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Tarocco Soprafino This deck is a limited and numbered edition (of 2000) 78-card tarot, beautifully printed by Il Meneghello in Milan, Italy in 1992. This is one of the most beautiful Italian decks that I have seen. It is a replica of a deck originally published in 1835 by Gumppenberg, and engraved by Carlo Dellarocca. These engravings were so unique and superbly rendered that they were soon copied and reprinted (sometimes with slight variations) by other card makers. Because of its exceptional detail, the deck has acquired the name Soprafino, which is Italian for ‘very fine’ or ‘refined’. |
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Meneghello makes a good first impression by presenting these cards in a package that I think is as beautiful as the deck. This seems to be true of most decks I've seen imported from Italy, and leaves me disappointed in the usual, thin cardboard boxes that hold most decks found on American store shelves. This deck comes in a beautifully made wrap-around bound cardboard package with black tie-ribbons, like a miniature book with the package (cover) slightly larger than the cards (pages) inside. On the spine is a label sealed with a wax stamp. A single card, Il Mondo, is pasted onto the front side of the package, to display a sample of the contents. The card designs are colored engravings, or rather reproductions of the original engravings. The printing on the deck I have, though, looks so good, the lines so sharp and crisp, that it could almost pass for an actual metal etched print. The coloring of the cards is as beautiful as the line work. The original cards must have been painted with many colors. The color palette is rich, with delicate overlapping which creates an even wider range of colors. I also noticed that I had to look extremely close to see any dot pattern in the printing of the color. The printing also reproduces the nuance of the original, aged paper. Of the 2000 sets which were printed by Il Meneghello, a portion was set aside for the American market. These sets were not laminated, so the cards have much more of an old-world feeling. These sets were also packaged differently, set inside an actual box - nothing like American-made boxes, but a heavy duty, antique paper-wrapped box which looks as if it is hand made. I am fortunate to have both versions of this edition, and prefer the feel of the unlaminated cards, although the lamination does intensify the coloring of the other set, and gives it extra durability. The cards shown below are the plastic coated version. I think these cards could stand up to some pretty extended use. One criticism would be that the sizes of the cards have some slight non-uniformity in their width and height, as if they were not all cut the same time as a single deck. But I've noticed this in other limited edition decks too. The discrepancy is not bad enough to bother me when shuffling them, although it might bother some folks. This is one of my favorite decks in my collection. I would recommend it especially to collectors, and also to those who may be put off by some of the early Italian decks with cruder designs but still want a historic, classic Italian tarot with refined illustrations. You can usually find this deck at Alida. |