Playing Cards and Games

Medieval Playing Cards and Games

Playing cards were introduced into Europe through Spain and Italy, with Italian references as early as 1399. The early Italian picture cards were called Tarots (tablets of fate), and they were used for fortune-telling or simple games. In modern terms these represent the 22 major arcana cards of the Tarot. The number cards, or minor arcana were added making the cards more suitable for games.

The number cards consisted of 4 suits containing: 4 court cards – (king, queen, knight, page/valet) and number cards - I to X. The result was a deck of 56 cards, plus the 22 high cards to a total of 78 cards. The 4 suits most commonly used in Italy were swords, cups, rings/money, and batons/wands.

Each suit had its own set of characteristics. The sword was for the military, the cup was for the Church, the ring was for the merchants, and the baton was for the peasantry. Our modern suits are derived from the French suits where the pique (pikehead) became spade in English, the coeur became heart, the carreau (tile) looks like a diamond, and the trefoil (clover) became the club suit.

Every card had a picture, that was hand-painted and often very elaborate. The designs varied widely, as fashion and politics played their role in patrons tastes. The court cards often portrayed historical or mythic figures, as in the example were Sir Lancelot is seen as the knight of clubs. Our modern tarot cards retain many of the traditions of Medieval playing cards, that have been lost in our modern standardized card sets.

The following is one possible version of an early card game.

Tarocco

Deck:

- 22 trump cards ranked: XXI (ll Mondo) down to I (ll Bagatino)

- The Fool card (ll Folle) has no number. When ranked, it is the lowest trump card.

- 52 cards in four suits: Spade, Bastoni, Coppe, Denari order of rank: Re, Dama, Cavallo, ten to one

Objective: To score points by taking tricks that contain scoring cards.

Scoring: To count, the card must to accompanied by a low value card (I-X), in the same trick:

5 pts. Mondo(XXI) ll Bagatino(I) ll Folle Re

4 pts. Dama

2 pts. Cavallo

Play: each player is dealt 23 cards - remaining 5 to dealer.

Dealer then discards ANY 5 cards (MAY NOT discard point cards)

The dealer then leads with any card, players must follow suit. If the lead card is a coppe you must play a coppe if you can. If you cannot follow suit you must play a trump if you have any, the highest trump card played will take the trick. If the lead is a trump card, players MUST play a higher trump, if possible. If they have no trump left, they may play any card.

ll Folle

The player with the Fool may either: show it, during play, (that trick is contested by the other players); or,

they can play it in the last hand. Showing the card guarantees keeping those 5 pts.

Bonus points: If ll Bagatino (I) wins the last trick - player scores 10 pts.

If ll Bagatino looses last trick - player looses 10 pts.

Win all tricks - player scores 20 pts.

The winner is the player with the most money or the highest score after three hands of play. Betting can be included at any stage. At the end of each hand, the players each total their points. The losers must pay the difference between their total and the winners total. In Italian:

1= uno	5= cinque	9= nove
2= due	6= sei	10= diec
3= tre	7= sette
4= quattro	8= otto