For a long time this deck was only available as a set of 22 Major Arcana cards.  There were two published editions to choose from, the larger sized Italian cards, and the standard-sized English version.

Once the artist completed the entire deck, LoScarabeo made that available and took the 22-card decks off the market.  The deck itself has been scaled down even smaller and is the narrower size like the Art Nouveau and the Native American Tarot, which makes it easy to hold and handle.

The artwork on this deck is breathtaking.  The artist did the original paintings in tempera on glass, hence the name di vetro, Italian for glass.  After I scanned the cards that I selected to show here, I just sat there staring at them, that's how pretty they are.

The suits are the traditional swords, wands, cups and pentacles.  The symbolism is not traditional, I guess the best way to describe this is an arts deck.  A beginner would need to rely on the meanings from study rather than from the cards themselves, although some are quite intuitive.

There is no booklet enclosed with the deck, although there are instructions on how to use them printed on several cards at the back of the pack.  The instructions are printed first in Italian, then in English, German, French and Spanish.  Likewise, the cards themselves are titled mainly in Italian, with the other four languages in smaller type at the top of the cards.

However, I can't help but feel like they took something that wasn't broken and fixed it so it wasn't as good.  I can't complain about the cards in the Minor Arcana, though the only ones with full scenery are the court cards.  But.....
I still want the original 22-card Italian deck.  I dunno, I just liked it better that way.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace