Minchiate

About

Minchiate is a card game from Italy with 97 cards, most likely invented in the 15th century in Florence, though its exact date is unknown. The earliest mention known dates from 1466. The cards were largely based on Tarot, at the time known as Tarocchi in Italy, by expanding the trump suit to 40 trumps. It was also known as Germini and Gallerini in other parts of Italy. It was played up until the 1930s. Over time, numerous of games played with the very same deck were known as Minchiate, some including partnership and some not, and also differing in numbers of players. Minchiate games are all trick taking games of the Tarot family, although they introduce a few features that are unique and exclusive to Minchiate. Among these are scoring points for certain combinations of cards won in tricks, named 'versicole', and a different distribution of point values for the cards. There were also a few gambling games played with the Minchiate deck not from the tarot family of card games, among them 'Al Palio' and 'A sei tocchi'.

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