Another exciting offering by the creator of the Renaissance Tarot, the PoMo Tarot, and the writer of the book for the Light and Shadow Tarot, this deck and book set is one I've been waiting to get a copy of for months, even years.  Of course, I've had the pleasure of being on different email discussion lists with Williams, and so I've been hearing about this deck throughout various stages of its design, and when I attended the 2nd World Tarot Congress in Chicago, IL, in July of 1999, I got to actually see the originals of this deck after Williams had gotten them back from the publisher.  The deck was expected in print shortly thereafter.

The deck and book come packaged in a light pink slide-open box, with a really good thick book inside and the deck is set into a tray, in two halves.  The deck itself is wonderful (I'm biased, of course, being one of Williams' biggest fans!) and contains 97 cards, which is the traditional number of cards in a Minchiate deck.  Note: a Minchiate deck is not a true tarot deck in the sense of the word, but it's an important historical deck and it *does* contain all of the elements of a classical Marseille type tarot, plus a bunch of extra stuff that is also really interesting.  Williams goes into a *lot* of really good detail in his book that comes with this set.  Unlike most historical tomes, this one is actually readable and doesn't put one to sleep.  Williams brings the tarot and the minchiate to life.  The book explains how the design structure of the minchiate emerged from the symbolism of the time and how it relates to common tarot symbolism, both from the same time period and today.

The extra cards in the Minchiate deck occur in the Major Arcana.  In addition to the 22 cards that already exist, there are an additional 12 cards representing the signs of the zodiac, an additional 4 cards representing the four elements, and the 4 cards representing the four airs are reorganized after the zodiac cards.  Also, the virtues have all been restored (in classical tarot, some virtues exist, but some are missing.)  This brings the total number of Major Arcana cards to 40.  In traditional Minchiate decks, the cards are untitled, with the image area taking up the entire card, but in these cards Williams has thoughtfully placed a clear and easy to read text box under the image area with titles in both Italian and English and the Arabic numerals for each card.  The titles of the Major Arcana enjoy a lot of variation from the classical tarot structure and are as follows:

The Fool - 0 - Il Matto
The Magician - 1 - Il Bagatto
The Grand Duke - 2 - Il Granduca
The Western Emperor - 3 - L'Imperatore Dell'ovest
The Eastern Emperor - 4 - L'Imperatore Dell'est
Love - 5 - L'Amore
Temperance - 6 - La Temperanza
Strength - 7 - La Forza
Justice - 8 - La Guistizia
The Wheel of Fortune - 9 - La Ruota Della Fortuna
The Chariot - 10 - Il Carro
Time - 11 - Il Tempo
The Hanged Man - 12 - L'Impiccato
Death - 13 - La Morte
The Devil - 14 - Il Diavolo
The Tower - 15 - La Torre
Hope - 16 - La Speranza
Prudence - 17 - La Prudenza
Faith - 18 - La Fede
Charity - 19 - La Carita
Fire - 20 - Il Fuoco
Water - 21 - L'Acqua
Earth - 22 - La Terra
Air - 23 - L'Aria
Libra - 24 - La Bilancia
Virgo - 25 - La Vergine
Scorpio - 26 - Lo Scorpione
Aries - 27 - L'Ariete
Capricorn - 28 - Il Capricorno
Sagittarius - 29 - Il Sagitario
Cancer - 30 - Il Cancro
Pisces - 31 - I Pesci
Aquarius - 32 - L'Acquario
Leo - 33 - Il Leone
Taurus - 34 - Il Toro
Gemini - 35 - I Gemelli
The Star - 36 - La Stella
The Moon - 37 - La Luna
The Sun - 38 - Il Sole
The World - 39 - Il Mondo
Fame - 40 - La Fama

The Minor Arcana are simpler and much closer to the classical Marseille structure of the tarot.  Ace through ten in each of four suits, those being Swords, Staves, Cups and Coins.  In typical Williams fashion, the numbered cards feature traditional "pip" arrangements, yet are richly detailed with little scenes and figures which give hints to their meaning and significance.  Court cards are Page, Knight, Queen and King in the "male" suits of Swords and Staves; Handmaid, Knight, Queen and King are the courts in the "female" suits of Coins and Cups.  Each suit is bordered with a different color; Swords (the air suit) is yellow, Cups (the water suit) is blue, Coins (the earth suit) is hot pink and Staves (the fire suit) is green.  The Majors also have this distinct pattern, with purple borders.

The cards themselves are slightly larger than standard size but you don't mind this when you get such a good image area as a result.  However, the thickness of the deck, due to the 97 cards in it, makes it a bit unwieldy and my small hands had a hard time handling and shuffling these cards.  The cards are printed on a good quality cardstock and coated with a glossy finish which was stuck together at first.  Those of you who are familiar with my tastes know I relished that first "crack" of the deck when the cards were all fanned out the first time.  The back design is as thoughtfully planned out as the fronts; it features an angel with a ribbon over her arms and the mark MINNVO at the bottom.  The back design is not reversible.

The book is well made and tightly bound but in a soft paper that opens easily for reading.  I hate stiff trade paperbacks so I am glad to see this book flexes nicely.  It's definitely well worth reading.  This is one of the few books that, if the deck were packaged separately from the book, I'd buy both anyway.  I also know, from having seen both the originals and the printed results, that the colors in the deck are a bit stronger (richer, darker) than in the originals, but I don't think this detracts in any way, shape or form from the quality of the deck.  The colors are beautiful.  In fact, the entire deck is beautiful, in my opinion this is Williams' best work so far.  Even if I wasn't a fan of his work, I'd highly recommend this deck to *everyone*, beginners, collectors, and all!

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also by Brian Williams:
Renaissance Tarot
PoMo Tarot
Light and Shadow Tarot (book)

for more information on historical and minchiate decks, please see
Tarot at Telperion Productions
or
The Hermitage

Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

The Minchiate Tarot by Brian Williams, 1999
published by Inner Traditions/Destiny Books
ISBN 0-89281-651-1