Chu chu, Cu cù, Cucco, Cöch
Stù, Gnaf, Bum, Cacaccio
cuckoo-type games of Northern Italy

Though there is strong evidence that the South German/Austrian, the Swedish/Finnish and the Danish/Norwegian branches of this game family independently derives from an Italian prototype, all these share two features that are not found in any known Italian variant. This leads to the awkward postulation of two Italian sub-branches: C1 represented by the surviving sets and C2 which does not have any surviving instances, but can be reconstructed based on similarities between its descendants outside Italy. The relation between these is unclear, it is not even clear which one is the earliest.

17th century Venetian design for use with wooden pawns by Stefano Scoliari Possibly Venetian deck from c. 1770–1780 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France Bolognese deck preserved as an uncoloured and uncut sheet in the British museum Deck by Gumppenberg, Milan c. 1846

The first peculiarity of the C1 branch is that the number cards only go to ten, unlike in all other branches where they go to twelve. The matadors (the term for trumps or cards beating the numerals in Gnav) are sometimes also numbered, extending the number cards with values from 11 to 15. This leads to the second peculiarity, that – at least in the explicitly numbered versions – the horse outranks the cat, unlike in all other branches.

The C1 branch also occurs both as playing cards and as wooden pawns with a circular emblem stuck to the underside. As this feature is shared with Gnav, it must also have been present in C2; even though Vogelspiel and Kille both only appear as cards, and Slabberjan only as pawns. The latter presumably derives from an early version of Gnav though, and not directly from C2.

The numeral card zero is in most sets written as the letter O with the word nulla inside. In some the letter is replaced with a wreath, and in some of these the word is placed below instead, as in other cards with titles. This latter form seems to be the inspiration for the corresponding Kille card.

Early decks had two copies of 19 unique subjects, and all non-Italian decks are based on this set. Some later sets adds a 20th card, seemingly developed from an elaborate title card showing a standing lion, but took the position as the lowest card except Matto. In some decks the same position was filled by a picture of a defecating man.

Other decks in the British Museum