One measure of good design is infinite flexibility. Another marker—seemingly opposed—is a basic form that can endure unchanged. The playing card combines both, and it fits in the palm of your hand.The universality of playing cards has at times obscured their origins. One tradition, related and debunked in a 19th-century history, held that they were the invention of "a miniature painter named Gringonneur, attached to the court of Charles VI during the period of his imbecility."
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