Tarot Balbi

The archive's review of the Tarot Balbi begins with a vanload of junk bound for the tip and a brand-new deck rescued from it, which is the collector's parable in miniature: Domenico Balbi's 1976 Italian deck is exactly the kind of work that surfaces sideways, decades on, still new in the box. Balbi was a working artist, and his deck belongs to the 1970s Italian moment when publishers treated tarot as a legitimate canvas for contemporary design rather than occult reproduction. Decks of that vintage carry a specific pleasure: they predate the RWS's total conquest of deck design, so their choices feel unforced, an artist solving the arcana on his own terms. It suits collectors of Italian tarot and of the seventies design wave, readers who enjoy working slightly outside the standard grammar, and anyone who believes the best decks arrive serendipitously. As the review proves, sometimes the tip runs through your own hands first.