John McLeod (born 1949) is a British mathematician, author, historian and card game researcher who is particularly well known for his work on

tarot game Tarot games are card games played with tarot decks, that is, decks with numbered permanent trumps parallel to the suit cards. The games and decks which English-speakers call by the French name Tarot are called Tarocchi in the original Italian, ...

s as well as his reference website

pagat.com Pagat.com is a website containing rules to hundreds of card games from all over the world. Maintained by John McLeod, it contains information for traditional, commercial, and newly invented card games from all over the world. It has been described ...

which contains the rules for over 500 card games worldwide. He is described as a "prominent member" of the

International Playing Card Society The International Playing-Card Society (IPCS) is a non-profit organisation for those interested in playing cards, their design, and their history. While many of its members are collectors of playing cards, they also include historians of playing car ...

and is Secretary of the

British Skat Association The British Skat Association (BSA) was founded in 2001 to "promote the playing of Skat in Britain."'' ...

Life

John McLeod was born in 1949. He studied mathematics at

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

before entering industry. During his time at Cambridge, he came across a pack of

tarot card The tarot (, first known as ''trionfi (cards), trionfi'' and later as ''tarocchi'' or ''tarocks'') is a pack of playing cards, used from at least the mid-15th century in various parts of Europe to play card games such as Tarocchini. From their ...

s and "as I opened the box, I was immediately fascinated by the cards. They looked totally different from anything I had seen before". He was then a research student in the mathematics department of the university and spent many evenings playing the Austrian tarock game of Königrufen with his students. Later McLeod toured Europe to study the individual variants of tarock games and captured his findings in the monumental 2-volume work ''A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack'' which he co-authored with Professor Sir

Michael Dummett Sir Michael Anthony Eardley Dummett (27 June 1925 – 27 December 2011) was an English academic described as "among the most significant British philosophers of the last century and a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality." He wa ...

, the "leading authority on the history of the Tarot". According to McLeod, Tarock belongs to one of the largest and perhaps most interesting families of card games in the world.''Auch Südpolen gehört noch zum Reich Tarockaniens''
at www.wienerzeitung.at. Retrieved 3 Jan 2020. In 2005/06 McLeod and fellow researcher, Sally Prime, travelled to Vienna to participate in the international Tarock Cup where McLeod came 35th out of 100 participants.

pagat.com

McLeod created the website www.pagat.com in 1995. It has been described by card game historian,

David Parlett David Parlett (born 18 May 1939 in London) is a games scholar, historian, and translator from South London, who has studied both card games and board games. He is the president of the British Skat Association. His published works include many pop ...

as the "most important" card game website, its "intrinsic authority eingconstantly enhanced by the contributions of interested and knowledgeable players from all over the world". The website describes the rules of over 500 contemporary card games world wide. It also categorises games by mechanism, objective and equipment used. The website is in English and German.

Works

Books

McLeod's ''

magnum opus A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' is the two-volume set on the history of tarot card games which he co-authored with Michael Dummett. Volume One deals with games in which the Fool is used to excuse the player from following suit or playing a trump to a trick; Volume Two deals with games played in Central Europe from the late 18th century onward, in which the Fool is used as the highest trump.''A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack''
at tarotgame.org. Retrieved 3 Jan 2020. * ''A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: The Game of Triumphs, Vol. 1'' (2004), Lewiston, PA: Edwin Mellen, pp. 1-402. Co-authored with Sir Michael Dummett.
History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: The Game of Triumphs, Vol. 2''
(2004), Lewistown, PA: Edwin Mellen, pp. 403-910. Co-authored with Sir Michael Dummett.
''A History of Games Played with the Tarot Pack: The Game of Triumphs, Supplement''
(2009), Maproom, Oxford * "Mechanics of Card Games" (2009). www.pagat.com. Co-authored with Nick Wedd.

Articles (selection)

* "Rules of Games series 3:

Cego Cego is a Tarot game for three or four players played with eponymous German Tarot playing cards. The game was probably derived from the three-player Badenese tarot game of Dreierles after soldiers returned from the Iberian Peninsula during the Na ...

" in ''The Journal of the Playing Card Society'' ed. by Sylvia Mann, Vol IV, No. 1 , Aug 1975, pp. 31-46 (with Michael Dummett). * "Rules of Games No. 5:

Reversis Reversis, or more rarely, Réversi, is a very old trick-taking card game of the Hearts group whose origin is supposed to be Italian, transformed into Spain and then in France. It is considered one of the two probable ancestors of Hearts, Black La ...

" in ''The Journal of the International Playing Card Society'', 5, no. 4 (May 1977): 23-30. * "Playing the Game: Styrivolt,

Vorms Voormsi or Vorms is an old, Greenlandic, trick-taking card game of the Brusbart family designed for four players. History Voormsi is "reputed to be ancient", possibly dating to the Whaling Period before 1721, between the late 15th century disa ...

and Cicera" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 25, No. 2, ed. George Beal, Sep–Oct 1996, pp. 54-55. * "Playing the Game: Black Kings in Greenland and Black Maria in Finland" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 27, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, July-August 1998, pp. 14-15. * "Playing the Game:

Zwickern Zwickern or Zwicker, is a German fishing card game for two to eight players played in Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. It is an old game whose rules first appeared in 1930. It has been described as "a simpler and jollier version of Cassino", ...

" in ''The Playing Card'', Vol. 27, No. 4, ed. Michael Cooper, Jan–Feb 1999. pp. 128-131. * "Playing the Game: king-ten-five or ace-ten-five" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 27, No. 6, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, May-June 1999, pp. 238-239. * "Stubai Valley

Droggn Droggn, sometimes called French Tarock (german: Französisches Tarock) is an extinct card game of the Tarock family for three players that was played in the Stubai valley in Tyrol, Austria until the 1980s. ''Droggn'' is originally local dialect f ...

and

Dobbm Dobbm or Tappen is a card game played in the Stubai valley in Austria and is one of a family of games derived from the Tarot game of Grosstarock by adapting its rules to a regular, shortened pack of 36 cards. The ranking and point value of the ca ...

–Two living fossils of the Austrian card game landscape" ** "Part I: Discovery and Historical Context" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 27, No. 6, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, May-Jun 1999, pp. 269-276 (with Remigius Geiser). ** "Part II:

(Tarock in the Stubai Valley with 66 Cards)" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 28, No. 2, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, Sep-Oct 1999, pp. 40-49 (with Remigius Geiser). ** "Part III:

" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 28, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, Jul-Aug 1999, pp. 96-100 (with Remigius Geiser). * "Playing the Game: The Survival of H

ombre Ombre (, pronounced "omber") or l'Hombre is a fast-moving seventeenth-century trick-taking card game for three players and "the most successful card game ever invented." Its history began in Spain around the end of the 16th century as a four-pe ...

" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. XXIX, No. 1, July-August 2000. pp. 18–20. * "Playing the Game: Tulip Grower's Pandoeren" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 31, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, Jul–Aug 2002, pp. 42-47. * "Playing the Game: Owl or Eagle? The Uhu in Austrian Tarock" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 32, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, Jul-Aug 2003, pp. 33-36. * "Playing the Game: Tarocco Ticinese" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 33, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, July-September 2004, pp. 18-20. * "Playing the Game: The Benelux Games of Trumps" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 33, No. 2, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, October–December 2004, pp. 91-95. * "Playing the Game: Kaiser, Joffre and the Lost Heir" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 34, No. 1, ed. Dr. Michael Cooper, Jul–Sep 2005, pp. 68-72. * "Playing the Game: Truf" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 35, No. 1, ed. Peter Endebrock, Jun-Sep 2006, pp. 64-66. * "Playing the Game: Compendium Games" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 36, No. 1, ed. Peter Endebrock, Jul-Sep 2007, pp. 67-72. * "Playing the Game: Origin of Königrufen" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 39, No. 1, ed. Peter Endebrock, Jul-Sep 2010, pp. 12-13. * "Playing the Game: Polish Taroki" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 40, No. 4, ed. Peter Endebrock, Apr–Jun 2012, pp. 257-260. * "Playing the Game:

Perlaggen Perlaggen (regionally also ''Perlåggen''), formerly Perlagg-Spiel ("game of Perlagg"), is a traditional card game which is mainly played in the regions of South Tyrol in Italy, the Tyrolean Oberland and the Innsbruck areas of Austria. It is the ...

– the first UNESCO recognised card game" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 45, No. 1, ed. Peter Endebrock, Jul–Sep 2016, pp. 25–30. * "Playing the Game:

Dreierles Dreierles is a three-handed, trick-taking Tarot card game that is popular in the German region of central Baden. It is very old and appears to be a south German cousin of Tapp Tarock, the oldest known 54-card Tarot game. Dreierles is played with ...

" in ''The Playing-Card'', Vol. 47, No. 2, ed. Peter Endebrock, Oct–Dec 2018, pp. 81-84.

References

Literature

* *

External links

PAGAT.com
website {{DEFAULTSORT:Mcleod, John 20th-century English historians Card game historians 1949 births Living people Card game book writers Tarock card games