THE CARDS AND THEIR HISTORY

Nobody knows for certain where these beautiful cards came from. One of the earliest mentions of them in Italy is found in Florence, where the archives hold an act dated 1376 in which card-playing is identified for the first time. It was labeled a "new" game. Who invented these cards remains a mystery. Some experts say that they were imported from China because a Chinese/Italian dictionary published in 1687 illustrates 12th-century Chinese playing cards that are similar to the Italian cards. Others believe the cards came from India and were developed from chess.

However, one fact which everyone seems to agree on is that playing cards were introduced into Europe by the Arabs at the end of the 14th century. This conclusion is supported by the fact that Italians first called playing cards naibi, a word of indisputable Arab origin.

Today, playing cards are roughly classified under two main types: "Italian," consisting of 40-card decks, or "French", consisting of 52-card decks. But the phrase "Italian playing cards" is no more than a general term. Italy has 16 recognized decks of regional playing cards (carte da gioco regionali)--Sicilian, Florentine, Bolognese, etc. Each regional deck of cards has its own highly decorative design, and is further classified according to the major influence of one of three foreign powers that ruled parts of Italy in bygone centuries--Spanish, French or Germanic.

The playing cards most commonly used throughout all of Italy are the napoletane, or Neapolitan cards, whose design is decidedly Spanish in influence. The napoletane bastone, or club, design must always bear a bright yellow decoration depicting an oak leaf.

A deck of Italian cards is composed of four semi, or suits: coppe (cups, corresponding to hearts), denari (coins or money, corresponding to diamonds), bastoni (cudgels, corresponding to clubs), and spade(swords, corresponding to spades).

Some card scholars believe that the four suits reflect the four classes of medieval Italian society. The denari symbolize the merchants who had money; coppe, the clergy who used chalices to celebrate mass; bastoni, the peasants who used cudgels to herd their animals; and spade, the nobility who girded themselves with swords.

 

THE ORIGINS OF BRISCOLA

Today, briscola is considered by many to be a traditional Italian game, but the truth is that an early version of it seems to have originated in Holland, where it became quite popular by the end of the 16th century. The game then passed through France where, with some modification, it was called Brusquembille (ancestor of two other French card games, Briscan and Bezique) and was played with a 32-card deck.

Eventually, it arrived in Italy. It soon became a much-favored card game played with the customary Italian deck of 40 cards. The game had been so completely modified that, for all intents and purposes, it was considered to be an Italian game.

Italians play several varieties of briscola. It can be played between two people, or, more commonly, two sets of partners. It can also be played among three players, but in this case, one must first remove the card of lowest value in the briscola deck, the deuce of any suit. There is a five-man variation called briscola chiamata (declaration briscola). Finally, another variation, briscolone, is a no-trump variety usually played between two players.

HOW TO PLAY BRISCOLA

Briscola is a bridge-like game--the word means "trump," and refers to the trump suit and the trump cards. It is played with a deck of 40 cards, either the traditional "Italian" cards which contain four suits of ten cards each (coppe, denari, bastoni and spade), or the "French" cards. In briscola, cards have points used to calculate the final score at the end of the game, and numerical equivalents that establish who wins each trick. The scoring in briscola is as follows:

• Asso (Ace): 11 Points (numerical equivalent = 11 points)
• Tre (Trey): 10 points (numerical equivalent = 10 points)
• Re (King): 4 points (numerical equivalent = 10 points)
• Cavallo (Horseman) or Regina (Queen): 3 points (numerical equivalent = 9 points)
• Donna (Lady) or Fante (Valet): 2 points (numerical equivalent = 8 points)
• Carte numeriche (numbered cards) 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 = 0 points

In southern and central Italy, the picture cards depict una donna (a lady) whose numerical equivalent is eight, and un cavallo (a horseman) whose numerical value is nine. In northern Italy, the corresponding picture cards depict un fante (a valet) whose numerical value is eight, and la regina (queen) whose numerical value is nine. Occasional confusion is encountered because the lady is mistakenly considered to correspond to the queen.

Within the same suit (either trump or non-trump), the card with a higher ranking always beats the card of lower rank or value. Yet, whenever two non-trump cards of different suits are played, the first card played always wins regardless of its relative ranking or point value. If, instead, one card is a trump, it always wins, regardless of its relative ranking or point value.

As noted above, briscola can be played with any number of participants. For the sake of simplification, the most popular version--a four-player, two-team game--will be described here, although the same rules are applicable for two- and three-player games.

Before the game begins, one of the four players (as a courtesy, usually, the host) opens a new deck of cards and shuffles them thoroughly. He places one card, face up, in front of each player; the player with the highest ranking card becomes the dealer. (In case of a tie, a second card is placed in front of each tied player.)

The dealer takes the deck of cards, reshuffles them, places the deck in front of the player to his left who must "cut" them. The dealer then distributes three cards to each of the four players (either singly or all three at once), in a counterclockwise rotation, beginning with the player on his immediate right.

He then uncovers the thirteenth card and places it prominently in the center of the table. This card, regardless of its rank, identifies the trump suit, referred to as briscola. The remaining cards are usually placed, face down, as a stack on top of the trump card, but not obscuring it.

The game begins with the player to the dealer's immediate right, and goes around the table until the dealer has played last. Each round of four cards played constitutes una giocata (a hand). The winner of each hand gathers all four cards and places them, face down, on his side of the table (one of the partners is usually selected to accumulate all the cards won by either partner).

The winner of each hand is determined solely by the rank of the cards; of course, trump cards win over non-trump cards. The winner of each hand then draws one card from the deck. Then the others also draw one card, in sequence. Play continues until all the cards have been drawn.

Once the final cards are drawn, just before playing il gioco finale (the final hand), team members are permitted to exchange cards to learn what cards their partners possess. (In parts of Italy, more than one exchange may be permitted. Recently, I played with a group in Cattolica [ARTICLE LINK], a resort near Rimini, on the Adriatic Riviera, where cards were exchanged twice, once before the second hand, once before the final hand.) This traditional exchange of hands allows the two partners to develop the final strategy together and enables the stronger partner to direct the play of the other.

At the end of the game the total number of points is added up for each team, using the point values for the cards delineated above. At this time, trump cards have no greater value. As there are 30 points for each suit in a deck of briscola cards, the maximum number of points is 120. (It is extremely rare for a team to score un cappotto (a "skunk"), scoring 120 points in the first game.) The winner of the game is the team which scores 61 or more points. The winner of una partita (a set) is the first team to win two games.