The oldest complete deck of cards in the world is from the distinctly-unhappy 15th century, and lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Cloisters location. The oblong cards are nifty-looking—but what would people play with them?
Some friends at Atlas Obscura mocked up their own version of the 500 year-old playing card set (the museum was probably not going to let anyone borrow theirs), and asked cards scholar David Parlett about what kinds of things people would have done with falconry-themed pressed paper stencils in the 15th century:
The earliest known trick-taking game is Karnöffel […]. Gambling games would have included (at least in Germany) Bocken, the ancestor of Poker; perhaps Thirty-One, the ancestor of Blackjack; and the ancestors of what we now regard as simple games for children, such as Beggar-my-Neighbour. The French game of Triomphe, ultimate ancestor of Whist and Bridge, may possibly have been developing at this time.”
Read about what happened when these folks tried out the Bavarian bluffing game Karnöffel. It seems fun!
This playing card is about 4 3/4" by 2 3/4" and is made with pen and ink, tempera and gold and silver. Well, well!
