Recently I wrote about Chess playing cards ....
Huck wrote:Chess playing cards in China
"Tam cúc" or "Three Chrysathemums" is a game, which is mentioned by Sylvia Mann in "All Cards on the Table" (1990), p. 203/204. It's popular in Vietnam.
etc.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=460&start=100#p17483
Joseph Needham
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Needham
... wrote ...
The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China:
Joseph Needham, Colin A. Ronan
Cambridge University Press, 1986 - 298 Seiten
"This third volume of Colin Ronan's abridgement of Joseph Needham's monumental work is devoted to Chinese contributions to nautical science and technology."
https://books.google.de/books?id=CjRAiq ... ss&f=false
Common Chinese chess pieces are not figurative as in European chess, but just Chinese kanji placed on round pieces of wood or plastic or other material ...
China had paper much earlier than Europe, at least around 500 AD. It wouldn't be a surprize, if cheap chess sets were made also of hard paper occasionally, in other words, something similar to playing cards. From modern sets I know, that they were sold also with a larger piece of paper, which could be used as board, a rather practical solution.
The idea, that the Chinese name for Chinese chess (xiang qi) might be read as "image chess" (a name, that in our language world would naturally associate [2D] flat playing cards instead of [3D] round pieces of wood or figures), might make one suspicious. The connection between chess and playing cards is in the modern world still very clear for Chinese cards, much better than elsewhere, this at least is a clear fact.
What Needham and Ronan say about the use of astronomical content in this context (a rather wild use of many Chinese astronomical symbols, strongly connect to ideas based on I-Ching btw) remembers very much the Minchiate, with its 4 elements and 12 zodiac lines.
In the wiki-biography of Toscanelli (who worked for the Medici with his strong capabilities in the field of math) we find ...
In 1474 Toscanelli sent a letter and a map to his Portuguese correspondent Fernão Martins, priest at the Lisbon Cathedral, detailing a scheme for sailing westwards to reach the Spice Islands and Asia. Fernão Martins delivered his letter to the King Afonso V of Portugal, in his court of Lisbon. The original of this letter was lost, but its existence is known through Toscanelli himself, who later transcribed it along with the map and sent it to Christopher Columbus, who carried them with him during his first voyage to the new world.[2] Toscanelli had miscalculated Asia as being 5,000 miles longer than it really was and Columbus miscalculated the circumference of the Earth by 25 percent both of which resulted in Columbus not realizing initially he had found a new continent.[3] Toscanelli lived most of his life in Florence, with occasional excursions to Todi and Rome. He is said to have entered into correspondence with scholars around Europe, but his writings have yet to be thoroughly researched. An uncorroborated story links Toscanelli's attendance at a Chinese delegation to the Pope in 1432, when many Chinese inventions were discussed, with a flood of drawings made around the same year by the artist-engineer Taccola (1382 – c.1453), which were later developed by Brunelleschi and Leonardo da Vinci. In a 1474 letter of Toscanelli to Columbus, the authenticity of which has been a matter of disagreement among scholars,[4][5] Toscanelli mentions the visit of men from Cathay (China) during the reign of Pope Eugenius IV (1431–1447):
"Also in the time of Eugenius one of them [of Cathay] came to Eugenius, who affirmed their great kindness towards Christians, and I had a long conversation with him on many subjects, about the magnitude of their rivers in length and breath, and on the multitude of cities on the banks of rivers. He said that on one river there were near 200 cities with marble bridges great in length and breadth, and everywhere adorned with columns. This country is worth seeking by the Latins, not only because great wealth may be obtained from it, gold and silver, all sorts of gems, and spices, which never reach us; but also on account of its learned men, philosophers, and expert astrologers, and by what skill and art so powerful and magnificent a province is governed, as well as how their wars are conducted."
— Extract of the First Letter of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus.[6][7]
It has been suggested that the man in question may have been Niccolo da Conti, who was returning from the east and is known to have met with Pope Eugenius in 1444.[8] In a second letter, Toscanelli further describes these men as extremely learned and willing to share their knowledge:
"The said voyage is not only possible, but it is true, and certain to be honourable and to yield incalculable profit, and very great fame among all Christians. But you cannot know this perfectly save through experience and practice, as I have had in the form of the most copious and good and true information from distinguished men of great learning who have come from the said parts, here in the court of Rome, and from others being merchants who have had business for a long time in those parts, men of high authority."
— Extract of the First Letter of Paolo Toscanelli to Columbus.[9]
Niccolo da Conti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niccol%C3%B2_de%27_Conti
The webpage
http://www.gavinmenzies.net/ goes deeper into the context, connected to the publication of various books. His results are disputed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Menzies
I personally think, that this card (Moon of Charles VI Trionfi) ...
... present Toscanelli and Regiomontanus.
