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Ancient Italian Tarots
(Antichi Tarocchi Italiani)
Based on a deck which
has survived from 1880, by the company Cartiera Italiana in Serravalle
Sesia, this historical reproduction deck allows tarotists of the modern
age the chance to work with (play with, etc) deck designs which may have
been used by the "founding fathers" of the tarot. While we know that
they worked with European "Marseilles" style tarot decks, nicer decks like
this one also existed and were used by many people who preferred the more
delicate "engraved" images to the cruder woodblock designs which were the
norm for the earlier decks. I know I personally like them better.
I have reviewed other decks of this style, which are often titled "Soprafino"
tarots because of the finely detailed designs, and have always liked their
images best.
This deck, which is an
actual reproduction of a copy from which the newer "Classical Tarots" was
also drawn, has a weathered, antique look to it, like a parchment paper
or faded old book. None of the errors from the original have been
corrected, so you have all of the flavor of the original printing, including
the typographical mistakes and inconsistencies. Still, this adds
to the charm rather than takes away from it, especially for collectors
of historical decks.
The cards in the Major
Arcana follow all the traditions as far as titles and ordering, but it
is the little details that I like so much in this deck that make it different
from your usual Marseilles type deck. For example, as I sit here
looking at the Sun (always my favorite card in any soprafino deck) I see
that the image looks very vividly colored, even though technically no more
colors were used in this deck than in a woodblock deck. It's simply
that the areas of color are gradient instead of bold blocks of color, giving
a more subtle effect. Instead of just showing two youths playing
in an open field, or yard, this shows a young man and woman or girl, dancing
on a lovely marble-railed terrace, with green grass and flowers in the
foreground on either side of them, with large marble vases filled with
flowers which have been placed on key points of the terrace rail; I believe
I see the Mediterranean (or other body of water) peeking over the edge
of the railing, and the sun is shown bursting in rays through the clouds,
giving the day the effect of "god-lights" or a sense of divine good-will
which lends a great deal of atmosphere to the image overall.
Furthermore, the image
is framed with a text box at both the top and bottom of the card, and the
number of the card appears in Roman numerals at the top in the center,
and upside down, in the lower left corner of the card, so that it would
show up when the card was reversed. The card *also* features the
Arabic numerals at the top left and right corners, and upside down in the
lower right corner, so that whichever way you are looking at the card,
you have at least one copy of the numbers in both Roman and Arabic.
This is one of the very few decks I've ever seen which used both series
of numbers simultaneously. It is also painstakingly clear at this
point that reversals were meant to be used by the deck's designers.
This is the case with every single card in the Major Arcana, except the
Fool which is numbered 0 and for which there is no Roman numeral.
The Minor Arcana follow
even more strongly the Marseilles style with their numbered pip cards.
The Ace features a highly ornamental suit icon which is then repeated in
smaller form throughout the rest of the numbered cards. This means
that the Seven of Cups has an image of, you guessed it, seven ornamental
cups arranged in a geometric pattern on the card. As is typical with
European decks, there are twining flowers and vines in between the cups
and scrollwork adorning the various numbered cards in other suits.
The Arabic numeral for each card is placed along the left and right side
of each card, dead center vertically. On some cards the number has
a period after it, on other cards it does not. Suits are Cups, Coins,
Batons and Swords. Court titles are King, Queen, Cavalier (Knight)
and Valet (Page).
The cards themselves
are slightly smaller than standard sized but are nice and comfortable in
the hand and shuffle really nicely since they are quite flexible.
The cardstock is lightly coated on both sides for protection. The
edges feel as though they are cut smoothly and were buffed somewhat but
I notice if you take whole sections of the deck and change them around
(such as re-ordering the suits) then the edges no longer line up, as if
they were smoothed in order and as soon as you change the order all bets
are off. The corners are cut rounded but very barely so. A
very small, tight red-on-pink diamond pattern graces the back,
this would be reversible. Instead of a little white booklet, the
deck comes with the usual 9 cards printed front and back with instructions
in five languages that was common among LoScarabeo decks previously to
1999.
I recommend this deck
to anyone who collects historical decks, because it's such a pretty alternative
to the usual Marseilles decks. Many people actually read with Marseilles
decks, especially those who are studying esoteric roots and also those
who work in more fortunetelling styles; this deck will make a very nice
change of pace. I don't recommend it as a beginner deck, but only
because of the dearth of reading material available on such decks.
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Review Copyright 2000
by Gina M. Pace
Ancient Italian Tarots
(Serravalle Sesia), 1996
published by LoScarabeo,
Torino, Italy