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The Cartas ("cards"), also known as Baraja Espaola ("Spanish deck"), are the playing
cards associated with Spain. They have four suits and a deck is usually made up of 40 or 48
cards.

It is categorized as a Latin deck and has strong similarities with the Italian deck and less to
the French deck. Spanish-suited cards are used in Spain, southern Italy, parts of
France, Hispanic America, North Africa, and the Philippines.[1][2]

Contents
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1Description

2Extinct Portuguese pattern

3Current standard patterns

o 3.1Castilian pattern

o 3.2Spanish National pattern

o 3.3Franco-Spanish pattern

o 3.4Madrid pattern

o 3.5Sardinian pattern

o 3.6Tarocco Siciliano

4Games

5See also

6References

7Further reading

Description[edit]
Toledo pattern cards from 1574. They are closely related to the Seville and Franco-Spanish patterns.

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 in the latter half of the
14th century. The Spanish word naipes is loaned from n'ib, ranks of face cards found in the
Mamluk deck. The earliest record of naip comes from a Catalan rhyming dictionary by Jaume
March II in 1371. "Moorish-styled" cards were once produced in Catalonia during the late
14th or early 15th century.[3] 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.

The suits closely resemble those of northern Italian cards and Italian tarot decks.[4] In fact, the
Baraja, like the tarot, are used for both game playing and cartomancy. The Baraja have been
widely considered to be part of the occult in many Latin American countries, yet they
continue to be used widely for card games and gambling, especially in Spain. Among other
places, the Baraja have appeared in One Hundred Years of Solitude and other Spanish
and Latin American literature (e.g., Viaje a la Alcarria by Camilo Jos Cela).
Valencia pattern cards from 1778. They are closely related to the Old Catalan pattern.

48-card decks have nine ranks of pip cards (1-9) and three ranks of face cards (10-12). They
are usually sold with two comodines (Jokers) for a total of 50 cards. Stripped decks have 40
cards and lack ranks 8, 9 and comodines. 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 don't intersect (except in the 3 of clubs card).
The popularity of the stripped deck is due to game of Ombre which became a craze
throughout Europe during the 17th century. 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 gold none. This mark is called "la pinta" and gave rise to the
expression: le conoc por la pinta ("I knew him by his markings"). La pinta first appeared
around the mid-17th century.

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.

Historically, Spain was split into several independent states. Even after these states began
sharing the same monarchy, they maintained their own separate parliaments, laws, and
taxes for several centuries. In the 16th century, Spain became the first country to tax playing
cards. The various regions and states 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, Valencia, and
Catalonia patterns. There were also export patterns, possibly including the little known
Toulouse/Girona pattern[5] or the "Dragon cards" (see below). 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". [6]

Extinct Portuguese pattern[edit]

Knights from the early version of the Portuguese pattern (1693).

Latin-suited cards (with cups, swords, coins and clubs like in Spain) were also used
in Portugal since the late Middle Ages until the late 19th and early 20th centuries when these
cards were abandoned in favour of the French deck.[7] Popular games
like Arrenegada (Portuguese name for Ombre), Bisca (Portuguese name for briscola)
and Sueca, which were played with Latin-suited cards, had to be adapted to the new French-
suited cards.[8]Thus:

the old suit names were attributed to the new suits - this is the reason why
Portuguese names for suits don't match the suit drawings. In Portuguese, the Hearts suit
 is called Copas ("cups"), the Spades suit is called Espadas ("swords"), the Diamonds
suit is called Ouros ("gold coins"), and the Clubs suit is called Paus ("clubs" or "sticks").

the new face cards (King, Queen, Jack) had also to match the old ones (King, Knight,
Knave). The King match was an obvious one, but the Queen was held for the lower court
card because the old Portuguese sotas were female, and so it was matched with the
Knave. The Jack was thought to be the Knight (Cavalier). Thus, in traditional Portuguese
games, the cards usually rank King-Jack-Queen.

Both conventions mentioned above are also practiced in Malta which once used Portuguese-
suited decks.[9] The extinct Portuguese deck featured straight swords and knobbly clubs like
the Spanish suits but intersected them like the northern Italian suits. The Aces featured
dragons, the kings were seated, and the knaves were all distinctly female. The closest living
relative of the Portuguese deck is the Sicilian Tarot which has these features minus the Aces.
The extinct Minchiate deck also shared some features. This system was believed to have
originated in Spain as an export pattern.[10] The Spanish spread it to Portugal, southern Italy,
Malta,[11] the Spanish Netherlands,[12] and as far as Peru[13] but was probably never popular in
its homeland. Instead of using la pinta, these decks used abbreviations as indices at the top
and sometimes also the bottom of the card. A difference between the Portuguese and "Italo-
Portuguese" patterns was that the Portuguese decks lacked rank 10 pip cards like the
Spanish patterns, while "Italo-Portuguese" decks have them like northern Italian patterns.

In 1769, the Real Fbrica de Cartas de Jogar was set up in Lisbon to manufacture cards.
[14]
They made several graphical changes such as getting rid of indices and making the kings
stand like their Spanish counterparts.[15][16][17] When domestic production shut down around
1870, manufacture shifted abroad, mostly to Belgium and Germany where makers
introduced further changes.[18][19]

The Portuguese spread their cards to Brazil[20][21] and Java[22] where they were also abandoned
in favor of the French deck.[23]Portuguese decks also started the development of karuta in
Japan[24] though most decks bear little resemblance to their ancestor.

Current standard patterns[edit]

Standard patterns are card designs in the public domain that have been printed by multiple
publishers in the past or present.[25]These are regional patterns that are still in use today.
Decks with 50 cards have two jokers.

Castilian pattern[edit]
Knave of coins, Castilian (left) and Mexican (right)

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. Despite being called Castilian, the cards were first produced in Fournier's
headquarters in Vitoria-Gasteiz, the capital of the Basque Country.[26] 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.

The Mexican pattern was derived from the Castilian in 1923 by Clemente Jacques.[27] The
knights wear wide brim hats but its most notable feature is the conversion of all the knaves to
females.[28] They come in decks of 40 cards but 50 card decks were once produced.[29]

Spanish National pattern[edit]

The Spanish National pattern, also known as the Old Catalan pattern, emerged in the 17th
century from Barcelona and was chosen as the national and export pattern by the Real
Fabrica monopoly during the late 18th century.[30] This decision meant that the Madrid,
Toledo, Valencia, and Seville patterns were no longer printed. After the collapse of the Real
Fabrica during the Peninsular War, the pattern in its pure form ceased printing in its native
country but led to the birth of the various daughter patterns described below. It is currently
found in North Africa, especially in Morocco and Algeria, and Ecuador.[31][32] Kings wear long
robes that go all the way down to la pinta. Usually, the knave of coins features a goat
(originally a dog) tethered to a pole in the background like in the Parisian Spanish pattern.
Sometimes the knight of cups has the archaic inscription "AHI VA" printed on it. They are
found in decks of 40 or 48 cards.

The Cdiz pattern is now found in the Philippines and parts of Hispanic America.[33] It was
derived from the Spanish National pattern.[34] It was never popular in its home country and
was created primarily as an export to the colonies. It uses the old golden chalice of the
Spanish National pattern and the knight of cups has the archaic inscription "AHI VA" printed
on it. Kings wear long robes that expose their feet. They are found in decks of 40 or 50 cards.
Modern Spanish Catalan pattern kings

The Modern Spanish Catalan pattern is the second most widespread pattern in Spain and
is very common in Hispanic America.[35] The most distinguishing feature is the shape of the
cups which now resemble yellow and green egg cups. Kings' robes are parted to expose
their calves. They come in decks of 40 or 50 cards.

The French Catalan pattern also emerged from the Spanish National pattern.[36][37] It kept the
original shape of the golden cups but added beards to the kings. Kings wear long robes that
completely obscure their legs and feet. As of 2016, Duc