Loredan wrote,
Thanks Huck. So the Outlet was mostly the Silk Merchant's store. All these years later you could call the Silk Merchant a 'Haberdashery' store. There a few around still but it is a dying store, that sold Material, embroidery threads, wool, fancies like a Tinker-man and playing cards and childrens games; so I look to Guppenberg Lombardy Tarot as Delarocca the Artist/designer/engraver gave us The Bagattel ! He is a Haberdasher. Purveyor of small fancies. Maybe the artist thought him ( the Silk Dealer) a Trickster. It also changes my view of the Visconti/Sforza deck 2nd card. The Wool Guild of Florence Merchant Haberdasher who also sold 'Straw Hats' lol! Maybe the whole VS deck was a self promoting PR deck- like Sachi and Sachi would produce today for the likes of Nike or Pepsi. A way of getting Sforza subtly recognised.
Googling "haberdashery" or "haberdahser" along with "Franco Pratesi", I see two articles of his in English describing playing card outlets as haberdasheries, and one with "haberdashers". "Haberdashery" is at
http://trionfi.com/evx-arezzo-stefano-minucci and the other is at
http://www.naibi.net/A/48-FLOMAK2-Z.pdf. "Haberdashers" is an article originally in Italian translated by me in pieces on THF at
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1074#p16459 and posts following, but is best read on a blog of mine at
http://pratesitranslations.blogspot.com ... n.html?m=1.
More important than the equivalent in English is what the corresponding Italian word was and meant. The last mentioned essay is in Italian at
http://www.naibi.net/A/IPCS44N1.pdf. On the top of p. 68 (page number of original) I wrote:
The 117 “mazzi di carte” [bunches of cards] correspond to an important quantity. It was found that the Florentine card makers often sold the produced cards to haberdashers or even to minor silk dealers, who sold them in their shops (20).
There it can be seen that the Italian is
I 117 mazzi di carte correspondone a una quantita importante. Era stato travato che i cartai fiorentini spesso vendevano le carte prodotte a dei merciai o anche a setaioli minori che le rivendevano nelle loro botteghe (20).
So the word corresponding to "haberdasher" is here and probably elsewhere "merciai", singular "merciao". The word is usually translated as "haberdasher", a word absolutely not in use in the western United States in my lifetime, except perhaps meaning "men's clothing shop" in highfalutin language that smacks of high prices.
The Italian dictionary at WordReference defines "merciao" as "Venditore di articoli minuti per sartoria o per abbigliamento", i.e. "Seller of minute articles for tailoring or for attire."
Franco's "anche a setaioli minori" (even to minor silk dealers) would suggest that the word "merciao" excludes shops that specialize in silks, even if it is silk dealers who do the importing of playing cards.
The Vocabulario Treccani has nothing for "merciao", instead giving a lengthy definition of "merceria":
mercerìa s. f. [dal fr. ant. mercerie, der. di mercier «merciaio»].
1. a. Il complesso degli oggetti che si vendono nella bottega del merciaio, e cioè cucirini, aghi, spilli, nastri, elastici, bottoni, ecc., di solito occorrenti ai lavori di cucito e di rifinitura in sartoria, e anche piccoli capi di biancheria, spec. per donne e bambini. Si usa per lo più al plur., con valore collettivo: commerciare in mercerie; mercerie d’ogni sorta; bottega, negozio di mercerie.
b. Bottega del merciaio: c’è una m. qui all’angolo.
c. Nella toponomastica veneziana, Merceria, nome della via più animata di Venezia, che unisce Piazza San Marco a Rialto, fiancheggiata da negozî di merci di lusso e di prodotti artigiani.
2. ant. a. Il mestiere del merciaio.
b. Merce in genere, ma soprattutto merce minuta (oggetti ornamentali, ninnoli, chincaglierie).
That is,
mercerìa s. f. [from ant. Fr. mercerie, derived from mercier «merciaio»] The complex of objects sold in the merciao's shop, namely sewing needles, needles, pins, ribbons, elastic, buttons, etc., usually needed for sewing and finishing in tailoring, and even small items of linen, spec. for women and children. It is mostly used in plur., with collective value: trade in mercerie; mercerie of all kinds; mercerie shop.
b. Merciao shop: there is a m. here at the corner.
c. In Venetian toponymy, Merceria, the name of Venice's most animated street, which joins St Mark's Square in Rialto, lined with luxury goods and craft products.
2. ant. a. The merciao craft.
b. Goods generally, but mostly small merchandise (ornamental objects, ninjols, chincaglierie).
I vaguely remember once discussing this question with Franco, with Huck as intermediary, probably in relation to the 2012 article in English. He described in detail what kind of items a merciao would sell, but I don't recall what he said exactly. It seems to me that I suggested "notions shop" as the nearest equivalent. He stuck with "haberdashery", and I have kept to that usage, even if it seems wrong in U.S. usage. One online dictionary does give "notions shop" as a North American translation (along with "haberdashery" for the English). I vaguely remember seeing "notions shop" in use in the U.S. There is also, of course, "sewing shop", but that is too specific. On the other hand, "variety store" is too general, and also bigger, at least in the U.S. for quite a while: Woolworth's etc., were bigger than the shops he had in mind. There is also "hobby shop", given that sewing is more of a hobby than a necessity these days--but that wouldn't work for 15th century Florence. The problem is that we don't exactly have that kind of shop. Or else we do and I just don't notice them. But I don't think so.
Another type of shop that probably would have sold playing cards was a "cartoleria", stationery shop, run by a "cartolaio", stationer. I think that because in another article I asked Franco whether "cartalaio" meant in his context "stationer" or "card-maker", as the same term was used for both. He said, if I remember correctly, that a seller of writing materials would frequently be someone who also publishes books and makes decks of cards. But in his context he meant "card-maker".
I hope that helps.