Sola Busca Tarot (Rare - Sola Busca Limited Edition) Anima Antiqua

The Sola Busca Tarot is one of the most important artifacts in the history of tarot. Created in Italy in the late 15th century by an unknown artist, it is the earliest known deck in which all 78 cards are fully illustrated. Long preserved by the Sola-Busca family of Milan, the deck became widely known only after a complete set of photographs entered the British Museum in 1907. These images were later consulted by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith and are widely recognized as having influenced the development of the Rider–Waite–Smith tarot.

This limited edition from Lo Scarabeo (2,999 copies) is based on a highly accurate 19th-century facsimile of the original cards. It offers readers, researchers, and collectors access to a historically significant deck that bridges Renaissance art, early esoteric symbolism, and the evolution of modern tarot.

These are new decks, never been opened!

Historical Imagery & Structure

The deck retains the distinctive features of the original Sola Busca:

• 22 Major Arcana, each depicting named figures from Roman history and two biblical characters. While numbered with Roman numerals, these cards do not correspond directly to the archetypes of the modern Major Arcana.
• 56 Minor Arcana divided into Cups, Coins, Batons, and Swords, numbered 1–14, including numbered Court Cards.
• The Minor Arcana are fully illustrated, a notable innovation for the period and a likely model for later illustrated decks.

Because the original divinatory system has not survived, contemporary readers typically apply modern interpretive frameworks when using the deck.

Production Quality

• Card size: 77 × 145 mm.
• Cardstock: Durable and flexible, left unvarnished to preserve the authentic texture of the historical engravings.
• Print quality: High-resolution reproduction that captures the fine engraved lines and the tempera colouring of the source images. The palette reflects the aged tones of the surviving deck—subdued blues, ochres, reds, and greys.
• Card backs: A simple red-on-black pattern, unobtrusive in design.
• Packaging: A sturdy, linen-textured box with a lift-off lid, featuring imagery from the deck. Each set includes a numbered title card indicating its place in the edition.
• Booklet: A 32-page multilingual booklet (English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese) providing historical context and titles for the Major Arcana.

For Collectors, Scholars, and Practitioners

The Sola Busca Tarot is particularly well suited to:

• Collectors of historical or museum-grade tarot reproductions
• Researchers studying the origins and evolution of tarot imagery
• Readers interested in working with early symbolic systems
• Anyone seeking a deck of clear cultural and art-historical significance