John of Rheinfelden

Last updated

John of Rheinfelden (German : Johannes von Rheinfelden), also Johannes Teuto and John of Basle (born c. 1340), was a Dominican friar and writer who published the oldest known description in Europe of playing cards. [1]

Contents

Life and works

Brother John was born around 1340 in Freiburg im Breisgau. [2] Little is known of his life, it is only substantiated by his treatise (Traktat), published in Basle 1377, [1] and the personal information it contains. He was probably a member of Basle's Dominican monastery, but lived in Freiburg im Breisgau. He is usually known as John of Rheinfelden, although Dummett says this is "probably wrong." [1]

He wrote the treatise De moribus et disciplina humanae conversationis id est ludus cartularum (also referred to as Ludus cartularum moralisatus), the oldest surviving detailed description of playing cards in Europe from the Middle Ages, which he wrote in 1377 as bans on playing cards began to proliferate. The tract is modelled on the "Chess Allegory" (Schachallegorie) of fellow friar James of Cessoles. Card games are attested for the first time in Europe by the Signoria of Florence on 23 March 1377. [2] It is likely that they originally came from China and probably only reached Europe via India and Egypt a decade earlier. So Rheinfelden's treatise was very topical. Strasbourg, about 50 kilometres from Freiburg, became a centre of playing card production in the 15th century. In addition to other versions, the author mentions the still common 4x13 sheet as the basic template, whereby the King, Ober and Unter ("marshals") are mentioned as court cards, but Maids and Queens are also known. He does not state what suit symbols were used.

In the foreword, the author explains the purpose of his treatise: firstly to explain the pack of cards, its components and the rules of the game, secondly to derive moral instructions for nobles from the card game with reference to the different "courts" (suits) of the pack, thirdly similar instructions for the derive simple people by assigning professions to numerical cards.

Johannes writes that the newly introduced cards seemed like a revelation to him and the knowledge that they could be used as a means of understanding and explaining the world had moved him. He uses his description of the card figures as the starting point for a broad presentation and interpretation of the corresponding functions at court. Thus, the tract also gives a general insight into the medieval way of thinking, how the social order is structured. He presents his enormous wealth of knowledge, for example by referring to the Bible, the Latin classics, Boëthius, church father Isidor and Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas. Some of Rheinfelden's views seem natural to us and he is not afraid of more controversial topics.

The original treatise, which was probably illustrated, [2] has not survived (it may have been destroyed in the Franco-Prussian War) but has been handed down in four expanded manuscripts: [3]

So far there is no complete printed edition, a text-critical edition by Arne Jönsson, professor at the University of Lund, is in preparation.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Playing card</span> Card used for playing many card games

A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a finish to make handling easier. They are most commonly used for playing card games, and are also used in magic tricks, cardistry, card throwing, and card houses; cards may also be collected. Playing cards are typically palm-sized for convenient handling, and usually are sold together in a set as a deck of cards or pack of cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarot</span> Cards used for games or divination

The tarot is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their Italian roots, tarot playing cards spread to most of Europe evolving into a family of games that includes German Grosstarok and modern games such as French Tarot and Austrian Königrufen. In the late 18th century, French occultists made elaborate, but unsubstantiated, claims about their history and meaning, leading to the emergence of custom decks for use in divination via tarot card reading and cartomancy. Thus there are two distinct types of tarot pack in circulation today: those used for card games and those used for divination. However, some older patterns, such as the Tarot de Marseille, originally intended for playing card games, are occasionally used for cartomancy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johannes Tauler</span> German theologian

Johannes Tauler OP was a German mystic, a Roman Catholic priest and a theologian. A disciple of Meister Eckhart, he belonged to the Dominican order. Tauler was known as one of the most important Rhineland mystics. He promoted a certain neo-platonist dimension in the Dominican spirituality of his time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Master of the Playing Cards</span> German engraver (fl. 1430s-1450s)

The Master of the Playing Cards was the first major master in the history of printmaking. He was a German engraver, and probably also a painter, active in southwestern Germany – probably in Alsace, from the 1430s to the 1450s, who has been called "the first personality in the history of engraving."

Nicholas Magni was a late medieval theologian, a professor at Prague University and Heidelberg University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cego</span> Tarot card game

Cego is a Tarot card game for three or four players played mainly in and around the Black Forest region of Germany. It was probably derived from the three-player Badenese game of Dreierles when soldiers deployed from the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars and, based on a Spanish game they had encountered, introduced Cego's distinctive feature: a concealed hand, or blind. Cego has experienced a revival in recent years, being seen as part of the culture of the Black Forest and surrounding region. It has been called the national game of Baden and described as a "family classic".

Rudolf Robert Maier was a German pathologist who was a native of Freiburg im Breisgau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hofämterspiel</span> Playing card deck

Hofämterspiel, one of the earliest packs of playing cards on record preserved in its entirety with all 48 cards intact, is a major 15th-century medieval handmade deck commissioned by Ladislaus the Posthumous, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Duke of Austria from 1453 to 1457. It was found among the great collection of art treasures of Archduke Ferdinand II of Tirol in castle Ambras, Austria, together with another called Ambraser Hofjagdspiel. Their heraldic suits represent, to an extent, "the political and dynastic relationships in Central Europe in middle of the 15th century" and are "of a quality unsurpassed at this early date."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johann Kaspar Hechtel</span> German businessman, owner of a brass factory, writer and designer of parlour games

Johann Kaspar Hechtel was a German businessman, owner of a brass factory in Nuremberg, non-fiction writer and designer of parlour games including the prototype for the Petit Lenormand cartomancy deck. According to published biographies, Hechtel also contributed anonymously to some treatises on physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss-suited playing cards</span>

Parts of Swiss German speaking Switzerland have their own deck of playing cards referred to as Swiss-suited playing cards or Swiss-suited cards. They are mostly used for Jass, the "national card game" of Switzerland. The deck is related to the various German playing cards. Within Switzerland, these decks are called German or Swiss German cards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ober (playing card)</span> Court card in German/Swiss playing cards

The Ober, formerly Obermann, in Austrian also called the Manderl, is the court card in the German and Swiss styles of playing cards that corresponds in rank to the Queen in French packs. The name Ober is an abbreviation of the former name for these cards, Obermann, which meant something like 'superior' or 'lord'. Van der Linde argues that the King, Ober and Unter in a pack of German cards represented the military ranks of general, officer (Oberofficier) and sergeant (Unterofficier), while the pip cards represented the common soldier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarot card games</span> Card games played with tarot decks

Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, Tarock in German and various similar words in other languages. The basic rules first appeared in the manuscript of Martiano da Tortona, written before 1425. The games are known in many variations, mostly cultural and regional.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Helmut Kornhuber</span> German neurologist (1928–2009)

Hans Helmut Kornhuber was a German neurologist and neurophysiologist.

<i>Deuce</i> (playing card) High card in German card games

The Deuce is the playing card with the highest value in German card games. It may have derived its name from dice games in which the face of the die with two pips is also called a Daus in German.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bavarian Tarock</span> Card game

Bavarian Tarock or, often, just Tarock, is a card game that was once popular in Bavaria and also played in parts of Austria as well as Berlin. The name is a clue to its origin in the historical German game of [Gross-]Tarock, a game using traditional Tarot cards. At some point in the mid- to late-18th century, attempts were made to emulate Taroc using a standard 36-card German-suited pack, resulting in the formerly popular, south German game of German Tarok. During the last century, the variant played with a pot (Haferl) and often known as Bavarian Tarock or Haferltarock, evolved into "quite a fine game" that, however, has less in common with its Tarock progenitor. German Tarok also generated the very similar game of Tapp, played in Württemberg, and both are related to Bauerntarock, Dobbm and the American games of Frog and Six-Bid Solo. Bavarian Tarock should not be confused with Königrufen, also known as Austrian Tarock or just Tarock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knüffeln</span>

Knüffeln is a very old trick-taking card game for four players, playing in pairs, that is still played in North Germany. Once considered the national game of Frisia, Knüffeln is a descendant of Karnöffel, the oldest identifiable European card game in the history of playing cards with a continuous tradition of play down to the present day.

Giselher Schubert is a German musicologist

Hans Joachim Marx is a German music historian. He has been professor of European music history at the University of Hamburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruus</span> Card game

Bruus, formerly Brausebart or Brusbart, is a very old north German card game for four players in two teams of two. It was once highly popular but has since died out except for a few pockets in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. As Brusbart, it was the ancestor of a family of similar games in northern Europe, including Swedish Bräus and Danish Brus which are still played today. Bruus features 'daring and tormenting' which has been said to give the game a certain charm. Once considered the national game of Hamburg, Bruus is a descendant of Karnöffel, the oldest identifiable European card game in the history of playing cards with a continuous tradition of play down to the present day. The game is named after the Bruus or Brusbart, once its top card, but now its second-highest trump.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">German Tarok</span> Card game

German Tarok, sometimes known as Sansprendre or simply Tarok, is an historical Ace-Ten card game for three players that emerged in the 18th century and is the progenitor of a family of games still played today in Europe and North America. It became very popular in Bavaria and Swabia during the 19th century before being largely superseded by Schafkopf, but has survived in the local forms of Bavarian Tarock and Tapp. During the mid-19th century, it became the most popular card game among Munich's middle classes and was also played in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by notable Bavarian author Ludwig Thoma, frequently appearing in his novels and journal articles. It was superseded after the First World War by other forms such as Bavarian Tarock.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Dummett 1980, p. 11.
  2. 1 2 3 Rosenfeld 1974, p. 567.
  3. Johannes of Rheinfelden, 1377 at triofi.com. Retrieved 9 May 2020.

Literature