01-026 Italian-suited Playing Cards

01-026
Italian-suited Playing Cards

After writing 3 different posts on the standard deck playing cards, one for the most common Standard 52-card deck (or more accurate, the French-suited playing cards), one for the second most common Spanish-suited playing cards, and another for the less common German-suited playing cards, today I am going to talk about the fourth standard deck of playing cards, the Italian-suited playing cards.

Italian-suited Playing Cards

As its name suggested, Italian-suited playing cards are the playing cards that played in Italy. People can imagine that when travelling in Italy, one can see people playing Italian-suited playing cards everywhere. The situation is, however, not exactly like this.

Italy is a country with a population of nearly 60 million and a land area of around 300,000 km². Technically, this is not very large. But there are altogether 16 different patterns of playing cards in Italy. And among them, only 6 are in Italian suits. For the others, 4 of them are French-suited, 5 are Spanish-suited and 1 is German-suited. There are also slight differences in design between each patterns within the same suit.

Below table shows the name of the 16 national patterns and the suit they follow.

Name of the pattern	Suit of the pattern	# cards per deck
Piemontesi	French	40
Lombarde		42
Genovesi		40
Toscane (Fiorentine)		40
Salisburghesi	German	40
Bergamasche	Italian	40
Bresciane		52
Trentine		40 or 52
Trevigiane		40 or 52
Triestine		40
Primiera Bolognese		40
Piacentine	Spanish	40
Romagnole		40
Napoletane		40
Siciliane		40
Sarde		40

Italian-suited playing cards, together with the more common Spanish-suited playing cards and the now extinct Portuguese-suited playing cards, are all belonged to the family of Latin-suited cards. They serve many similarities.

For example, most Italian decks now come in a striped deck of 40 cards, which are similar to modern day Spanish decks. The suits of Italian deck are called Spade, Coppe, Denari and Bastoni, which respectively means Swords, Cups, Coins and Batons. These are again similar to the suits of Spanish deck.

However, there are still some differences between the 2. First, in Spanish-suited cards, clubs (bastoni) are depicted as simple cudgels or tree branches, and the swords (spade) are straight longswords rather than curved scimitars. Also, some Italian printers added a pair of Jokers to the deck. The Lombarde pattern is an example.

The deck I got is in Trevigiane pattern printed by the Italian card printer Madiano. The cards are made by plastic with a distinctively long and thin shape. The deck comes with 40 cards. Patterns are very traditional. You can feel the rich history of Roman Empire when playing with these cards. I am showing the design of the deck below. 

The Aces

The other pip cards, from 2 to 7

The court cards -- the fante (Knave), cavallo (Knight), and re (King)

Italian-suited playing cards are standard decks and normally come with no instructions. Popular card games played in Italy include Scopa, Briscola, Tressette, Bestia, and Sette e mezzo. The Madino pack I got did come with 2 instruction cards, one for playing Briscola and the other for playing Scopa. Instructions are in Italian only. 

Italian instructions for playing Briscola and Scopa

Technically, all these games can be played with a standard 52-card deck. But using an Italian deck to play these games can give you a more traditional feel.

General Information 

Player	2 to 6
Playing Time	30 mins
Age	8+
Year Released	1600
Designer	(Public Domain)
Publisher	Madiano
Family	Hand Management Memory Set Collection
Score	6.5 (Board Game Geek)

Specifications 

Card size	Not specific, down to the printer.
Deck size	40, 42 or 52 cards
# of suits	4 – Spade, Coppe, Denari & Bastoni
Details	For each suit, pip cards are valued from 1 to 7 or 10, then followed by the court cards the fante (Knave), cavallo (Knight), and re (King). Sometimes 2 Jokers are included. There is no Queen. Not all cards bear index numbers. In some patterns, the court cards are single-headed.

The game Play

 

Where to buy?

Etsy.

Try to get a deck with 52 cards so that you can also use the deck to play those international card games, which would be a real good chance for showing off your knowledge on playing cards to your friends.

Go back to the Lobby ...