Karnöffel

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Detail from the Herrenberg Altar

Karnöffel , also known as Kaiserspiel , is a German card game from the 15th and 16th centuries that has survived to the present day. It is perhaps the oldest German or Swiss card game with trumps. It is considered the oldest card game, the historical rules of which can be reconstructed with a reasonable degree of certainty.

etymology

The origin of the word is not certain. The word Karnöffel is used a little later in different contexts, e.g. B. It can also denote a broken testicle or a rough person with a tendency to violence.

origin

The main card of the game, first attested in the Nördlinger Spielordnung 1426, was the Karnöffel, which, according to different interpretations, represented the cardinal (or the Landsknecht ). Around the same time, in 1423, the term "Imperatori cards" appeared in Italy (approx. 20 years later also in Germany) and the game Karnöffel was also referred to as Keyser game in later documents in Germany (the Latin Imperator means Kaiser) - from this The connection, which is not entirely coincidental, suggests that the two games were related.

In the Karnöffel game, in addition to the highest card of the Karnöffel, other allegorical figures that were projected onto certain cards appear, emperor, pope and devil, figures that appear as real card images in the somewhat later predecessors of the tarot (earliest document 1441/1442) find again. Since the Italian Imperatori cards are documented several times in connection with the court of the Este in Ferrara and it is precisely this that can be assumed as the starting point for the tarot cards (a good 2/3 of all early documents on tarot come from Ferrara), this is the result of playing card research an unclear mixture of information that is difficult to interpret, which makes a connection between the three developments of Karnöffel-Imperatori-Tarock probable, but does not allow any reliable statements.

Exactly how the game was played is not known, but rudimentary information from later times invites attempts at reconstruction. Overall, one must assume that the Karnöffel as a game - like other card games - has gone through different developments and has by no means been played in the same way at all times.

The reference to the game has often served as a political metaphor with satirical intent. Cyriacus Spangenberg polemicized against the Counter Reformation in his book, Against the Evil Seven, printed in Eisleben in 1562 (VD16 S-7727).

According to a hypothesis by Wilhelm Fraenger , the Karnoeffel game is depicted on a panel of the Herrenberg Altar by Jerg Ratgeb , namely in the foreground of the Resurrection , where the guards dressed as mercenaries play a card game. Rudolf von Leyden took up the hypothesis.

Variants of carnival time into the 21st century

Over the centuries, the game of carnival spread and changed. A tradition that is still alive today is the Kaiserspiel in Switzerland , particularly in Nidwalden and Uri . Its rules were written down in 1841 by an anonymous author (presumably Hermann von Liebenau ). The game is also maintained by the Willisauer Karnöffelzunft, a carnival society founded in 1891 .

In North Friesland people sniff and sniff. Another related game is Stýrivolt in the Faroe Islands .

literature

  • Mysner: LXI. Eyn suberlich politely saying about the game of carnoffeline . In: JC von Fichard (Hrsg.): Frankfurt archive for older German literature and history . 3rd part. Gebhard and Körber, Frankfurt a. M. 1815, IV. Old German songs and poems from the first half of the 15th century, p. 196–323 , here 293–297 ( full text in the Google book search).
  • Karnöffel hiesz a popular card game .... In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 11 : K - (V). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1873, Sp. 220–221 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
  • Rudolf von Leyden: Karnöffel: the Landsknechte's card game; its history from the 15th century to the present (=  historical card games and rules of the game . No. 6 ). Heimeran, Munich / Vienna a. a. 1978, ISBN 3-7765-0252-5 .
  • Hellmut Rosenfeld: 500 years of Karnoeffelspiel. In: From the second-hand bookshop. Supplement to the Börsenblatt for the German book trade - Frankfurt edition. Vol. 35, 1979, pp. A19-A20.
  • Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games. Humboldt-Taschenbuch Freizeit & Hobby, Volume 4058, Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2005, ISBN 3-89994-058-X , pp. 34–37.

Web links

Wiktionary: Karnöffel  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Rudolf von Leyden: The Nidwalden Kaiserjass and its history. In: Contributions to the history of Nidwalden 37 (1978), pp. 152-163. http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-699113
  2. ^ Hugo Kastner, Gerald Kador Folkvord: The great Humboldt encyclopedia of card games. Humboldt-Taschenbuch Freizeit & Hobby, Volume 4058, Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden 2005; P. 33, ISBN 3-89994-058-X .
  3. ↑ Notes about Imperatori Decks in Ferrara on trionfi.com
  4. ↑ trionfi.com
  5. ↑ The Riddle: Imperatori and Karnöffel. on trionfi.com
  6. ^ Title page Against the bad seven in the devil's carnoeffel game
  7. ^ Wilhelm Fraenger: Jörg Ratgeb. A painter and martyr from the Peasants' War. Dresden: VEB Verlag der Kunst 1972, pp. 278–279.
  8. ↑ Anonymous: The ancient and noble so-called carnival or imperial game: for the first time thoroughly explained with a preface in its rules and examples. Lucerne: Kunsthandlung zum Freyenhof, 1841. Digitizedhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fdoi.org%2F10.3931%2Fe-rara-25854~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D~doppelseiten% 3D ~ LT% 3D ~ PUR% 3D
  9. ^ Bernhard, JF (1924). "Das Karnüffeln (Knüffeln): A Frisian card game" in Die Heimat. Monthly d. Association for the care of natural and regional studies in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg , Kiel, Vol. 34, pp. 70-72.
  10. ↑ Men's choir "Frohsinn" from 1881 eV on www.treia.de. Retrieved May 17, 2019