Portugal is the only European country where the original playing card pattern, a Latin-suited deck whose single-headed courts and aces were characterized by some very typical features, has long since been discontinued, despite its design was able to exert a great influence overseas, as far as Brazil, Indonesia and Japan. Temporarily disregarding the aforesaid Portuguese-derived or 'foreign' patterns, the main versions known in Portugal were two: an early one, whose known specimens range in age from the mid 16th to the late 17th centuries, and a later design which lasted up to the 19th century. In this page, they are both described and compared. Today the standard cards played with in Portugal have French suits; their design, dealt with by the last paragraph of the page, has no relation at all with the traditional one, except for the names of the suits (as will be said further on).

THE LATIN-SUITED PORTUGUESE PATTERN

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NOTE the cards shown in this page belong to different decks; the ones labelled in the caption as (I), (II) and (III) respectively refer to: I - Portuguese cards manufactured by A. Infirrera, 1690-1700; II - uncut sheet of Portuguese cards, manufactured by the Real Fabrica of Lisbona, early 19th century; III - modern replica of a Portuguese pattern likely manufactured in Belgium, in c. 1860; the originals are all held by the Fournier Playing Card Museum of Alava (Spain). Other cards shown are described individually.

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The classic deck once used in Portugal consisted of 48 Latin-suited cards; its composition was similar to the Spanish pattern, but several differences marked a clear line between the two. Both of them likely sprang from common ancestors, i.e. the Moorish cards (late 14th-15th centuries, see also the Italy 2 deck), but due to the scarcity of surviving specimens, a number of issues are still under debate; it is even difficult to tell whether the Portuguese design should be considered aboriginal, or a development of the early Spanish one, or whether it was imported from a third country.
The earliest specimens known were likely printed during the first half of the 16th century. This is confirmed by the playing cards known as Tenshô karuta, the first ones ever devised in Japan, largely based on the decks that the Portuguese sailors had carried with them on board for killing time during the long voyage by sea (see the Japanese gallery); the same name karuta, from the Portuguese carta ("card"), accounts for the close relation. The first literary sources that mention Tenshô cards date back to about 1590-1600, but the original models from Portugal were taken to Japan several decades earlier, likely not much later than year 1542, when the first westeners reached the Asian country; in fact, by that time, the pattern should have already been well known in Portugal.

Another Oriental design strongly inspired by the Portuguese one existed in Indonesia, called Omi after the game played with them, with 40 cards, although this one too turned obsolete before the 20th century.
The same Portuguese design used to be popular also in southern Italy, including the island of Malta, with one important difference: the presence of indices, spelt in Italian (as will be said further on).


Interestingly, while historical and geographic reasons leave no doubt that the aforesaid Japanese and Indonesian patterns sprang from the Portuguese ones, a similar relation with the Italian versions cannot be proven; a reliable playing card historian such as Michael Dummett, recently ventured the hypothesis that the original pattern might have even been devised in Sicily, from where it could have reached Portugal subsequently, leaving the debate open to further development, as no historical data can presently confirm nor contradict this new scenario.

Initially, playing cards with an early Portuguese pattern were manufactured especially in Spain; in this country, card-making flourished much more than in Portugal, where the decks were mainly exported. It is likely that a part of these decks were taken to Italy, as well. The same makers also printed larger quantities of decks with their own national pattern, for the Spanish market. In similar situations, the weaker pattern usually subsides and then disappears in favour of the stronger one; but this did not happen to the Portuguese design. From 1580 to 1640 Portugal lost its independence to the Spanish rule, and the local card players kept preferring their own cards, also with the purpose of defending their national identity and traditions, what might have even led to an increased production of such decks.

(I) - ace of Coins	The most distinctive feature of the Portuguese pattern was the presence of a large dragon on each of the four aces; it had a long winding body, with short wings, and carried in its mouth the relevant suit sign, or pointed towards it. Apparently, the mythical creature was taken from the crest of a special congregation called the Order of the Dragon, founded in Portugal in 1418.	(II) - aces of Coins and Batons

from the left: Unsun karuta (17th cent.), Akahachi and Hikifuda (20th cent.)	This eye-catching detail became the indelible hallmark for the aces of all patterns sprung from the Portuguese one. Especially in Japanese patterns, in time the dragons grew more and more stylized and distorted, up to the point of turning into formless shapes, yet never completely dropped (see picture on the left).

Another well-known feature of the Portuguese deck was the use of a female knave, called sota (as its Spanish male equivalent). Its traditional look was that of a young woman wearing a large gown, richly embroidered on its front part. In decks up to the early 19th century, this personage never wore a crown, therefore, its rank could not be mistaken with that of a queen. However, in some of the latest decks, particularly the ones printed outside Portugal (see also the following paragraph) a crown appeared over the head of the female court, actually promoting it to a higher rank, i.e. second to the king.

(I) - the sota of Cups and Swords; note the indices at both ends of the cards

Whether there was a reason for raising the female knave's rank, or not, is difficult to tell. On the one hand, Portuguese cards were undoubtly influenced by the early Spanish pattern, in which the knave always ranked below the cavalier.

In all other patterns that drew from the Portuguese cards the female personages for the knaves, the latter are always the lowest among the three courts. It happens in the Sicilian tarot and in the now obsolete Minchiate, but also in the old Japanese patterns Tenshô and Unsun Karuta, in which the female knave was still labelled with its original name Sota. The same may be said for the Indonesian Omi deck, in which the Sota ranked below the Jarong ("horse") and the Rei ("king").		female knaves from Minchiate (left), Tenshô and Unsun Karuta decks

(I) - cavalier and king, in early Portuguese pattern

On the other hand, if in Portuguese decks the courts bore an index (this happened particularly in export editions for Italy), the female personage was marked "D", not "S"; in Italian this letter stood for Donna, "dame", or eventually Donha (in Portuguese), in either case referring to a honorific title, undoubtly with a higher social position than a simple knave. Still today in the centre and south of Italy many players call the queen of French-suited decks a donna, likely a reminiscence of the ancient denomination.

Furthermore, in some uncut sheets, the female knave was printed between the king and the cavalier, as if its ranking too had been the same (see the sample below).

If the aforesaid theory by Dummett about a Sicilian origin of this pattern was true, we may even think that the female court of the Portuguese deck may have sprung in southern Italy from a queen (i.e. a court found in the tarot deck), or a female knave (also this personage was sometimes found in very early tarots); then, once spread to Portugal, its rank may have been lowered, in order to match the structure of the Spanish deck, and let the local cards be used for the same games played in the neighbour country.

(II) - courts typical of the late stage; note the central position of the female personage

This is obviously a speculation, grounded on several clues, but not supported by any real evidence.

In early editions, the sotas of Swords and Batons were featured under the attack of an animal (respectively a small dragon and a dog, or maybe a wolf), i.e. as if they were using the suit sign for self-defense. In time this detail was changed: the ****, while by the sota of Batons appeared a small harmless-looking dog. However, a faint trace of the old attacking beast is still found in the Sicilian tarot pattern (picture below), whose female knave of Batons holds a bird in her free hand (see picture below), clearly a corruption of the original winged dragon. Also the other two courts underwent changes: in the early version the kings were seated on their thrones, and the cavaliers rode horses whose legs rested on the ground.

(III) - Portuguese courts made in Belgium for export

Sicilian female knave	In the later versions the kings were featured standing, and the cavalier's horses, less dispoportioned than the previous ones, were rampant, as the ones of the old Spanish pattern. The typical features of the Portuguese design also concerned the pip cards of the deck which used to be rather ornate, as still today they are in many Latin-suited pattern.

(III) - sample of pip cards from short suits

The most easily recognizable subject was the 2 of Batons, in which a young page sits behind the crossed pips, keeping his legs in a somewhat similar position. The suit of Cups was the one whose signs underwent the most noticeable change, sometime during the 18th century: initially they were rounded, due to the presence of a top or lid that covered them; then they lost the latter part, turning into chalice-shaped vessels.

The shape of Coins, Swords and Batons was not very different from the ones found in Spanish decks. But the same cannot be said about the arrangement of their pips. In particular, Swords and Batons constantly cross each others, unlike the Spanish ones, forming intersections covered by a large shield, in most cases decorated with a grotesque face.		(III) - typical Portuguese arrangement of the pips in long suits; note also the personage on the 2 of Batons

	Also the pip arrangement in the short suits, i.e. Coins and Cups, differed from the Spanish one: particularly in the last four cards (6 to 9), the Portuguese pips were arranged by horizontal lines, whereas the Spanish ones follow a vertical scheme. A horizontal arrangement of the pips is also found in traditional tarots. arrangement of short suit pips in Portuguese and old Spanish patterns

In the early version of the Portuguese pattern, though, the 6 of Coins had pips arranged diagonally; only the 3s maintained this direction in the later version.

The diagonal 6 of Coins became entrenched also in the Japanese playing card tradition; in fact, this arrangement is found in all patterns of this country in which the equivalent of the Portuguese suit of Coins is used (see the Japanese gallery for further information). the equivalent of the 6 of Coins in Japanese patterns: Kinseizan (Mekuri group) and Hikifuda (for the game of Tehonbiki)

Lastly, the classic cards once used in Portugal had no indices (neither in the early versions nor in the later ones), but the variant or variants used in southern Italy did have them: they featured on both ends of the card a digit and a letter, or two letters, respectively referred to the rank and suit of the card, enclosed in a small rectangle. The same kind of indices is now found in the Tarocco Siciliano, i.e. the regional tarot of Sicily, the only surviving Portuguese (or Portuguese-like) pattern in Europe.



THE FRENCH-SUITED PORTUGUESE PATTERN

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The Portuguese players began to show an interest towards French playing cards since the early 19th century. Several variants appeared, none of which bound to become successful, yet the use of the old Spanish-suited cards went on subsiding, until by the turn of the 20th century the latter became completely obsolete. Nevertheless, the names of the four Spanish suits were maintained also in French-suited decks, so that Diamonds, Hearts, Spades and Clubs in Portugal and Brazil are still curiously referred to as Ouros, Copas, Espadas and Paus, respectively.

In the 1920s the main manufacturer, Litografia Maia, created a further design that managed to remain stable for the rest of the century, and therefore is the only candidate left for the position of 'national pattern'. It has double-headed courts, reminiscent of the Belgian-Genoese pattern, with French indices (V, D, R) that happen to match the local names of the courts (Valete, Dama, Rei), thus can be considered Portuguese, as well. The most interesting feature of the deck is the lack of 7s: each suit has pip cards from A (ace, i.e. not 1, as standard French cards have) to 6, then 8, and ends with the three aforesaid courts.

modern Portuguese national pattern

Also 52-card decks are popular in Portugal: their design is similar to the aforesaid one, with many details in common, yet not exactly the same pattern.

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GLOSSARY

	actual translation

CARTAS DA JOGAR		PLAYING CARDS
BARALHO		DECK
NAIPES	Spanish for "playing cards"	SUITS
FIGURAS	pictures	COURT CARDS
OUROS	gold	COINS / DIAMONDS
COPAS		CUPS / HEARTS
ESPADAS		SWORDS / SPADES
PAUS		BATONS / CLUBS
ÁS		ACE
SOTA		KNAVE (Spanish-suited decks)
VALETE		JACK (French-suited decks)
CAVALO	horse	HORSEMAN (CAVALIER)
RAINHA / DONHA	queen / dame	QUEEN
REI		KING

INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY	MULTI-LANGUAGE GLOSSARY	THE FOOL & THE JOKER	INDEX TABLE	REGIONAL GAMES	PLAYING CARD LINKS