino in general, and the hint that Piscina knew of a game like that is the "equal papi" rule, which is mentioned in the text.