Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, das erste astronomische Kartenspiel und die christlichen Sternbilder; Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, das erste astronomische Kartenspiel und die christlichen Sternbilder; Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, the first astronomical card game, and the Christian constellations

The first astronomical card game was issued in Nuremberg in 1656. Its author was the lawyer, writer and literary theoretican Georg Philipp Harsdouml;rffer (1607-1658), who is primarily remembered as the inventor of the “Nuremberg funnel”. It is possible that a second card game was issued in the same year, but the sources are ambiguous. After some preliminaries on the history of card games, Harsdörffer's pack of cards is presented. In addition, general remarks about the history of sky maps are given.