Detail map of Augsburg-Innenstadt, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany,Mitte, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany Overview map of Augsburg-Innenstadt, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany,Mitte, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany

A: Augsburg-Innenstadt, Augsburg, Bayern, Germany, B: Mitte, Nürnberg, Bayern, Germany

Printing Playing Cards

1418
The Stuttgart Cards. Originally in the collections of the dukes of Bavaria, these are considered amongst the earliest surviving sets of playing cards.  They date from around 1430. A study of the watermarks in the paper revealed that the patper came from the Ravensburg paper mill and was made between 1427 and 1431.

The Stuttgart Cards. Originally in the collections of the dukes of Bavaria, these are considered amongst the earliest surviving sets of playing cards.  They date from around 1430. A study of the watermarks in the paper revealed that the patper came from the Ravensburg paper mill and was made between 1427 and 1431.

Card makers, who presumably were card printers printing from wood-blocks, are mentioned five times in the city records of Augsburg and Nuremberg by 1418. About the same time the records of the city of Ulm in Germany show that cards were being shipped in barrels to Sicily and Italy.

Carter, History of Printing in China 2nd ed (1955) 186.

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