| The Wheel-Argument There are 4 Suits (swords, batons, cups, coins) 4 elements A, B, C, D have 24 possibilities to be ranked hierarchically, for instance: A > B > C > D (= i. A higher than B and C and D ii. B higher than C and D, iii. C higher than D) These 24 possibilities can be grouped in 6 orders of wheels, each presenting 4 of the 24 possibilities. For example: The wheel A - B - C - D (unranked) has the 4 hierarchic possibilities: 1. A > B > C > D 2. B > C > D > A 3. C > D > A > B 4. D > A > B > C Not all card-plays, which are known today, do use hierachies between the suits inside its rules, but some do, like Bridge, Skat, Doppelkopf. Nearly all card-plays with that quality only use one wheel with 4 different hierarchies (I found only one game, Preference, which uses another of the 5 possible wheels; however, my researches were not very consequent and there might be more - further research might be necessary to strengthen this argument). (Later addition: John McLeod, surely a rule expert, gives at an internet page the following ranking of suits in various games: 1. hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades: Preference, 500, Tysiacha 2. clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds: Skat, Doppelkopf, Sheepshead 3. spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds: Big Two (Choi Dai Di, Da Lao Er) 4. diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs: Pusoy Dos 5. clubs, hearts, spades, diamonds: Ninety-nine 6. spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs: Contract Bridge The points 1,2 and 6 belong to the following wheel, the other 3 belong tto other wheels. Probably my original idea, that there is one main (traditional) wheel and occasionally experiments with other orders, still reliable.) 1. Clubs > Pique > Hearts > Diamonds 2. Pique > Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs 3. Hearts > Diamonds > Clubs > Pique 4. Diamonds > Clubs > Pique > Hearts One should assume, that this "wheel" was already object to the earliest card-players and perhaps took influence on the creator of the 5x14-deck illustrated by Bembo. As you can see above, the wheel might be incorporated in the row of : 5 Pope (swords ) > 4 Emperor (batons) > 3 Empress (cups) > 2 Papessa (coins) Why should one associate the Pope with swords? The Pope presents the Holy Cross, a cross is rather similar to a sword. The baton of the Emperor is his scepter. Cups are traditionally attributed to love and women, so the Empress must present cups. Coins belong to the Papessa ... with (from the optical impression) no understandable reason, but it's the only position, which is left free. The reason for it is probably, that the 4 suits were invented from the Mamelucks in Egyptia, but Emperor, Empress, Pope and Papessa entered the card-plays in Italy more than 100 years later and Papessa was probably chosen for symmetrie as the missing 4th person for the older trio Emperor-Empress-Pope (compare the article about the Cary-Yale).. Where does the wheel come from? With some phantasy it's already in the suits, in Italian and French suits. Italian suits: A sword has three ends. A baton has two ends A cup unites. Unifying symbol = one A coin presents a circle : zero 3 swords > 2 batons > 1 cups > 0 coins 3 > 2 > 1 > 0 French suits: diamonds have four corners. clubs have three ends. Spades reminds a pike, a weapon with two ends. Hearts are a uniting symbol = one 4 diamonds > 3 clubs > 2 piques > 1 hearts 4 > 3 > 2 > 1 The Italians got their suits from the Mamelucks, so they took no direct influence on any incorporated number-idea (looking on the existent Mamelucks-cards there do araise some doubts on this direct "taking the suits from the Mamelucks"-theory; however, I'm not an expert in this question and I leave the question for discussion).. The Mamelucks had polo-sticks instead of batons; polo-sticks could also have been associated with the number 2. The Brera-Brambilla and the Cary-Yale Trionfi used arrows instead of batons (arrows could be also interpreted as the number 2). The French suits developed around 1480. If there was any current hierarchy between the suits known at that time, they might have transformed it into a new, but similar number-idea. Many others suit-system of the early time in playing card history doesn't show any number-idea (there were Swiss suits, German suits, flowers, animals, birds, shields, many different ideas). However, a painted hierarchy between 4 suits was already known from early chinese cards; they used coins, strings of coins, greater string of coins, greatest strings of coins as suits. It's just a logical idea to paint the intended hierarchy on the cards, and it might be, that it was a living idea in 15th century in Italy and France and it took strong influence on card playing in Europe (rules of the actual games). The general Court-Card-Ranking in Tarock Games and the 70-points Argument In the still living games with Tarocchi or Tarock cards players play with points and ranks for the court cards. There are two ways of counting (with the same ranking): 1 page 2 knight 3 queen 4 king Counting in Tarocchi or Tarock games looks difficult for beginners today, however, the original counting should have been simple: 4 points for a king, 3 for a queen, 2 for a knight and 1 for a page and 1 point for each trick, that you achieve in the game (=) 1/4 point per card). In later times the counting was occasionally a little modified and became complicated by counting tricks (which are easy to use in practical games for experts, but difficult to understand for starters). In Tarock you have further points for the highest trump (today XXI World, but earlier this might have been Angel or Judgment), the lowest trump (Bagatto or Magician) and the Sküs (Fool), each of them is worth 4 points (or 5 points according to the alternative counting rules). (For the counting problem in Tarock-Games see http://pagat.com/tarot/counting.html ) In a 70-card deck with this rule and with 14 trumps and 4 players you would have: 4 x (4+3+2+1) = 40 points 3 x 4 = 12 points 70 : 4 = 17.5 points totally = 69.5 points With 69.5 points you cannot have a draw in the game (and, elegantly. the number of points is nearly identical to the number of cards: 70) However, today no living game with a 5x14-deck is known, but Tarock is played at many places with different numbers of cards with some identical basic rules, but also large differences. Living forms of Tarock are: Tarocchi Siciliano, various forms with 63 or 64 cards Tarocchi Bolognese, various forms with special 62 card pack, for instance Ottocento French Tarot Danish Tarok Troccas (Switzerland: Graubünden) Droggn (Tyrol: Stubai valley) Hungarian Tarokk (Paskievics) Illustrated Hungarian Tarokk (Palatinusz) Königrufen (Austria) Zwanzigerrufen (Austria) Tapp Tarock (Austria) Slovenian Tarok Taroky (Czech Republic / Slovakia) Cego (Baden, Germany) Romanian Tarok Troggu (for more details of each game see: http://pagat.com/tarot/index.html) From these games the Danish Tarok (going back to the old German Grosstarock) has preserved the idea, that points in the game should be identical to the number of cards. It is played with the full set,78 cards, and totally 78 points. There are 3 players and each plays for himself, 1/3 point per card. In other Tarock games the number 70 plays a greater or smaller role (there are also games, which doesn't show this sign), although the number of the cards used is not 70: The French Tarot is played also with the full 78 card pack. Total points: 91 with 1/2 point-system per card, but there is a special bidding system and finally one plays against three, the winner needs 36 points, 1 more than 35 (half of 70)). In Germany games with Tarot cards survived only in the province of Baden. Cego is played with a 54 card pack of a special design. The total points are 70 or 106 with 1/3 or 1-point-system per card, winner of 70-points-system needs 36-points, it has a special bidding system and many solo-versions. In Austria a 54 card pack with Roman numbered trumps is used for a variety of games including Königrufen, 4 player, totally points 70, two against two. In Zwanzigerrufen the pack is reduced to 40 cards by omitting trumps II and III and all but one numeral card in each suit. It has 4 players and the total points are either 70 or 88. In the Czech Republic Taroky is played in Moravia and Slovakia with a 54 card pack with Roman numbered trumps, similar to that used in Austria. 4 players; Total points: 70 . The Romania Tarok is played in southern Bukovina (the region around Suceava) with the same 54 card pack that is used in Austria: the trumps have Roman numbers and the fool is the highest trump. Total points 70. As most of these games are played with a reduced number of cards, the inventors of the variantes did some changes in the counting system to get the number 70 (which must have been seen by them as a "traditional number"). In my opinion this relict "70" in the modern rules is a tradition from the time, when 5x14 decks existed. I couldn't detect any 1/4 point per card in modern rules (I haven't researched all variantes), but I found 1/4 point counting in an old Austrian playing rule from 1756 in the chapter "Regeln, nach welchen das Taroc-Spiel auf die neueste Art dermalen in Wien unter vier Personen gespielet zu werden pfleget. " (At the given page the last chapter). However, the inventor of this game thought, that 72 points are more interesting than 70. |
| 1 Magician 2 Papessa 3 Empress 4 Emperor 5 Pope |
| 5th suit coins cups batons swords |
| = Trionfi = diamonds = hearts = spades = clubs |
Pages Queens Kings Knights |
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| Trionfi Suits Court Cards |
| 2 page 3 knight 4 queen 5 king |
| Common rules Same rule with alternating counting system |
| 1 Magician 2 Papessa 3 Empress 4 Emperor 5 Pope |
| 5th suit coins cups batons swords |
| = Trionfi = diamonds = hearts = spades = clubs |
Pages Queens Kings Knights |
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| Trionfi Suits Court Cards |
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| text uncompleted |
| Trionfi.com under construction |
| Arguments to the correlation of suits + court cards to the 14 Trionfi in the 4x14-Bembo-Tarocchi |