The Golden Tarot of Visconti Sforza ???

greatdane

Maybe I'm jaded but....

it is rare I want the book that comes with a set. Sometimes they're worthwhile, most of the time, they seem like a way to increase the price. I usually just go for the deck if I can and this deck does look interesting. I would love to know what the cardstock is like.
 

Inconnu

22 or 78 card count?

Anybody know? I love the Visconti & am interested in this new release. There doesn't seem to be much detail on this.

As it has been issued as both a Majors only & full pack in various editions. I'm only interested if it is the 78 card pack.
 

whipsilk

How I wish that someone would do a really excellent book on the various Visconti decks (I think there are around sixteen, including the well-known Pierpont Morgan and Cary-Yale), and print at least the 48-card Brera-Brambilla deck, perhaps with extant cards from the Rosenthal and other decks that have smaller numbers of extant cards. I do NOT need 'recreations' of the missing cards - I would just like to see and study the extant cards from these never-been-printed-in-modern-times decks.

It would be a heroic effort, getting permissions from the various holders - but what a rich resource it would be! And what a great opportunity for a truly unique study that would be valuable for decades, maybe even hundreds of years.
 

gregory

OK - I bit, and bought it. Bear with me - I have had it for about two hours. But for whoever asked - it has 78 cards.

They are good quality, large (as in the size of the Gutenberg version) cards, I have to say, with lush backs. And the four missing ones are NOT any of the ones one knows already - she says in the book that they have been "re-created in a style consistent with the existing cards". So far I have NOT found these four images on line, and they are as OK as anyone else's, I'd say. When I get around to it I will scan them, so someone here can tell us if they are in fact ever so well known and I have missed something. :D

The book seems - harmless at least, and not at all bad, if not the WOW one we wodul all love to see !. It has a foreword by Robert Place, who I think is not stupid enough to write one for something trashy. :D And she thanks him for reviewing her work while in progress. I have flipped through it and it seems accurate enough, and has some nice historical background. Her bibliography shows she's read the right books, too :)

As to where the cards were taken from (other than the redesigned ones) - no specific credit for the cards is given anywhere. On the book's front page it says "Card illustrations by Rachel Clowes" - this may refer to the replacements or to images in the book (there are a lot, not just from the VS) but where the rest came from I don't know. She credits several photo libraries - but the cards are good quality, and I cannot believe she took them from on line images. The edges, by the way, are nicely gold. not gilded, but definitely gold rather than yellow or brown or anything. I had assumed - before it got here - that she had got permission from an existing publisher to reprint their version - but as the four cards are new, I guess not.

Looking over and over them, and not yet having had time to get any other out (I have several and little time) I think it is actually just possible that these have actually been drawn and painted from ? the originals ? (I doubt it) or from a deck, by the artist. Some details are just that bit different. Colours of flowers, lines on a face, that sort of thing...

The purple satin reading cloth is - exactly what you might expect. If it is missing from your copy - don't worry about it - you will live. It is exactly like the one I got with my Thunder Bay deck, and others !

If you have no VS deck - this wouldn't be a bad one to get, and it is nice and big. They ARE much better big !
 

gregory

And here, as advertised, are the extra cards and the back. I haven't seen those designs for the missing ones before.

Unless I have lost yet another plot :cool:
 

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Inconnu

OK - I bit, and bought it. Bear with me - I have had it for about two hours. But for whoever asked - it has 78 cards.

That was me, thanks for that & the helpful description.

Edit; Thanks for posting the scans of the new versions of the missing cards. I like those better than the others.
 

MzMcKee

Review by a Grand Master..

http://tarottopics.com/content/review-golden-tarot

This is the written review with a link to her video review of this deck, the review is by Christiana Gaudet.

The set is currently on sale at amazon.com for under $20. I didn't hesitate to get my copy.
 

Rosanne

15th century Northern Italy was the 'dreary days known as the Dark Ages' ?

mmm...
mmmm indeed, the Author has never seen Florence or Milan I guess. The light from Renaissance fabric would have driven away the dark at the very least. ;)
I think that is a very cheap price for a lovely deck, and the repro's of Tower and Devil seem better than Scapini's (which I dislike -dislike-) If it gets people using the deck, I am the last to complain.
The book kinda worries me, even with the Place intro.Thanks gregory!
~Rosanne
 

Le Fanu

Thank you for the info gregory. I'm sort of tempted...
 

Stark Raven

Ah, I just stumbled upon this deck by accident. I had never heard of it before but for some time had been looking for a version of the Visconti Sforza Tarot. The only requisites for me were that it not have black borders and be a decent quality deck. If Christiana Gaudet likes it, I think it's a great idea for me to try it. I ordered one on Amazon.ca for Twenty bucks. I can't wait to get it.