Visconti Sforza Tarocchi by Il Meneghello Editions

Il Meneghello Editions has produced a handmade reproduction of the Visconti Sforza Tarocchi, one of the oldest surviving tarot decks, created in fifteenth-century Milan. The original cards are divided between three collections: 35 at the Accademia di Carrara in Bergamo, 26 at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, and 12 with the Colleoni family in Bergamo. The four cards missing from the original deck, the Devil, Tower, Knight of Coins, and Three of Swords, were painstakingly recreated by Giovanni Scarsato working respectfully within the visual style of the original artist.

Holding this deck is as close as most people will come to handling one of the great artifacts of tarot history. The triumphs of the deck show recognizable archetypal imagery in embryonic form, and it is easy to see why many regard this as the foundational document of the tarot tradition.