Le Nuove Minchiate di Firenze (Gioco dell'Oca)?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 12 Jun 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

full deck	12 Jun 2003
I've an opportunity to purchase "Le Nuove Minchiate di Firenze (Gioco dell'Oca)", which looks rather nice. It seems to have 97 cards to the deck as well. Does anyone have any familiarity with this deck?

felicityk	12 Jun 2003
I know that 97 is the standard number of cards for a Minchiate deck, but I don't know anything about this deck in particular. Here is some general information, from Andy's Playing Cards and The Hermitage, respectively: http://it.geocities.com/a_pollett/cards17.htm http://www.tarothermit.com/florence.htm Felicity

Khatruman	13 Jun 2003
I have both the Ancient Minchiate published by Lo Scarabeo, and Brian Williams' Minchiate deck. Brian Williams book accompanying his deck is very thorough and informative. Yes they do include 97 cards, with a set of 12 zodiac cards in the major arcana, four virtue cards, and four element cards. Also, there is no Popess, or High Priestess, card. If you want to see commentary on the boards regarding Minchiate, do a search. They have been discussed. I haven't heard of the Minchiate that you have mentioned. I only know of the two that I have. I haven't had much of a chance to use them, but I do have interesting ideas on what kind of variation readings you can do with them.

full deck	13 Jun 2003
One thing I liked about this deck is the style of illustration, color pallete and some of the symbology, which is a little different. Also, I'm trying to get a few decks that have better than average artwork, i.e., spot colors instead of 4-color decks that are only 133 lines per inch screen. This is a problem with many decks that are commercially printed. I feel that certain artwork should be using a much higher line screen; The Tarot of the Master, for example, may look good on screen but if one gets a copy, one will notice the lower line screen, the results being that the illustrations look a bit cartoonish in quality. Mind you, one could do a reading with little packets of sugar (as one poster noted once before) but if one is going to the trouble of considering artwork, style, etc. it should be as well done as possible. Here is a link to a few pictures of the Firenze Minchiate: http://www.alidastore.com/so003.html Alida's javascript is buggy so it may not take you right to the deck. It is item number "so003". If you search for that, it should show it to you. I've also mentioned Aeclectic Tarot as my source since I believe the forum gets a cut.

Cerulean	16 Jun 2003
This historical deck, Fiorentine, was the one I thought Full Deck originally was talking about, shown as follows: http://www.trigono.com/Tarocchi/ita/meneghello/minchiate-fiorentine.htm The Alidastore.com link for me takes me to the main page. The above Trigono is suggested for pictures only...I've been considering buying the above historical one from Alidastore.com for awhile now. If Full Deck likes the modern one, it looks like a humerous style. Uri Raz has kindly posted tarot pages in English with both the historical Etruria and Fiorentine decks, all cards, below: http://www.tarot.org.il/English/ Hope this helps if you want to compare. Mari_Hoshizaki

felicityk	16 Jun 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Mari_Hoshizaki The Alidastore.com link for me takes me to the main page. Same here, but here's a link to the picture: http://www.alidastore.com/images/numerati/Minchiate.jpg The deck itself is under "Tarocchi e Cartomanzie 10". The one Mari pointed to at Trigono is a different deck. Felicity

full deck	19 Jun 2003
This deck is really *quite* nice. It is just about the same size as a standard deck of playing cards; just a bit shorter but a nice fit to the hand and is on an unlaminated, thick dun-colored card stock that has a slight bend to it. The illustrations are from a woodblock carving and the color is spot color, thus the colors are very rich and solid. The back side sports the card makers' name and illustration, printed in a slightly darker dun color than the card stock. The style of wood-cut is a bit rustic and with a slight sense of humour ("Il Carro" has a woman, with her legs spread and a man clinging to the back of one of the two horses, without a saddle). Just what or "who" is the chariot I wonder . . . The deck combines images from several different sources as well: "L'eremita" is what "Time" is called, "La Forza" has both pillar and lion. The placement of the pillar is also suggestive (to me) of a phallus and she does have a rather masculine-looking face, "La Torre" has the woman leaving a tower being struck by lightening and a man touching her back from inside the entrance. "L'Appeso" has the man right-side up but with one leg tied, "Il Diavolo" has women's breasts(!?). I also wonder about the similarities and differences between the costumes of (0) the fool and (1) the magician; whether there is intentional symbolism therein. Definitely, this has small touches that are of an Italian man and I mean old-school as in a very tastfully rendered "Mama mia, hey baby, where are you going? Can I go to?" The minors are unillustrated but are nicely executed in design and color. The deck comes in three tissue-wrapped sections, with a plastic pair of dies and a blue-green plastic chip with a gold sun on it (I think this may represent the "Solleone" brand in Milano). The deck comes in a nice plastic box that also contains a fold-out sheet that shows each Major card in color in a spiral counter-clockwise pattern. Obviously, this is a kind of fold up board for playing the game of "minchiate" as opposed to having some occult usage. There are two, two-sided sheets of printed descriptions of all the majors as well but it is all in Italian. The creators of this deck refer to the set as a "divinatory game" and as a "Game for gambling" Apparently, the creators of this deck intended this set to be used for either role. Perhaps this deck, more than the other Minchiate decks I've seen, suggest the mindset behind its original usage. Because of the quality of the artwork, printing and the thicker card stock, which would slow one down a little in shuffling the deck (it shuffles well enough), this deck might appeal more so to the collector rather than the practical occult user but it is useable, certainly durable and a wonderful addition to anyone's collection. It makes me wish that L'Scarabeo would put out decks like this one in terms of print quality; this is SO much better than those muddy, 133 lpi 4-color screens used by them in some of their decks.

full deck	21 Jun 2003
I posted a picture of most majors on a friends site: http://whomre.com/images/firenze_minchiate.jpg (I corrected for color as well)

Cerulean	21 Jun 2003
Sometimes a modern novelty can become a great toy or lead to other things that are very intriguing. I've experimented with different finds and returning to them can be refreshing. You're the first one that I've heard of that investigated this, so I'm glad for the information. I'm not into Minchiate reproductions or games right now...but I'm curious if you see any interesting astrology references, similar to the 12 old fashioned zodiac signs that I have in my reproduction from Brian Williams and the Etruria? Thanks again. Mari H.

full deck	22 Jun 2003
Here are images of the astrology cards and and example of the swords suite. Both swords and wands have a male page whereas the pentacle and cup have female pages: http://whomre.com/images/signs.jpg http://whomre.com/images/swords.jpg This deck seems close enough to the other Minchiate (Florentine, etc.) but definitely has an Italian male point-of-view and an understated sense of humour (IMHO). This has piqued my curiosity in the Minchiate, thus I will be attempting more research. I just really would like to know more about how the people thought who created this set of symbols. I looked at Brian Williams deck and a few good reviews of it and it is all quite interesting however I'm not moved enough to purchase the deck just for the book.

The Le Nuove Minchiate di Firenze (Gioco dell'Oca)? thread was originally posted on 12 Jun 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.