Set of 15th Century Playing Cards

Set of 15th Century Playing Cards

Tir Righ A&S Championship 

September 22nd, 2018 

by 

Aldus Fairclogh (mundane: Jes Rud) 

Shire of Lionsdale 

Playing cards as we know them today are believed to have originated in China, around 1000 C.E. From there, they quickly spread through India and Persia, through Egypt, and then to Europe by the 14th century. Unlike the four suits we commonly think of in modern playing cards, the suits and artwork in these historical cards varied greatly, often reflecting common items and symbols of the time and location in which they were made. Card games (many of which are lost today) were used to pass the time, and in gambling, by all levels of society, and a varying level of quality in the production of playing cards reflects this.


Because playing cards were tactile items, and often well-used, most did not survive to the present. The oldest surviving full deck of playing cards in existence is a set of cards produced circa 1475-1480 in the Burgundian territories. The deck is of extremely high quality, and likely survived because it was never used, and was probably never meant to be used. Instead it was purchased, or perhaps commissioned, by a wealthy collector.


Named after the Met Cloister's Museum in New York City, the Cloisters Deck features suits based on common hunting paraphernalia of the time: hunting horns, dog collars, hound tethers and game nooses. The face cards depict figures in somewhat exaggerated and fanciful Burgundian court costumes, a King, Queen, and Knave for each suit. The cards are made of pasteboard, four layers of paper pasted together and glazed, with the images drawn in pen and ink, painted and accented with gold and silver leaf.


In creating my own replicas of the Cloisters cards, I wanted to be as accurate as possible with the materials and processes used. However, I lack the financial resources (and artistic skill) of the original artist. I think of these cards as a sort of 15th century "knock-off" that my middle-class persona might have created after studying the originals.


Resources on what the cards are comprised of are limited. The Met Museum website simply lists the mediums as "paper (four layers of pasteboard) with pen and ink, opaque paint, glazes and applied silver and gold." Based on this information, I attempted to research exactly what types of these materials would have been used at the time.


My first subject of research was paper. Modern paper is made primarily from trees, with some more high-end writing and art papers made from cotton rags. When paper first began to be produced in Europe however, it was made by boiling down and refining rags, most of which were made from linen. The making of this paper was an involved process, detailed in Timothy Barrett's Essay "European Paper Making Techniques 1300-1800." Since creating the paper for my cards from scratch was a little more ambitious than I was prepared for, I decided to purchase some linen or flax paper online. This proved to be incredibly difficult. I found some linen and cotton blend papers, a few papermakers that apparently made flax paper but did not have an online shop, and one company out of New Zealand that made flax paper, but didn't ship overseas. I finally decided to compromise, and ordered some hemp paper from a papermaker in Germany, since hemp has a similar structure to flax, and would have also been grown in period.


When I received the paper, I confirmed what I suspected, that it was much too thin and flimsy to be proper cardstock, and that I would need to research a period paste. Testing out a dip pen and ink on the paper also revealed that the paper was very fibrous, and the ink tended to spread and blur in a way that both looked bad, and wasn't consistent with the original cards. At this point, I took to the SCA Scribes and Illumination group on Facebook, hoping that some more experienced scribes would have some advice for me on what to do regarding a paste and glaze. I received a plethora of excellent advice and encouragement regarding medieval techniques for paper-making, sizing and glazing. Contessa Luciana di Carlo (mundane: Nancy Garbarini) of the Kingdom of Caid suggested a recipe by 15th century Italian painter Cennino d'Andrea Cennini in his book Il libro dell'arte. The recipe is as follows:



There is one size which is made of cooked batter, and it is good for parchment workers and masters who make books; and it is good for pasting parchments together, and also for fastening tin to parchment. We sometimes need it for pasting up parchments to make stencils. This size is made as follows. Take a pipkin almost full of clear water; get it quite hot. When it is about to boil, take some well-sifted flour; put it into the pipkin little by little, stirring constantly with a stick or a spoon. Let it boil, and do not get it too thick. Take it out; put it into a porringer. If you want to keep it from going bad, put in some salt; and so use it when you need it.


This incredibly simple, tried and true recipe worked perfectly, both to paste the paper together into cardstock, and as a glaze, which allowed the ink, when applied, to sit on top of the paper, rather than sinking in and spreading.


I decided to make the cards only three layers thick rather than four, since I had limited paper available. I cut out the shapes of the cards, and traced the images onto them before pasting them together. Then I made the paste following the recipe. I boiled water, added flour slowly and let it boil for a few minutes. Then I laid the cards on parchment paper, applied the paste with a paintbrush and stacked them. I laid another layer of parchment paper on top, and then stacked several heavy books on them and left them overnight. I didn't find that the paste kept very well, possibly because I felt compelled to refrigerate it, and it ended up becoming lumpy when reheated, so I ended up making a new batch every time I made more cards. The thickness in the batches varied slightly, and I found that the thicker it was, the less time the cards took to dry. On average, they finished drying in one to two days, and there was no difference in the effectiveness of the glue once finished drying.


The next step was painting the cards. Once again, I was unable to find a lot of information about the types of pigments used. A couple of articles found online list them as red ochre, azurite, lead tin yellow and earth green, but don't give a source for this information. In the end I decided to use the pigments provided in Natural Pigments' Historical Pigment Sampler. The red and blue colours were fairly simple: red ochre (derived from red clay) and lazurite (made from Lapis Lazuli.) The face cards have a bit more variety in colours, and I also used earth green, bone black, violet hematite and brown ochre to colour them as well as the lazurite and red ochre. I was able to create a very similar purple to the originals using a combination of violet hematite and lazurite, and mixed red ochre and bone black together to create shadows on the red, purple and green. In period, egg whites or gum arabic (dried sap from an acacia tree) were mixed with the powdered pigments to create ink. I used gum arabic, which bonded well with the pigment to make a simple paint, and added water occasionally to thin the paint. I did find that the colours seem less vibrant in my cards than they were in the original, particularly in the blue. I am not sure if this is the result of different pigments used, or different techniques and materials used to blend the paint. It may even be simply the slightly darker tone of the natural hemp paper, compared to the bleached paper that was used for the originals. I would like to do more research regarding this.


Finally, the illustrations had to be lined. Since these cards were made in the later medieval period, iron gall ink would likely have replaced carbon ink in common usage. Iron gall ink has a fascinating origin. It is made using an "oak gall" which occurs when a wasp lays its eggs under the leaf of an oak tree. The oak tree reacts to this by producing tannic and gallic acids. These galls are then crushed, and mixed with ferrous sulphate, which could be found naturally, or later created by pouring acid over rusted nails. I ordered some traditionally made iron gall ink, and although it is a lovely ink, the lining of these cards was probably the most difficult part of the project. Although the flour glaze had the benefit of allowing the ink to sit on top of the paper rather than soak in, it also meant that the ink tended to pool, and it was difficult to create thin, even lines. Because I was using the thinnest nib I had available, the sharp edge would also often catch in the soft paper, which caused blemishes in the lines. And finally, because of the nature of the ink, it goes on translucent, and then darkens as it dries. While this makes for a lovely effect when writing, it made drawing with the ink difficult, as I couldn't immediately see where the lines where, and had to hope that I was drawing in the correct place. In projects in the future, I may do more research, and attempt discern if this is the ink that was used in the original cards. I may also use a very thin paintbrush in the future, rather than a dip pen, as the line work on the original cards is still much thinner than I was able to produce, even with the thinnest nib I had available.


These cards are also gilded, because it seemed a shame not to give them the final, glimmery touch. However, I used a modern composite imitation gold leaf and adhesive size. Gold leaf is definitely something I'm interested in however, and I would like to research more period techniques for a future project.


I very much enjoyed creating these cards, although it was a daunting and time-consuming project. I find a great satisfaction in the painstaking recreation of past artist's work. The way the figures are drawn, the techniques used, and the care taken in the work all give a sense of the character of the often unknown artist. This particular artist had a light touch, and put a great deal of human expression and humour into the faces of his subjects. Although the depictions of the figures are exaggerated and satirical in nature, it is still obvious that the artist put thought and care into creating the extravagant fashions, and they seemed in particular to relish the drawing of folds of fabric in women's dresses, and of shapely men's legs in hose.


In attempting to create these cards with as many period-accurate materials as possible, I researched and learned a great deal about the creation of medieval "art supplies." This in turn has led me to want to do further research and projects where I create these materials from scratch. I hope to have many more creations to show in future events. Thank you very much to the judges for your time and feedback, and I hope you enjoyed my submission. I look forward to meeting and discussing my project with you soon!

The final presentation:

Works Cited
Baranov, Vladimir. “Materials and Techniques of Manuscript Production: Ink.” Medieval Manuscripts Manual, Central European University, web.ceu.hu/medstud/manual/MMM/ink.html.Barrett, Timothy. “European Papermaking Techniques 1300–1800.”Paper through Time: Nondestructive Analysis of 14th- through 19th-Century Papers, The University of Iowa, 31 July 2018, paper.lib.uiowa.edu/european.php.Drostle, Gary. “Making Starch Glue – a Renaissance Solution.” Gary Drostle, 30 Nov. 2015, www.drostle.com/making-mosaic-glue-for-the-paper-face-reverse-method-a-renaissance-solution/.Flemay, Marie. “Iron Gall Ink.” Traveling Scriptorium, Yale University Library, 21 Mar. 2013, travelingscriptorium.library.yale.edu/2013/03/21/iron-gall-ink/.Husband, Tim. “Sport and Spoof: The Cloisters Playing Cards.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 13 Apr. 2016, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/in-season/2016/the-cloisters-playing-cards.Husband, Timothy. The World in Play: Luxury Cards, 1430-1540. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.McCrady, Ellen. “The Great Cotton-Rag Myth.” Conservation Online, Nov. 1992, cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/ap/ap05/ap05-5/ap05-503.html.Meier, Allison. “The Bawdy History of Medieval Playing Cards.” Hyperallergic, 29 Feb. 2016, hyperallergic.com/273146/the-bawdy-history-of-medieval-playing-cards/.Raftery, Andrew. “Making Iron Gall Ink.” Instructables.com, RISD Museum, 21 Oct. 2017, www.instructables.com/id/Making-Iron-Gall-Ink/.“The Cloisters Playing Cards.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, I.e. The Met Museum, www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/475513.Wintle, Simon. “Flemish Hunting Deck.” The World of Playing Cards, 16 May 2011, www.wopc.co.uk/france/flemish-hunting-deck.

Scribal Bits n' Bobs

Charters Designed by Me:

Calligraphy by Me:

Original Works by Me:

Four Anglo-Saxon Cures from Bald's Leechbook

This was my first entry ever, for Lions Gate's 2018 Canterbury Fayre.

I was super nervous to present, but it was a great experience, and I was super happy with how it came out! Below is a copy of my documentation.




Four Anglo-Saxon Cures from Bald's Leechbook
Aldus Fairclogh
Shire of Lionsdale

British Museum




Upon reading the title "Leechbook," one would be forgiven for assuming the term "leech" refers to the common practice throughout Western history of bloodletting as a cure for most, if not all maladies. And indeed, this practice is recommended plenty in this particular book of cures, which was written in the tenth century, and contains a collection of remedies commonly advised at the time, both from Mediterranean sources, and more local Anglo-Saxon and native British traditions. However, the term "leech" simply referred to an English doctor, and Bald was the man who ordered the book to be written (MacGowan). Hence, Bald's Leechbook.




There are many notable cures listed in the leechbook, ranging from amusing (against a woman’s chatter; taste at night fasting a root of radish, that day the chatter cannot harm thee) to disgusting (a plethora of cures involving a salve containing the dung or tord of various animals) to downright improbable (In case a man be a lunatic; take skin of a mereswine or porpoise, work it into a whip, swinge the man therewith, soon he will be well. Amen.) (Cockayne.) Then there is the recipe for an eye salve, containing onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach, that was in 2015 found to be effective against methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, otherwise known as MRSA (BBC).




The history of medicine is a long and storied one, and throughout history, most of the people who proclaimed themselves doctors or physicians had little to no formal training, and some had dubious motives. Furthermore, the concept of the scientific method is fairly new. Although humans have always, in theory, had the mental capacity to recognize cause and effect, many of the so called "remedies" recorded throughout history (those in the Leechbook being no exception,) call this into question.




Take the practice of bleeding, for instance. Excepting the occasional case of high blood pressure or other specific maladies in which the procedure may be somewhat helpful, bleeding was bound to have had a negative effect on most of the people who were treated with it. Anemics, pregnant women, and anyone who ended up with an infection at the site of the cut (which would have been common, considering that the concept of sterilization is also relatively recent) would have no doubt had a negative and even fatal reaction to the treatment. And yet it continued for hundreds of years. Surely the first man who decided to put goat dung on an open wound and ended up with a nasty infection would not have recommended it to his friends as an effective cure. And yet, the Leechbook, and many other references like it, wholeheartedly recommend the application of various animal defecations as a treatment for everything from open wounds to a sore shoulder (Cockayne.)




We may never know exactly why so many useless and downright dangerous "cures" were advised for so long. And when reading through the Leechbook, it's easy to come to the conclusion that the few and far between cures that would actually hold up under the scrutiny of modern medicine are simply there by happenstance. If one recommends enough different herbs for a cough, eventually one will have some sort of anti-inflammatory properties. But there are arguments to the contrary. There is strong evidence in favour of the placebo effect, for one. And there are remedies that would have been somewhat effective, even if not for the reasons those using them might have thought. Remedies that called for acidic substances to be mixed in copper or brass vessels, for instance, would have produced copper salts, which are anti-septic in nature (BHP). And many herbs do have anti-bacterial properties that would be effective on a sore throat or open wound. But whether these were effects that were recognized and confirmed through repeated use, or simply a product of the law of large numbers, we may never know.






It's also relevant to note that while modern medicine is leaps and bounds ahead of its Anglo-Saxon counterpart, human beings today are still perfectly susceptible to bogus medical claims. Even in the face of science and decades of medical research, there remains a plethora of books, websites and social media posts recommending treatments and remedies that have no proven effectiveness and may even be dangerous, especially when utilized in place of proper medical treatment. Furthermore, when researching the herbs listed in the Leechbook, I found many instances of their use still being recommended. It is difficult sometimes to know whether a treatment is being recommended because it has been proven scientifically to be effective, or simply because it has a long history and word of mouth to back it up. In this way, we might not be so far removed from our Anglo-Saxon ancestors as we might initially like to think.






For this project, I decided to recreate a selection of innocuous cures (no goat dung here) from the Leechbook, and assess them based on our modern medical knowledge of the ingredients. Below I will detail the remedies I chose, and my process in recreating them.














Remedy #1: Wound Salve














Cockayne 327

The ingredients to this remedy are fairly simple. Yarrow is a common flower that grows wild in North America, and can be easily accessed. Woodruff is more commonly known by the name Sweetscented Bedstraw, and is native to Europe. Fieldmore is an usual term that luckily is translated in the index of Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England to mean a carrot or parsnip (Cockayne 383). Finally, Solwherf gave me some trouble, but I finally discovered it to be the old English word for the common flower Calendula, a type of Marigold (Eberly). I ordered dried yarrow, woodruff and calendula from a botanical supplier, and purchased a bunch of carrots from my local grocery store and chopped up the leaves. For the butter, I used plain, unsalted, and the cloth, a scrap piece of linen.













After one false start of burning the butter, I successfully boiled the herbs in the butter and strained them through the linen. The result is basically just melted butter with some infused herbs. But would it do anything for a wound?






Unfortunately, butter is not a good treatment for wounds. Especially in its unsalted form, butter is susceptible to bacterial growth, which can lead to infection (4 Agents…). Yarrow and Calendula, however, are both astringents, which means that when applied to the skin they can cause it to tighten, which is helpful for the stopping of bleeding (Astringent Herbs and Tannins). As for the carrot tops, I was unable to find any medicinal benefits to them, although they can apparently be nice in a salad.






In conclusion, this remedy may have been somewhat effective, provided the wound didn't become infected. Additionally, boiling the ingredients, and by extension the cloth used to strain the herbs and treat the wound, would have helped avoid infection, even if the doctor administering the treatment didn't realize this.










Remedy #2: For Host or Cough














Cockayne 313






Marrubium might be more commonly recognized by the name Horehound. Marketed as a cold and cough medicine in the USA until the 1989, when the FDA challenged its efficacy, it is still sold and used for colds in many parts of Europe (Duke). As an herbal tea, it is safe to drink (unless you are pregnant or suffer from stomach ulcers) so drunk hot, it certainly wouldn't hurt a sore throat (McVicar).






The secondary recipe however, is a little more complicated. It's well known that honey has antibacterial and antiseptic properties, and was even found to be more effective at curing a sore throat than dextromethorphan, a common cough suppressant (Steckleberg). However, the recipe instructs to boil the honey, which many studies say can greatly reduce honey's antibacterial properties (Heating Honey…).






















In the end, however, this remedy for a cough does seem like it might be effective, particularly the drink of hot marrubium tea, sweetened by honey. As for the solid honey with infused marrubium, it may be effective, provided the honey was not boiled for very long. It's also important to remember that in most cases, a cough will eventually get better on its own, so cold-sufferers of the past and today can be forgiven for assuming it was the folk remedy that they relied upon that did the trick.










Remedy #3: Burn Salve














Cockayne 131






Because I did not have immediate access to any old grease, I decided to focus on the second recipe for a burn salve here. I already had dried yarrow, and purchased some lily bulbs to use. It is unclear whether the lily here was the root or the plant itself, I chose to use the root, since it is suggested to have some anti-inflammatory and astringent properties (Medicinal Uses…). However, any effectiveness the yarrow and lily may have here is contrasted by the use of butter.






















Unfortunately, placing butter (or any oily substance, including grease) on a burn can seal in heat, causing the burn to become worse. Additionally there are the afformentioned issues with butter, and as a burn is an open wound, it can easily become infected, and butter (especially unsalted) is succeptible to bacteria. Butter has not been found to be antiseptic, antibiotic or pain-reducing in any way, so despite it's persistance as a folk treatment for burns up until modern day, it is simply not effective (Health Library).














Remedy #4: For Sore and Ache of Ears














Cockayne 41






Betony is another common herb native to Europe that I was able to acquire from a botanical supplier. It is commonly used as a tea and tincture for many issues, but there isn't very much in the way of proof of its effectiveness, besides it's astringent properties. However, it was very popular among the Anglo-Saxons, particularly as a cure for head-aches, which probably explains its inclusion here (Whitmer). As for the rose oil, I used a rose essential oil. The use of essential oils in medicine is quite controversial even today, but there is little to no evidence to support them being effective (Nierenberg).


























Overall, it seems unlikely that this remedy would have been particularly effective for an ear ache. The astringent qualities of the ingredients may have helped to clear up a blockage in the ear, but would have little to no effect on an infection, which is the most common cause of ear ache, and would require some form of antibacterial or anti-fungal treatment to cure (Bright).














In conclusion, it seems that the remedies contained in Bald's Leechbook are a combination of effective use of herbal remedies, remedies that may have done nothing more than give the patient some comfort and a feeling of proactivity, and of course the remedies that would have done more harm than good. Medicinal practitioners in Anglo-Saxon times would have used a variety of unique methods in their work, and the effectiveness of their methods would also have varied greatly. If a British citizen in this time period was unlucky enough to need the service of a physician, it was only up to luck whether they would end up with the doctor who recommended a nice herbal tea, or one who was a little too keen to slap some goat dung on and call it a cure.

















Works Cited










1,000-year-old onion and garlic eye remedy kills MRSA. (2015, March 30). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-32117815


4 Agents to Avoid When Treating Wounds. (2016, April 13). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.advancedtissue.com/4-agents-to-avoid-when-treating-wounds/


Astringent Herbs And Tannins: Medicinal And Cosmetic Uses. (2005). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.anniesremedy.com/astringent-property-11.php


Balds Leechbook: British Museum Royal manuscript 12 D. XVII. (1955). Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger.


Bright, S. (2016, January 13). 19 Proven Home Remedies To Cure An Ear Infection. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://www.naturallivingideas.com/home-remedies-for-ear-infection/


Duke, James A. The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook: Your Comprehensive Reference to the Best Herbs for Healing. St. Martins Paperbacks, 2000.


Eberly, S. (2015). Calendula Calendula officinalis. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://wyrtig.com/GrowingHeirloomPlants/CalendulaMedievalWorks.htm


Health Library: True or False: Applying Butter to a Burn Aids Healing and Relieves Pain. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://hcahealthcare.com/hl/?%2F156971%2FTrue-or-False--Applying-Butter-to-a-Burn-Aids-Healing-and-Relieves-Pain%29


Heating honey kills enzymes. But is boiled honey toxic? (2018, March 01). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://healthywithhoney.com/heating-honey-kills-enzymes-but-is-boiled-honey-toxic/)


MacGowan, D. (2017, June 05). How can a 9th-century 'Leechbook' be relevant today? Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/how-can-a-9th-century-leechbook-be-relevant-today


McVicar, J. (2004). New book of herbs. London: Dorling Kindersley.


MEDICINA DE QUADRUPEDIBUS. (2012). In T. Cockayne (Ed.), Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England: Being a Collection of Documents Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest (Cambridge Library Collection - Rolls, pp. 326-373). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139168793.007


Medicinal Uses & Health Benefits of Lily Flower. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/herbs/lily-flower.html)


Nierenberg, C. (2015, September 03). The Science of Essential Oils: Does Using Scents Make Sense? Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.livescience.com/52080-essential-oils-science-health-effects.html


Steckelberg, M. J. (2015, June 05). Honey: An effective cough remedy? Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/common-cold/expert-answers/honey/faq-20058031


The British History Podcast Episode 58 – Dark Age Medicine [Audio blog post]. (2012, October 15). Retrieved March 19, 2018, from https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/71-anglo-saxon-health/


Walker, J. (2013, October 14). Anglo-Saxon Medicine. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2013/10/anglo-saxon-medicine.html?_ga=2.99652190.1713283406.1519198503-1693687944.1512683855


Whitmer, P. (2010, January). Herb to Know: Wood Betony. Retrieved March 20, 2018, from https://www.motherearthliving.com/plant-profile/wood-betony