Note 268 — Chapter IV · OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CARDS AND THE MARKS OF THE SUITS.
Reading edition
Millin, Dictionnaire des Beaux Arts, tom. i, p. 201. Paris, 1806. Quoted by Peignot.—Jacobello del Fiore flourished about 1420.—A set of cards, "containing figures of the gods, with their emblematic animals, and figures of birds also," were painted for Philip Visconti, Duke of Milan, who died in 1447. Decembrio, in his life of this prince, in the 20th volume of the 'Rerum Italicarum Scriptores,' says that they cost fifteen hundred pieces of gold, and were chiefly executed by the prince's secretary, Martianus Terdonensis. From the context, it appears that they were not mere pictures, but were intended for some kind of game.—Aretine, in his 'Carte Parlanti,' speaks with admiration of a pack of cards painted by Jacopo del Giallo, a Florentine artist who flourished about 1540.