Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Bottom Deal

Bill Kalush has located what may be the earliest reference to bottom dealing, in Baldassarre Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, p. 230 in the 1553 edition (the 1528 edition remains to be checked): “You have taken the card from the bottom.” No details of technique are given. The next earliest reference appears in Olivier Gouyn's Le mespris & contennement de tous ieux de sort, Composé par Oliuier Gouyn de Poictiers, 1550, p. 24.