Well - thank you Huck!
>> Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo ... the height is about that of two packs of normal cigarettes. <<
This is Mr. K's quote I suppose - and it seems to be a very rough and unreliable information from someone who has NEVER seen all 74 of them in ONE solid pack.
A "pack(s) of normal cigarettes" should be around 30 mm (I'm guessing here right now because I have none at hand reach) what would make 60 mm in total compared to the 25 mm of the Dal Negro product with it's 78 cards.
60 (mm) : 74 would give ONE card in that concerned never seen pack an allowance of 0,8918918918918919 mm.
Since I promised I won't be nitpicking here let's make this 0,9 mm - for STRONG cardboard - a 3-dimensional golden layer and a lot of other work (you can find in the bottom qoute).
Even when someone considers all 74 to be of the same "thickness" - which they are NOT!
I would assume that he flatout (I won't say lied) made an assumption that fit right into his "gaming agenda (KIDDING!)".
Anyway with his background >> Pierpont-Morgan-Bergamo ... the height is about that of two packs of normal cigarettes. << is a totally ridiculous information for a scientific "report" because the math I did here could have been done easily by him too - even when there were no calculators back than.
By the way: here is an interesting account referring to BOOK production during Renaissance.
Medieval and Renaissance Book Production: Manuscript Books 7/6/09 11:25
http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewc ... t=lib_pubs
Page 11/12
>> (11) ...Gilding was always carried out before painting, as the paint could cover any rough edges.
There were several methods of applying gold, both burnished and unburnished, in leaf or powder form within the same area, giving varieties of texture and color to the metal. Powdered gold or silver was made by grinding the metal with honey or salt; it was then mixed with glair, a common medium made from egg whites, or gum, and was applied with a brush, or could even be used with a pen. To ensure a smoother flow and coverage, yellow pigments were often mixed in, and the surface could be burnished to some extent with a tooth. This method was used more often for lines and rarely for the coverage of large areas, where gold leaf was required.
(12) Gold leaf was attached directly to the surface by means of glair, glue, or gum which acted as an adhesive.
Pigments such as terre verte, saffron, yellow ochre, or red brazil dye could be added to the adhesive so that the gilder would know exactly where to apply it. If the gold leaf was to be highly burnished it required a support. The support was built up with layers of gesso (powdered gypsum mixed with glue) applied with a brush.
When the appropriate height was reached, the surface of the gesso was burnished until it was perfectly smooth. Bole, a waxy clay ranging in color from white to red, was painted on the surface so that the gilder would know which area to gild. Finally the gold leaf was applied with glair or gum, and then it was burnished, giving it the appearance of a solid piece of metal.
Now the scribe or artist was ready to apply paint. Each color was applied in turn and allowed to dry, with the final stage being the application of the stipple or white highlighting. The paint consisted of two elements, media and pigment. The medium, which turned the dry powdered pigments into a liquid paint, varied according to the choice of pigment. The foremost medium was glair, a mixture of egg whites and water. Gum arabic, vinegar, or honey might be added to vary the consistency, and water was used to dilute it. Glair could be used with almost any pigment. Another common medium was gum arabic (from the acacia tree) which came in solid lumps, called tears, which were powdered and then dissolved in water. After about a day the solution was strained and it was ready to use. Glue was made from horn or parchment and was mainly used for green pigments. Cheese glue was used almost exclusively with folium, and egg yolk was only used with a few pigments (orpiment, carmine, indigo, and azurite). These pigments were ground in egg yolk, which was subsequently washed out and the powdered pigment was then mixed with glair or gum arabic. ... <<
Now these techniques apply to BOOKs no one would hope to shuffle sometimes. And GOLD LEAF is NOT used on the on the Great Secrets & Court. There is a layer of gold so strong that it could be worked from both sides - but you would have to WORK the "card" most probably in a similar way to fasten the gold to the STRONG cardboard. Then again glue dries out in hundreds of years and gold has no really adhesive surface but it should be thin enough to SEW it to the "card" - what would leave us with the problem of an additional uneven "card back" what COULD have been covered wit another layer of paper.
After all the "cards" were meant to be shuffled to arrive in the gamer's hands for a workout - no matter how "thick" they were.
Adrian