Download or read book The Invention of Playing Cards in China and Their Arrival in Europe written by John Oxenham Goodman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-10-13 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains 37 coloured illustrations and takes us through the history of playing cards from their invention in China to their appearance in Europe in the 13th Century. It describes how the development of paper playing cards was made possible by the Chinese invention of paper in 105 AD and how wood block printing simplified the manufacture of cards. Then paper money was introduced in the 11th Century followed by the use of monetary denominations for the 4 suits of cards. There are colour illustrations of Ming Dynasty bank notes showing their similarity to early playing cards. Then we are taken to the 13th Century when Marco Polo and other Italian merchants travelled to China on the Silk Road and saw people playing card games. They took the new invention back to Europe but, because they could neither speak nor read Chinese well, they misinterpreted many of its features. Kings, queens, knights and pages appeared on European cards instead of the Chinese images of strings of coins and popular outlaws who rebelled against the government of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). The Chinese idea of money cards largely disappeared in Europe with the suit of coins in Tarot and Italian cards being the sole survivor. Meanwhile in China one of the 4 suits was abandoned and solid blocks in the form of Mahjong tiles appeared in 1864, but the paper cards from which they were derived continue in use today. Colour pictures of early Chinese cards and bank notes as well as early Mahjong tiles are accompanied by explanations which help the reader understand the history of playing cards. Links of 16th Century Ma Diao cards to the Tarot suits and to the 5 Chinese and ancient Greek elements are shown in charts and tables. The Chinese names of the Major Arcana are also listed with astrological connections.
Download or read book Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards written by William Andrew Chatto and published by London : J.R. Smith. This book was released on 1848 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Playing Cards and Their Story written by George Beal and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Playing cards have a very long history. They are known to have existed from early times in China and an encyclopedia gives year 1120 AD as the date of their invention. It is likely that playing cards appeared in Europe in the late fourteenth century and their variety of design is correspondingly great. George Beal has collected hundreds of examples and explains their origins and details with a full text and thirty-seven plates and ninety additional illustrations. Eight of the plates are in color."--Dust jacket.
Download or read book A Cultural History of Tarot written by Helen Farley and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2009-08-13 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enigmatic and richly illustrative tarot deck reveals a host of strange and iconic mages, such as The Tower, The Wheel of Fortune, The Hanged Man and The Fool: over which loom the terrifying figures of Death and The Devil. The 21 numbered playing cards of tarot have always exerted strong fascination, way beyond their original purpose, and the multiple resonances of the deck are ubiquitous. From T S Eliot and his 'wicked pack of cards' in "The Waste Land" to the psychic divination of Solitaire in Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die"; and from the satanic novels of Dennis Wheatley to the deck's adoption by New Age practitioners, the cards have in modern times become inseparably connected to the occult. They are now viewed as arguably the foremost medium of prophesying and foretelling. Yet, as the author shows, originally the tarot were used as recreational playing cards by the Italian nobility in the Renaissance. It was only much later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, that the deck became associated with esotericism before evolving finally into a diagnostic tool for mind, body and spirit. This is the first book to explore the remarkably varied ways in which tarot has influenced culture. Tracing the changing patterns of the deck's use, from game to mysterious oracular device, Helen Farley examines tarot's emergence in 15th century Milan and discusses its later associations with astrology, kabbalah and the Age of Aquarius.
Download or read book The History of Playing Cards written by Edward Samuel Taylor and published by . This book was released on 1865 with total page 652 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The History of Information written by Chris Haughton and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2024-09-24 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debut nonfiction book from bestselling author and illustrator Chris Haughton that explores the story of information throughout human history. We are used to technology improving all the time. Next year we will have better phones, cars, and technology. What is it that makes technology improve rather than stay static or even fall into decline? The answer is information. If we can record knowledge we can collect and share it. We can continue adding to it and it grows and grows. It hasn't always been like this. For a long time, human progress was very slow or static. At some points it felt like our progress even ran backward! But the ability to record information in the form of writing and collecting data has caused an explosion of technological progress. This book tells the story of how we came to collect information, and what it means for us.
Download or read book A History of Playing Cards and a Bibliography of Cards and Gaming written by Catherine Perry Hargrave and published by . This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of Playing Cards written by Roger Tilley and published by Clarkson Potter. This book was released on 1973 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fortune Stars Immortals and Dragon Sons written by John Oxenham Goodman and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-07-21 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I recently employed Chinese symbolism in producing five newly designed packs of cards. Images of all of the cards were published by Amazon, introducing new concepts in the design of playing cards. Now I have progressed further in designing three more card packs largely inspired by Chinese culture. The first game in this book, Fortune Stars, is based on my drawings of the Five Stars of Good Fortune, Lu Xing the Star of Emolument and High Salaries, Fu Xing the Star of Good Fortune, Shou Xing the Star of Longevity, Xi Shen the God of Happiness and Cai Shen the God of Wealth. I have emphasized the relationship of these five with the Five Elements of ancient Chinese Daoism in their Generating Arrangement which in turn can be related to the five ancient Greek Elements (including Ether or Spirit). The alignment of these concepts goes further and includes the five seasons, directions, and mountains of Daoism as well as the Five Great Ancient Capitals of China. The Four Great Heavenly Kings found in most Chinese temples and the Earth God plus the five legendary emperors of ancient China are additional groups of five forming suits in this new card pack. Then the five Chinese planets known in antiquity, together with the five Western planets, are aligned with the five animals of the Fortune Stars and their five symbols of prosperity. Finally the five auspicious animals, including the mythical qi lin, golden money toad and dragon tortoise, contribute to this new concept in playing cards making 14 suits in all, with 5 cards in each displaying vivid images of Chinese culture. The next pack of cards in this book, Immortals, is devoted to the Eight Immortals of Daoism together with their Eight Ritual Implements. These are then related to the Eight Auspicious Buddhist Treasures as well as the Eight Trigrams (or Ba Gua) of Earlier Heaven and Later Heaven and the Eight Martial Arts Trigrams. They make 6 suits of eight cards in a colourful game, shining light on deeply held Chinese beliefs of a thousand years ago, many of which continue to sustain credence today. The third pack of cards, Dragon Sons, has five suits with nine cards in each. One suit contains images of the Nine Sons of the Dragon, many of which are still visible as sculptures on rooftops and in doorways of ancient buildings. A second suit displays images of the Nine Great Emperors representing the Nine Northern Dipper Stars. The third and fourth suits are devoted to the Nine Chinese Imperial Civil and Military Rank insignia. These large, colourful, rank badges, measuring about 10 or 11 inches square, covered the chest of senior Chinese civil and military personnel up to 1911 when the Qing Dynasty was overthrown. They may interest collectors of military insignia and students of the armed forces and uniforms of the old imperial powers. Then a fifth suit displays the Chinese single-digit numbers 1 to 9 which are found on mah-jong tiles. Those who have previously purchased The Invention of Playing Cards in China, their Arrival in Europe and their Role in the Development of Mahjong or New Concepts in Playing Cards and Tarot: Five Newly Designed Packs of Cards with Chinese Symbolism, may like to include this new volume in their collection.
Download or read book The Oxford Guide to Card Games written by David Parlett and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1990 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imported from the Mamluks of Egypt, card games first hit Europe around 1371 and within ten years had spread from Spain and Italy to France and Germany. By 1420, German and Swiss cardmakers were producing packs by the thousands (first by stencil, later by metal engraving) marked with a bewildering array of suits, including hounds, bears, parrots, roses, helmets, banners, and bells. Games proliferated as well, and by 1534, Rabelais could name 35 different card games in Chapter 22 of Gargantua. Today, of course, there are thousands of games, from the universally popular Poker and Contract Bridge, to national manias such as Swiss Jass, German Skat, and French Belote. This is a historical guide to cards in Europe and America. This is not primarily a book of rules or hints on how to play better, but a survey of where the games originated, how they have developed over time, and what their rituals and etiquette tell us about the people who play them.
Download or read book Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards written by William Andrew Chatto and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2022-05-29 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Facts and Speculations on the Origin and History of Playing Cards is a book by William Andrew Chatto. It presents facts and theories relating to the foundation and history of playing cards. Full of curious knowledge and depictions of early card games.
Download or read book The Bridge Game written by Nicolae Sfetcu and published by Nicolae Sfetcu. This book was released on 2014-04-25 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive guide of bridge game: online games, variants, suits, hand evaluation, bidding systems, techniques, strategy, tactics. Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game of skill for four players, usually sitting around a table, who form two partnerships, or "sides". The partners on each side sit opposite one another. The game consists of two main parts – bidding (or auction) and play; the rules of play are rather simple and similar to other trick-taking games. However, the bidding and associated conventions are much more complex, and represent the true learning barrier to new players. Also, there is an immense variety of techniques in play of the hand, whose effective use requires learning and experience.
Download or read book Playing Cards written by W. Gurney Benham and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1931, this vintage book explores the history and origins of playing cards from traditional English playing cards to tarot cards and card manufacturers in Britain and Europe. Extensively illustrated and full of interesting information, “Playing Cards” is highly recommended for those with an interest in the history of playing cards and is not to be missed by collectors of vintage literature of this ilk. Contents include: “Card Games”, “Preface”, “Many Theories About the invention of Playing Cards”, “The Tarot Cards”, “Varieties of the European Four-Suit Pack”, “Earliest References to English Playing Cards”, “Genesis of the English Pack”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on card games.
Download or read book Origin and Nomenclature of Playing Cards written by William Bell and published by . This book was released on 1862 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Origin and Manufacture of Playing Cards 1889 written by George Clulow and published by . This book was released on 2009-06 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
Download or read book Researches Into the History of Playing Cards written by Samuel Weller Singer and published by . This book was released on 1816 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Investigaciones acerca de la historia de las cartas de juego, con ilustraciones del origen de la impresión y el grabado en madera.
Download or read book Shifting Currents written by Karen Eva Carr and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2022-07-18 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deep dive into the history of aquatics that exposes centuries-old tensions of race, gender, and power at the root of many contemporary swimming controversies. Shifting Currents is an original and comprehensive history of swimming. It examines the tension that arose when non-swimming northerners met African and Southeast Asian swimmers. Using archaeological, textual, and art-historical sources, Karen Eva Carr shows how the water simultaneously attracted and repelled these northerners—swimming seemed uncanny, related to witchcraft and sin. Europeans used Africans’ and Native Americans’ swimming skills to justify enslaving them, but northerners also wanted to claim water’s power for themselves. They imagined that swimming would bring them health and demonstrate their scientific modernity. As Carr reveals, this unresolved tension still sexualizes women’s swimming and marginalizes Black and Indigenous swimmers today. Thus, the history of swimming offers a new lens through which to gain a clearer view of race, gender, and power on a centuries-long scale.
