David Parlett's page on Historical Card Games -- Parlett is one of the major games researchers, with a number of books under his belt. His website is broad (and much is out of our scope), but much of this page covers period games. (more)
Parlett on the Leaf Game -- A discussion of what we know about the ancient Chinese game that purportedly led to the invention of cards (more)
Parlett on Piquet -- Goes into quite a bit of history, since this period game has more or less survived down the centuries; does not actually give the detailed rules. (more)
Parlett on Loo -- He has several reconstructions, and is looking at a broader sweep of history; I haven't yet checked his writeup against Cotton specifically yet. (more)
