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.  There are a total of 30 cards in this deck.  They have a quaint, old-fashioned look and feel to them which appeals.

Since this is not a tarot deck, there are no Major or Minor Arcana, no court or suit cards.  All 30 cards in the deck have small representative scenes; each of the pictures is more a drawing of an object or symbol rather than a full scenic picture.  The cards have a shadowy beige baroque pattern on the front with a white image area placed against it in the center.  There is a descriptive paragraph at the top of each card, talking about the meaning of the card -- unfortunately, it's in Italian so I can't read them.  At the bottom of the image area, each picture has a banner under it with a two-line rhyming poem.  The title and Roman numeral for the cards appear at the very bottom, again in Italian.  The cards are numbered 1 through 30.

Since this deck is so different, I thought I would list the titles for comparison.  If any of my translations are incorrect, please feel free to let me know so I can correct them.  I won't pretend to be fluent in Italian.

I - Il Gatto - The Cat
II - La Fortuna - Fortune
III - Le Spine - The Thorns
IV - Il Serpente - The Serpent
V - Il Guanto - The Glove
VI - L'Anello - The Ring
VII - Cupido - Cupid
VIII - La Cicogna - The Stork
IX - I Gigli - The Lilies
X - Il Navigatore - The Navigator/Explorer
XI - Il Libro - The Book
XII - L'Edera - The Ivy
XIII - Il Guerriero - The Soldier
XIV - Lo Scrigno - The Coffer (Riches/Wealth)
XV - L'Aquila - The Eagle
XVI - La Chiave - The Key
XVII - Il Cavaliere - The Cavalier
XVIII - Il Fanciullo - The Child
XIX - Il Castello - The Castle
XX - La Rosa - The Rose
XXI - Le Ciliege - Cherries/Fruit
XXII - L'Albero - The Tree
XXIII - Il Sole - The Sun
XXIV - La Chimera - The Chimera
XXV - I Pesci - The Fish
XXVI - Lo Zodiaco - The Zodiac
XXVII - I Profumi - Perfumes/Scents
XXVIII - Gli Uccelli - Birds
XXIX - Il Giullare - The Juggler
XXX - L'Ancora - The Anchor

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 simple but elegant grey baroque design (same as the one on the front behind the image area) that is reversible.  There isn't any little white booklet but there are two cards printed front and back with instructions and information, which is entirely in Italian.

I recommend this deck mainly as a collectible, but anyone who is interested in fortunetelling type decks will enjoy working with and playing with this one.  More than usual, however, this deck needs to be used by someone who can read the Italian on the face of the card since so much of the card's significance is based upon the little quotations on the card.

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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

Sibilla di Nostradamus, 1996
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy.