Trappola?

le pendu

In a recent thread comparing the Dodal and the Conver TdM, Firemaiden pointed to a Knight of Batons from the Cary collection at Yale:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showpost.php?p=678211&postcount=10

It seems this Knight is actually from a Trapolla deck, according to the International Playing Card Society:

"The earliest survivor of the pattern seems to be a part sheet in the Cary collection (AUS 5S). This shows the speckled frame to the designs which is rarely found outside Venice or Florence, and must be dated 16th Century."

http://i-p-c-s.org/pattern/ps-40.html

And this type of deck is discussed by Dummett in his "Unsolved Problems in Playing-Card Research":

"Can definite evidence be found to assign the standard pattern exemplified by early Trappola cards from north of the Alps to Venice, or perhaps to Trent or some other city?"

http://i-p-c-s.org/problist.html

I've found it mentioned that Trapolla may be connected to the early Mamluk cards... in that they feature a Page, Knight and King... but no Queen.

When I look at the iconography of the Knight of Batons, I see so many similarities to early cards... I wonder.. what do we know about Trappola? Is Trappola older than Tarot? Does anyone have information about this early type of deck?

best,
robert
 

Cerulean

Trappola

Here's a discussion following Baba-Prague's discovery of some older cards locally to their company in Prague:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=44077&highlight=trappola

Beautiful and fancy card variant--I may be wrong to say historical equivalent to 'tarocco-tarocchino-tarock' games (category may be too broad and indistinct).

I've not explored this variant much, other than admire the cards when I encounter them in historical collections.

Cerulean
 

le pendu

Thanks Cerulean,

It looks like there were single faced cards first, and then at some point they went to double faced, like tarot.

I'd like to find as many examples of the single faced cards as possible, they are very intriguing to me.

best,
robert
 

Bernice

Oh what a lovely deck. Pity there isn't one available now.

Bee :)