This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
The term “devil’s picture books” was used by the Puritans to refer to playing cards in hopes that it would prevent people from using them. In the book by the same name, Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer gives a history of playing cards, including the origins relating to the game of chess, how cards were named and explanations of traditions in different countries. She also explains the relationship of current card decks to the original tarot, and the way in which the suits came to be.
Her history begins with the movement of cards from Asia to Europe and explains, “The first packs consisted of seventy-eight cards, – that is, of four suits of numeral cards; and besides these there were twenty-two emblematic picture cards, which were called Atous or atouts, — a word which M. Duchesne, a French writer, declares signifies ‘above all’.” She continues on to explain the names of the suits and how the face cards came about.
Included in the book are wonderful illustrations of different types of card decks, depicting ones from all around the world. Many of them are intricately designed and wouldn’t even be recognizable as playing cards today.
This book The devil’s picture-books. A history of playing cards, by Mrs. John King Van Renssalaer…London, T.F. Unwin, 1892. can be retrieved from Widener Library.
Thanks to Emma Clement, Santo Domingo Library Assistant, for contributing this post.