XIII. Account of the Italian Game of Minchiate, by Robert Smith, Esq. F.R.S and F.A.S. in a Letter to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary

Extract

In the Eighth Volume of the Society's Archaeologia, are many ingenious observations on the origin of cards, and their introduction into England; more especially those of our late learned member Mr. Gough. That gentleman has in a manner exhausted the subject; but as, in his account of the Italian game Minchiate, he has given French names to the cards, I am induced to think that he was indebted for his information principally, if not wholly, to the “Voyage d'un François en Italie,” and to the casual inspection of an imperfect set of cards of French fabrique, though inscribed with the name of an Italian maker.