XV century Italian playing cards

Above: eighteen cards from a pack of an early form of north Italian playing cards, with the swords back-to-back and curved outwards. Believed to be Venetian, dated 1462.

Kings seated on thrones is a format found in other early Italian cards, as well as early Swiss and German cards. By the 15th century there was interchange of Italian and Spanish suited cards across the Alps.

Cards courtesy of the Museo "Fournier" de Naipes de Alava.

Images on this page of cards in the Museo "Fournier" de Naipes de Alava (Diputación Foral de Alava, Cuchillería 54, 01001 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain) are taken from Suarez Alba (1991) and used with permission.