Primero (in English also called Primus, in French , in Italian or in Spanish Primera), is a 16th-century gambling card game of which the earliest reference dates back to 1526. Primero is closely related to the game of primo visto (a.k.a. prima-vista, and various other spellings), if not the same. It is also believed to be one of the ancestors to the modern game of poker, to which it is strikingly similar.
The gambling game with this name goes back to the 16th century, being known to Gerolamo Cardano as , which he thought of as the noblest of all card games, to François Rabelais as , and to William Shakespeare as primero.Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, pg. 226 –
The origins of Primero
It is uncertain if Primero is of Spanish or Italian origin. Although Daines Barrington is of the opinion that it is of Spanish origin, a poem of Francesco Berni is the earliest known writing to mention the game; it affords proof that it was at least commonly played in Italy at the beginning of the 16th century. His work entitled Capitolo del Gioco della Primiera, published in Rome in 1526, and believed to be the earliest extant work describing a card game, contains some particulars on primero.Researches into the History of Playing Cards and Printing, by Samuel Weller Singer; London: Bensley & Son, 1816; pg. 246. According to David Parlett, the game's card-point system is found in other Italian games but nowhere else. The game is still very much played in central Europe and Spain with Italian-suited cards, under the name of goffo or bambara,Oxford Dictionary of Card Games, David Parlett; ; p. 226. remaining the major native vying game of Italy. Alessandro Striggio's madrigal dramatizing a party of the game "II gioco di primiera" was published in 1569.
Etymology
This old game of cards was called in France, in Spain, and in Italy. All names derived from the Latin , 'first'. In English literature, besides the occasional use of the foreign names, the game is designated primero (and also prima-vista, a probable variant), with the usual corruptions in spelling of the early days.
According to Stephen Skinner, primero and prima-vista are one and the same game.Etymologicon Linguae Anglicanae, Stephen Skinner, 1671. Quote (in Latin): "". As for John Minshew, primero and prima-vista (, that is, first and first seen, because he that can show such an order of cards, wins the game), are two different games of cards.John Minsheu's 1617 Ductor in Linguas (Guide into Tongues)
Whichever opinion these two seventeenth-century lexicographers might have had on the origin of primero, it seems fairly plausible that the game being played in different parts of Europe had to acquire similar names as it migrated from one country to another, or from one region to the other, notably in Italy and Spain. And with the addition of new rules to the original set of rules, or even variations on the rules that the game devised, it finally reached a level of development that made them become separate games, despite their common origin. So, as the Italian writer Berni said: "The game is played differently in different places."
The gamblers
Daines Barrington(1677) Archaeologia, v. III, pg. 133 described an Elizabethan card party painted by Federico Zuccari that originally belonged to Lord Falkland in which Lord Burleigh is represented playing at cards with three other persons, apparently of distinction, each having two rings on the same fingers of both their hands. The cards used are marked as at present, although they differ from those of modern times for being narrower and longer. Eight of the cards lie on the table with the blank side uppermost, for the cards at that time had blank backs, while four remain in each of the other players hands. A particular in this painting is that one of the players is seen showing his cards, which are: the jack (knave) of hearts, the ace, 7 and 6 of clubs. The cover of the pack lying on the table displays two lions supporting a shield, upon which is what appears to be a heraldic rose (the crest of the Tudors), and underneath, though indistinctly, the partially illegible name of a French card-maker Jehan Licl**rer. This particular shows that the cards then used were at least sometimes obtained from France. The money on the table, together with considerable heaps of gold and silver, appears to be coins of Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I.
As the first Marquess of Exeter, Lord Burleigh, is said to have entirely devoted his time to business and study, taking no diversion but that afforded by his gardens, of which he was both fond and proud, it is to be supposed that this painting was not actually a portrait of him, though mistaken for his, as was the ownership of the old manor-house of Wimbledon.Sharpe's London Magazine by Princeton University, Vol. 13–14, pg. 169 London, 1846-47 So, there seems to be little doubt here as for which game the artist meant to describe, and that the person exhibiting his cards to the spectators had won a lush, for his three clubs are the best cards for counting.
A passage in an old play by Robert Greene has been quoted by several writers as evidence that primero was a gambling game."Primero, why I though[t] thou hadst not been so much gamester as play at it" - Greene's: (1611) Tu Quoque But a person who objects to cards, might make such a remark with respect to any card game, whether a gambling game or not. Judging from the partial descriptions of the game which remain to us, it might seem that primero was played for either large or small stakes, as agreed upon. John Florio describes primero played by two persons for "one shilling stake and three rest (pool)."Florio's Second Frutes (1591) In Minsheu's "Spanish Dialogues", four play; the stake is two shillings and the rest, eight.Once a Week, vol. 10; Eneas Sweetland Dallas; London: Bradbury and Evans, 1863; p. 363. The text is self-explanatory, explaining also the meaning of the name primero.John Minsheu, Spanish Dialogues (long title: Pleasant and Delightful Dialgues in Spanish and English); London: John Haviland, 1623; p. 26. Quote: "I take it that it is called primero, because it hath the first place at the play at cardes." See any online copy for the full dialogue of the gamers as they play, e.g. this excerpt of the passage in question.
Primero and the Tudor dynasty
Primero appears to have been one of the earliest card games played in England during the Renaissance and the Tudor dynasty,A glossary: or, Collection of words, phrases, names, etc. v. II pg. 687, Robert Nares, London (1859) and certainly it continued to be one of the most fashionable games throughout the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I of England, Elizabeth I and James I, due to the frequent mention of it by many writers of that time. Already during the reign of Henry VII, notices of money issued several times for the King's losses at cards appear in the Remembrance's Office, dated December the 26th, in the ninth year of his reign. There, an entry is made of one hundred shillings paid at one time to him for the purpose of playing at cards. The private expenses of Princess Mary, Henry VIII's daughter and later Queen, also contain numerous items of money "for the playe at cardes". But despite the records, it is not certain that primero found its way to England previously to the marriage of Queen Mary I with Philip II of Spain, although there is no doubt that his coming to England from the court of Charles V would have cause it to be more generally known and played. William Shakespeare also speaks of Henry VIII playing at primero with his brother-in-law Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, and makes Falstaff say: "I never prospered since I forswore myself at primero." Additionally, the clown Lancelot in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice confides in this father that "for mine own part, as I have set up my rest to run away, so I will not rest till I have sun some ground" (2.2.91-92). To "set up [one's] rest" alludes to a type of gamble in the Italian version of primero . Among the epigrams of John Harington we have one which describes "The Story of Marcus' Life at Primero","The Story of Marcus' Life at Primero", in Old English Plays, 4th ed., vol. IX; ed. W. Carew Hazlitt; London: Reeves and Turner; 1874 (reprint of 1744 original publications by Robert Dodsley). See Google Books scan for the full text. in which many of the terms of the game are developed in detail.
Evolution and decline
Judging by the pattern of succession of games during the Renaissance, many of the card games played throughout Europe, ascended in popularity to be later replaced by another type of game, again brought into England by the court gamester of that time. So that, by the last quarter of the 16th century, primero had already decreased in popularity, and was gradually replaced by the trick-taking game maw, the favorite card game of James I, and alluded by Harington as supplanting primero. According to Charles Cotton,Cotton's Complete Gamester, ed. of 1721, pg. 49 primero, which by the time of the Restoration in 1660 had already evolved into many other variations, some of six cards, rapidly went out of fashion with the introduction of the Spanish game of Ombre.
Rules of the game
The object of the game, as in poker, is to attain the highest possible hand, or at least bluff your competitors out of betting against you. There are no existing written rules for the 16th-century primero, only descriptions. However, a number of reconstructions of the game have been made, primarily on the basis of books describing playing strategy and references in period literature.
The play Primero is played with a 40-card deck, and there are special decks made for this game. It works best with four to six players. The player who holds the prime, a sequence of the best cards and a good trump, is sure to be successful over the adversaries – hence the game's name.
+ Primero hands from high to low Chorus (quartet) Four cards of a kind Fluxus (flush) All cards of the same suit Supremus (fifty-five) The highest possible three-flush: the ace, 6, 7 (plus an unrelated fourth card) and ace card from any other suit Primero (prime) One card from each suit. It's a four-card hand containing one card of each suit, hence the exact opposite of a flush in poker. Numerus (point) Two or three cards of the same suit. A point of higher card-value beats one of lower value for which purpose Courts count 10 each of the hand is the sum of the cards. ace, 6, 7 and jack cards in any suit.
+ Card point values Type of card Value Any Face (court) card 10 points 2 (deuce) 12 points 3 (trey) 13 points 4 14 points 5 15 points Ace 16 points 6 18 points 7 21 points
English version
Because this is a gambling game, the first step is for all players to ante into the pot. The deal is counter-clockwise, starting with the dealer. Each player receives 4 cards dealt in 2's from a 40-card deck ranking K Q J 7 6 5 4 3 2 A. Anyone dealt a winning combination calls for an immediate showdown, and the player with the best hand wins the pot. Two cards go to each player, which is followed by the next phase of betting, and two more cards are dealt to each player. Then either eight cards are dealt face down on the table or the remaining cards are left out as a draw pile or stockpile.