Cuccù. Masenghini, Italy. Bespoke gaming deck, 40 cards + rules sheet. Size: 52mm x 93mm.
Deck make-up:
Cards (two of each): hunter ("you took a bribe"), horse ("jump"), cat ("meow"), tavern ("stop for a while"), X, VIIII, VIII, VII, VI, V, IIII, III, II, I, nulla ("nothing"), pail ("a bucket of less than nothing"), mask ("mask – not even a bucket"), lion, matto ("fool"), cucco ("cuckoo").
The cuccù (sometimes spelled "cucù ") deck is a bespoke pack of cards for playing a traditional Italian game of the same name (the name means, you guessed it, "cuckoo" in Italian). It originally appeared in the 17th century, perhaps earlier, and was the first non-suited card deck to ever appear. Due to the game's popularity with sailors and merchants, the game has relations in Austria and Germany (vogelspiel / hexenspiel ), Netherlands (slabberjan ), Sweden (kille ), and Denmark and Norway (gnav , a game also played with wooden pieces instead of cards). The (Italian) cuccù deck today is only made by one manufacturer (Masenghini, as here).
The pack consists of cards numbered from 10 down to 1, with their ranks illustrated in a simple fashion (in Roman numerals). Then there are cards numbered higher than these, from 15 down to 11 – these cards are more richly illustrated and cause special things to happen during play; their contents are, apparently, things a person might encounter when out for a walk – a hunter, a horse, a cat, and a tavern. Below the 1, there are additional picture cards which are ranked still lower: "nulla" is 0, "pail" is -1, "mask" is -2, "lion" is -3. There is also a fool which ranks differently at the end of a game depending on whether one or two have shown up in play. Each of the cards in the pack has two copies.
In the game, a player is dealt a card unseen by the other players. The player can choose to keep it or try to pass it on in exchange, again unseen, with the next player. The dealer deals a card to this next player and if this new card is an 10 or lower (including the fool, the nulla and the minus cards), the two players in question exchange cards. If the newly dealt card has another rank, the exchange may be affected and the receiving player usually also has to perform an action, as follows:
| Card | Action on being challenged |
|---|---|
| Cuckoo (XV) | Holder says, "Cuckoo!" and no exchange takes place. |
| Hunter (XIIII) | Holder says, "Bang!" or mimes shooting at the other player, no exchange takes place and the exchanger loses a counter. |
| Horse (XIII) | Holder neighs or makes a galloping sound, and exchanger must try and swap with the next in line. |
| Cat (XII) | Holder meows. The exchanger loses a counter and, if the exchanger received a card as an exchange, all the exchanges to date are reversed. |
| Tavern (XI) | Holder says, "Will you stop for a while?" (or similar). Exchanger may try to encourage a swap, which may or may not be accepted. |
| I to X, nulla, pail, mask, lion, fool | Cards exchanged. |
Once all around the table have had a chance to exchange, the players expose their cards and the lowest one loses a counter. (In the case of fools being shown – if one player has a fool, it ranks equal to the lowest card in play and both players lose a counter; if two players have fools, they become high cards worth 14½.) Play continues until everybody is out except the winner.
The game is flexible and talking and bluffing are encouraged.
In reality these days, this deck tends to be more frequently used for two games unrelated to cuccù: Cöch is a four-player partnership trick-taking game (confusingly also known as cucco ) whereas zifuli is a variant of this for five players.
Click on any card to explore the design.
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Card image size, below:
Originally, the cuccù deck did not have the lion card. When this card did first appear, it was called cacaccio and apparently showed a man defecating! This was due to its status as being the lowest card in the pack, featuring a person so poor he can't even afford a bucket to take his dump in. At some point, this card was changed to the current lion-with-shield design; the "lion rampant" being a symbol of Brescia (it's on the city's coat of arms), which is presumably where this change was first made. Unsurprisingly, the card is promoted to be worth rather more points in this location!
I'm not the first person to point this out but the cuckoo, as shown on the cards, would actually seem to be an owl (with rather odd wings). The reasons for this oddity do not seem to be known for certain, but I would point out that the deck for the related game, gnav, does actually have an owl card (as well as the cuckoo) and my guess is that this is not entirely unrelated.
The hunter card seems to feature him carrying a rose – why not something to do with hunting?