Tarocchi Dei Visconti
 
This deck is a reproduction of the Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards which has been published by Dal Negro.  The original Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards are over 500 years old and reside in several private and museum collections around the world.  Another reproduction of these same cards is available from US Games, but this edition is larger in both card size and detailing, and is an excellent choice if you are a collector of antique and historical tarots.
 
The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards were hand painted by commission, some say by Bonifacio Bembo, for the Visconti families in the early to mid-fifteenth century.  The original cards were actually treated with gold-leaf and many of the figures in the Major Arcana and court cards of the deck are actually portraits of celebrated members of the family.  It should be noted that this deck is a reproduction of the original cards the way they appear *today* and not a restoration of how they were when they were new; therefore, detailing is lost in spots and there are faded and distressed areas.  The gold foil areas are a dullish metallic color rather than a real gold look since the original gold has, of course, tarnished and dulled.  In some places the colors of the figures' clothing seems to disappear against the colors of the backgrounds; whether this was the case with the originals or not is hard to say.
 
Since these are a reproduction of the oldest deck of tarot cards which are still known to be in existence, it would be an insult to say they follow any tarot model; more like they *set* the trend than follow it!  There are the Major Arcana cards, all 22 of them (please note, the original Devil card and Tower card either no longer exist, or never did, so the cards created for this deck are *not* reproductions of cards from the same deck or by the same artist as the rest of the deck).  None of the cards in this deck, nor in the original, have any titles or numbers on them.  The cards merely contain the images themselves.  However, the ordering seems to follow what is commonly used for the Marseille style tarots.  The card which can be assumed to be Justice is 8th, and the Strength card is 11th.  The nice thing is, with no numbers, you can arrange them however you like.
 
The Minor Arcana in this deck are similarly untitled or numbered.  The suits seem to be the traditional Swords, Batons, Cups and Coins.  The numbered cards are simply pip cards; arrangements of the suit icons against a plain cream-colored background with pretty flower and leafy vine detail swirled around them.  The first five numbered cards in the Swords and in the Batons bear a banner swirled around their center which reads "A Bon Droyt" which was the motto for the Visconti-Sforza families.  It is also on the Coins cards 2 through 5 and in the Cups suit on the number 4 card only.  Court cards are done like the Major Arcana, full portrait-type pictures with the (tarnished) gold foil backgrounds.  They are not titled either but seem to be the usual King, Queen, Knight and Page.
 
The cards themselves are large but printed on a thin and flexible cardstock so they handle and shuffle fairly decently for being 7 inches long.  At this size, however, I almost tend to view them as a coffee table specimen rather than something to actually read with.  There are smaller versions of this deck available which would be more comfortable for reading with.  The back design of this deck is simply a plain solid dark red color which is obviously reversible.  A thin semi-gloss coating protects the deck.  The booklet which comes with this deck is printed all in Italian.  There is an out-of-print book titled "The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards" by Geraldine Moakley which can still be found in the used book sources online and which comes up often on eBay (www.ebay.com) as well; this book is an excellent resource for someone interested in using these cards.
 
This deck is mainly of interest to collectors and tarot historians.  It would not be recommended for use by a beginner.  This deck is difficult to find here in America and on eBay it usually fetches a high price due to the fact that Dal Negro decks are no longer distributed here; however, Alida sells this deck on their website and it's not too expensive.  I would recommend if you like this deck, to measure it against the Pierpont-Morgan Visconti-Sforza Deck and the Cary-Yale Visconti-Sforza Deck published by US Games, and the Visconti Gold Tarots published by LoScarabeo and decide which reprint copy you like the best.
 
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also see
The Hermitage: A Tarot History Site
 
Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace
 
Tarocchi Dei Visconti
published by Dal Negro, Treviso, Italy