I have to admit, I have held off on reviewing this deck for a long time, because in large part it escapes me.  One of the historical decks of the world, this deck is notable mainly because it is the first deck known to have real scenes painted for the numbered cards.  Done in full color paintings instead of engravings or woodblock stamping, the 78 cards are all fully illustrated.
 
 It is fairly well accepted that while Pamela Colman Smith was researching for her tarot project (which would become the Rider-Waite deck) she studied these tarot paintings.  One can see, at least in a few cards, a very strong influence on her work from this deck.  One example of this is the Three of Swords, seen here.  The painting style shows figures which are drawn in old Roman clothing and almost everyone is heavily armed and muscled.  Many cards feature people being impaled, beheaded or other similarly grotesque wartime hazards.  I can see where they are very well done, but I do not find this attractive in the least.
 
The Major Arcana in this deck feature ancient Roman warriors.  The cards bear little resemblance to what we consider traditional tarot.  They are numbered accordingly so that you can figure out pretty much who is what, however their titles are simply the name of the warrior featured on each card.  Ordering tends to follow the Marseilles style.  I can tell that the eighth card, Nerone, is compared to the Justice card, since he is shown about to rip a baby in half, much like Solomon's Justice.  This would make Strength 11.  Roman numerals are used, in the old style as opposed to the subtractive form.  Titles are as follows:
 
0. Mato
I. Panfilio
II. Posthumio
III. Lenpio
IIII. Mario
V. Catulo
VI. Sesto
VII. Deo Tauro
VIII. Nerone
VIIII. Falco
X. Venturio
XI. Tulio
XII. Carbone
XIII. Catone
XIIII. Bocho
XV. Metelo
XVI. Olivo
XVII. Ipeo
XVIII. Lentulo
XVIIII. Sabino
XX. Nenbroto
XXI. Nabuchodenasor
 
As I sit and contemplate this list of character names I don't recognize any of them (save perhaps the last; could that be an old spelling of Nebuchadnazzar?) but I do think it looks/sounds like a character list of a play by Shakespeare.  This deck was created in the fifteenth century so it is the right period of time, maybe if old Will S. had lived longer he'd have covered this bunch in theatrical delight.
 
The Minor Arcana in this deck features traditional suits with Cups, Coins, Batons and Swords.  The court titles are King, Queen, Knight and Knave.  As stated above, it is believed this deck was the first to feature illustrated scenes on the numbered cards and not just pips.  As scenes go, these are fairly weak.  Coloring is good though.

The cards themselves are the slightly smaller size that LoScarabeo decks were published in previous to 1998.  The cardstock is nice but tends to warp slightly over time, and that's not because of my use of it.  It is a flexible stock with a semigloss coating.  The edges are cut evenly but not buffed really smooth or anything.  Corners are rounded.  You can shuffle and handle these cards well.  The back design is a dark brown double ended reprint of an image from the 4 of Batons.  There is no little white booklet but rather a set of six cards printed front and back with the meanings of the cards in six languages and the Metodo Cartomantico Simplificado which was the usual layout description used in LoScarabeo decks from this time.
 
A real book is available for this deck, and I would not advise buying the deck without it.  I have seen how little you can get from these cards without the book.  There are two good sources online that refer to these cards.  Tea's Tomb features an article on the Sola-Busca cards in her tarot section; Tom Tadfor Little also published an article on them here.

I recommend this deck only for people who are either real collectors, or for those who are avidly interested in tarot history.  This includes those who are real Rider-Waite buffs since Pamela Colman Smith took inspiration from some of these cards for her own deck.  This is a hard deck to work with and I do *not* recommend it for the beginner.  However, with a lot of study and work it might prove to be beneficial for those serious tarotists.

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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

Illustrating Ancient Tarots/Sola-Busca Tarot Deck
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy, 1995