{ "title": "An atlas of symbols in card design", "prepared": "2026-09-27", "scope": "Selected European suit vocabularies and documented objects. Not a global inventory, a lineage diagram, a map of national borders, or a reconstruction of historical game rules.", "artwork": "Original simplified comparison icons. Outline, palette, proportions and modern corner indices are editorial choices, not facsimiles of museum objects. Symbols do not imply equivalent suits across traditions.", "sources": [ { "id": "va-suits", "title": "V&A: A history of tarot cards", "url": "https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/tarot-cards", "supports": "French and Italian suit names; V of Cups, Milan 1823–40 (15864:23); Ace of Batons, Paris 1891 (E.653-1934). No divinatory or social-class origin theory adopted." }, { "id": "met-german", "title": "The Met: The World in Play — exhibition galleries", "url": "https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2016/world-in-play/exhibition-galleries", "supports": "Peter Flötner, Nuremberg, ca. 1540; acorns, leaves, hearts and bells; 48-card structure, 47 survive; musical notation on the backs. Exhibition record identifies Germanisches Nationalmuseum, GMN Sp 7418 1–47 Kapsel 516." }, { "id": "met-horns", "title": "The Met: 2 of Horns, The Cloisters Playing Cards", "url": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/475537", "supports": "South Netherlandish, ca. 1475–80, object 1983.515.12; 52-card deck with hunting horns, dog collars, hound tethers and game nooses; rank on pip cards signaled by repeated suit marks." }, { "id": "va-print", "title": "V&A: Recreating early-Renaissance playing cards", "url": "https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/recreating-playing-cards", "supports": "Gilles Savouré uncut cards, France 1490–1500, E.988-1920; woodcut with stencil. The article describes sheet printing and a modern reconstruction of production." } ], "traditions": [ { "id": "french", "name": "French suits", "subtitle": "The familiar four", "color": "#b23b57", "pale": "#fff0f4", "source": "va-suits", "note": "Hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades are the French suit vocabulary described by the V&A. The label names a system of signs, not the birthplace of every pack that uses it.", "suits": [ { "id": "hearts", "name": "Hearts" }, { "id": "diamonds", "name": "Diamonds" }, { "id": "clubs", "name": "Clubs" }, { "id": "spades", "name": "Spades" } ] }, { "id": "german", "name": "German suits", "subtitle": "Acorns, leaves and more", "color": "#08756b", "pale": "#eef9f5", "source": "met-german", "note": "A documented example is Peter Flötner’s Nuremberg pack, about 1540: acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. These modern icons identify the named objects rather than reproduce his designs.", "suits": [ { "id": "acorns", "name": "Acorns" }, { "id": "leaves", "name": "Leaves" }, { "id": "hearts", "name": "Hearts" }, { "id": "bells", "name": "Bells" } ] }, { "id": "italian", "name": "Italian suits", "subtitle": "Objects as a vocabulary", "color": "#956000", "pale": "#fff6da", "source": "va-suits", "note": "The V&A describes swords, cups, coins and batons (also called wands). Its 1891 Ace of Batons was printed in Paris: a suit-system label does not function as a national border.", "suits": [ { "id": "swords", "name": "Swords" }, { "id": "cups", "name": "Cups" }, { "id": "coins", "name": "Coins" }, { "id": "batons", "name": "Batons" } ] } ], "objects": [ { "id": "horns", "date": "About 1475–80", "place": "South Netherlandish", "title": "A deck built around the hunt", "object": "2 of Horns, The Cloisters Playing Cards", "museumId": "1983.515.12", "source": "met-horns", "icon": "horns", "text": "This 52-card set uses horns, dog collars, hound tethers and game nooses. Repeated suit signs give pip cards their values." }, { "id": "music", "date": "About 1540", "place": "Nuremberg", "title": "A second design on the back", "object": "The Playing Cards of Peter Flötner", "museumId": "GMN Sp 7418 1–47 Kapsel 516", "source": "met-german", "icon": "bells", "text": "The backs carry musical notation. The exhibition describes a 48-card pack, with 47 surviving cards; its four suits do not imply a 52-card total." }, { "id": "cups", "date": "1823–40", "place": "Milan", "title": "A named object, a dated example", "object": "V of Cups, after Carlo Dellarocca", "museumId": "15864:23", "source": "va-suits", "icon": "cups", "text": "The V&A records this engraved and stencilled card as a Dotti reprint of a Gumppenberg design. Its date belongs to this object, not to the invention of the cup suit." } ], "decoder": { "ranks": [ 2, 5, 9 ], "defaultTradition": "french", "defaultSuit": "hearts", "defaultRank": 5, "kind": "Modern comparison card, not a historical reconstruction. Suit buttons reset to the first suit when the vocabulary changes; the rank remains selected. All 36 combinations are illustrative." }, "icons": { "hearts": "", "diamonds": "", "clubs": "", "spades": "", "acorns": "", "leaves": "", "bells": "", "cups": "", "coins": "", "swords": "", "batons": "", "horns": "" } }