Neapolitan cards: suits, values and games to play
The Neapolitan deck has 40 cards in Latin suits. Suits, court cards, card values in briscola, scopa, tressette and sette e mezzo, and the French-suit match.
Carte napoletane (Neapolitan cards) are the most widely used regional deck in Italy. A pack has 40 cards in four Latin suits of ten: denari (coins), coppe (cups), spade (swords) and bastoni (clubs). Each suit runs from ace to 7, plus three court cards: fante (knave), cavallo (knight) and re (king). There are no 8s, 9s or 10s, and no jokers.
The design follows Spanish-suited cards, a legacy of centuries of Spanish influence in southern Italy: straight swords, cudgel-shaped clubs and round cups. A few cards are famous in their own right: the ace of coins shows a double-headed eagle, and the 3 of clubs carries a grotesque mask that players call Gatto Mammone.
| Game | How the cards count |
|---|---|
| Briscola | Ace 11, three 10, king 4, knight 3, knave 2; 120 points in all |
| Scopa | 1 to 7 at face value, knave 8, knight 9, king 10 |
| Tressette | The three ranks highest, then the two and the ace; 11 points per hand |
| Sette e mezzo | Court cards count half a point; the king of coins is the wild matta |
You can play all of these with a standard poker deck. Remove the 8s, 9s, 10s and jokers: diamonds stand for coins, hearts for cups, spades for swords and clubs for batons, while the J, Q and K replace the knave, knight and king.
We don't sell Neapolitan cards, but any French-suited deck from our playing cards range will do the job.
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