This is a really nice little deck, but is not a tarot in any real sense of the word.  This would fit in the category with other small fortunetelling decks like the Mademoiselle Lenormand Fortune Telling Cards and the Gypsy Fortune Telling Tarot Kit.  It translates to the Ancient Italian Sybils.  Basically this is a reproduction of your typical, average fortunetelling deck used around 1860.  The title card that comes with the set says that the deck that this was modeled after is from 1860.  There are a total of 32 cards in this deck.  The artwork is excellent, in the style of soprafino engraved decks.
 
Since this is not a tarot deck, there are no Major or Minor Arcana, no court or suit cards.  All 32 cards in the deck have lovely full color scenic engraved illustrations of people in everyday life and dress of the times.  Each card has an image inserted in the upper left corner of the image, of the playing card to which it corresponds.  None of the cards are titled or numbered save for the corresponding playing card.  Under each illustration is a small rhyme or quotation which helps to clue the reader in to the meaning of the card.  Unfortunately, these are all in Italian.
 
I would list the titles for comparison, if there were any.  The deck seems rather vague and difficult to use unless one were so accustomed to reading with this type of deck that you could substitute it for another of similar nature.  Many of the scenes are intuitive in nature, however without a title it's entirely impossible to illustrate this point in a review.  I've picked some of the most intuitive cards for the scan and I hope this comes out well enough to be understood by looking at them.
 
The cards themselves are small like standard playing cards, printed on a good flexible cardstock with a nice matte coating for protection.  The edges are smooth and the corners well-rounded.  This deck does shuffle and handle very nicely, partly due to its smaller size, and in part because there are fewer cards.  The back design is a small-patterned weave design with ovals set in it.  This design is reversible.  A very scanty set of instructions, in Italian, is on the back of the title card.

I recommend this deck mainly as a collectible, but anyone who is interested in fortunetelling type decks may enjoy working with and playing with this one.  A historical collection would probably be more complete with this deck in it.  I would not recommend it for the beginner, but it is lovely enough that it is worth having just for the artwork.

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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

Antica Sibilla Italiana, 1996
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy.