If this is correct, it seems to me, a sequence with meaning becomes less important. Just folk traditions possibly.
~Rosanne
The first note about Karnöffel (1426, Nördlingen) gives no info about specific conditions in the game. The Mysner poem, dated to c. 1450, gives the roles "Pope, Devil and Emperor" and further the role of the "Karnöffel", who robs the cloth of somebody else, and a not specified number of "heilije lerer" (possibly 4 "holy teachers" presenting the 4 suits).
The poem seems to contradict the later known rules of Karnöffel (mainly based on a text of 1537), which know 4 different Emperors (related to 2-5, with different trumping possibilities), Pope (related to 6), Devil (related to 7) and the Karnöffel, who beats them all.
Details are somewhere else. Google for "Mysner" and "Karnöffel".
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Added: Comparing the Mysner Karnöffel and the later Karnöffel to Tarot, there's possibly this relation:
1 - Unter / Fante - suit 1
2 - Ober / Cavallo - suit 2
3 - Queen - suit 3
4 - King - suit 4
reduced in games with 3 courts only to ...
1 - suit 1
2 - (Unter = Jack) - suit 2
3 - (Queen = Ober) - suit 3
4 - King - suit 4
(in many common games in Germany King has 4 points, Queen has 3 points, the Jack has 2 points)
Interpreting Mysner and Karnöffel we get:
1 - heilije Lerer (1 for Mysner) (no Aces in common games in Germany - later rules)
2 - heilije Lerer (2 for Mysner) - lowest Emperor (in later rules)
3 - heilije Lerer (3 for Mysner) - a little better Emperor (in later rules)
4 - heilije Lerer (4 for Mysner) - better Emperor (in later rules)
5 - Pope (for Mysner) - best Emperor (in later rules)
6 - Devil (for Mysner) - Pope (in later rules) -
7 - Emperor (for Mysner) - Devil (for Mysner)
... for both sources the Karnöffel has a special function (strongest cards). The specific 4 Emperors (only in "later rules") had different trumping power, some cards they could capture, others not.
In the Mysner poem the Karnöffel robs the clothes of a victim, a context, in which the victim is compared to a female pig (the pig often appeared on the card No. 2, which replaced in Germany the Aces).
In Tarot (1450, PMB) we have a person, which has only a rest of his clothes - The Fool.
The Magician in PMB has very fine clothes. Had he robbed the Fool?
Further we have this row in Tarot:
0 Fool (robbed ?)
1 Magician (robber ?)
2 Popess
3 Empress .... relative to Queen in normal cards
4 Emperor ... relative to King in normal cards
5 Pope ... relative to 5 Pope in Mysner poem
6 Love ... is this the German devil?
7 Triumphal Chariot ... Is this the Karnöffel, who beats them all?
The popess is clearly a development from "Maid" (John of Rheinfelden deck 1377) and Junckfrauwe (Hofämterspiel 1455). She stands in a logical relation to the unmarried knights (Cavallo, Ober), which likely were normally associated to No 2.
The Foot soldier (Unter), the often "funny figure", was associated to 1 and likely was expressed in the pair Fool-Bagatello.
In the Hofämterspiel the 4 Fools were associated to No 1.
The association "playing cards and card playing" related to "sexual pleasures and to the devil" appears in the work of Master Ingold (1432). In the Hofämterspiel the "Junckfrauwe" were associated to No. 6.
At the end of the poem of Mysner the expression appears "Haintz eff mich wohl". At the begin of the "Ship of Fools" (1494) this figure appears ...
... with a knife in his ass.
"Haintz Nar"
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Well, the Mysner poem didn't intend to explain, how the game Karnöffel was played. So one meets riddles and one must interpret them. To me it seemed, as if the used deck version had "special cards" (likely 8), as the Tarot had special cards. Later the then very popular Karnöffel game simply used normal playing cards and defined them in the manner of the game.
Occasionally Karnöffel was addressed as Imperatori game or as Keyserspiel.
The Ferrarese record of 1423 speaks of "VIII Imperatori" cards imported from Florence (for a horrible high price, if it really were only 8 cards).
The Imperatori game reappears later 1443 in Ferrara (after a series of Trionfi notes 1440-1442) and in 1452 (again after new interest in Trionfi games since 1449).
If both games were similar (just with a different number of trumps) it's logical, that they appeared together as a card playing fashion.
So it appears a little bit, that early Trionfi decks simply were an extension of special Imperatori/Karnöffel decks with more "special cards", bewaring (and modifying) some content, which already had developed before.