Ross Caldwell wrote: 04 May 2022, 08:52 Interesting in this context is an overlooked remark by Arne Jönsson, in his 1998 essay on JvR in Schweizer Spielkarten 1. It suggests that something like the disruptive social symbolism in Karnöffel was already present in a card game in 1377 -
"John offers some general reflections..... Here it may be added that according to John the lower marshal counts eleven points, the queen's maid twelve, the upper marshal thirteen, the queen fourteen and the king finally fifteen."
...
I use this passage to bolster my theory that the early name for cards, naib, naipe, etc., comes from the name of the game that the Mamluks transmitted to Spanish and Italians. That is, it might have been called "Naib" because the (lower) Na'ib in the game played a special role just like this, usurping the position of the King. The Mamluks themselves did this, and it would not be surprising that sailors and traders would play a game with this kind of subversive message.
JvR is moralizing on something he didn't create. The only thing he describes visually on the cards is this:
In the game which men call the game of cards they paint the cards in different manners, and they play with them in one way and another. For the common form and as it first came to us is thus, viz. four kings are depicted on four cards, each of whom sits on a royal throne. And each one holds a certain sign in his hand, of which signs some are reputed good, but others signify evil. Under which kings are two ' marschalli,' the first of whom holds the sign upwards in his hand, in the same manner as the king ; but the other holds the same sign downwards in his hand.
We have many surviving examples of this - for instance this c. 1530 Swiss deck (which I presume to be a successor example of the earliest woodblock cheap decks first produced in Switzerland and the Upper Rhine) where the suit sign is literally "ober" the first knave and "unter" the second knave: https://www.wopc.co.uk/switzerland/oldcards
This visual clue was not taken from Mamluks. What was taken from Mamluks, as you note, is that the two knaves were called 'Na'ib' and that the entire game was called the same, which would have seemed to put extra focus on the knaves. Name for the game aside, etymologically I've not seen this explored, but does Na'ib not seem very close to European names for those two subordinate cards - 'knave', 'knabe/knappe' etc.?
Where things really get interesting is that that JvR doesn't use one of those names, but 'marschalli', with the implication from good and evil ones that one was to be trusted and one was not, and accordingly of higher rank in the game.
But more importantly why the use of 'marschalli'? I would argue an event of international (at least European) renown involving 'marschalli' occurred prior but close enough in time to impact JvR's writing, or rather the earliest European adaptation of the game. And I'll propose that event was the Battle of Poitiers where many of France's aristocracy, including the king, ended up captured and for ransom, or dead. There simply wasn't a comparably notorious event right before both the arrival of the cards to Europe (c. 1365-70) and JvR's writing (1377).
The battle occurred on 1356. The French battle plan was to take out the English archers with two heavy cavalry units each lead by a marshal of France: Jean de Clermont, (c.1288 - 1356) and Arnoul d'Audrehem (c. 1305 – 1370) . The rest of the knights were to dismount since their horses were less armored (lessons from Crecy, where no horse was adequately protected) and fight on foot. The problem is the mounted knights were too far out in front of the supporting ground troops so Clermont cautioned they wait; d'Audrehem taunted Clermont for cowardice with the end result they both lead their respective charges without immediate backing support and ultimately ended in debacle, with Clermont killed and d'Audrehem wounded and captured. Their exchange was famously immortalized in works such as Froissart. Ultimately you have a seasoned and prudent older advisor (Clermont) versus a more impetuous younger one (d'Audrehem). Et voilà: 'marschalli' - each one holds a certain sign in his hand, of which signs some are reputed good, but others signify evil.
The king paired with the 'good' marshal must have been the genesis for 8 cards to be singled out. And as you'll note in the Swiss playing cards link above, the king holds his suit sign aloft just like the good Ober knave/marshal, as described in JvR, so a visual reason to link the two.
Phaeded