thanks for your answer. Perhaps I should clarify first in light of
Huck wrote: 08 Apr 2021, 01:35 My own suggestion to explain the etymology of Karnöffel was ....
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1111&p=17330&hilit=kanjifah#p17330
... an Arabian "Kanjifah" (= Kartenspiel). But I don't insist on it.
that I also do not insist on the etymology Karnöffel = carneval in an event-situation sense of the gameplay. It is just a hypothesis as all other hypotheses (and do we have more than hypotheses in light of the epistemology of Popper? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability) - and I do find your Kanjifah"-one also very appealing.
My question w.r.t. any hypothesis is, whether it helps to give first answers to other open questions - as, in our case, questions as: why this double naming Karnöffel/Keyserspil, why this proximity of Karnöffel to Fastnacht/Karnveal, why the representation of Karnöffel as the Unter (who is not a Landsknecht, but an Unter-Marshal), why the multitude of the 10 is represented as a single Banner, what is the relation between Karnöffel and Imperatori, etc. In this light, my hypothesis gives at least some ideas, which might open up the mind. And my hope is that this opening of mind will help someone else one day with far more knowledge of the documents to see a new pattern which can be evidenced.
W.r.t. to your remark
Huck wrote: The word and the game Karnöffel went North, not to Italy. North means far North, Scandinavia and even as far as Greenland.
https://www.pagat.com/national/greenland.html
And North means in 16th century also Protestantism. As Tarot meant Catholicism, especially if it contained a Pope and Papessa and not Juno and Jupiter.
I just want to add, that Karnöffel, "das wilde Spil", allows to beat the Pope by the Karnöffel and the Devil (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karn%C3%B6ffel
, which is a very Protestant thing, especially by the Devil. Tarot --and thus: trionfi/imperatori?-- is far more ordered, if we remember Pratesi http://naibi.net/A/03-FERRARA-Z.pdf
The game is not a wild one, it is mainly practised by persons of ripe age, and many Ladies are also known to appreciate it. The order of the cards and the manner of play are in themselves a defence against any detractor.
Lastly, I want to comment on
Huck wrote: So it needed a French Revolution and a French Brigadegeneral to make the Cologne people understand, that that, what they knew since 1341 as Fastelovend and in 12th century as Vastavend, was in the reality of 1795 a French carnaval.
But no reason to translate the 15th century Germanic Karnöffel to an Italian Karnevalsjeck .... .
I have no doubt that "Karneval" as a name reached Cologne, quite north of Constance and far away from Nördlingen, in the 18th century. My argument was different, taking up your own reflection that the game could have been invented at the occasion of the Council of Constance (1414-1418), which was 4 years long and assembled a lot of people from Northern Italy in South Germany, bringing their language and customs with them. And my point was that this unknown word "Carneval" was introduced to or heard by the German speaking environment and equivalenced with Fastnacht. However, after the Council, they evidently stayed with their own "Fastnacht". The only trace of the name "carneval" -so the hypothesis-- left after the four years was the name of the new game invented right at the Council (this is your own hypothesis, you pointed to "Kaysern"). And that this name was first orally transported before being written down by someone, who did it on "earsight".