Cartomanzia Italiana

Cartomanzia Italiana
Edizioni del Soleone, 1983

This is a 78-card tarot deck printed in a limited edition of 2000 in 1983 by Edizioni del Solleone. The printing is sharp and uses rich colors on a thick uncoated cardstock. The entire piece is beautifully produced.

This edition is a reprint of a 19th century Tarot deck, artist unkown. Though decks with the word Cartomanzia in their title usually diverge significantly from traditional Tarots, this deck retains the format of 22 Trumps and 56 suit cards. The title probably comes from this Italian deck being heavily influenced by French cartomancy packs, in particular those in the Etteilla style. This deck is very much a combination of two traditions. Trumps such as Gli Amante, Il Mondo, La Temperanza and La Torre clearly show the iconography of Etteilla images, and Trumps such as Il Bagatto, La Papessa and ll Imperatore are directly based on Italian designs in the style of Carlo Dellarocca. Most of the court cards have pseudo-Egyptian motifs, such as Il Cavallo di Spade shown below, which reflects the widespread belief current at that time that the Tarot originated within the ancient Egyptian culture.

Another cartomantic feature of the deck is in the divinatory phrases at the bottom and top of each card, showing standard and reversed meanings. This fortune-telling device appears on many French divination decks, but is unusual to see on Italian tarots. The few cards that I bothered to translate did not seem to indicate that these meanings are from the French decks, so this deck may offer insights into Italian divinatory traditions. One additional similarity to the Etteilla decks is that every card is numbered from 1 to 78 and follows the same sequence, as is seen when comparing this deck with the Grand Etteilla deck. So card 32 is always the Four of Staves, card 65 is always the Queen of Coins, and so on.

These illustrations have an old-world quality which really makes this deck attractive. The linework and shading are drawn with sensitivity, and the coloring throughout the deck gives the impression that the originals were colored by hand, without the use of stencils. The unlaminated, cream-colored stock adds to the rustic impression. This is a beautiful reproduction of an old and unusual deck.

Review by Mark Filipas, 4/12/00