Editing Card game (section)

== History ==

=== 14th and 15th centuries ===
The earliest European mention of playing cards appears in 1371 in a [[Catalan language]] rhyme dictionary.{{sfn|Denning|1996|p=14}} This suggests that cards may have been "reasonably well known" in [[Principality of Catalonia|Catalonia]] (now part of [[Spain]]) at that time, perhaps introduced as a result of maritime trade with the Mamluk rulers of [[Egypt]].<ref>Ferg, Wayland & Wayland (2007), p. 117.</ref> It is not until 1408 that the first card game is described in a document about the exploits of two [[card sharp]]s; although it is evidently very simple, the game is not named. In fact the earliest game to be mentioned by name is [[Karnöffel]], first mentioned in 1426 and which is still played in several forms today, including [[Bruus]], [[Knüffeln]], [[Kaiserspiel]] and [[Styrivolt]]. [[Ronfa]] and Condemnade are also recorded during the 15th century.<ref>Depaulis (1985), p. 75.</ref>

Since the arrival of [[trick-taking game]]s in Europe in the late 14th century, there have only been two major innovations. The first was the introduction of [[Trump (card games)|trump cards]] with the power to beat all cards in other suits.<ref name=Dummett173>Dummett (1980), p. 173.</ref> Such cards were initially called ''[[trionfi (cards)|trionfi]]'' and first appeared with the advent of [[Tarot cards]] in which there is a separate, permanent trump suit comprising a number of picture cards.<ref name="Dummett173"/> The first known example of such cards was ordered by the [[Duke of Milan]] around 1420 and included 16 trumps with images of Greek and Roman gods.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link=Franco Pratesi|title=Italian Cards - New Discoveries|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1989|volume=18|issue=1, 2|pages=28–32, 33–38}}</ref> Thus games played with Tarot cards appeared very early on and spread to most parts of Europe with the notable exceptions of the [[British Isles]], the [[Iberian Peninsula]], and [[the Balkans]].<ref name="Parlett">[[David Parlett]], ''Oxford Dictionary of Card Games'', pg. 300 Oxford University Press (1996) {{ISBN|0-19-869173-4}}</ref> However, we do not know the rules of the early Tarot games; the earliest detailed description in any language being those published by the [[Abbé de Marolles]] in [[Nevers]] in 1637.<ref>[http://www.tarock.info/depaulis.htm ''Regles dv Jev des Tarots''] at tarock.info. Retrieved 4 January 2023.</ref><ref name=Depaulis>Depaulis (2002), pp. 313–316.</ref>

The concept of trumps was sufficiently powerful that it was soon transferred to games played with far cheaper ordinary packs of cards, as opposed to expensive Tarot cards. The first of these was [[Triomphe]], the name simply being the French equivalent of the Italian ''trionfi''. Although not testified before 1538, its first rules were written by a Spaniard who left his native country for Milan in 1509 never to return; thus the game may date to the late 15th century.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Vives|first1=Juan Luis|last2=Foster|first2=Watson|title=Tudor School-Boy Life|date=1908|publisher=J.M. Dent & Company|location=London|pages=185–197|url=https://www.archive.org/stream/tudorschool-boyl00viveuoft#page/185/mode/1up}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Maldonado|first1=Juan|last2=Smith|first2=Warren|last3=Colahan|first3=Clark|title=Spanish Humanism on the Verge of the Picaresque|date=2009|publisher=Leuven University Press|location=Leuven|pages=23–59}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Pratesi|first1=Franco|author-link1=Franco Pratesi|title=Juan Maldonado: A Writer to be Remembered|journal=[[The Playing-Card]]|date=1988|volume=16|issue=4|pages=117–121}}</ref>

Others games that may well date to the 15th century are [[Gleek (card game)|Gleek]], [[Poch]]en – the game of ''Bocken'' or ''Boeckels'' being attested in Strasbourg in 1441<ref name=Depaulis1990>Depaulis (1990), pp. 52–67.</ref> – and [[Thirty-one (card game)|Thirty-One]], which is first mentioned in a French translation of a 1440 sermon by the Italian, [[Bernardino of Siena|Saint Bernadine]], the name actually referring to two different card games: one like [[Pontoon (banking game)|Pontoon]] and one like [[Commerce (card game)|Commerce]].<ref>Parlett (1990), p. 80.</ref>

=== 16th century ===
In the 16th century printed documents replace handwritten sources and card games become a popular topic with preachers, autobiographists and writers in general. A key source of the games in vogue in France and Europe at that time is [[François Rabelais]], whose fictional character ''[[Gargantua]]'' played no less than 30 card games, many of which are recognisable. They include: [[Aluette]], [[Bête]], Cent, [[Coquimbert]], [[Coucou]], Flush or Flux, Gé (Pairs), [[Gleek (card game)|Gleek]], [[Lansquenet]],  [[Piquet]], [[Post and Pair]], [[Primero]], [[Ronfa]], [[Triomphe]],  Sequence, [[Speculation (banking game)|Speculation]], [[Tarot card game|Tarot]] and [[Trente-et-Un]]; possibly [[Rams (card game)|Rams]], [[Mouche (card game)|Mouche]] and [[Brandeln]] as well.<ref>Rabelais (1534), Ch. XXII.</ref> [[Girolamo Cardano]] also provides invaluable information including the earliest rules of [[Trappola]]. Among the most popular were the games of Flusso and Primiera, which originated in Italy and spread throughout Europe, becoming known in England as Flush and [[Primero]].<ref name=Depaulis/>

In Britain the earliest known European [[fishing game]] was recorded in 1522.<ref>Skelton (1522).</ref> Another first was [[Losing Loadum]], noted by Florio in 1591, which is the earliest known English [[point-trick game]].<ref>Florio (1591), p. 67.</ref> In Scotland, the game of [[Mawe (card game)|Mawe]], testified in the 1550s, evolved from a country game into one played at the royal Scottish court, becoming a favorite of [[James VI of Scotland|James VI]].<ref name=parlettgames>[https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/maw.html ''Maw''] at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 26 November 2022.</ref> The ancestor of [[Cribbage]] – a game called [[Noddy (card game)|Noddy]] – is mentioned for the first time in 1589, "Noddy" being the [[Knave (playing card)|Knave]] turned for trump at the start of play.<ref>[https://www.parlettgames.uk/histocs/noddy.html ''Noddy: Knavish ancestor of Cribbage''] at parlettgames.uk. Retrieved 26 November 2023.</ref>

=== 17th century ===
The 17th century saw an upsurge in the number of new games being reported as well as the first sets of rules, those for [[Piquet]] appearing in 1632 and [[Reversis]] in 1634.<ref name=Depaulis/> The first French games compendium, ''La Maison Académique'', appeared in 1654 and it was followed in 1674 by [[Charles Cotton]]'s ''[[The Compleat Gamester]]'', although an earlier manuscript of games by [[Francis Willughby]] was written sometime between 1665 and 1670.<ref>[[Willughby, Francis]]. ''A Volume of Plaies.'' (Manuscript in the Middleton collection, University of Nottingham, shelfmark Li 113.) c1665-70.</ref> Cotton records the first rules for the classic English games of [[Cribbage]], a descendant of [[Noddy (card game)|Noddy]], and [[Whist]], a development of English Trump or Ruff ('ruff' then meaning 'rob') in which four players were dealt 12 cards each and the dealer 'robbed' from the remaining stock of 4 cards.<ref>McLeod (2007), p. 257.</ref>

Piquet was a two-player, trick-taking game that originated in France, probably in the 16th century and was initially played with 36 cards before, around 1690, the pack reduced to the 32 cards that gives the [[Piquet pack]] its name. Reversis is a reverse game in which players avoid taking tricks and appears to be an Italian invention that came to France around 1600 and spread rapidly to other countries in Europe.<ref name=Depaulis/>

In the mid-17th century, a certain game named after [[Cardinal Mazarin]], prime minister to King [[Louis XIV]], became very popular at the French royal court. Called [[Hoc Mazarin]], it had three phases, the final one of which evolved into a much simpler game called [[Comet (card game)|Manille]] that was renamed [[Comet (card game)|Comète]] on the appearance of [[Halley's Comet]] in 1682.<ref name = Parlett1991>Parlett (1991), p. 118.</ref> In Comète the aim is to be first to shed all one's hand cards to sequences laid out in rows on the table. However, there are certain cards known as '[[Stop (cards)|stops]]' or ''hocs'': cards that end a sequence and give the one who played it the advantage of being able to start a new sequence. This concept spread to other 17th and 18th century games including [[Poque]], [[Comet (card game)|Comete]], [[Emprunt]], [[Manille]], [[Nain Jaune]] and [[Lindor (card game)|Lindor]],<ref>Parlett (1991), pp. 88/89</ref><ref name=Hocs>[https://salondesjeux.fr/hoc.htm ''Les jeux de hocs''] on the Academy of Forgotten Games website.</ref> all except Emprunt being still played in some form today.

It was the 17th century that saw the second of the two great innovations being introduced into trick-taking games: the concept of bidding.<ref name=Dummett173/> This first emerged in the Spanish game of [[Ombre]], an evolution of Triomphe that "in its time, was the most successful card game ever invented."<ref>Dummett (1980), p. 264.</ref> Ombre's origins are unclear and obfuscated by the existence of a game called [[Homme (card game)|Homme]] or [[Bête]] in France, ''ombre'' and ''homme'' being respectively Spanish and French for 'man'. In Ombre, the player who won the bidding became the "Man" and played alone against the other two. The game spread rapidly across Europe, spawning variants for different numbers of players and known as [[Quadrille (card game)|Quadrille]], Quintille, Médiateur and [[German Solo|Solo]]. Quadrille went on to become highly fashionable in England during the 18th century and is mentioned several times, for example, in [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''.

The first rules of any game in the German language were those for Rümpffen published in 1608 and later expanded in several subsequent editions. In addition, the first German games compendium, ''Palamedes Redivivus'' appeared in 1678, containing the rules for Hoick ([[Hoc (card game)|Hoc]]), Ombre, Picquet (sic), Rümpffen and Thurnspiel.

=== 18th century ===
The evolution of card games continued apace, with notable national games emerging like [[Briscola]] and [[Tressette]] (Italy), [[German Schafkopf|Schafkopf]] (Bavaria), [[Jass]] (Switzerland), [[Mariage (card game)|Mariage]], the ancestor of Austria's [[Schnapsen]] and Germany's [[Sixty-Six]], and [[Tapp Tarock]], the progenitor of most modern central European [[Tarot games]]. Whist spread to the continent becoming very popular in the north and west. In France, [[Comet (card game)|Comet]] appeared, a game that later evolved into [[Nain Jaune]] and the Victorian game of [[Pope Joan (card game)|Pope Joan]].