Treatise on the Morals and Discipline of Human Conduct

...concerning the Son of God, namely Jesus Christ, and the King of all kings.
"The queen stood at your right hand in a vesture of
gold, surrounded by variety." This is a quote from Psalm 45:9, often used in the Middle Ages to describe the Virgin Mary or the Church as a Queen. ¶ Therefore, any Queen
must have one handmaiden, in which another [is understood]
service?

to be included; for it is understood that for the service of the Queen there are not to be
six [officers] or marshals original: "marschalchos"; high-ranking court officials, so that while two remain in one part [of the court], the others must be sent outside in times [of necessity].
And since the Kings are [set], each with their own
cards, specifically the 52-card deck original: "cartula .lp."; likely a scribal abbreviation for 52, which is now more fit for playing
in this game and more frequent for signifying the sacred mystery.
¶ For first, as is clear in our measure of wine, it is rarely or perhaps never
sold by the fourth or sixth or eleven pence,
because those numbers do not have aliquot parts aliquot parts|numbers that divide a larger number perfectly, like 2 and 3 are parts of 6,
and therefore they sell wine or something of this sort for such a
price that is fitting for the vintner. If it were sold under any other number,
[such as] if the measure of wine were sold outside of the standard measures,
a half-measure could not be sold,
nor any part of the measure, except for a penny's worth, because they
have no proportional parts except for the unity The author argues that 52 is a "better" number than others because it can be divided into equal portions for the players.
namely, the number one. ¶ Regarding numbers and their nature,
Boethius An influential 6th-century philosopher whose works on arithmetic were standard textbooks in medieval universities. notes in his Arithmetic, book 1, chapter 12, in which [prime numbers] are placed
because they have no other parts except for unity,
which is the mother of all; for every number proceeds from unity just as
water from a mother-source.
¶ In which [game] the cards should be divided
among the persons practicing the game, and each
person should receive their quota or portion.
¶ Regarding the natural [number]: because there are fewer aliquot
parts, they are less disposed for the aforementioned game. And thus
it is clear that fifty-two OCR reads "42", but context implies 52 cards in number are less
fit for playing than sixty, because
52 OCR reads "42" has half as many aliquot parts as 60,
as is manifest from what was said before.
27.

¶ Concerning the number [aforementioned]... namely that the number sixty
exceeds the number 52, and for the sacred mystery...