Mexican Deck of Cards

Printing tests of cards made in Mexico, corresponding to the contract of Alonso Martinez de Orteguilla (F. Flores, 1583). AGI-MP-MEXICO 73-4r (public domain).
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra

The Mexican deck suggests the quick adaptation of printers to the local demands of Indian and Creole elites. It includes designs of Aztec games (juggling, flying poles, trained monkeys) as well as Aztec rulers and religious heroes: Cuauhtémoc, Moctezuma and Quetzalcoatl. The names of the heroes are printed in Roman script along with their corresponding Aztec logographic signs.

 

Further reading
  • Cashner, A.A. (2014) ‘Playing cards at the eucharistic table: Music, theology, and society in a Corpus Christi Villancico from colonial Mexico, 1628’, Journal of Early Modern History, 18: 383–419.
  • de Covarrubias, P. (1543) Remedio de jugadores (Barcelona).
  • Fajardo, F.L. (1603) Fiel Desengaño contra la ociosidad y los juegos: utilisisimo a los confesores, penitentes y justicias y demás a cuyo cargo está limpiar de vagabundos, tahúres y fulleros la Republica Cristiana (Madrid).