A Short History of Italian Playing Cards

CTP NICCOLO’ ANDRIA MASSAFRA-ITALY

Italian playing cards have a very old tradition, which dates back to six centuries ago. Italian playing cards most commonly consist of a deck of 40 cards (4 suits going 1 to 7 plus 3 face cards), and are used for playing Italian regional games such as Scopa or Briscola. 52 (or more rarely 36) card sets are also found in the north.

Since these cards first appeared in the late 14th century when each region in Italy was a separately ruled province, there is no official Italian pattern. There are sixteen official regional patterns in use in different parts of the country (about one per region). These sixteen patterns are split amongst four regions:

Northern Italian Suits - Triestine, Trevigiane, Trentine, Primiera Bolognese, Bergamasche, Bresciane

Spanish-like Suits - Napoletane, Sarde, Romagnole, Siciliane, Piacentine.

French Suits - Genovesi, Lombarde or Milanesi, Toscane, Piemontesi.

German Suits - Salisburghesi used in Alto Adige/Südtirol

The suits are coins (sometimes suns or sunbursts) (Denari in Italian), swords (Spade), cups (Coppe) and clubs (sometimes batons Bastoni), and each suit contains an ace (or one), numbers two through seven, and three face cards. The face cards are:

Re (king), the highest valued — a man standing, wearing a crown

Cavallo (lit. horse) - a man sitting on a horse / or Donna (lit. woman from Latin domina = mistress) - a standing woman with a crown

Fante (lit. infantry soldier) - a younger figure standing, without a crown

Unlike Anglo-American cards, some Italian cards do not have any numbers (or letters) identifying their value. The cards' value is determined by identifying the face card or counting the number of suit characters.

Sometime around the late 1300s, thanks to the frequent trades with northern Africa and the Near East, where the Arabic populations already knew card games, this form of pastime reached Italy, and within a few years it developed throughout the country.

By that time, the standard deck already consisted of 52 cards, divided into four suits marked by Coins, Cups, Swords and Sticks.

TAROTS The Tarot, which included extra trump

cards, was invented in Italy in the 15th century in the northern regions. This new deck was used mostly by the upper class, for two main reasons: the additional allegories and their ranking was based on a good level of knowledge, that only few rich people had, and also the price of these decks, some of which were hand-painted by artists, was out of reach for the large majority of the folk.

An interesting change that both kinds of deck developed concerned the last three subjects of each suits, i.e. the court cards, no longer bore a written name, as they did in the Arabic tradition, but human figures: in the south they were a knave, a cavalier and a king; in the tarot, also a female personage, the queen, was added to the aforesaid three

The standard deck and the tarot underwent an almost parallel evolution: the former, which the lower social class played with most, in many areas dropped the 8s, the 9s and the 10s, so that from the original 52 cards only 40 were left. Curiously, a pattern with very similar features was also used in Portugal

By the late 1400s three main tarot patterns could be told: one in the area of Milan, one in the area of Bologna, and one in the area of Ferrara and Venice. The tarot scheme devised in Bologna inspired a new special variety of tarot called Minchiate, with many more additional allegories (97 cards all together),

From the 1600s onwards, the Spanish administration of the southern Italian regions exerted its influence also on playing cards: the old Italo-Portuguese pattern gradually disappeared, replaced by decks of clear Spanish influence. This situation remained unchanged for about two centuries.

MOST COMMON CARD GAMES: BRISCOLA

Briscola is a trick taking game - that is, the object of the game is to take cards which gives you (or your team) a high score. It is popular win Italy and it uses the Italian 40 card deck. The same game is played in the coastal regions of Slovenia and Croatia under the name Briškula.

Briscola may be played with two, three, four , five or six players

SCOPA Scopa is an Italian trick-taking card

game, and one of the two major national card games in Italy.

It is played with a standard Italian 40-card deck, mostly between two players or four in two partnerships, but it can also be played by 3, 5, or 6 players.

. The name is an Italian verb meaning "to sweep", since taking a scopa means "to sweep" all the cards from the pool.

Gameplay

All players arrange themselves around the playing surface. If playing in teams, team members should be opposite each other. One player is chosen to be the dealer. Beginning with the player on his right, and moving counter-clockwise, the dealer deals out three cards to each player, one card at a time. During this deal, the dealer will also place four cards face up on the table.

The player to the dealer's right begins play. This player has two options: Either place a card on the table, or play a card to take a trick. A trick is taken by matching a card in the player's hand to a card of the same value on the table, or if that is not possible, by matching a card in the player's hand to the sum of the values of two or more cards on the table.

In both cases, both the card from the player's hand and the captured card(s) are removed and placed face down in front of the player. These cards are now out of play until scores are calculated at the end of the round. If by taking the trick, all cards were removed from the table, then this is called a scopa, and an additional point is awarded at the end of the round.

Note that it is not legal to place a card on the table that has the ability to take a trick. If, for example, a 2 and 4 are on the table, and a player holds a 6, the player must either take that trick, or play a different card from his hand.

In any circumstance in which a played card may capture either a single or multiple cards, the player is forced to capture only the single card. For example, if the table has contains a 1, 3, 4, and 8 (Knave, or Fante in Italian), and the player plays another Knave, the player is not allowed to capture the 1, 3, and 4, even though their total does add up to 8. Instead, the player is only allowed to capture the Knave.

After all players have played all three cards, the dealer deals out three more cards to each player, again beginning with the player to his right. That player then begins play again. No additional cards are dealt to the table. This process is repeated until no cards remain in the deck.

After the dealer has played the final card of the final hand of the round, the player who most recently took a trick is awarded any remaining cards on the table, and points are calculated for each player or team. If no team has yet won the game, the deal moves to the right. The new dealer shuffles and deals the cards as described above.

Adults playing cards (SCOPA) at school