The internet has been no help in my attempts to translate the Renaissance Milanese dialect, but if it’s anything like French, I’d say it likely means something like “In the right” or “With a good right”.

Kat combines images from the Medieval, early Renaissance, and particularly the International Gothic period to provide well-known yet unique interpretations of the various cards' symbolic meanings. Austerely printed on black, waterproof, untearable plates, they come nestled within a lovely, quality box and also included is a guide as reference, cleverly printed front-to-back, which keeps you thumbing through the booklet easily, making it a bonus as a useful tool. If the item comes direct from a manufacturer, it may be delivered in non-retail packaging, such as a plain or unprinted box or plastic bag. With this lavish deck and companion book, you will discover the rich symbols of the tarot and let them illuminate your past, present and future. In the original RWS Two of Swords, the moon is a waxing crescent moon near the right corner of the card.Learn about each of the 36 classic cards, and practice creating pairs, building up to more complex readings. Approximately the first third of the book is devoted to the sources for the material contained in each card. D. Kat deliberately chose to conform to the card styles introduced by the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith deck, but her own version offers a genteel, softer and much more personable version, in my humble opinion. The Minor Arcana themselves are relatively standard TdM-style pips, and RWS readers may have some difficulty reading with them because of the lack of narrative symbolism.

It expresses the symbolism of Tarot using artworks from the time period when Tarot emerged; and even though I don’t have a personal taste for that kind of art, the choice of period totally works. I don’t like the size of it though, way too big, but luckily I know how to shuffle more than one way! In structure it owes the most to the Visconti: Justice is placed at VIII and Strength at XI, and the numbered minor arcana cards are pips, rather than the illustrated scenes most often attributed to the Rider-Waite. The extravagance of the colors is a result of the painting materials used on the original cards; the commissioned deck was painted with gold leaf, lapis lazuli, and various other precious and semi-precious materials.As a TdM deck, it’s essential for any collection, because of its historical significance, because of its classic TdM imagery, and because of the stunning way the cards are illustrated.

In any case, the CEO of the world’s largest Tarot deck distributor, and publisher of the three volume (soon to be four) Encyclopedia of Tarot made a contractual offer.The Minor Arcana carry the number and title across the bottom, black text on a white background with the first letter of each word in red. Also, the swords were crossed, and a greater sense of strength and balance was exuded in carrying the swords. The minor arcana meanings are sparser and has just the title and upright and reversed meanings, accompanied by a smaller card image.