Bill Kalush has located what may be the earliest reference to bottom dealing, in Baldassarre Castiglione's Il Cortegiano, 1528, p. 230 of the 1553 edition: “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.

• Category in Denis Behr's "Conjuring Archive"