Golden Botticelli Tarot (English, Spanish, French, German and Italian Edition)

I wanted a beautiful deck. I wanted a very old looking deck. I wanted a deck that would appeal to devout Christians who wonder if they are sinning when they get a tarot reading. I was thrilled with the purchase of this deck as it has met and exceeded all of those criteria! If you like art from the Renaissance era than you will also fall in love with this deck.The art work for the Golden Botticelli Tarot is by Pietro Alligo and is based on the work of the Florentine painter known as Botticelli (1445-1510). The colors in the cards both front and back are rich and vibrant. The gold leaf stands out beautifully however scanned images do not give these cards justice. Readings with the Golden Botticelli gives one a feeling of richness and timelessness.These cards look expensive and feel expensive. The Golden Botticelli has all the usual features of a Lo Scarabeo published deck. The cards are 4.7 x 2.8 and easily fit your hands and are made from the same card stock.The deck itself is for the most part a Rider-Waite-Smith style deck with 78 cards consisting of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana. The Court cards consist of Knaves, Knights, Queens and Kings and the pip cards are fully illustrated. I'm not that familiar with early renaissance art but having looked on Wikipedia I can say that in this deck you will find renditions of masterpieces such as Primavera, the Birth of Venus and Venus and Mars.Clients who routinely pick up my cards show much more reverence when touching this deck.Cards with religious overtones are not unusual to find in most tarot decks, with the Hierophant being a prime example. The Golden Botticelli has many such cards some expected and others not as much. The Ace of Cups and the 4 of wands are very much Madonna and Jesus. The 9 of Cups looks much like a last supper and a monk is saying prayers over the 8 of cups. The Death card is especially poignant depicting a nun mourning a dead young man lying across her lap. Not all of the cards are so serious, for example the Fool in the Major Arcana is contorted over in such a way he looks as if he is afraid the sky is going to fall on his head!While reading about Botticelli on Wikipedia I was struck by the fact that he was never married and was said to have an aversion to marriage. This might be why the 3 of Swords depicts a woman walking while literally dragging an almost naked man by the hair of his head behind her; the man is praying. The 5 of Swords shows a woman walking with a sword in her hand, behind her walks another woman carrying a basket on her head, there is a man's head in the basket!!This is a lovely tarot deck and reading with it is a joy. I would recommend this deck to new readers and experienced readers alike.

My rating for this deck is around 3.5 for this product. The art is beautiful, the gold is stunning, the print quality on the cards is clear and the gold hasn’t discolored or peeled. The box I received them came slightly damaged, with a smashed corner, but the cards inside were fine, so I can look past this. The biggest problem I have with this deck is how flimsy the cards are. I read some of the reviews and thought other people might be exaggerating this. These cards basically feel like they’ve been printed on normal computer paper. I couldn’t imagine handling these in any way less than like precious and ancient documents to refrain from bends or other damage from use. This was pretty disappointing to discover. I would absolutely splurge more on a deck with the same content that had higher quality card stock if that were available. I have also read complaints about imagery, but I cannot chime in much on that because I primarily collect tarot cards for their art and unique designs.

I am so in love with this deck, but with the gold on it I will not use it for general readings. I think this deck is more for collectors. I took it out of the box and realized the cards look like the edges will wear out pretty quickly if I use it too much. It's still gorgeous though and worth the purchase if your a Tarot freak.

I used them once. They were spot on. Told me to expect major change...2 days later the Beachiecreek fire burned my entire campsite and RV...and the cards inside.

I was willing to let go of the damaged box because it was minor and I was more excited for the cards but when I noticed the bended cards without me even touching them that’s a no no to this golden live in box cards because in the future this would be one of a kind four star review for the damage otherwise it would be 5 star because they are gorgeous.

Really nice cards! They shuffle easily and are so pretty! The little paper booklet is super helpful by giving card meanings and a few reading layouts you can try too. I'm new to tarot but really glad I got this deck!

Really good. Most of the paintings have decent representation of the meaning of the cards. It's cool because the cards are textured with golden detail.

Golden Botticelli Tarot: Beautiful, ornate deck. Fabulous quality card stock with a smooth finish. I disagree with a couple of the art work choices for certain cards, as the symbolism (or lack there of in the art work) doesn't match the meaning (For example, the 9 of Cups appears gloomy, which is NOT what the card means!). However, that could just be my interpretation, and I would still recommend this deck to any tarot reader!

This is a magnificent deck.It's a special edition, so it has golden details in all the cards, which are gorgeous. A feast for the senses. Truly beautiful.Just like any Lo Scarabeo deck, the card measures are uniform (12 cm high and 6,6 cm wide) and they have the name written in six languages (english, italian, french, spanish, german and dutch). The little white book is written in 5 languages. Maybe they forgot the sixth.The cards are the reproduction of the images in Botticelli paintings (or so they seem). Atanas Atanassov did a great job.They are the right thickness, glossy and easy to shuffle. The images are very realistic and look like miniature paintings. Very well drawn. Great quality cards. The publisher managed to do this quite well, since the cards have no gold coming out of them (like a hay house deck i used to own) and they are well laminated.Mythical creatures, gods, goddesses, angels, kings and queens, as well as the common man populate this deck. The figures, scenes and expressions are well chosen to convey the meaning of each card, although there are a few surprises (somes cards are different than expected). Pleasant ones, i might add. The imagery is all period time, with rich vivid colors.I love this deck, but it's not for a beginner, since there are a few puzzling images that do not match the traditional pictures for certain cards. Regardless of how well chosen they are, these images will probably confuse a person with little or no knowledge of the tarot. The beginner can get a good book and overcome this obstacle after a while and a lot of meditation on the image and the matter in question.The Lo Scarabeo little white book is bad as always (no surprise there). Two or three key words for each card (strange meanings), only one spread (Star of Soloman) and a somewhat vague explanation on how to interpret the cards.However, i did not order this deck thinking about the little white book, so i will not concern myself with it.

Exquisite cards beautifully printed, they read subtly and intricately. Because the images are so detailed, would benefit very much if the cards were bigger. The chosen fragments of Boticelli's art-work really do succeed in representing the tarot card meanings for the most part. Warning about the Fool card: in the old days he was a madman as much as a fool and here they have opted for the madman, and some people may find this hard to get along with. I recommend viewing online before purchasing.

These are a real treasure.I at one point had decided I would stay away from Lo scarabeo products,after being disappointed with two I had purchased previously.But after seeing pictures of this deck online I couldn't resist it.It is truly a work of art,not only beautiful but thought has clearly gone into making it a 'Readable ' deck too,with the images fitting well with traditional tarot meanings.The booklet is unfortunately 12 pages rather than 64 as it's multi language,but does give brief meanings and a spread.I do really wish these cards had been released in a boxset with a companion book that explained the meanings more and told about Botticelli's life and works.No tarot collection could be complete without this deck.

Beautiful deck of cards, thin but durable; would have been 5 star if they were made on thicker card.

Very beautiful cards, very elegant!