Gra w karty Króla Zimowego (dziesięciojęzyczna reedycja i facsimile)

 Abstract   

Shortly after the Battle of White Mountain, a set of four copperplate prints, each consisting of nine playing cards with allegorical pictures was presumably printed in Vienna. The total print run is unknown. Only two prints of all four copperplates have survived to this day. One in its original uncut form at the Deutsches Spielkartenmuseum in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany. The second, cut into individual cards, was owned by bibliophile František Gottfried Troilo (ca. 1583 – ca. 1648) as part of his collection of broadsheets from 1618-1622 and is now part of the collection of early prints of the National Museum Library in Prague. The allegorical illustrations on the playing cards depict events related to the Bohemian Revolt, its roots, upsurge and military defeat and violent repression. The set of cards is titled in Latin: Declaratio mysterii novorum foliorum lusoriorum, dictorum Folia Kosakorum Lisoviensium (Explanation of the mystery of the new playing cards, called the Lisowczyks Cossack Cards). Under each card taped to a sheet of paper, their owner, F.G. Troilo, wrote a commentary in Latin explaining the allegorical meaning of the illustration. Troilo, however, probably based these descriptions on the unpreserved Latin template of the Polish print Declaratia, abo obiaśnienie kart kozackich, which was published in 1621, and comments on the same cards in verse. The reissue of the cards covers facsimile (37) of the print and its handwritten comments made by F.G. Troilo preceded with ten languages translations of the manuscript. The translations and facsimile are numbered identically to correlate images and texts, because both of them are published in two separate parts. The first number indicates position of a card in the playing cards set (1-36), the second one designates its position within four suits (1-9). Descriptions are published in the following order: original – Latin (1), Polish (2), Czech (3), English (4), French (5), German (6), Italian (7), Russian (8), Spanish (9), Ukrainian (10).