Thanks VERY much for that Enrique.
Yes, Marino says that trintin and perseguera are otherwise unattested. I speculated that "trintin" might be a form of "trente-et-un", whether it came from French or is just a corrupt Spanish word. Eugim wrote someone in Barcelona who responded saying that "trintin" is a word for the tinkling sound of coins on a table as well. Your speculations about perseguera being a trumping game sound plausible. One of the characteristics of trumping games is the requirement to "follow suit", so maybe that is where the "pursuit" comes from.
But the most important thing is your understanding of the cartomantic passage. Finding Estopañán's - and a few others of the 17th century - references were astounding enough. But with a casual method like this so early (around 1450), it is a minor revolution in our understanding of when and how cards were used for divination. It doesn't matter that it's not cartomancy "as we know it" - what matters is that it is cartomancy at all, and moreover that we can begin writing a history of cartomancy that seems more intuitively correct - i.e., that people took to using cards to answer questions about "hidden" matters pretty much as soon as they appeared.
As late as 2007, Michael Dummett can write categorically "Fortune-telling with playing cards was unknown until the eighteenth century." (The Philosophy of Michael Dummett (Open Court, 2007) p. 917). These sorts of references are direct refutations of that statement. The occult/esoteric "moralization" of playing cards and tarot is certainly a product of the late 18th century, but fortune-telling is something else entirely, having no necessary relationship with esoteric doctrines beyond a belief in providence (is a belief in providence esoteric?).
Best regards,
Ross
Re: Spanish cartomancy, help with translation
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Last edited by Ross G. R. Caldwell on 18 May 2009, 15:35, edited 1 time in total.