From a passage discovered by M. Van Praet, in an old manuscript copy of the romance of _Renard le Contrefait_, it appears that cards were known in France about 1340, although Bullet was of opinion that they were invented in that country about 1376. At whatever period the game was introduced, it appears to have been commonly known in France and Spain towards the latter part of the fourteenth century. John I., King of Castile, by an edict issued in 1387, prohibited the game of cards; and in 1397, the Provost of Paris, by an ordonnance, forbid all working people to play at tennis, bowls, dice, _cards_, or nine-pins, on working days. From a passage in the Chronicle of Petit-Jehan de Saintré, written previous to 1380, it would appear that the game of cards at that period was in disrepute. Saintré had been one of the pages of Charles V. of France; and on his being appointed, on account of his good conduct, to the situation of carver to the king, the squire who had charge of the pages, lectured some of them on the impropriety of their behaviour; such as playing at dice and cards, keeping bad company, and haunting taverns and cabarets, those not being the courses by which they might hope to arrive at the honourable post of “ecuyer tranchant,” to which their companion, Saintré, had been raised. In an account-book of Charles Poupart, treasurer to Charles VI. of France, there is an entry, made about 1393, of “fifty-six sols of Paris, given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and coloured, and of different sorts, for the diversion of his majesty.” From this passage the learned Jesuit Menestrier, who was not aware of cards being mentioned by any earlier writer, concluded that they were then invented by Gringonneur to amuse the king, who, in consequence of a _coup de soleil_, had been attacked with delirium, which had subsided into an almost continual depression of spirits. There, however, can be no doubt that cards were known in France at least fifty years before; though, from their being so seldom noticed previous to 1380, it appears likely that the game was but little played until after that period. Whether the figures on the cards supplied for the king’s amusement were drawn and coloured by the hand, or whether the outlines were impressed from wood-blocks, and coloured by means of a stencil, it is impossible to ascertain; though it has been conjectured that, from the smallness of the sum paid for them, they were of the latter description. That cards were cheap in 1397, however they might be manufactured, may be presumed from the fact of their being then in the hands of the working people.