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Spanish-suited playing cards
Spanish-suited playing cards or Spanish-suited cards have four suits, and a deck is usually made up of 40 or 48 cards (or even 50 by including two jokers). It is categorized as a Latin-suited deck and has strong similarities with the Portuguese-suited deck, Italian-suited deck and some French decks. Spanish-suited cards are used in Spain, Italy, parts of France, Hispanic America, North Africa, and the Philippines.
Playing cards, originally of Chinese origin, were adopted in Mamluk Egypt by the 14th century if not earlier, and from there spread to the Iberian peninsula. The Spanish word naipes (playing cards) is a loan word from nā'ib, ranks of face cards found in the Mamluk deck. The earliest record of naip comes from a Valencian rhyming dictionary by Jaume March II in 1371, but without any context or definition. By 1380, naipero (card-maker) was a recognized profession. In December 1382, card games were banned from being played in Barcelona's corn exchange. Valencia's town council issued a blanket ban on un novell joch apellat dels naips (a new game called cards) in 1384.
"Moorish-styled" cards were produced in Catalonia during the late 14th or early 15th century. Unlike modern Spanish decks, there was a rank consisting of 10 pips suggesting that the earliest Spanish packs consisted of 52 cards. The removal of one rank shortened the deck to 48 which made card production simpler: a whole deck could be made with just two uncut sheets. 48-card decks have nine ranks of pip cards (1–9) and three ranks of face cards (10–12). Since the mid-20th century, they have usually been sold with two jokers, for a total of 50 cards. Stripped decks have 40 cards, lacking ranks 8 and 9 and jokers. The popularity of the stripped deck is due to game of ombre, which became a craze throughout Europe during the 17th century.
The Spanish suits closely resemble Italian-suited cards as both were derived from the "Moorish-styled" cards. The four suits are bastos (clubs), oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins), copas (cups) and espadas (swords). Unlike the suits found in northern Italy, Spanish swords are straight and the clubs resemble knobbly cudgels instead of ceremonial batons. Swords and clubs also do not intersect (except in the 3 of clubs card). Two surviving early decks did have intersecting clubs and swords as in Italian or Mamluk cards. The Spanish may have separated the pips in the 15th century to make them more easily distinguishable (some export cards kept the intersecting pips, such as the Portuguese deck). Each card has an outline frame to distinguish the suit without showing all of your cards: The cups have one interruption, the swords two, the clubs three, and the coins none. This mark is called "la pinta" and gave rise to the expression: le conocí por la pinta ("I knew him by his markings"). La pinta first appeared around the mid-17th century. Like the Italian-suited tarot, the deck is used for both game playing and cartomancy. The Spanish deck has been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Hispanic American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain.
The three face cards of each suit have pictures similar to the jack, queen, and king in the French deck, and rank identically. They are the sota, which is similar to the jack/knave and generally depicts a page or squire, the caballo (knight, literally "horse"), and the rey (king) respectively. There are instances of historical decks having both caballo and reina (queen), the caballo being of lower value than queen. These decks have no numbers in the figure values, not even letters as in the French deck. Reversible face cards exist but are not popular. It is also possible to find 52-card French decks with Spanish pictures. These have English corner indices which means the Knight will have the Queen's "Q" index.
In the 16th century, Spain became the first country to tax playing cards. The various regions kept track of the taxes they were owed by requiring producers, who were often monopolies (estanco), to conform to a regional pattern for cards sold locally. Known regional patterns include the Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Navarre, Valencia, and Catalonia patterns. There were also export patterns, possibly including the little known Toulouse/Girona pattern or the "Dragon cards". Spain and France exported cards to each other, which explains why the kings and jacks in French-suited face cards resemble their Spanish counterparts, notably the standing kings. There was some deliberate copying; the king of coins from the Seville and Franco-Spanish patterns is near identical to the king of hearts in the French-suited Rouen pattern, which was exported to England and through centuries of bad reproduction became known as the "suicide king".
Standard patterns are card designs in the public domain that have been printed by multiple publishers in the past or present. These are regional patterns that are still in use today. Decks with 50 cards have two jokers.
The Castilian pattern is the most widespread pattern in Spain. It was designed and published by Heraclio Fournier in 1889 and by the early 20th century had displaced the older patterns in Spain. Fournier made some noticeable innovations to Spanish cards such as giving the kings beards, adding faces to the coins, dagger-like swords, and red cups. Figures wear fantastic pseudo-medieval costumes. Decks come in packs of 40 or 50 cards.
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Spanish-suited playing cards
Spanish-suited playing cards or Spanish-suited cards have four suits, and a deck is usually made up of 40 or 48 cards (or even 50 by including two jokers). It is categorized as a Latin-suited deck and has strong similarities with the Portuguese-suited deck, Italian-suited deck and some French decks. Spanish-suited cards are used in Spain, Italy, parts of France, Hispanic America, North Africa, and the Philippines.
Playing cards, originally of Chinese origin, were adopted in Mamluk Egypt by the 14th century if not earlier, and from there spread to the Iberian peninsula. The Spanish word naipes (playing cards) is a loan word from nā'ib, ranks of face cards found in the Mamluk deck. The earliest record of naip comes from a Valencian rhyming dictionary by Jaume March II in 1371, but without any context or definition. By 1380, naipero (card-maker) was a recognized profession. In December 1382, card games were banned from being played in Barcelona's corn exchange. Valencia's town council issued a blanket ban on un novell joch apellat dels naips (a new game called cards) in 1384.
"Moorish-styled" cards were produced in Catalonia during the late 14th or early 15th century. Unlike modern Spanish decks, there was a rank consisting of 10 pips suggesting that the earliest Spanish packs consisted of 52 cards. The removal of one rank shortened the deck to 48 which made card production simpler: a whole deck could be made with just two uncut sheets. 48-card decks have nine ranks of pip cards (1–9) and three ranks of face cards (10–12). Since the mid-20th century, they have usually been sold with two jokers, for a total of 50 cards. Stripped decks have 40 cards, lacking ranks 8 and 9 and jokers. The popularity of the stripped deck is due to game of ombre, which became a craze throughout Europe during the 17th century.
The Spanish suits closely resemble Italian-suited cards as both were derived from the "Moorish-styled" cards. The four suits are bastos (clubs), oros (literally "golds", that is, golden coins), copas (cups) and espadas (swords). Unlike the suits found in northern Italy, Spanish swords are straight and the clubs resemble knobbly cudgels instead of ceremonial batons. Swords and clubs also do not intersect (except in the 3 of clubs card). Two surviving early decks did have intersecting clubs and swords as in Italian or Mamluk cards. The Spanish may have separated the pips in the 15th century to make them more easily distinguishable (some export cards kept the intersecting pips, such as the Portuguese deck). Each card has an outline frame to distinguish the suit without showing all of your cards: The cups have one interruption, the swords two, the clubs three, and the coins none. This mark is called "la pinta" and gave rise to the expression: le conocí por la pinta ("I knew him by his markings"). La pinta first appeared around the mid-17th century. Like the Italian-suited tarot, the deck is used for both game playing and cartomancy. The Spanish deck has been widely considered to be part of the occult in many Hispanic American countries, yet they continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain.
The three face cards of each suit have pictures similar to the jack, queen, and king in the French deck, and rank identically. They are the sota, which is similar to the jack/knave and generally depicts a page or squire, the caballo (knight, literally "horse"), and the rey (king) respectively. There are instances of historical decks having both caballo and reina (queen), the caballo being of lower value than queen. These decks have no numbers in the figure values, not even letters as in the French deck. Reversible face cards exist but are not popular. It is also possible to find 52-card French decks with Spanish pictures. These have English corner indices which means the Knight will have the Queen's "Q" index.
In the 16th century, Spain became the first country to tax playing cards. The various regions kept track of the taxes they were owed by requiring producers, who were often monopolies (estanco), to conform to a regional pattern for cards sold locally. Known regional patterns include the Seville, Madrid, Toledo, Navarre, Valencia, and Catalonia patterns. There were also export patterns, possibly including the little known Toulouse/Girona pattern or the "Dragon cards". Spain and France exported cards to each other, which explains why the kings and jacks in French-suited face cards resemble their Spanish counterparts, notably the standing kings. There was some deliberate copying; the king of coins from the Seville and Franco-Spanish patterns is near identical to the king of hearts in the French-suited Rouen pattern, which was exported to England and through centuries of bad reproduction became known as the "suicide king".
Standard patterns are card designs in the public domain that have been printed by multiple publishers in the past or present. These are regional patterns that are still in use today. Decks with 50 cards have two jokers.
The Castilian pattern is the most widespread pattern in Spain. It was designed and published by Heraclio Fournier in 1889 and by the early 20th century had displaced the older patterns in Spain. Fournier made some noticeable innovations to Spanish cards such as giving the kings beards, adding faces to the coins, dagger-like swords, and red cups. Figures wear fantastic pseudo-medieval costumes. Decks come in packs of 40 or 50 cards.