s no proof that the earliest
wood-engravers were the card-makers.

It is undecided whether the earliest cards were of the kind now common,
called _numeral_ cards, or whether they were _tarocchi_ or _tarots_,
which are still used in some parts of France, Germany and Italy, but the
probability is that the tarots were the earlier. A pack of tarots
consists of seventy-eight cards, four suits of numeral cards and
twenty-two emblematic cards, called _atutti_ or _atouts_ (=trumps). Each
suit consists of fourteen cards, ten of which are the pip cards, and
four court (or more properly _coat_ cards), viz. king, queen, chevalier
and valet. The _atouts_ are numbered from 1 to 21; the unnumbered card,
called the _fou_, has no positive value, but augments that of the other
_atouts_ (see _Academie des jeux_, Corbet, Paris, 1814, for an account
of the mode of playing tarocchino or tarots).

The marks of the suits on the earliest cards (German) are hearts, bells,
leaves and acorns. No ace corresponding to the earliest known pack has
been discovered; but other packs of about the same date have aces, and
it seems unlikely that the suits commenced with the deuces.

Next in antiquity to the marks mentioned are swords, batons, cups and
money. These are the most common on Italian cards of the late 15th
century, and are used both in Italy and in Spain. French cards of the
16th century bear the marks now generally used in France and England,
viz. _coeur_ (hearts), _trefle_ (clubs), _pique_ (spades) and _carreau_
(diamonds).

The French _trefle_, though so named from its resemblance to the trefoil
leaf, was in all probability copied from the acorn; and the _pique_
similarly from the leaf (_grun_) of the German suits, while its name is
derived from the sword of the Italian suits. It is not derived from its
resemblance to a pike head, as commonly supposed. In England the French
marks are used, and are named--hearts, clubs (corresponding to _trefle_,
the French symbol being joined to the Italian name, _bastoni_), spades
(corresponding to the French _pique_, but having the Italian name,
_spade_=swords) and diamonds. This confusion of names and symbols is
accounted for by Chatto thus--"If cards were actually known in Italy and
Spain in the latter part of the 14th century, it is not unlikely that
the game was introduced into this country by some of the English
soldiers who had served, under Hawkwood and other free captains, in the
wars of Italy an