Hofamterspiel, c.1460
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The cards were printed from woodblocks and then hand coloured. Each suit in turn shows members of the royal household - from the court jester up to the king's steward, including servants and court officials. These are depicted in a hierarchy, numbered 1 - 10 in Roman numerals, plus a queen and king, instead of the more common arrangement of multiple pip cards and three or four court cards. There are 48 cards in total. |
Click images to see enlargements. See also: The Stuttgart Cards, 1437 Cards shown above are from the facsimile edition published by Piatnik, Vienna, edited by Ernst Rudolf Ragg, 1976. Size of cards 140 x 100 mms. |
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The Hofämterspiel reflects political relationships in Central Europe in the mid-15th century. The suit signs are the coats of arms of four kingdoms: France, Germany, Bohemia and Hungary. The single-headed eagle represents the 'regnum teutonicum', the kingdom of Germany (as opposed to a double-headed eagle representing the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation). Each individual card depicts a function or profession that enjoyed official status at a late medieval princely court.
In some respects the Hofämterspiel reminds us of the so-called Mantegna Tarocchi, a set of 50 copper engraved cards from Italy, c.1465, which also represents a world order, or hierarchy. However, the Italian set reveals cosmological overtones more akin to Renaissance humanism than to medieval European feudalism. The Hofämterspiel shows a feudal social hierarchy and is a good indication of what the oldest German playing cards may have been like, before they adopted symbols from the royal hunt…
