When were the first playing cards invented?

http://www.quintogame.com/history_cards....


It is not clear where cards were first invented, but evidence suggests that cards were most likely invented in China, where paper was invented. The documented history of playing cards began in the Tenth Century, when the Chinese began using paper dominoes by shuffling and dealing them in new games. In Europe, the earliest authentic references to playing cards date from 1377. In those days, cards were hand-painted and only the very wealthy could afford them. Cards entered Europe from the Islamic empire, where cups and swords were added as suit symbols as well as court cards. These symbols were replaced in Europe by representations of courtly human beings: kings, knights, and footservants. To this day, packs of playing cards from Italy do not have queens, nor do packs from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and others. The cards we use today are derived from the French, who gave us the suits of spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts and the use of simple shapes and flat colors.


__________________





http://playing-cards.us/main.html


The exact origin of playing cards is subject to a great deal of speculation and misinformation. There are many divided opinions, theories, and contradictions in the historical research of playing cards. However, playing cards are most certainly not an invention of one person, but rather the result of a gradual development of games being played in may different countries throughout centuries. Another unquestionable fact is the claim that the first playing cards were hand-painted and that only the very wealthy could afford them; but with the invention of woodcuts in the 14th century, Europeans began mass-production and playing cards quickly found their way into households.








9th century





Most historians believe that the earliest playing cards have originated in (or before) the 9th century in Central Asia, probably China and Hindustan. China seems to be a good candidate for the origin of playing cards because it is the land where paper was invented (China has been making paper since A.D. 100; paper came to Europe only around A.D. 1000). However, for many years China was rejected as the origin of playing-cards because traditional Chinese playing cards are so unlike Western ones.








10th century





The documented history of card playing began in the 10th century, when the Chinese began using paper dominoes in an effort to develop new games. On New Year's Eve, 969, the Emperor Mu-tsung is reported to have played domino cards with his wife. Unlike the Western versions of Dominos, Chinese Dominos were not used in positional games, hence they were played much like cards.





In addition to domino cards, the Chinese have also used money cards, although which one of the two came first is not exactly clear. These money cards were in effect suited cards, and the earliest Chinese suits were those of coins and strings of coins. There is also some speculation to the effect that Chinese gamblers used to use actual paper money as cards and that they played with and for the money.





Even to this day some of the packs used in China have suits of coins and strings of coins - which Mah Jong players know as circles and bamboos (i.e. sticks).








13th century





How exactly playing cards found their way into Europe is unknown. One myth states that they were brought into Europe from India by fortune-telling gypsies, who made their way into Italy through Persia, and Arabia, and Egypt. However, this claim is contradicted by the fact that cards were present in Europe four decades before the first documented mention of gypsies. Furthermore, there is yet another theory in direct contradiction that favors the idea that cards were brought into India from Europe by gypsies.





Historians favor the theory that cards entered Europe from the Islamic empire, where cups and swords were added as suit symbols to the already existing coins and sticks. Another Islamic addition to the deck are non-figurative court cards. Unlike the cards we know today, those court cards were not represented pictorially because Islam strictly prohibits man to reproduce the image of living creatures; according to the Kuran this privilege is only reserved for God. However, these court cards bare written lower inscriptions.





According to some sources, cards first appeared in Italy by the late 1200s and then subsequently spread throughout the rest of Europe. The same source dates the first recorded evidence of the use of playing cards in Italy in 1299, but does not substantiate this claim by any historic evidence.








1371





According to Luis Monreal, in his article Iconographia de la Baraja Espanola (Journal of the International Playing Card Society, February 1989), as well as according to Michael Dummett, the first known mention of playing cards in Europe occurred in Spain in 1371; in a Catalan document where they were mentioned as naip. The current Spanish spelling is naipes.





If cards were introduced to Europe prior to the 1370's, there are a number of places where we would expect to find some mention of them. Despite their strong interests in games; Petrarch (1307-74), Boccaccio (1313-75), and Chaucer (1343-1400) do not mention playing cards in their works. Guillaume de Machau's address to Charles V in 1364, which denounced gaming in general, and dice in particular, has no mention of playing cards. There are also ordinances controlling gaming from Paris (1369) and St. Gallen (1364) which don't mention playing cards.








1376





In Italy, a Florentine city ordinance forbidding a newly introduced card game called naibbe is dated May 23, 1376.








1377





By 1377 cards are described in detail in Switzerland by a monk in Basle named Johannes von Rheinfelden, "Thus it is that a certain game, called the game of cards, has reached us in the present year, namely A.D. 1377". His text describes a deck with 52 cards, 10 number cards (from 1 to 10), and 3 court cards (a King, and two Marshals), divided into 4 suits of 13 cards. There are further descriptions in the same manuscript, but these are believed to have been added around 1429. These describe 52-card decks with Queens instead of Kings, and 56-card deck with Queens added to the existing 3 court cards. The suits are not described except as "some of these signs being considered good but others signifying evil".








c. 1380s





By 1380 playing cards are reported in such diverse places as Florence, Regensburg, Brabant, Paris, and Barcelona.





The city of Florence passed statute on Gambling in March 23, 1376 (1377 by current calendar), on a vote of 98 to 25 regulating the playing of "A certain game called naibbe, [which] has recently been introduced into these parts".





On July 23, 1378, a German ordinance in Regensburg declares various gambling games, including "spilen mit der quarten", punishable by a fine if played for stakes higher than permitted.








1440





The first known Tarot deck appeared in Italy. This historical fact contradicts one of the popular beliefs that the Tarot deck preceded the now more common 52-card deck. The Tarot deck was in fact devised by expanding a regular deck from from 52 to 78 cards, by adding 4 additional court cards and 22 attuti (or trionfi) cards (permanent trump cards). In effect the Tarot deck consists of 22 major arcana cards, and 56 minor arcana cards. The minor arcana cards consist of 4 suits of 14 cards.





Another common misinformation surrounding the Tarot deck is that it evolved from the fortune-telling Tarot cards; this is not true, fortune-telling Tarot cards did not appear until the 18th century.








1461





Although England probably knew of cards much earlier, solid references to playing cards in England don't occur until the mid 15th century. Edward IV's first parliament (Nov. 1461- May 1462) prohibits card playing (and dicing) except for the 12 days of Christmas. The earliest known English card games date around 1520, and the earliest surviving English deck (French suited) dates around 1590.





1475





Throughout the years there was much experimentation with the composition of cards, suit symbols, and number of suits. National standards started to appear by the late 15th century. The traditional Swiss (Shields, Flowers, Bells, and Acorns) and German (Hearts, Leaves, Bells, Acorns) suits appear in complete packs around 1475 (individually from 1450). However, experimentations with a variety of other suit symbols, including wine pots, drinking cups, books, printers' pads, and animal suits, continued well into the 16th century and beyond.








c. 1480





France's national suits (Spades, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds) first appeared around 1480. The early English decks were probably Latin suited, but most surviving decks (c. 1590) are French suited.








1628





On October 22nd 1628 Charles I granted the charter to the Company of the Mistery of Makers of Playing Cards of the City of London, and from December 1st 1628 all future importation of playing cards was forbidden. In return, a duty on playing-cards was demanded.








1685





In 1685 playing cards became the first paper currency of Canada when the French governor, Jaques de Meulles, paid off some war debts with them.








1731





The first known Swedish-produced cards date back to 1731. It is believed that cards were introduced to Sweden relatively late, probably in the 17th century, and they probably came from France and Belgium.








1742





The first accurate compendiums of rules of card games were those of English writer Edmond Hoyle, in his treatise on whist in 1742. Today the phrase "According to Hoyle" means to "play by the rules".








c. 1750





The earliest known use of Tarot packs for fortune-telling was in Bologna, around 1750. Furthermore, the use of ordinary packs of playing-cards for fortune-telling does not date from much earlier than this.








1760s





Historians believe that cartomancy, fortune-telling with cards, became common after the 1760's with the development of solitaire. It should be noted that fortune-telling is not necessarily connected to the use of Tarot cards for these occult purposes, in fact fortune-tellers used, and continue to use, a variety of different cards for these readings.








1824





The Austrian card maker Piatnik was founded in 1824 and began production of playing cards. To this day Piatnik is one of the strongest manufacturers of playing cards in Europe.








1827





By 1827 double-headed court cards were in use in France. Britain did not adopt the practice until the 1850s; America did not follow suit until the 1870s.








1848





Baptiste Paul Grimaud set up a playing card factory in France.








1850s





In England and America backs of playing cards were plain until the 1850s, when the English artist Owen Jones (artist for Thomas de la Rue, London card makers) began designing cards with ornate backs. However, in other countries patterned backs have been in use for far longer.








c. 1857





The first Joker was added to the 52-card deck around the 1860s. Some claim that it was not until 1863, or even 1865. However, it is believed that the Joker was added to the pack by American Euchre players who, when modifying Euchre rules sometime during that era, decided that an extra trump card was required. The Joker was first called the Best Bower. In the game of Euchre two of the Jacks are named Right and Left Bower; this happened during the 1860s in the USA. Bower is a corruption of the German word Bauer used in Alsace, from where Euchre or Juker originated as the ordinary word for Jack. This card evolved into the Joker during the 1870s. The Joker arrived in Europe in the 1880s along with the game of Poker. It was gradually incorporated into French-suited packs with 52 cards.








c. 1870





Corner indices are an American addition dating from shortly before 1870. Most European countries copied the idea during the 1890s, though Austria, Spain and Italy have been resistant. The first American indexed cards were called Sqeezers because the players were able to hold them in fan position and read the indices.








c. 1875





Rounded corners were not known before c.1875, However, it should be noted that oval and round cards were in use in some regions far before the 19th century.








1881





On June 28, 1881 the Russell, Morgan %26amp; Co., which later became the US Playing Card Co., printed their first deck of cards. About 20 employees started to manufacture 1600 packs per day, and in 1894 the playing card business had grown to such proportions that it was separated from the printing company, becoming the USPC. The USPC eventually became the biggest playing card manufacturer in the US.








Card games became a common recreation amongst all classes of people. Today's most commonly used cards were derived from French designs and are known as French-suited cards. Other cards that evolved in Europe and are still in use today are German-suited cards, Italian-suited cards, Swiss-suited cards and Spanish-suited cards. However, other standards were also known to exist, and some games were known to use cards with as much as ten suits.


____________________

When were the first playing cards invented?
Probably China. There is speculation that they developed from chess (hence the face cards are kings, queens, etc.), especially since one variation of the Indian game Chaturanga (which is the ancestor of chess) was played by four, with four different armies (hence, four suits). The Chinese play chess with round discs, and supposedly they became cards by the Chinese picking them up and holding them to play games.
Reply:The exact origin of playing cards is subject to a great deal of speculation and misinformation.





this is the opening of the following site: http://playing-cards.us/main.html





another site, http://i-p-c-s.org/history.html , has this to say:





"The earliest authentic references to playing-cards in Europe date from 1377"...."Cards must have been invented in China, where paper was invented."
Reply:maybe thousands of years


they were developed from the tarot and that is really old.Check on the age of the tarot and then you will know.
Reply::: Playing Card ::





A playing card is a typically hand-sized piece of heavy paper or thin plastic. A complete set of cards is a pack or deck. A deck of cards is used for playing one of many card games, some of which include gambling. Because they are both standard and commonly available, playing cards are often adapted for other uses, such as magic tricks, cartomancy, or building a house of cards.





The front (or "face") of each card carries markings that distinguish it from the other cards and determine its use under the rules of the game being played. The back of each card is identical for all cards, usually a plain color or abstract design. In most games, the cards are assembled into a deck, and their order is randomized by shuffling to provide an element of chance in the game.





:: Early History ::





The origin of playing cards is obscure, but it is almost certain that they began in China after the invention of paper. Ancient Chinese "money cards" have four "suits": coins (or cash), strings of coins (which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings), myriads of strings, and tens of myriads. These were represented by ideograms, with numerals of 2–9 in the first three suits and numerals 1–9 in the "tens of myriads". Wilkinson suggests in The Chinese origin of playing cards that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for. The designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from those earliest playing cards. However it may be that the first deck of cards ever printed was a Chinese domino deck, in whose cards we can see all the 21 combinations of a pair of dice. In Kuei-t'ien-lu, a chinese text redacted in the 11th century, we found that dominoes cards were printed during the T’ang dynasty, contemporarily to the first books. The Chinese word pái (牌) is used to describe both paper cards and gaming tiles. An Indian origin for playing cards has been suggested by the resemblance of symbols on some early European decks (traditional Sicilian cards, for example) to the ring, sword, cup, and baton classically depicted in the four hands of Indian statues. This is an area that still needs research. The time and manner of the introduction of cards into Europe are matters of dispute. The 38th canon of the council of Worcester (1240) is often quoted as evidence of cards having been known in England in the middle of the 13th century; but the games de rege et regina there mentioned are now thought to more likely have been chess. If cards were generally known in Europe as early as 1278, it is very remarkable that Petrarch, in his work De remediis utriusque fortunae that treats gaming, never once mentions them. Boccaccio, Chaucer and other writers of that time specifically refer to various games, but there is not a single passage in their works that can be fairly construed to refer to cards. Passages have been quoted from various works, of or relative to this period, but modern research leads to the supposition that the word rendered cards has often been mistranslated or interpolated.





It is likely that the ancestors of modern cards arrived in Europe from the Mamelukes of Egypt in the late 1300s, by which time they had already assumed a form very close to those in use today. In particular, the Mameluke deck contained 52 cards comprising four "suits": polo sticks, coins, swords, and cups. Each suit contained ten "spot" cards (cards identified by the number of suit symbols or "pips" they show) and three "court" cards named malik (King), nā'ib malik (Viceroy or Deputy King), and thānī nā'ib (Second or Under-Deputy). The Mameluke court cards showed abstract designs not depicting persons (at least not in any surviving specimens) though they did bear the names of military officers. A complete pack of Mameluke playing cards was discovered by L.A. Mayer in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum, Istanbul, in 1939 [1]; this particular complete pack was not made before 1400, but the complete deck allowed matching to a private fragment dated to the twelfth or thirteenth century. In effect it’s not a complete deck, but there are cards of three different packs of the same stile (International Playing Cards Society Journal 30-3 page 139) There is some evidence to suggest that this deck may have evolved from an earlier 48-card deck that had only two court cards per suit, and some further evidence to suggest that earlier Chinese cards brought to Europe may have travelled to Persia, which then influenced the Mameluke and other Egyptian cards of the time before their reappearance in Europe.





It is not known whether these cards influenced the design of the Indian cards used for the game of Ganjifa, or whether the Indian cards may have influenced these. Regardless, the Indian cards have many distinctive features: they are round, generally hand painted with intricate designs, and comprise more than four suits (often as many as thirty two, like a deck in the Deutsches Spielkarten-Museum, painted in the Mewar, a city in Rajasthan, between the 18th and 19th century. Decks used to play have from eight up to twenty different suits).





In Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, and other ex-Soviet countries, often 36 card Anglo-American card decks are used, with cards 2 to 5 left out, making 6 the lowest value.





For more details on its history, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playing_car...
Reply:a really long time ago!
Reply:It seems like the earliest cards were in ancient China, while the modern 52 card deck was in part from the Marmelukes of Egypt in the early 14th century.