Here is another discovery of Franco's, not earthshaking but a colorful chunk of the mosaic of tarot history, this one about tarocchi. Comments in brackets are mine for clarification, in consultation with Franco. The original is "Milano 1551 ‒ I giochi del Medeghino," dated Nov. 1, 2024, posted at https://naibi.net/A/8-36-MEDEGHINO.pdf.

Milan 1551 ‒ The Games of Medeghino

Franco Pratesi

1. Introduction

I can begin to better illustrate the title. Already the date requires a comment, because this study is based on a letter dated Milan 1550, and therefore the year seems certain; however, both the sender of the letter and the recipient are two Florentines and their January 1550 (ab Incarnatione [after the Incarnation, i.e. of Jesus in Mary’s womb]) becomes our 1551, and also that of the time for Milan.

Medeghino, on the other hand, was the nickname of Gian Giacomo de' Medici, and I will have to dwell on this personage. I can immediately admit that in decades of studies and readings, I had encountered several related Medici families, but I had not yet come across this one. The fact is that this Medici family is not Florentine like the others, but Milanese; it is described as being of ancient nobility but, until the generation of the personage in question, it had been of little importance, both in the economic and political fields. The existence of a kinship relationship in origins with the Medici of Florence has been denied by historiography, but in its time, it was accepted, probably for mutual convenience. I will also indicate other members of the family, but on Medeghino I must add several pieces of information to characterize the main character.

2. Medeghino's adventurous life

Gian Giacomo dei Medici (Milan 1498-1555) was a figure of great importance especially in the military field, recognized in the sector as one of the main protagonists of the era. Therefore we should not be surprised if we have a rich bibliography on his life and in particular on the feats of arms in which he was involved.

The main information can already be found in the Treccani Dizionario Biografico [Biographical Dictionary]. [note 1] Numerous details on his activity as a military commander are collected on the well-known site dedicated to the mercenary leaders of the time. [note 2] One can also read two books dedicated entirely to this personage: the oldest, by Marcantonio Missaglia, can now be consulted on Google Books; [note 2] two editions of the second have been printed, but it is present in few libraries. [note 4]

Summarizing the information contained in the works cited is difficult, especially because the episodes and battles in which Medeghino was involved are not only very numerous but also tangled with regard to alliances and objectives, especially for the initial period, in which he fought several times both on his own account and in alliance with one or the other of the warring camps, the followers of Duke Francesco II Sforza, the French armies, and the Spanish-imperial ones.

The family of Medici di Nosiggia is variously indicated by chroniclers and historians, either as of ancient nobility but poor, or, vice versa, as rather rich but not noble; it can be concluded that only with the generation of Gian Giacomo did it acquire an extraordinary fame, thanks above all to Gian Giacomo himself but also to his brother Giovan Angelo, who had a brilliant diplomatic and ecclesiastical career up to being elected as Pope Pius IV; furthermore his sister Margherita was the mother of Saint Carlo Borromeo.

His father Bernardino had been, among other things, a rich tax contractor for the Duchy of Milan, but with the political changes of the early sixteenth century, the French government confiscated his assets, and Bernardino, with about ten children, after a period spent in prison found himself in poverty. In addition
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1. https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/gi ... ografico)/
2. https://condottieridiventura.it/gian-gi ... y-warfare/
3. M. Missaglia, M. Fabi, F. Benedetti, Vita di Giangiacomo Medici, marchese di Marignano. Milan 1854. https://www.google.it/books/edition/Bib ... frontcover
4. V. Palmisano, Gian Giacomo de' Medici, Marquis di Marignano. Melegnano 2006. https://opac.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/Record/BRI0476523 ,

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to his brother who became pope, others also accompanied Gian Giacomo, who was the eldest, in several of his adventures. We will meet his brother Augusto later.

The details of Gian Giacomo's youth are not known, but he must have revealed a restless character early on, and while still a teenager he was forced to flee Milan after being accused of murder. The shelter he found in the territory on the edge of Lake Como was frequented by various armed groups of exiles and bandits dedicated to looting in the towns and countryside around and even on the waters of the lake. After a few years Gian Giacomo found himself in command of a small irregular army with which he carried out several daring enterprises for the reconquest of towns in the Como area and Valtellina in favor of the Duke of Milan Francesco II, who accepted his conquest of the castle of Musso, recognizing him as castellan.

For a few years he was then at the head of an army of Lombard and Swiss mercenaries who fought on several occasions alongside the French, while in 1528 he passed into the service of Charles V, obtaining recognition as Marquis of Musso. In the following years, we witness continuous battles on opposing fronts, for or against, both towards the Duke of Milan and towards the imperial troops. An agreement of 1532 concluded with the cession to the Duke of the territories he had conquered around Lake Como and his recognition in exchange by the title of Marquis of Marignano (today Melegnano).

At the end of 1536, the Marquis of Vasto, the new imperial commander in Lombardy, had Gian Giacomo and his brother Giovan Battista imprisoned for treason in favor of France. Released from prison after a year and a half on bail, thanks to the intervention of numerous governors urged by his brother Giovan Angelo (the future Pope, then Governor of Parma), Medeghino went directly to Spain to the court of Charles V and managed to convince the Spanish of his loyalty to the empire.

From 1538 onwards there were no more exchanges of alliances as in the past, and Gian Giacomo began a rapid career progression in the Habsburg army. In his new position it is understandable that the theatre of his military actions expanded to the whole of Europe. In 1539 he fought against the rebellious city of Ghent, and in the following years first in Hungary against the Ottomans and then in France.

During a break in 1545 he married in Rome a young widow of the noble Roman Orsini family, who died in 1548 without leaving him children. Then Gian Giacomo, in order to have heirs, pushed his brother Augusto to marry, giving him the family home and part of his capital and also naming him heir to the noble title.



Portrait of Medeghino (From Wikimedia Commons)
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Medeghino's military activity resumed in 1546 with the war against the German Lutheran princes of the Schmalkalda League, followed by a campaign in Bohemia. For a couple of years around 1550, Medeghino stayed in Milan, and this is the short period of greatest interest for the present study, as can be seen from the information commented on below.

Already in 1551 Medeghino was found in the war of Parma and immediately after in the battles around Metz. In 1553 he obtained the command in the war against Siena in the imperial army allied with the Florentine duke Cosimo I, with whom he had already established collaborative relations, in particular for the construction of the fortress of Siena.

The war of Siena was his last important campaign, and as general in charge of the Florentine and imperial forces he showed all his ruthlessness in order to achieve the goal of starving the citizens of Siena to the extreme ‒ it is written that the inhabitants of the city were reduced from 40 to 6 thousand. The following figure shows in particular the capture of the Fortress of Camollia on 27 January 1554, with Medeghino in the foreground. Some details on his strategy can also be found in the aforementioned book by Missaglia.

Since he sought every hope of taking it by storm, he resolved to use every possible means to press it with the utmost severity of the siege, and to conquer it by hunger; and therefore, having first laid waste around the walls of Siena and razed to the ground an infinite number of noble buildings, which were the ancient delights of the Sienese nobility, he not only also had severe penalties published against anyone who brought, or consented to bring, any quantity of provisions into that city, but he proposed large rewards to anyone who caught and delivered such bearers; and yet the country people, for a rather long time [or, less likely, in great part] drawn by love of country and greed for great gain, did not cease to expose themselves every hour to this risk, so that the soldiers took a great quantity of them, of whom a certain number were killed every day, and placed on very high gallows in sight of the Sienese, they made a horrible spectacle to that city and kept that country in a constant terror, and for this the marquis was damned by many, since with such cruelties he seemed to offend not only Christian piety but Humanity itself and the distant ears of those who heard them.

It can be admitted that the loss of freedom of the Sienese was in tune with the developments towards a more modern political system of the Italian states, such that the Duchy of Florence was able to transform itself shortly after into the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with the administration strengthened in every branch and new fortifications strategically spread throughout the state. However, the means with which the Florentines obtained the goal and the strategies themselves of Medeghino were certainly despicable.

A few months later, in November 1555, death overtook Medeghino in Milan after he had already committed himself to leading yet another campaign of the imperial army in Piedmont. His brother, Pope Pius IV, commissioned the construction of his prestigious funeral monument in the Cathedral of Milan.

3. Connections with Cosimo I de' Medici and the war of Siena

I have not identified the first approaches between Gian Giacomo and the Duke of Florence, Cosimo I, and I have not researched in depth to understand in detail the relationship between the two. In particular, I would not be able to distinguish how much the imperial leader's approach to Tuscany depended on the projects of Emperor Charles V or developed spontaneously, also on the basis of a supposed common family ancestry.

Later, in the preparations and conduct of the war of Siena, the duke obviously considered the general as a very valid collaborator, to be continuously assisted in the best way, responding promptly to every request for supplies of weapons and personnel. Subduing the Sienese republic was not only an imperial need, but was the way to extend the Florentine duchy to all of Tuscany. Siena was not a city like the other Tuscan cities that had already been subjugated by Florence: it was at the head of a territory of great extension, second only to that of Florence.

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Giorgio Vasari and assistants, The War of Siena
Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Hall of the Five Hundred
However, the relationship with Cosimo I did not begin with the war of Siena. In the ASFi, and precisely in the collection Mediceo del Principato, several letters are preserved in which Medeghino informs the duke on various events and situations of which he is a witness.

The need to be kept informed about distant events was deeply felt, and the correspondence of the Florentine ducal secretariat is full of letters from various European capitals and other centers of political and economic interest, with reports and updates. Often the senders were Florentine envoys who moved specifically for the purpose of gathering the most useful information, or local correspondents who periodically sent their reports to Florence. In these correspondences Medeghino also appears, as in the following cases.

Cosimo I orders the ambassador to the imperial court to give the Marquis of Marignano money that had been earmarked for a chalice (25.9.1544). [note 5] Grifoni da Prato reports a visit to the city fortifications by Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo with Medeghino and Stefano Colonna (28.02.1546). [note 6] From Regensburg, Medeghino thanks Cosimo I for sending six bombardiers and writes that he has provided his ambassador with news of the latest events (21.06.1546). [note 7]

We also find news from Medeghino's own hand on the preparations for the defense of Siena, years before the city rebelled against Spanish control, starting from the construction of the Fortress. In particular, Medeghino informs Cosimo I of the difficulties encountered in Siena in finding a suitable place for the fortress (28.09.1550). [note 8] This information falls within the time frame in which Medeghino resided mainly in Milan, which is what is of interest here and which is examined in particular below.

4 . Letters from Milan to Florence in the years 1550 and 1551

Most of the information about Medeghino from that period is not obtained from the letters exchanged between him and Cosimo I, but from those between the secretaries. In particular, I have turned my attention to a manuscript Letters of Francesco Vinta, resident in Milan, from the year 1550, et 1551 ab Inc. [ab Incarnatione, before the Incarnation], [note 9] which
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5. ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 3, c. 380r
6. ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 1171, c. 517r
7. ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 380, c. 83r
8. ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 1853, c. 17r
9. ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 3102.

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collects the correspondence of Francesco Vinta, the duke's agent in Milan, who from there kept up a close correspondence with the secretary Cristiano Pagni, who in Florence was in daily contact with the duke.

From this correspondence, we can obtain information on the events and personages who were in Milan, or about whom, even if they were far away, it was possible that important news would reach the Milanese secretariats before the Florentine ones.

It is not surprising that the news sent to Florence is of very varied importance, from precious information on the movements of the armies and the alliances that were formed and dissolved rapidly to gossip about how and with whom a nobleman had spent the previous evening dancing. Medeghino is one of the personages most followed, and Vinta reports several times in parts of his letters on what he learns about him or sees with his own eyes. What we get is not found in the books I cited at the beginning, dedicated practically exclusively to the personage’s military activity.

Here we understand that the duke was anxious to see Medeghino at work in Siena in the construction of the Fortress and later, in letters in other manuscripts, organizing and leading the assault on the Sienese Republic. The news is not very encouraging, however. In Milan it seems that Medeghino's main occupation was that of restoring and enlarging the family palace in the city center.

Most of the attention, however, is focused on the scandal involving Medeghino together with the family of his brother Augusto, who was extremely jealous of the young wife that Medeghino himself had made him marry. In Florence, news of the following kind was reached about Medeghino, not exactly in tune with the military commitment expected from him.

ff. 69r-70r. The Marquis of Marignano and his brother have been sequestered in the house and also the Count Sforza del Mayno his brother-in-law by order of His Most Illustrious Lordship, who is trying to bring about reconciliation, and an Augustinian friar is managing it, and it is believed that in the end it will be concluded between them, because each will live separately. And the Marquis begs his brother that he vich(?) but the importance remains in the young woman, who is never going to trust her husband, nor to return to him for the suspicion that he will kill her. And to say it more clearly, her husband Sig. Augusto has always been very jealous of her and changed(?) himself from it into anger and continued to bring the dagger to bed for many months and has never given her anything but a bad reception for some time now. So I draw from those who have good news, and it can be believed because he is a weak subject and the added jealousy could not make him otherwise, especially since the evil or at least the suspicion seemed to be domestic. And with this way of proceeding, the young girl complained to the Lord Marquis, and he entertained her and pampered her. And therefore the brother became more alienated from her and hated her, until a certain kind of poison was found in his handkerchief, from which there was doubt about the life of the Marquis or the girl. And when it was discovered, the Marquis went to him to attack him, and he fled to the house of his brother-in-law, who is a daring and proud young man, and ordered that his sister be taken to Soncino into the house of his uncles. In these accidents two things are disputed, one if the poison was really found in the possession of Sig. Augusto, the other if the marquis is powerful enough to be a husband because by the arquebus shot [note 10] he was deprived of one testicle and the other remained beaten and swollen. His Most Illustrious Lordship will go to Marignano on Thursday the 3rd next, and with the Lord Grand Chancellor he will pass to Landriano and will stay away for four days, and in the meantime he will do what he can to deal with the narrated accident, about which many affirm the marquis is impotent and never had intercourse with his past wife. (30.06.1550)

f. 71v. The Marquis of Marignano has entered into a bad relationship with his brother, who has become aware and too sure, that he was enjoying his wife at Tre Pievi, [note 11] and there have been some nice [dirty] tricks. Finally, he has returned to Milan and those of Mayno and Count Maximiliano Stampa and other relatives of the young woman have taken her, and with fifty arquebusiers have led her to Soncino. The Marquis is

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10. During the capture of Chiavenna in January 1525
11. Gravedona, Dongo and Sorico.

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in Frascarolo, and his brother is here adrift. We will see the end of the comedy, which is now performed publicly. (undated)

f. 102r. I spent two days with Sig. Dionisio Brivio to enjoy his villa, and one [day] with the Marquis of Marignano to see his building, which is beautiful and honorable, and the site is unparalleled, because it once pleased, as the best of this state, the Duke Gio. Galeazzo, Count of virtue, who was almost King of Italy and built the castle there for his pleasure.

f. 103r. The Marquis of Marignano told me His Majesty will not come to Italy until there are no military preparations here, as indicated for the affairs of Piedmont.

f. 103v. His Excellency plans to go and stay in Marignano with the Marquis tomorrow. I don't know if he will return in the evening or if he will celebrate the Mendina (?Madonna?) festival (13.08.1550)

f. 168r. The Marquis of Marignano leaves this morning for Siena; he has received 300 scudi from the chamber as his viaticum, and it is understood that five thousand will be put together to send to Don Diego, who should begin to dig the foundations, to see what hope the Sienese ambassador may have, since His Majesty is speeding up the building. The brother of the Marquis was supposed to leave prison today and go to Tre Pievi to take confinement and his wife, by order of Count Maximiliano, comes back to Marignano. In time, perhaps she will be reconciled with her husband. (10.09.1550)

Less interesting for the chronicle of gossip, or crime, is a letter, which instead is of some interest for the history of card games, and tarocchi in particular. For the correspondence between Milan and Florence, this is a piece of news of little importance, only to say that Medeghino was spending his time quietly playing cards, was recovering from an illness and was preparing to go to Marignano to get some good wine, presumably from his lands.



ASFi, Mediceo del Principato, 3102, f. 255r. Detail (Reproduction prohibited)
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f. 255r. The Marquis of Marignano is so inter spem et metum [between hope and fear] of having an illness of a kind that wants some of his hair, and I believe he will go to Marignano to get some Vernaccia. However, he is up and playing primiera and tarocchi, and perhaps nothing else will follow, although some signs of this are being discovered. (24.01.1550 ‒ that is, 1551)

5. Comment and conclusion

Medeghino, as Gian Giacomo dei Medici di Nosiggia was called (a Milanese family that does not appear to have had any kinship relations with the Florentine one), revealed himself as a military leader endowed with extraordinary ability and resourcefulness, to the point of receiving noble titles and becoming one of the main generals in the retinue of Emperor Charles V.

Entire books have been written about Medeghino's military activity. This study documents aspects and events that should be considered very secondary. In particular, his troubled relationships with his brother Augusto and his wife Barbara del Majno, which became public knowledge and the subject of news and discussions in Milan. The situation was also made known to the Florentine ducal court thanks to several letters from Francesco Vinta, a Florentine agent resident in Milan.

In one of the letters of the correspondence between Vinta from Milan and the ducal secretary Cristiano Pagni in Florence, we find a line of interest in the history of card games. The transition from entire books on military enterprises, to parts of some letters on the Milanese family scandal, to a single line on card games, in the only letter that mentions the subject, is significant. This may well represent the historical importance of the respective events, with the pastimes seen only fleetingly. Nevertheless, it is precisely the single line of the only letter that has justified all this research, given that our interest is precisely directed to the history of card games.

Then we must comment on the presence in Milan in 1551 of primiera and tarocchi in the hands of the famous leader, marquis, and general. Primiera was a game that could be considered an ancestor of poker and that was usually played with high stakes and therefore could be seen as a status symbol, with frequent participation, often exclusive, of princes and nobles.

Tarocchi was a slower, more difficult game, but is still discussed today especially on the basis of documents and decks of cards that have come down to us from the same court circles. Among the personages [in these circles] who had been playing this game for a century, military leaders [condottieri] were a frequently present category. It was probably a game suited to filling the pauses between battles during long military campaigns.

The present testimony on the game of tarocchi cannot therefore be attributed a value as a contribution to the first diffusion of the game; for this reason, the date should have gone back at least a whole century before. However, the news remains useful as a confirmation of the already known diffusion of the game among military leaders and also remains significant for the fact that, unlike other games, the testimonies on tarocchi remain still rather scarce.

Florence, 01.11.2024

mikeh wrote: 19 Dec 2023, 09:43
65 paia di carte da giuchare del dona
17 paia di carte di Meo di Tingho meçane
2 paia di trionfi g° da Giovanni
10 paia di trionfi piccoli g°
11 paia di carte meçane da g°
5 paia di carte piccole d.g°
12 d. di carte picole rimbocchiate da giuchare
3 paia di carte g° doppie del dona
1 cassetta di piu naibi spaiati

[translated:
65 pairs of playing cards of [or by] dona
17 pairs of Meo di Tingho meçane [apple, mechanical?] cards
2 pairs of triumphs g° of [or by] Giovanni
10 pairs of small g° triumphs
11 pairs of meçane playing cards
5 pairs of small d. g. cards
12 d. of small folded-back playing cards
3 pairs of doubled g° cards of dona
1 small case [or box?] of several odd [or unmatched] naibi]

Note that paia / paio / paro / pa' [pair] may also mean "pack[s]", e.g.,

un Paio di Carte da giucare = a Pack [or Deck or Stock] of Cards

As in a letter from Lorenzo de Medici dated 1472 : «Dite alla Chiarina che mi mandi due paia di charte alla franzese et datele all’apportatore» ["Tell Chiarina to send me two packs of French-style cards and give them to the carrier].

Or in the Journals of Giusto Giusti d’Anghiari, in an entry from 1440: "On Friday, September 16, I gave the magnificent lord Messer Gismondo a pack [paio] of naibi a trionfi,, which I had made on purpose in Florence with his arms, beautiful, which cost me four and a half ducats."

"Talora si dice Paio a un Corpo solo d'una cosa ancorche si divida in dimolte parti come un Paio di Carte da giucare un Paio di scacchi."
Sometimes Paio [Pair] refers to a single Body of a thing even if it is divided into many parts like a Pack of Playing Cards or a Chess Set [i.e., a chess board and pieces].

paio di nozze = wedding reception [celebration or feast or party]


In former times too, pair and pack in English seem to have been used as if synonymous, so you can find a pack of cards referred to as a pair or paire of cards among earlier writers.

mikeh wrote: 19 Dec 2023, 09:43 I don't know what "meçane" means. Huck says "machine", but I can't verify that. In Catalan it is the plural of "meçana", meaning "apple". But I don't know what apple cards would be. Perhaps it is a place. I can't see that Franco addressed the issue.

Four main paper sizes of the 15th and 16th centuries were Imperial, Royal, Median & Chancery:

Height x Length mm:

Imperialle 500 × 740
Realle 445 × 615
Meçane 345 × 515
Reçute 315 × 450

For example the names of the sizes are recorded on the Bologna Stone on which is inscribed the text:

“QUESTE SIENO LEFORME DEL CHUMUNE DEBOLLOGNA DECHE GRANDEÇA DENE ESSERE LECHARTE DEBA(M)BAXE CHE SEFARANO INBOLLOGNA ESSO DESTRETO CHOME QUI DESOTTO EDIUIXADO”

Beneath which are inscribed four rectangles with the names of their sizes “INPERIALLE”, “REALLE”, “MEÇANE”, “REÇUTE”, which are the same four sizes recorded in the Bologna City Statute of 1389 though with a variation in spelling videlicet cartas imperiales, reales, mezanas et rezutas.

The Bologna Stone, c1389 ; Museo Civico Medievale, Bologna, Italy.

BolognaStone.jpg Not downloaded yet 167.73 KiB

Ref:

http://ihl.enssib.fr/paper-and-watermar ... e-of-paper

In Italy it was traditional to have four paper sizes: Reçute (315 x 450 mm), Meçane (345 x 515 mm), Realle (445 x 615 mm) and Inperialle (500 x 740 mm).159 Piranesi worked primarily on large sheets of paper. Based on the museum’s collection, it can be established that the sizes are primarily Meçane or Inperialle. Meçane was used for smaller, often vertical prints or for two small prints on one sheet, and Inperialle was used for larger, often horizontal prints that were sometimes folded with a binding strip in the fold so that they could be bound. In view of this large paper size, many prints could be expected to contain a watermark.

https://www.boijmans.nl/en/collection/research/piranesi

Steve, I assume you are referring to the post at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2683&p=26358&hilit=dona#p26358 for "paio". The problem was that in the paragraph following the inventory, Franco discusses the meaning of "paio", saying, as I translated him into American English (which uses "deck" rather than "pack"):

That a deck of cards was referred to at the time as a "pair" is known from many other documents. I think that the abbreviation g° stands for “game,” that is, “for playing.” The cards folded over were those where the margins of the larger rear sheet were folded over and glued onto the front sheet of the card, making the union of the two glued sheets more stable, usually along with an internal piece of cardboard. We are left perplexed by the abbreviation d, which in cases of this kind always means dozen - in this inventory, there are many such, so many that one suspects that by writing d. he had understood “pair” [i.e. deck] instead of “dozen,” because in this context it is more reasonable to expect twelve decks of cards rather than 144.

I needed to make clear what he was talking about. If I had just put "deck" as the translation of "paio", the oddness of "paio" in this context would have been lost. I translated the word as "pair" on the assumption that people would then read the discussion following, to see how Franco interpreted the word in the present context, in most contexts read as "pair," but this time as "deck". However, your post shows me the error of my ways - people will still find it confusing: if it means "deck," why did I translate the word as "pair"? I was merely trying not to steal Franco's didactic thunder.

I am not sure exactly what should be put. In later posts of other notes by Franco, I put "pack [paio = pair]". But perhaps it should be "pair [paio = here pack, deck]." (I have now gone back and added this explanation in brackets.) Or something more elaborate. Perhaps you can offer something better. But "pack" alone, without some sort of explanation for the English-language reader, won't do it, given what Franco says in analyzing the passage. In fact, in the examples you gave, even with a pack of cards, paio = pair, but in a usage now mostly obsolete (last reported in relation to cards by the OED in an 1894 Northumberland dictionary).

For why "mostly," that is because the use as "set" is not dead. Checking the OED, I find a meaning 1 as "a set of two" and meaning 2 as "set not limited to two in number." Meaning 2 is "A set of separate things or parts collectively forming a whole, as a set of clothes, a pack of cards, a chest of drawers, etc. Now chiefly British regional and Irish English (northern)". It goes on, after a 1997 "pair of drawers" in Ulster, to "Originally: a set of rosary beads. In later use also gen. (chiefly U.S. regional): a string of beads, a necklace." The OED gives an example from a major newspaper in New Orleans, 1993, and even the New York Times, 1944. Also for a set of bagpipes (1998 example) and a flight of stairs (1995 NY Daily News).

Then there is the Italian "Paio". I appreciate your citing the definition which makes it similar to the OED's meaning 2, as "set" (I'm not sure where you got yours, but it's in the GDLI and other dictionaries, even the early Cruscas, which were specifically of Tuscan). I had not known a wedding reception could be a "paio", too. Unfortunately, none of the dictionaries I've seen actually give literary examples of these usages, outside of cards. If you know of any, they would be welcome.

Franco, I think, has not found confirmation of such a wide indeterminate usage in Tuscany: it is inevitably two, seen as a unit, except when designating a pack of cards, as I understand him. Whether "paio" can be that indefinite is for me an open question. In an inventory that Franco found later, translated at viewtopic.php?p=26502#p26502, there is the entry "paio di trionfi In charta pechora di messer franc° petrarcha". Is this a pack of parchment playing cards? Or possibly a set of illustrations of Petrarch's Trionfi? And how should "paio" be translated here, so as not to foreclose any real uncertainty? I'd appreciate your opinion.


And thanks for explaining the terms for the four types of sheets of paper in Italy then, and for giving that valuable link. I didn't know them - well, I knew realle, but with the spelling, reale. There were apparently many: reàglie, realle, riale, riali. https://www.gdli.it/pdf_viewer/Scripts/ ... ola=realle.

In the ensuing discussion a few posts further on from the one you referred to, with Huck, we (with Franco's help, emailing me) decided that "meçane" meant, in that particular context of playing cards, "middle-sized," as opposed to the "piccolo" of the next entry, or "grande". I wrote, viewtopic.php?p=26363#p26363 :

"meço" as a form of "mezzo", resulting in the "5 1/2" on the side, is very helpful. I suspect it might explain the "carte meçane" in the first December piece - half-cards, I wondered. Then Franco wrote me to explain that it was middle-sized cards. Of course, since piccolo is for the little ones.

But then I didn't go back and make the correction. That one, fortunately, is easy.

mikeh wrote: 04 Dec 2024, 11:09
I had not known a wedding reception could be a "paio", too. Unfortunately, none of the dictionaries I've seen actually give literary examples of these usages, outside of cards. If you know of any, they would be welcome.

Treccani says simply wedding, ceremony or wedding party, with an example from Boccaccio:

see under 4
https://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/paio/

The story [short] can be read here, for context:

https://letteritaliana.weebly.com/la-no ... apere.html

A boy raised by his Hermit father is taken into Florence for the first time and is asking questions after questions - they see a group of women coming from a wedding [or wedding party] and the boy having never seen a woman before asks what they are, his father, not wanting to arouse sinful thoughts in his son, says they are ducks, and the boy asks that they take one home and give it something to peck at. [see 35, note 9]

Thanks for tracking down the Boccaccio quote, Steve. Another place where "paio" seems to mean more than two, or even a few, is with rosaries. First, "paio di paternostri" at https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14205/1/503303_vol1.pdf, p. 53 (original in English, with quotations in Italian):

Devotional jewellery like agnus deis and rosaries must be understood in relation to this construction of virtuous identity via display. Despite this, however, the sheer ostentation of paternosters and rosaries had led to their inclusion in sumptuary laws by the mid-sixteenth century. [184]
....
_________________
....
184. Lorenzo Cantini, Legislazione toscana raccolta ed illustrata 32 vols. (Florence: Stampa Alibizziniana per
Pietro Fantosini e figlio, 1800-1808): 4: 404-406: 'Riforma sopra it vestire, habiti, & ornamenti delle Donne, & Huomini della Citts di Fiorenza, e altre cose superflue del di 4 Dicembre 1562'. Regarding married women the text notes that '[ ... ] Siale anche permesso portare un palo [sic] di paternostri di quel che piu Ie piacera, purche la valuta insieme con la nappa, & con la fattura non ecceda la soma di scudi 20 [... ]' . An unmarried woman was allowed '[ ... ] un paio di Pater'nostri d'oro o di granati senza smalto, non passando con la fattura di scudi 6 [... ]" while a 'donna contadina' was restricted to '[ ... ] una corona di pater nostri, che non passi la valuta d'un mezzo scudo.'

I assume that "palo" is a misprint for "paio," intended to be spelled like the second "paio di Pater'nostri." If so, the text says, roughly translated:

Regarding married women the text notes that '[ ... ] It is also permitted to wear a paio of paternostri of whatever she likes, provided that the value together with the tassel, and with the workmanship does not exceed the sum of 20 scudi [... ]' . An unmarried woman was allowed '[ ... ] a paio of gold or garnet Pater'nostri without enamel, not passing with the value of 6 scudi [... ]' while a 'peasant woman' was restricted to '[ ... ] a crown of Pater Nostri, not passing the value of half a scudo.'

The context here is a long discussion, in English, with footnotes of such quotations in Italian, of rosaries and, occasionally, "crowns." The text otherwise only refers to "the crown of Mary." I do not know what a "crown of Pater Nostri" would be.

Another is a 1319 canonization that speaks of a "paternoster tree" with a "paio di paternostri," https://www.agostinianemontefalco.it/ch ... 2/giardino. Rosary beads are likened to grapes or the seeds of a fruit, so again more than two.

I find "paio di cornamusa", bagpipes, in the "comments" section of at least one web-page:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bagpipes/comme ... arn/?tl=it:

Non ha senso fornire un muro di testo, perché nessuno lo legge, come dimostra il flusso costante di post qui che dicono "hey guyz ho appena pagato $ 200 per un paio di cornamuse, sono così emozionato di iniziare".

(There's no point in providing a wall of text, because no one reads it, as evidenced by the constant stream of posts here saying "hey guys I just paid $200 for a pair of bagpipes, I'm so excited to get started.")

These bagpipes come with three or four pipes sticking out of a bag. But I don't know if this is originally in Italian or a translation from English.

I find "paio di cassetti" with pictures of cabinets with drawers, some with three or four drawers, but on a website in Spanish:
https://depositphotos.com/es/vectors/pa ... offset=700.

With that I guess I'd better stop. The only definite example is that of the rosary beads.

In German language we have the common confusing difference between "Paar" with "P" (= English "pair") and "paar" with "p" (= English "few")

Grimm's Wörterbuch, a very difficult collection ...
"Paar"
https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=P00003

"Pack"
https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=P00070
related to Paket (english "package")

PACK, m. n. , mhd. ist nur das deminutiv backel (s. päcklein) und spätmd. das verb. packen nachweisbar. pack ist zunächst aufgenommen aus nd. oder engl. pak, pack, wozu mlat. paccus (Du Cange 3, 1, 4), ital. pacco, altfranz. bague, franz. paque (zu folgern aus paquet), bagage stimmen, die wol alle auf eine gemeinsame quelle zurückführen, welche die einen im gael. bac hindern, bag last, die andern im altn. baga widerstand leisten, hindern, baggi bündel, last vermuten, s. Diefenbach 1, 339. 343 f. und in Kuhn und Schleichers beiträgen 1, 262. Diez4 35. 231. Weigand2 288. Kluge 247a. vergl. auch Lessing 12, 759 H.

... likely an automatic translation doesn't help much

"Blatt" ... an expression used for paper (book pages) and Baumblätter (english tree leaves) and also for decks of playing cards (or single cards).
https://woerterbuchnetz.de/?sigle=DWB&lemid=B07859

There are about 50 expressions of "Karten + something" like "Kartenblatt" and about 80%-90% of them are related to playing cards in the wordbook. An expression "Kartenpack" isn't between them.

Wiki articles to the Wörterbuch
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Wörterbuch .... German
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Wörterbuch .... English

Thanks, Huck. How other languages besides Italian deal with the "paio/pair application to packs of playing cards seems to me relevant to the discussion. The word "paar" uncapitaized in German corresponds well to the English "a couple of", both meaning "a few" even though there is also Paar in German, corresponding to "pair" in English. Of couse neither can account for "paio di carte" referring to a whole pack. Although the number varies from game to game, from 32 in Piquet to 97 in minchiate, a pack is hardly "a few cards." From what I see on the internet, the German for "pack of cards" is Kartenspiel, or Kartendeck, which seems like an adaptation of "deck of cards". There is also Kartensatz, which may apply in other cases, such as computer punch cards, I'm not sure. You would be able to tell us more precisely. And more interestingly, you can probably say more about how a pack of cards was referred to in the German of the 14th-16th centuries.

Now Franco has posted his own take on this issue in Italy, arguing that "un paio" always had a relationship to the number two, even in the expression "un paio di carte", which became "un mazzo di carte" later, a pack of cards. Since the article is about the Italian terms and not their English approximations, I have kept those terms as much as possible - except in the title, where the expression "Pairs of cards" seemed appropriate, since the expression "paia di carte" is as obsolete in current Italian as "pairs of cards" is in current English, and hence paradoxical in both languages. What you will find below is a translation of Franco's original, "Paia di carte nel Cinquecento e oltre," at https://naibi.net/A/8-38-PAIACARTE.pdf, done, as usual, with considerable consultation from him on the wording and meaning. Since there has already been some discussion of the issue on this thread, I expect that there will be some reaction to Franco here as well - I at least will have some comments. Comments in brackets are mine, for clarification purposes.


Pairs of cards in the 16th century and beyond

Franco Pratesi

1. Introduction

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the fourteenth-century paio di naibi [“pair, i.e. pack/deck, of naibi”, cards] changed to paio di carte, but the current expression of mazzo di carte [pack/deck of cards] began to be found only from the mid-sixteenth century. We encounter four nouns ‒ paio, naibi, carte, mazzo ‒ each of which requires clarification and commentary. As associations of these words, I do not believe that we will ever encounter a mazzo di naibi [deck/pack of naibi], because from paio di naibi we soon changed to paio di carte and much later to mazzo di carte. I intend to examine here one by one those terms and the changes in use that occurred over time.

Finally, I add three examples, well into the seventeenth century, of the expression paio di carte still used.

2. The meaning and use of the four nouns

As I said, I intend to first examine the four nouns under consideration, one at a time.

2a – PAIO/PAIR. The fact that paio and the plural paia are also written as paro and para does not create any problems for us (except perhaps for the related change of gender, of which other examples can also be found such as uovo and uova); in fact, there are many Italian words for which, in different times and places, the final -io or the final -ro prevails; it will be enough to cite the example of notaio [notary].

Let's take a closer look at the uses of the term paio by taking examples from clothing and its accessories. The situation is rather complex because two different categories of application are encountered: cases in which the objects are truly two, and cases in which the two parts (necessarily present!) end up forming a single object.

Many examples of the first type are used for the feet: shoes, clogs, boots, slippers, stockings and socks; for hands there are gloves; for ears earrings, and other objects could be added to this already long series. More intriguing is the second type [of application], used to say a pair of trousers, underwear, and also glasses.

We can also encounter a third type, in which the use of the term paio does not correspond to any pair of elements present, in whole or in part, at the origin. These are potential pairs [paia], so to speak. Remaining in the field of clothing, we can think for example of handkerchiefs. Is there a pair [paio] of handkerchiefs? More likely, there is a dozen. But we can always ask the shopkeeper to sell us “a pair [paio] of handkerchiefs”; this pair of objects exists as such when it is purchased, but did not previously exist as a pair in the group in which it was found. The same can be true for any other object, such as a pair of oranges, a pair of books, a pair of jars, a pair of anything, in short. The meaning of paio in these cases is always equivalent to the number two.

The dictionaries also list further secondary meanings, such as the case of “a couple of hours” [un paio d’ore] or “a couple of kilos” [un paio di chili], which obviously means two hours or two kilos, but only approximately, and therefore is indefinite and no longer has a precise “pair” as a reference. However, whether you find an exact or approximate two, it is always a two, even if in this case it could be, if verified precisely, any number typically between 1.5 and 2.5.

When thinking of a paio di carte [pack/deck of cards], one cannot even begin to see a paio of the first type, and even recognizing a paio of the second type requires some help from the imagination; the third type is out of the question; the fourth would be fine for cards if instead of a paio one said about forty [una quarantina].

However, that the attempt should be made is strongly suggested by the fact that one cannot suppose a use of the term paio without some specific motivation, that is, without recognizing any binary character, even partial, in the object to which it is applied.

A very special case is that of a paio di scacchi [scacchi = chess, chess pieces, chess set]. Michael Howard has drawn attention to the expression un paio di scacchi included in dictionaries as an example of cases in which the term paio could also be applied to objects composed of a number of parts that is not only different from two, but

2
also not precisely defined. [note 1] In fact, the parts of a chess set [gioco di scacchi] can be one if we mean the chessboard [scacchiera] (possibly with the pieces on it) or thirty-two if we mean the chess pieces [pezzi degli scacchi].

I have searched for decades in books and manuscripts for references to chess in Italian literature, even before researching card games, and to tell the truth, I have never encountered a paio di scacchi. Yet, if you search today for that expression on Google Books you will find 63 citations, deriving mainly from the many digitized editions of dictionaries. [note 2]

Checking further, one finds that all those definitions in the dictionaries date back to the first edition of the Crusca dictionary: “Sometimes paio is said of a single body of a thing, even if it is divided into many parts, like a paio of playing cards, a paio of chess” [Talora si dice paio a un corpo solo d’una cosa, ancorché si divida di molte parti, come un paio di carte da giucare, un paio di scacchi]. [note 3]

But the most significant fact is that in that same dictionary, the origin of all subsequent entries, the compiler does not report any quotation taken from Italian literature, but indicates the expression "paio di scacchi" only as an example proposed by himself.

One might then suppose that perhaps the expression does not exist and that it is only due to a proposal of the compiler, presumably erroneous. In fact, introducing the “many parts,” without limitations, seems to me at least rash. However, I want to assign to that compiler a certain reliability, and that is, I want to admit that in fact one can say “un paio di scacchi”. However, the discussion must continue: if we maintain that that expression can really be used, a justification must also be found for it.

There is one game, one board, 32 pieces, and where is the two? Upon reflection, there is a justification, however, and it is the usual one for the pair [paio] of scissors: a single object made up of two parts. In chess, the two is found, and very clearly, in correspondence with black and white: there are two armies taking part in the battle.

In the end, if a citation is not found in the literature, it is also true that it could have been found; perhaps it will be found soon, perhaps in some manuscript not yet digitized. If it is found, the meaning will still be the one indicated above.

We can then return to the paio di naibi. That particular paio has always given me food for thought. [note 4] In my opinion, the term paio could not be used at random, not even in that example; somewhere the binary character had to be present. So the conclusion at this point becomes easy.

I admit that between the situation of chess, which is entirely hypothesized, and that of naibi or cards ‒ only partly hypothesized because the expression is actually found several times ‒ there is a substantial difference, because in chess there are two armies, while, usually, in cards there are four suits, thanks to which the division of the deck into four is evident, while a division into two seems rather forced. True. In my opinion, however, the use of the term paio forces us to give a meaning to the two pairs [coppie - another word for "pairs"] of suits much greater than the one with which we are used to seeing them today.

Just as in chess one can assume that it is the white field against the black field, so in playing cards one must give prominence to the presence in the four suits of the game of two pairs [coppie], those which centuries later would become the red pair [coppia] and the black pair [coppia] and which at that time could be recognized as the pair [coppia] of suits with the round signs [segni tondi: coins and cups] and the pair with the long signs [segni lunghi: swords and batons], even with associations of the two pairs of suits with, respectively, feminine and masculine characteristics.

We then encounter a consequence. If what has been said is convincing, we must continue with another related hypothesis. To give so much importance to the division between round and long suits, there must have been a different role for them in the game in which the naibi were used. In short, in the rules of the first or main game of the time, the difference within the pairs [coppie] of short [corte] and long [lunghi] suits must have been of little importance, while the difference between the two pairs [coppie] must have been large.

In this regard, the rule sometimes preserved of the descending or ascending value of the cards of the two pairs [coppie] could be at least a secondary clue.
_______________________
1. viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2683&start=85
2. https://www.google.it/search?hl=it&tbo= ... 22&num=100
3. Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca. Venice 1612, p. 585.
4. http://trionfi.com/paro-paio-para

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2b – NAIBI. The term naibi, whatever its exact origin and meaning, is certainly foreign to the Italian lexicon. The unfamiliarity with this term is demonstrated by several coincidences. One is that it is found documented only in a few areas and in short intervals of time. Another is that the word is sometimes found distorted, mainly as narbi, and not only in manuscripts but also in printed works.

There are studies on the origin and meaning of the term with several reconstructions and proposals, which can be considered as known, because here we are interested in the next phase, the transition to the term carte.

2c – CARTE/CARDS. Paper [carta] is a commonly used material; however, speaking of “una carta” is not sufficiently defined; it is sometimes used to indicate a sheet [foglio], or a sheet of paper [foglio di carta], when one means an element of a group that contains, or could contain, many of them.

Simply speaking of “una carta” implies that one is using technical language, such that it is not necessary to add the specification, that is, whether it is a geographical map [carta geografica], or a playing card [carta da gioco], or a sheet [carta] such as a manuscript page, or baking paper [carta da forno], or sandpaper [carta vetrata], or tin foil [carta stagnola], or other cases.

We are only interested in playing cards, and in particular the transition from the name naibi. The change of name is very simple: once the emphasis is placed on the material, that is, naibi are objects made of paper [carta], and therefore cards [carte], they only need to be specified as “playing cards” [carte da gioco] whenever their use is not made clear by the context. That change is also facilitated by the fact that the original term was a name completely foreign to common vocabulary.

It remains to be seen, however, whether together with the change of name, and as a further motivation for the change itself, there was also some change in the cards that accompanied the change of their name, and which could consist, for example, in a different number of cards in the deck, or in modified figures (for example, it is not easy to imagine naibi with women among the court cards, as is instead found later).

However, it is known that the transition from naibi to carte occurred early, and the old name was preserved for a longer time, often together with the new one, only in a few areas, such as in the Florentine territory where the naibi had spread earlier.

2d – MAZZO/DECK [OR PACK]. While the name change from naibi to carte typically occurred a few decades after the introduction of playing cards, that from paio to mazzo took several centuries. I am still unable to determine a precise date for this name change. The Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana cites a passage by Tasso as the oldest occurrence, [note 5] but it cannot be ruled out that earlier ones may be found. However, it is certain that the term paio is still encountered in the sixteenth century and beyond, as in the examples given below.

Today the term mazzo, in addition to playing cards, is used especially for bunches of flowers, bunches of keys and the like, but the term mazzo has, and has had, more than one meaning; moreover, it was encountered a long time before it took on the meaning that interests us here.

A curious thing about this is that in the old manuscripts that I have studied for decades, I have sometimes found the term mazzo associated precisely with sheets of paper [fogli di carta]. For example, one inventory entry that remained in my mind was “A bunch [mazzo] of Sangiovanni” which was meant to be read as a group, or bundle [fascio], of images on paper of St. John the Evangelist, patron saint of Florence. This meaning of the term is also listed as entry 3 in the Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana, with citations from the Middle Ages. [note 6]

The circumstance is truly singular: the term existed centuries before, it was even used for generic “bunches of cards” [mazzi di carte], but it could not yet be applied to the particular decks of playing cards. Why? In my opinion because at that time it indicated any group of elements, without their being present in a predetermined number.

The mazzo of playing cards is a special case, in which the number of cards is instead fixed; only after a long time did the same word, already in use, also take on this “new” meaning of mazzo [as pack, deck] understood as complete, and only as complete.
_________________
5. https://www.gdli.it/pdf_viewer/Scripts/ ... df&parola= Item 4, p. 984.
6. https://www.gdli.it/pdf_viewer/Scripts/ ... df&parola= Item 3, p. 984.

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3. Examples of “pairs of cards” [paia di carte] in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
3a – From the Magistracy of Minors

An example of the use of “a pair of cards [un paio di carte]” at the beginning of the sixteenth century is one that I have found in one of the voluminous registers of the Magistracy of Minors prior to the Principality, in the State Archives of Florence. It is the same No. 182 from which I had already obtained the information on a rich deck of triumphs [mazzo di trionfi].

The deceased was named Mariotto di Piero di Nicholo Neli. On May 14, 1505, the same date as the inventory, the officials of the magistracy of the Commune of Florence [i.e., the Florentine Republic] accepted the guardianship of the orphan son, Francesco, about thirteen years old.



ASFi, Magistracy of Minors prior to the Principality, 182, f. 156v, detail (Reproduction prohibited)
Unfortunately, in this case the information on the person and the environment is very meager; neither the profession of the deceased (even if from some objects present in the inventory it would seem that he was a goldsmith) nor the location can be read.

The inventory transcribed is simply that compiled by the administrator of the estate on behalf of the magistracy of minors. Afterwards, we read annotations for the "revised justifications", that is, citing accounting updates with a new balance as of 31 May 1508. The 1505 inventory appears transcribed in the register only in 1508 because from the initial sheet, it continues in the blank space under the note of 1508 and also occupies page 159v, left empty after the insertion of another inheritance, again in 1508. I consider the part of interest. [Below, ---- before a line indicates its indentation.]

The inventory follows from there [i.e. from the previous page]

1 brush and 1 head of St. John in earthen
----relief and 1 jug of iron and 1 jug
----of copper and 1 book of epistles and gospels

_____________
7. ASFi, Magistrato dei Pupilli avanti il Principato, 182, ff. 155-159.
8. https://www.naibi.net/A/GINEVRA.pdf

5

1 bound French booklet for women
1 booklet made of good paper with seven psalms
1 booket by Fra Girolamo and 1 Giovanni / <Gresoie
----mei?> [parts of words not read] and 1 miracles of Our Lady in
----parchment and 1 shelf for said books
1 lute with a case and 1 box full of
----goldsmith’s tools above the coat rack
1 box with a Saint Jerome inside
1 ball for canopy 2 armets 1 of iron
----and 1 of brass
II tin cups and 1 small basket, within it several
----writings and 1 deck of cards [paio di carte]
V balls for lamp, that is, three together
1 tin container with antidote to poison

3b – In a sacred representation

Among the many sacred representations, that of Santa Uliva had several printed editions already in the sixteenth century in Florence, and even more in the following century. I have not examined those editions in detail, but the reference I was looking for is present in at least some; [note 9] I take it from the critical edition edited in the nineteenth century by Alessandro D'Ancona. [note 10]

And while he is confessing, bring out a woman dressed in cloth, on top colored and beautiful, and below an old, dark brown dress, with chamois shoes on her feet, and a pair of very beautiful slippers; have her have four faces, all different and of a woman, that is, an old mask on one side, very old on the other, and behind ordinary, or rather less old, and in front the face without a mask, and on her head a diadem that covers all four foreheads and is of various colors; have her have a lighted fire in her right hand, in her left a knife with a cord around it. You will dress likewise a young man, dressed in cloth, adorned as much as possible, with a sword at his side, and have said young man have in his right hand a paio of cards [carte], and under his left arm a board, and in his left hand a purse. Third, you shall bring forth a man with a long, dark robe, half-dressed and barefoot, with a large mask and a long white beard, with similar hair, with his right hand on his cheek; and with him come forth another man, dressed in a long black leather robe with fur outside, and on his feet a pair of felt socks, with leather gloves in his hand, with a finger to his mouth signaling silence, and on his head a fur hat, with a black mask and a long beard. Dress likewise a man in bad disarray, with old and torn clothes, with a twirled beard full of feathers, and likewise the head and the clothes; and besides, another, dressed in stained and dirty clothes, and with a fat red face, with nothing on his head, and in his hand some birds and chickens, and on his shoulder a spear [or roasting spit]; and after this, dress a man with two faces, one in front and the other behind, and let his clothes appear of clean and neat cloth in front, and of bad and torn cloth behind, and let some daggers and knives also appear behind, with a hat on his head; and let said persons be kept in the middle on every side, as if they wanted to look at the woman with the four faces.

This paio of cards can only be a deck of playing-cards, as also confirmed by the association with the game-board in the other hand. In short, in the sixteenth century in Florence the deck of cards was not yet called that.
__________________
9. For example: LA RAPPRESETATIONE DI SANTA VLIVA, nuouamente mandata in Luce. Florence, 1568.
10. A. D'Ancona (ed.), La rappresentazione di Santa Uliva riprodotta sulle antiche stampe. Pisa 1863.

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3c – In Florence at the Pitti Palace

Finding playing cards [carte da gioco], already called so or still naibi, in inventories is a very rare occasion. In the case in question, their presence is justified by the richness of the specific set, and also of the other objects with which it is inventoried. [note 11]



ASFi, Miscellanea Medicea, 31/10, f. 57v.
The setting is the famous Pitti Palace in Florence, which was the residence of the grand ducal court ‒ first Medici and then Lorena ‒ later became for a few years the royal palace of Vittorio Emanuele II of Savoy and is now home to several national museums.

The inventory under examination concerns the objects found in the apartment of the Pitti Palace occupied by Cardinal Giovan Carlo de' Medici, immediately after his death (Villa medicea di Castello, 23 January 1663). I have also recently had the opportunity to present something about the cardinal's interest in gambling. [note 12]

I studied this inventory already years ago for its interest in chess and board games, [note 13] reporting these playing cards [carte da gioco] already then. I can repeat what is read about it in that case.

--– A book with black leather cover lined with gold, and inside a box with two decks [para] of Cards for playing games, and three dice made of rock crystal marked with gold (f. 57).
The documentation on playing cards is unusual. It is not a fundamental piece of information, nor early, given that cards had been used for three centuries. The fact is that playing cards do not usually appear in these inventories of various household goods, probably because they were considered consumer goods of short duration. Here, too, it is very likely that cards are spoken of only thanks to the valuable container: a system of preservation that can also be found later and also for chess. That the prince cardinal liked to play various card games is confirmed by various testimonies.

It won't seem strange if I agree with the author of the comment.
___________________
11. ASFi, Miscellanea Medicea, 31/10.
12. https://www.naibi.net/A/8-33-GRANDUCA.pdf
13. “I giochi del principe cardinale”, Informazione Scacchi, 8 N. 4/5 (1998) 111-113. https://naibi.net/b/138.pdf

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4. Conclusion

The transition from the expression paio di naibi to that of mazzo di carte via the intermediate expression paio di carte has been discussed. Examples are known for each of these expressions, but it seems rather surprising that the term mazzo, which had been used for centuries for similar objects, when applied to playing cards appears so far first documented from the second half of the sixteenth century.

As special cases, two Florentine examples with “paio di carte” still present in the sixteenth century were presented and commented on, and one with “para di carte” in the second half of the following century.

Florence, 06.12.2024

Very interesting reflections from Franco. Thank you for staying abreast of his essays.

I like his speculation that the "paio" of "paio di naibi/carte" came from the distinction between the two pairs of suits' inverse ranking.

As usual, you beat me to it, Ross. Well, here are my reflections on Franco's piece.

When I first brought up the Grande Dizionario della Lingua Italiana's definition 4 of "paio" at https://www.gdli.it/pdf_viewer/Scripts/ ... arola=paio, it was privately in the context of an inventory with "paio di trionfi In charta pechora di messer franc° petrarcha" (charta pechora = sheep paper = parchment) at viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2683&p=26502&hilit=paio#p26502, one which also, in its second part, viewtopic.php?p=26503#p26503, brought up for comparison the famous Rosselli inventory with its item "1° giuocho del trionfo del petrarcha in 3 pez" - 1 game of the triumph of Petrarch in 3 pieces - (the Italian original of this inventory is on p. 5 of https://naibi.net/A/TRIOPETR.pdf). "Giuocho" here, however, refers not to a game or deck of trionfi, but to a set of three metal plates with a pair of illustrations of Petrarch's six Trionfi poems on each, on the two sides of each sheet, which would produce 6 in all. Ross, too, made the connection, raising the issue at viewtopic.php?p=26504#p26504:

Franco's remarks about "giuocho" meaning something besides a literal "game" are correct in the case of Rosselli, at least as art historians understand it. But his new discovery of a "paio" of Petrarch's Trionfi adds another wrinkle to the question, then. Could paio have the same range of meaning as giuocho?

And I replied (viewtopic.php?p=26508#p26508):

Well, that was my thought, about "paio". I confronted him with the GDLI, p. 381, the fourth definition.
https://www.gdli.it/pdf_viewer/Scripts/ ... arola=paio. This is the continuation of the definitions of "paio", which started on the previous page.

4. Disus. Complesso di parti o oggetti o pezzi che concorrono a formare un tutto unitario e organico.
Vasari [D’Alberti]: Far che la pittura paia più presto un tappeto colorito o un paro di carte da giocare che carne unita e panni morbidi.
Crusca, IV Impress. [s. v.]:
Talora si dice ’ paio ’ a un corpo solo d’una cosa, ancor­ché si divida in molte parti, come un paio di carte da giuocare, un paio di scacchi.

4. Disus. Complex of parts or objects or pieces that combine to form a unitary and organic whole.
Vasari [D'Alberti]: To make painting look more like a colorful carpet or a set of cards to play than solid flesh and soft cloths.
Crusca, IV Impress. [s. v.]:
Sometimes we say 'pair' to a single body of one thing, even if it is divided into many parts, like a pair of cards to play, a pair of chess.

"Paio di scacchi" seemed to me fairly parallel. He had no serious objection, but wasn't ready to support it himself. But I don't want to quote his explanation without permission. Things get lost between languages.

So Franco's current note can be seen as Franco's reply to both of us. He is saying, in essence, that "paio" in the case of chess, refers to the black and white chess pieces, as a pair, a twosome. And a "paio di naibi" is a pack of early playing cards, divided into round suits and long suits, which could also be described as feminine and masculine and as suits where the lower the number (1-10 or 1-9), the more powerful vs. those where the higher the number, the more powerful.

It might be objected that the "paio" involved is of "naibi". What is the parallel to "pair of scissors", and of "naibi" to "scissors"? Not "carte", in the sense of "cards", because it isn't a pair of cards, or even "about two". That they divide into two types of suits doesn't change that. But "naibi" could be the name of the game played with those objects. A "pair of naibi" is then the twosome of the game of naibi - call it masculine and feminine, or long and short, or whatever.

However, that seems to me too much of a stretch: for one thing, it ignores the court cards, which do not partake of this distinction between "long" and "round" and are more important to the game than the number cards. For another, it is still a game of four suits: it is the suit of the card led that determines what cards others can play and which cards count toward winning the trick, not whether it is "round" or "long." That characteristic is important but secondary. Given that the Malmuk game of "kanjifa" seems to have been quite similar (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganjifa, under "Arabic sources"), the same is likely to have been true at the beginning of the game in Europe.

In a previous essay Franco had offered another explanation of the twoness of a pack of cards: it would take two 3x8 woodblocks to produce a pack of 48 total. A difficulty is that Italy is not known to have had decks of 48 cards then. However, 48 was the most common number in Spain, and perhaps the term "paio" was a translation of a similar term in Catalonia, where it is probable that playing cards were used earlier than in Italy. Before that, the Mamluk decks probably had 48 cards, according to Michael Dummett's hypothesis (with 2 court cards and 10 number cards in each of 4 suits - see the Wikipedia reference again, but finding "Dummett"). Perhaps the same was true early on in Italy. But decks of 56 cards could also have had two sheets, each with 4x7 cards.

In that case, the word "naibi" as the game played with the 48 objects would be the pair of naibi-woodblocks. Moreover, if there were two woodblocks, there would have been two sheets produced from those woodblocks. Perhaps in the beginning it was these sheets that were sold, and customers had to cut them up on their own. In that case, "'pair of naibi" could be short for "pair of naibi sheets." Both sheets would be required in order to play the game, so they would have counted as a unit, just like a pair of scissors, so one set would be "uno paio di naibi."

There may be other ways "paio di naibi" could be traced to an original twoness. Before naibi, there were dice and chess. Cards could be used for gambling games like dice or more thoughtful ones like chess. If there was "un paio di dadi" and "un paio di scacchi," it is natural to extend the series when the new game of naibi comes along: "un paio di naibi," where the naibi functions either like dice or like the pieces of a chess set. It is similar to how "paio di naibi" becomes "paio di naibi di [or: a] trionfi" and then "paio di trionfi" - simply a matter of extending the previous phraseology to similar games that follow, "similar" being defined not by the objects used but by the purposes of the game.

The problem then is that the locution "paio di --" is also used where it is more difficult to find a twoness. If so, we can wonder whether what originally started out as a word for twoness somehow got generalized to become "set," and that it is this "set" meaning that is operative in the case of a "piao di naibi" and not any supposed twoness.

The clearest case is "paio di paternostri" (see https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14205/1/503303_vol1.pdf, both in the text and the footnotes), defined as one set of strung rosary beads, not two, and there are clear cases where this is meant, going back to 1319 (for the latter, https://www.agostinianemontefalco.it/ch ... 2/giardino). There are typically 33, 66, or 99 beads in one string. What is "two" about a string of rosary beads (also called "paternostri")? I suppose you could say the string and the beads, but that strikes me as stretching it. The primary object is the beads, to count how many "Our Fathers" one has said. The string merely holds them together. It could even be knots in a rope.

In this use of "paio", I would observe that the word it goes with is not "rosari", rosaries, but "paternostri", literally, "our Fathers". A paternostro is the Lord's Prayer, said repeatedly as a form of penance, and also as a way of calming oneself. As a penance, the usual number was five. But I have seen the expression "un paio di paternostri" referring not to rosary beads but to spoken strings of words. To say un paio di paternostri is to say a few Lord's Prayers. So the beads help one to keep track of when you have done "un paio," how many it was, and probably to help stimulate the ritual. If the expression "paternostro" can go from words to beads, why not "uno paio di paternostri", a device for keeping track of a few paternostri?

In that case, however, we might ask, if "paio di paternostri" can jump like that, why not "paio di trionfi", so as to include sets of Trionfi illustrations as well? If there is "giuocho di trionfi" for playing cards, and "giuocho di trionfo" for a set of such illustrations, why not "piao di trionfi" for a set of Trionfi illustrations, especially where the expression is "1 paio di trionfi in charta pechora di messer francesco petrarcha"?

Here I think that the operative words in the Crusca's 1619 definition is "sometimes". In English, there are very few types of cases in which "pair" refers to a set of more than two, all obsolete or regional. In most cases, it builds on "pair" as either "two" or "a few": a set of bagpipes, a set of garments, a chest of drawers, a flight of stairs, a team of horses, and a team of workers. I imagine that it went from "a few bagpipes" to "set of bagpipes," of which there can be one, two, etc., each with one mouthpiece and bag. In English, "a couple of" serves that function. If I say I will see you in a couple of weeks, I have not lied if I don't see you for three, or anyway at least in a month. (In German, Huck tells us, it is "paar" with a small p, as opposed to "Paar" = pair with a large P.) The simplest bagpipes may well have had just two pipes. A flight of stairs is "a few stairs": there are usually not a lot of them between floors.

The more substantial exception, if it is one, is "pair of paternosters" and even "pair of beads" in the context of Mardi Gras. (My source is the Oxford English Dictionary.) It would seem to me merely a translation, and a partial one at that, of the Italian. There is also "pair of Proverbs" for the book of Proverbs, used as a schoolbook, the OED says.

In most cases, the regions identified with these uses are either Scotland, Ireland, Cornwall, or far northern England. This may suggest a Celtic influence, but I suspect it is more that these areas resisted English Protestantism.

Looking to see whether there were other parallels in Italian besides "paio di paternostri," I have found the same locution online for a chest of drawers and a set of bagpipes (see viewtopic.php?p=26658#p26658). There is also "paio di nozze" for a wedding or wedding celebration, as SteveM noticed in Treccani (see his post at viewtopic.php?p=26657#p26657). These things, when they were a set of more than a few, at least have a relationship to twoness: two spouses, two or a few pipes and drawers. But was a set of engravings called a "paio"? In the Rosselli inventory, the word is "giuocho". I cannot find examples with "piao", except ones that could also be packs of cards. Only a few sets get to be "paia": not a set of dishes, for example, or most other sets. One could wash a "paio" of dishes, in the sense of a few. To that extent it remains unclear whether "un paio di trionfi di petrarcha" would mean engravings of two of Petrarch's themes, or even a few, as opposed to just two or the set. But in the inventory it isn't "un" but "1": "1 paio di trionfi In charta pechora di messer franc° petrarcha." What is "1 paio"? Written out, 1 = uno, and "one few" doesn't make sense, either in English or Italian: "uno paio" is either "one pair" or else "one set", but the latter only in a small group of types of thing, known by the context of use.

"Giuocho" in the Rosselli inventory may be similar, I don't know. There it is applied to various series of subjects, and not just Petrarch illustrations. But they are all illustrations. Perhaps the use of "giuocho" outside of games was restricted to just a few such types. Or perhaps not. It is a matter of how the term was used in practice.

So can we be sure that "1 paio di trionfi di messer francesco petrarcha" refers to a pack of cards and not either a pair of Trionfi illustrations, a few of them, or even the whole set of six?

Petrarch's poems did come in pairs, in the sense of each triumphing over the one before, not the whole bunch of them. It's like cars in a train, coupled together, each to the one before, not to all of them separately. But there is no expression "pair of cars" for a train (that I know of). There are also three bad triumphs - love (of the sort produced by Cupid's arrow), death, time - and three good ones - chastity, fame, eternity. But "pair of Petrarch's Triumphs" is not in the English dictionary for the recognized set of them. I do not see it in the Italian dictionary either (although unfortunately the GDLI is not, for all its immensity, as easy to reference in this sense as the English). Nor did people customarily sell or collect just two of them. There could be two illustrations cut from a manuscript of Petrarch. But then, I am guessing it would be "2 trionfi di messer petrarcha in charta pechora...", or even "un paio di trionfi ...", not "1 paio di trionfi ...".

So I am more inclined to agree with Franco than before, and especially with his earlier theory, and especially, I think, if we think of the "naibi" as the sheets made from the woodblocks rather than the woodblocks themselves. On the other hand, I will continue to look for examples where "paio" is clearly used to mean a set of artworks not primarily to be seen in two parts. Engravings seem especially amenable to such a word, since both sides of the metal plate can and were cut for separate scenes. If a paio could remain a paio going from two sheets to six (in the case of minchiate), the same would seem possible for a paio of engravings. Whether it actually happened is another matter.

Also in French,

e.g., from Le Tresor des deux Langues espagnolle et françoise, Volume 2, By César Oudin 1645

Paire de cartes, baraja de naypes

And from "Les Édicts et ordonnances des rois de France depuis Louis VI,..." Volume 3 By Antoine Fontanon 1611

"Fermiers qui feront tenus leur en fournir & deliurer autant qu ils en voudront, en payant comptant nofdits droits à la raison fuf dicte de vn fol parifis pour chacune paire de cartes, deux fols parifis, pour le jeu de tarots, & vn fol parifis pour la balle de dez, fans que cy apres lefdits façonniers..."

Encyclopédie méthodique ou par ordre de matières: jurisprudence, Volume 2 1783

"Le premier droit sur les cartes est l'établissement d'un écu-sou, pour chaque caisse du poids de deux cens livres, & de plus ou moins à proportion, qu'on transporteroit hors du royaume. Ce droit eut lieu en vertu d une déclaration du 21 février 1581. Le 22 mai 1583, on l'étendit sur les cartes dont on faifoit usage dans le royaume, & il fut dit qu on percevroit un sou parisis fur chaque paire de cartes."

There are also french equivalents for a wedding, flights of stairs etc, also 'a pair of seven psalms,une paire d'habits to mean a complete suit [ composée d'un pourpoint, d'un haut de chausses, et d'un manteau d'un justaucorps vestis completa]

See here, the author argues against the idea that such usage is based upon some inherent quality of duality in the set, p131:
https://books.google.com.tr/books?id=EK ... &q&f=false

[The discussion on pairs in french begins in the last column of the previous page]