A 2nd Mitelli deck (Bologna) of 1690

Huck

I found some time ago a second Mitelli deck in the British Museum collection:
A short debate took place in a ...
thread with Mitelli games: Post 3 - 7

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A playing card game with 40 trumps, made in the year 1690 by Mitelli in Bologna.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...ch_the_collection_database.aspx&currentPage=1

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The description gives the following info:

Print made by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli

Description
Fanciful pack without suits: "Giuocco del Passa Tempo", a complete set of 40 playing-cards on four uncut sheets, with emblematical figures symbolising the Virtues, Vices, Temperaments, etc.

Etching
1690

Inscriptions
Inscription Content: No. 40 ("Il Tempo Passa") is lettered "Gioco del Passa Tempo. Giuseppe M. Mitelli I. e F.". No. 20 contains the rules of the game, with the artist's name and the date. No. 2 includes a jug printed with the date 1690.

Dimensions
Height: 320 millimetres (sheet (approx.))
Width: 440 millimetres (sheet (approx.))
Height: 130 millimetres (individual card)
Width: 65 millimetres (individual card)

Curator's comments
Nos. 1-20 are "triomfi" and Nos. 21-40 "cartaccie".

And I noted then:

It seems to be a game, in which "Time" (card 40) plays against the "Turco" (card 1). In the world of the year 1690 Vienna had survived the siege of the Osmans in 1683 and the win at the second battle at Mohacs (1687) prepared a crisis of the Osman Empire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vienna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mohács_(1687)

The war ended in 1699 and the Osmans had to agree in many losses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Turkish_War
... the League won the war in 1699 and forced the Ottoman Empire to sign the Treaty of Karlowitz.[4] The Ottomans ceded most of Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia to the Habsburg Empire while Podolia returned to Poland. Most of Dalmatia passed to Venice, along with the Morea (the Peloponnesus peninsula), which the Ottomans regained in the Treaty of Passarowitz of 1718.

The rules are given at card 20, as it is said in the description. It's difficult to decipher the writing:

mitelli-1690.jpg

I wrote:
"As far I see it, this was overlooked a very long time ... such an attractive game. Well, it seems to play with the structure of Minchiate, though rather different to Minchiate and also very contrasting to the Poilly cards."

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Michael J. Hurst offered then a better view of the game description ...

file.php


... and Marco Pozzi was then able to translate the text.

Game of the pass-time. In the whole, the are 40 cards: 20 Trumps and 20 Cartazze. The Trumps have the value of five points, and together with a Cartazza, having the value of one point, they are counted as six points. The higher number always takes the lower. The last card is the Turkish that never takes, but whoever takes it counts it as six points. Who saves the card of Mangiabene (Eatwell) for the last [trick] will take any card but Time, which takes all the others. Whoever takes the last trick always wins six extra points. The cards of Time and Virtue have the value of ten points each. The trumps are marked with a star and the Cartazze with a black spot. If one does not want follow a Trump [with another Trump] he can play a Cartazza. The card of Ingenuity takes that of Silence, and Silence takes that of Ingenuity. Whoever has more points wins the game, or who first reaches the agreed number of points wins the game, or it is possible to play in any other way the player wants.

I analyzed the points in the game:
I come to
2x10 for trump 39-40 = 20
18 x 6 for all other trumps + cartazza = 108
6 for last trick = 6
6 for Turco = 6
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20 + 108 + 6 + 6 = 140 points

Robert Mealing found then, that such a deck was offered in a reconstruction by Meneghello with the name "Il Tempo Passa"
http://www.carte-karuta.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=15&products_id=82

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It's of interest to know about this deck inside the current Poilly deck discussion:
http://tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=170889