Triomphe became so popular that during the 16th century the earlier game of trionfi was gradually renamed tarocchi, tarot, or tarock.

The earliest surviving description was written by Juan Luis Vives in his Exercitatio linguae latinae around 1538 in Basel.

[4][5] Both Vives and Maldonado described the rules in the form of dialogues between the players.

Maldonado uses a pack of 48 Spanish playing cards but Vives uses a French deck by discarding the 10s.

In the suit of clubs and swords, the ranking from highest to lowest is King, Knight, Jack, 9 ...

[6][7] An incomplete description of "Trumpe" was provided by Jacques Bellot, a Huguenot from Caen residing in London, in his Familiar Dialogues (1586).

He describes a four-player partnership game where the one who cuts the highest card becomes the dealer.

The game is abruptly interrupted, leaving the rest of the rules a mystery.

A player playing out of turn incurs 1 penalty point unless it is the last trick.

Gambiter assumes that winning 5 tricks is only worth 2 points and that game is 5.

[12] Incomplete rules from Strasbourg when it was still part of the Holy Roman Empire were recorded in both French and German (as Trümpfspiel) in 1637.

The highest trump cards are fixed: the Ace of Hearts, the King of Diamonds, the Queen of Spades, and the Jack of Clubs.

Though Triomphe can be traced back to the 1480s in France,[16] the earliest surviving rules date to 1659.

French Triomphe was played by four players divided into two partnerships with a 52-card deck.

[17] The order of the cards from highest to lowest is King, Queen, Jack, Ace, 10, 9 ... 2.

An optional rule is that the player with the Ace of trumps gets to exchange the exposed card with one from his hand.

If void in suit and trumps, then any card can be played but won't win.

Since there are only 20 cards in play, any attempt to cheat by revoking is easily caught and the culprit loses the game.