Italian playing cards

Playing cards (carte da gioco) have been in Italy since the late 14th century. As Latin suited cards, they use swords (spade), cups (coppe), coins (denari), and clubs (bastoni). All Italian suited decks have three face cards per suit: the fante (Knave), cavallo (Knight), and re (King), unless it is a tarocchi deck in which case a donna or regina (Queen) is inserted between the cavallo and re. Italian suited cards normally only refer to cards originating from northeastern Italy around the former Republic of Venice as the rest of Italy uses Spanish suits, French suits or German suits. Until the late 19th century, Italy was composed of many smaller independent states or under foreign occupation which led to the development of various regional patterns. Italian suited cards are largely confined to northern Italy, parts of Switzerland, Dalmatia and southern Montenegro. Popular games include Scopa, Briscola, Tressette, Bestia, and Sette e mezzo.

Playing cards arrived from Mamluk Egypt during the 1370s. Mamluk cards used suits of cups, coins, swords, and polo-sticks. As polo was an obscure sport, Italians changed them into batons. Italy was a collection of small states so each region developed its own variations. Southern Italy was under strong Spanish influence so their cards closely resemble the ones in Spain. Northern Italian suits used curved swords instead of straight ones and their clubs are ceremonial batons instead of cudgels. Swords and clubs also intersect unlike their Spanish counterparts.

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Wikipedia