Tarocchi della Corte di Merlino

Gloria Ricci's Tarocchi della Corte di Merlino holds the Italian chair in this catalog's Arthurian wing: twenty-two majors set in Merlin's court, the Matter of Britain naturalized into Italian deck-making's idiom. The combination has period logic; Arthurian romance conquered medieval Italy too, and an Italian Merlin deck extends a seven-century translation tradition rather than borrowing a foreign fashion. Majors-only suits court material, twenty-two cards populating a single hall, Merlin presiding where the Magician stands. Beside the catalog's British Arthurian instruments, the Matthews systematics, the Camelot quest oracle, Ricci's court is the intimate version: not the legend mapped but the legend visited. The record runs thin as small Italian editions do. It suits Arthurian collectors completing the international shelf, Italian-deck enthusiasts, majors-only readers of the storybook persuasion, and anyone charmed that Merlin, like tarot itself, speaks fluent Italian. The full-structure legends stand nearby; this one is an audience with the wizard.