Gambling and literature

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Laura Favero Carraro (Università degli Studi di Padova)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.01: French Writing and Culture: Old French to the Middle Ages , 500-1400.
Vol. editors: Marianne Ailes (University of Bristol), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Matthew Siôn Lampitt (University of Bristol), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Literature Topic

Dates

Date of occurrence 1370

Places

France (Location)
Italy (Location)
Spain (Location)
United Kingdom (Location)

Resources

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Cards, gambling, and literature, with particular reference to the Eighteenth Century

Originating probably in China, playing cards are first mentioned in Europe towards the end of the Fourteenth Century. The earliest records in Spain (1371) and Switzerland (1377) are followed by a number of others in the 1380s, particularly in Florence, Paris and Regensburg. As references to cards frequently appear in laws and acts against gambling, the importance of card games and the diffusion they had reached can easily be understood.

From the Continent, cards were introduced into England towards the beginning of the Fifteenth Century. The English denomination of spades and clubs, employing the original Spanish or Italian terms rather than the French ones of piques and trèfles (already being used in France in the 1430s), seems to suggest the initial use of...

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1645 words

Citation: Carraro, Laura Favero. "Gambling and literature". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=456, accessed 14 December 2025.]