What is the game "Scartino"

Thankyou Huck
and congrats on 1000 posts too!!!

Pity there was no picture of the book or the cards - its *gulp* $129US, but sounds like a great book indeed!

So maybe your right with Scartino being the smaller version ... hmmmm ... I wonder what the cards looked like - it would be very interesting to know when the painting of the 'Game of Scartino' was done ... the trifoni site said that alot of his paintings weren't dated, but apparently this painting (at the time of publication of the book - late 1800's) the painting was held at Palazza Bonardo Milan ...

I ahve noted the ISBN and going to see whats available second hand.

Thanks huck!
Blessings Elven x

Elven said:

Thankyou Huck
and congrats on 1000 posts too!!!

Pity there was no picture of the book or the cards - its *gulp* $129US, but sounds like a great book indeed!

So maybe your right with Scartino being the smaller version ... hmmmm ... I wonder what the cards looked like - it would be very interesting to know when the painting of the 'Game of Scartino' was done ... the trifoni site said that alot of his paintings weren't dated, but apparently this painting (at the time of publication of the book - late 1800's) the painting was held at Palazza Bonardo Milan ...

I ahve noted the ISBN and going to see whats available second hand.

Thanks huck!
Blessings Elven x

Click to expand...

Hm ... you seem to speak still of the Michelino picture, I assume, it is this one

http://trionfi.com/0/p/

for which is given Casa Borromeo and it's a fresco, so likely not transportable. ... perhaps Palazzo Bonardo is a second name for the same building. That what you see as the sign of taurus looks at the the picture in Kaplan II as a 2 of coins, which should be a low card (?) ... perhaps that gave the idea, that this game is "scartino" (low or worthless card), especially as a second card was identified as an ace of coin ... I guess, that the identification of the game is a mere guessing, I never heard, that the game Scartino was mentioned between the old games (?) ... at least not for 1440, which seems to be the usual dating for the picture.

It's quite normal nowadays to assume, that this are Tarocchi player, but perhaps the publical taste of late 19th century found it more interesting to talk of Scartino. In old Tarot rules 2 suits are hierarchically ordered from 1-10, not from 10-1 as usual, so actually these both cards might be high cards in the game, the ace capturing the 2.

Simply: one cannot say, which game was played. Also it's not sure, if Michelino was really the painter (but he was with some security the painter of another fresco at the same location) (Kaplan, p. 4, Encyclopedia of Tarot II) .. and the dating, also likely not sure. Michelino died before 1450.

Scarto is used in this Italian game...card pics too

...Scarto di Chiamata (encouraging discard) - discarding pip cards of a suit in ascending order 2-4-5-6-7 encourages partner to lead the suit discarded.
Scarto di Rifiuta (discouraging discard) - discarding beginning with a picture (C or F) or a 7 and continuing downwards 6-5-4-2 warns partner that this is a weak suit....



http://www.pagat.com/aceten/madrasso.html

Hope it helps.

Cerulean

Thankyou huck and cerulean for the information, and clarifying some of the points in my book!

The picture I have is also clearer than the one on the trifoni site - its in black and white - and has sharper detail ...

Blessings Elven x