An early mention of divination with cards: 1620

Ross G Caldwell

Peccat mortaliter, qui interrogat, vel vult interrogare praestigiatores seu divinatores circa furtum, vel quippam aliud secretum: aut idipsum sortibus, aleis, chartis, libris cribro vel astrolabio tentat cognoscere...

"He sins mortally who asks, or is willing to ask, charlatans or diviners about a lost object or some other secret: or else tries to know the same thing by lots, rolling dice, cards, books, a riddle or an astrolabe..."

[Martin de Azpilcueta, "Enchiridion sive Manuale Confessariorum et Poenitentium" (Paris, François Huby, 1620): c. XI, note 30 (p. 191)].

As the title indicates, this is a manual for confessors (priests) and penitents.

Martin de Azpilcueta died in 1586, and this book is a translation into Latin of an original Spanish edition from 1556 "Compendio del Manual de Confessores". It remains to be seen if the Spanish edition speaks of cards, and how. If you are near a library that has it, please check - chapter XI, note (or paragraph) 30. It would be interesting to know if he uses the Spanish term "naipes".

This entry joins Pierre Gregoire's 1612 gloss on an early council anathema, mentioning the use of phylacteries and "chartas" -

[1612 - "chartas": The canonist Pierre Gregoire (1540-1617) in his
compendium of papal and conciliar pronouncements and Church
law "Juris Pontifici" (Lyon, 1612), in the Chapter on Sortilege [De
Sortilegis lib. tit. 12 c. 3; pp. 334-338], in the scholion to
article XII from the first council of Rome under Pope Gregory II
("Junior") in 722 "De aruspiscibus, vel incantatoribus, seu
phylacteriis" includes "chartas" -

"If anyone has heeded (observaverit) or consulted diviners,
soothsayers, or enchanters, or used phylacteries, let him be
anathema. (Scholion: by "heeded" (ab observando), they mean
characters, cards, or other types of amulets, or for averting evils,
or any other thing which is done superstitiously)" (pp. 336-337).

[ab observando, & significant characteres, chartas, vel alia delata
pro amuletis, seu pro aversione malorum, vel ad aliud quippiam cum superstitione faciendum]]
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TarotL/message/40102

See also Michael Hurst's entry on this note at
http://www.geocities.com/cartedatrionfi/Fragments/1540-1739.html

Ross
 

blackroseivy

If I may chime in -

I just want to note here that it has been my belief for quite some time that divination with cards probably goes back as far as their history does, or at least a lot farther back than scholars would think to admit of; the reasons for it not being recorded could be multiple. Offhand, I would say that anything to do with cards & their games was verboten & therefore not likely to be mentioned by those who did it. Not only may we figure on references that may have been few & far between, & have been lost, but also, in my opinion, it's more likely to have been practiced by the illiterate classes, & therefore, also, less likely to have been recorded.
 

ihcoyc

FWIW, chartis could mean "by charts" or "by maps" as well as "by cards." It could be talking about anything from a dart board to an astrological chart. It may well mean "by playing cards" but it is not certain.

(After around 1420, Latin gets a lot harder to interpret, because they discarded most of the more modern vocabulary they developed during the Middle Ages, and used only words that appear in classical authors. This is a pet peeve of mine. I would be interested in seeing what the Spanish was. This is probably the only way to disambiguate that text.)

And cribrum is "a sieve" rather than "a riddle."
 

smleite

A very early reference (in Spanish) to divination and card playing, taken from a 15th Century breviary: "No sigas, ni creas a los hechiceros, adevinos, ni agoreros, ni sorteros, ni astrólogos. Fía y cree solamente en tu Criador. (...) No juegues dados, naipes, ni otros juegos vanos, ni engañosos...” (Don’t follow, or trust in sorcerers, fortune tellers, or astrologers. Trust and believe only in your Creator. Don’t play dice, cards (“naipes”), or other vain and deceiving games…). In Breviario Sunní de Isa Ax-Xadhilí, written in Segovia, by a Muslim between 1454 and 1462, but intended to present the Muslim doctrine to Christians. Notice that these are Muslim interdicts, though presented in a “Christianized” way.

By the way, I think every college constitution from the 16th and 17th centuries in the Spanish world (also in Latin America) included severe interdiction to playing “naipes”, as in the San Bartolomé Seminar “Constituciones”, dated from 1596: “Ningún colegial dentro ni fuera del colegio en esta ciudad juegue naipes, ni dados, sólo permitimos que jueguen por recreación estando sólos dentro del colegio ajedrez, o pelota...” (no student inside or outside the college in this city should play cards (“naipes”), nor dice, we only allow to play for recreation being inside the college chess or ball games…).

Silvia
 

Ross G Caldwell

ihcoyc said:
FWIW, chartis could mean "by charts" or "by maps" as well as "by cards." It could be talking about anything from a dart board to an astrological chart. It may well mean "by playing cards" but it is not certain.

In the context of the book, I don't sense that the meaning is that broad. I don't think it means charts or maps, or little pieces of paper. My arguments -

First, it follows "aleis", just a mentions of cards usually do - "dice and cards" are usually mentioned like that.

Secondly (and most importantly) Azpilcueta has a section on games, so I looked up how he (or the translator) talks about cards. He mentions "dice and cards" (uses "talis" for dice) three times (sorry I didn't copy the Latin passage - I'll get it if you are interested):

talis and "chartis lusoris" are not a sin for monks, as long as it is done not excessively, and for honest recreation (not gambling) (XX, 3) - so here he qualifies the chartis with "lusoris" - for playing= playing cards;

but later (XX, 17), "they sin who ... use false dice or cards" - here the phrase is "peccant qui... falsis talis, vel chartis ututur" (I can't find the form ututur in my dictionaries, but the sense seems clear enough). So here the term "chartis" stands alone; i.e. he can't mean "false dice and maps" - chartis clearly means "playing cards" (it is a section on games, after all);

later he mentions again (XX, 19) "falsis talis, chartis, vel alias" - here "chartis" stands completely alone again (even distinguished by commas), and clearly means "playing cards;"

so I don't think the translator intended any ambiguity by his use of "chartis" in the earlier section, judging by his use of it later. I think he meant "playing cards."



(After around 1420, Latin gets a lot harder to interpret, because they discarded most of the more modern vocabulary they developed during the Middle Ages, and used only words that appear in classical authors. This is a pet peeve of mine. I would be interested in seeing what the Spanish was. This is probably the only way to disambiguate that text.)

And cribrum is "a sieve" rather than "a riddle."

Yes, you're right; I forgot to mention that is its primary meaning. I found that there is an extended meaning "riddle" which took my fancy at the time, so I put it there, but "sieve" divination is very plausible also, so sieve is probably a better translation.

I agree about the Latin of the 15th century and later, but I think theological writers are generally more apt to use neologisms, and stay closer to the medieval freedom of Latin, than the profane writers; Latin was essentially a functional language for them, not an art form where they strove for some ideal of "latinity."

Certainly the Spanish text is a worthy search - I have some within a few hours' driving of me, but I'll bet there are some people living closer to one than I am.
 

ihcoyc

Ross G Caldwell said:
In the context of the book, I don't sense that the meaning is that broad. I don't think it means charts or maps, or little pieces of paper. My arguments -

First, it follows "aleis", just a mentions of cards usually do - "dice and cards" are usually mentioned like that.
This makes sense.

FWIW, there was an old method of divination I've read about that involves a sieve and, IIRC, scissors. I'm not exactly sure how it worked, but I've seen it mentioned in a number of older sources, but it is mentioned in one of my favourite books, Les Farfadets, ou Tous les démons ne sont pas de l'autre monde, by Berbiguier de Terre-Neuve du Thym. Chapter 4, in which our hero encounters two Tarot-using "Sibyls", also describes an oracle they operated which involved suspending a pair of scissors by a ribbon above a flour sifter (tamis propre à passer de la farine).

I have no notion about how such a method of divination would work, but apparently sieves were in use in some sort of familiar divining ritual in 1796. The practice was common enough to get the name "coscinomancy." So I am fairly confident that cribrum is literally a sieve here.
 

Ross G Caldwell

ihcoyc said:
I have no notion about how such a method of divination would work, but apparently sieves were in use in some sort of familiar divining ritual in 1796. The practice was common enough to get the name "coscinomancy." So I am fairly confident that cribrum is literally a sieve here.

Very interesting, thanks for that.

I found this -

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/c/coscinomancy.html