Visconti Sforza versions- Information for collectors

Wardi7

Any insight was to why they made the change?
 

Abrac

Around 2000 they started making changes to all their decks. Before then, most of them didn't have booklets but had nine additional cards with divinatory meanings printed front and back. After that, they added booklets, changed the size slightly, and changed the backs on some. The cynic in me wants to say they did it to sell more decks, which I believe is partly true, but I think it was also artistic. The Devil and Tower in the first edition are taken from an early uncut sheet of cards known as the "Rothschild sheet." LS probably wanted to make something new and more original.

Devils comparison

Rothschild
 

Chrystella

Lo Scarabeo also has a mini. Does anyone have info on it? I'd like to know what Devil is on it.
 

Placebo Scotsman

It's the less traditional weird multiple face thingie devil

edit; Rothchild?
 

Abrac

I do know the mini isn't stamped with gold foil like the others. It's printed with gold ink.
 

Chrystella

Do they all have the gold foil or is that only LS? I had a gold-foil deck a long time ago and for the life of me I can't remember if it was LS's Visconti or Scapini.

Which of these variations do you think got it right with the Devil card? I have my personal preference, but it's probably not the one that came up with what might have been on the original.
 

garmonbozia

Which of these variations do you think got it right with the Devil card? I have my personal preference, but it's probably not the one that came up with what might have been on the original.

Tower: I prefer the US Games 2nd edition.
Devil: I like the LS 1st edition the best.
 

Wiccan

Hi,
I wanted to give my contribution to what have been said earlier concerning the Longobardica edition. I have one from 1974. On the book it's written Monumenta Longobardica 1974. The book is in Italian. The deck comes with the 4 line drawings missing cards, as the first USG edition. I wanted to share this with you guys, because some of you supposed the Longobardica edition came after the first USG edition (because of these 4 cards which were not supposed to be in the Longobardica edition). But mine comes with these 4 line drawings cards from the first edition and the book in italian mentions for each card "from Stuart R. Kaplan Tarot". And on the book, images of the cards are from the first edition too. I suppose both decks have been released at the same time... I asked to my seller if he knew something else about this edition. He said he remembers it was a limited edition of 500 copies when he bought it, like for the USG first edition... I think we can say USG and Longobardica released the decks at the same time: one in United States and one in Italy. Same box, same quantity of decks (500) and same cards in 2 different continents...