On priceless finds excavated from bookbinding scrap paper (remarks on the 16th-century playing cards)

Abstract

The article is devoted to 16^th-century playing cards discovered in the bindings of old prints found in Polish book collections, including the Archdiocesan Archives in Gniezno. The cards were excavated from recycled bookbinding paper, which was used to make cardboard used to stiffen the facings, the so-called kompaturki (or kompatywki). The earliest such finding was made as early as the first half of the 19^th century by Tomasz Ujazdowski. The Gniezno one, on the other hand, is the most recent so far and has never been described before.