Note 139 — Chapter III · THE PROGRESS OF CARD-PLAYING.

Though the ten is one of the cards employed in Marcolini's System of Fortune-telling, it appears to have been generally omitted in the packs of cards used by the Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century. Leber, who says that he had examined "un grand nombre de tours de cartes" described in the pamphlets of the most famous Italian jugglers of the sixteenth century, yet refers only to two works on the subject printed before 1600; one of them entitled 'Opera nuova non più vista, nella quale potrai facilmente imparare molti giochi di mano. Composta da Francesco di Milano, nominato in tutto il mondo il Bagatello.' 8vo, circa 1550. The other, 'Giochi di carte bellissimi e di memoria, per Horatio Galasso.' Venetia, 1593. The author of the following work, also referred to by Leber, appears to have been the original "Pimperlimpimp," whose fame as a mountebank physician appears to have been still fresh in the memory of the wits of the reign of Queen Anne: 'Li rari et mirabili Giuochi di Carte, da Alberto Francese, detto Perlimpimpim.' 8vo, Bologna, 1622.