One Spirit Ministries

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Ancient Minchiate Etruria

The card game minchiate was created in Florence, Italy around the mid-16th Century. Minchiate decks are similar to tarot decks, but there are 97 cards instead of 78, and the order is different. The extra cards in the major arcana are the 12 zodiac signs, 4 virtues (faith, hope, charity, prudence) and 4 elements (fire, water, air, earth). The High Priestess is not included. The majors do not have titles, but are numbered with roman numerals given in a banner. For the court cards, the knights are man/beast creatures. The valets (or pages) are men for clubs and swords, and women for chalices and pentacles. This minchiate deck is published by Lo Scarabeo of Italy and distributed by Llewellyn in the US. The publisher dates the original deck as 1725. Etruria was a small kingdom in the Tuscany region of Italy.

Number of Cards Size Copyright ISBN Deck Price
97
41 major/56 minor 2 1/4" x 4 1/4" 1995 0-7387-0024-X $19.95 (US)
How to Order

[picture of back design]

Back Design: See right

Language of Card Titles: English

Style of Suit Cards (2-10): suit symbols

Also Included: fold-out instruction sheet, title card, publisher card

Major Arcana:
Fool, Magician, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers,
Temperance, Force, Justice, Wheel of Fortune, Chariot,
Time (Hermit), Hanged Man, Death, Devil, House of the Devil,
Hope, Prudence, Faith, Charity, Fire, Water, Earth, Air
Libra, Virgo, Scorpio, Aries, Capricorn, Sagittarius,
Cancer, Pisces, Aquarius, Leo, Taurus, Gemini, Star
Moon, Sun, World, Last Judgment (mislabeled as Justice in instruction sheet)

Suit Names: Clubs (Wands), Chalices (Cups), Swords, Pentacles

Court Cards: King, Queen, Knight, Valet (Page)

Links to Other Sites:
Wicce review
Tarot and Minchiate of Florence by Tom Tadfor Little

SAMPLE CARD IMAGES:

[picture of Earth] [picture of Pisces] [picture of Knight of Swords]

Text based on Llewellyn Spring/Summer 01 Catalog,
Tom Tadfor Little's History of Tarot website,
The Encyclopedia of Tarot: Volume 1 by Stuart Kaplan, pgs.49-53 and
The Encyclopedia of Tarot: Volume 2 by Stuart Kaplan, pgs. 191, 198, 200, 222, 245, 247, 256-267.

DECKS

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Created 6-4-95 by One Spirit Ministries aka God's Church , Rev. H. Heinz © Copyright , All Rights Reserved, December 26, 1995 by God's Church. Last updated 06/15/2006. We are an IRS approved 501(c)(3) church. We are also affiliated with the World Federation of Practical Christianity (aka World Federation of Independent Unity Churches), Association of Inner and Interfaith Ministries, and friends with Association of Unity Churches, and other New Thought and Religious Science Churches, and other Metaphysics Ministries.