Tarot Soprafino 1830 — 78 Cards | Historical Italian Tarot Reproduction | Il Meneghello

Tarot Soprafino 1830 — Historical Italian Reproduction

“Ferdinando Gumppenberg is to be considered the most ingenious innovator and creator in the field of playing card makers in 19th century Italy.” — Giuliano Crippa

One of the most historically significant tarot decks ever produced — the Tarot Soprafino is a faithful reproduction of the legendary 78-card Italian tarot commissioned by Ferdinando Gumppenberg in Milan around 1830, engraved by the master designer Carlo Della Rocca. This edition is published by Il Meneghello, the celebrated Milanese publisher of rare and historical tarot reproductions, and is printed on double-embossed card stock for a premium tactile quality that honours the original.

The Soprafino — meaning “superfine” in Italian — was so successful when first published that it was copied, more or less integrally, in silography, etching, and lithography until the end of the 19th century. Della Rocca engraved the deck on metal with extreme refinement and care, redesigning all the cards in use in Italy at the time by making use of skilled engravers, bringing to Milan the taste for novelty and fashion that Germany and Austria had enjoyed since the second half of the 1700s. The result is recognised as one of the most fascinating Italian decks of cards ever produced.

The cards are printed on aged cream stock with a warm, antiqued quality — fine crosshatched engraving lines, hand-coloured in the tradition of 19th-century Italian card printing, with the card names in Italian at the bottom of each card. The Major Arcana are magnificent: XIII (Death) is a skeleton striding through a battlefield of fallen figures, scythe in hand. XI La Forza (Strength) is a crowned woman seated on a lion, calm and commanding. XV Il Diavolo (The Devil) is a trident-wielding Neptune-like figure standing over flames and chained demons. XIV La Temperan. (Temperance) is a winged angel in a pink and green gown, pouring liquid between two golden vessels. XII L’Appeso (The Hanged Man) is a figure suspended upside down from a wooden gallows. XVI La Torre (The Tower) is a medieval stone tower struck by lightning, figures falling from its battlements. The Minor Arcana are equally extraordinary: Fan. di Coppe (Page of Cups) is a Renaissance youth in pink and green holding a golden chalice. Caval. di Coppe (Knight of Cups) is an armoured knight on a white horse. Caval. di Spadi (Knight of Swords) is a knight in full armour on a rearing horse. The Ace of Cups is a magnificent Gothic cathedral chalice. The Ace of Swords is a crowned sword held aloft by a gauntleted hand. The Two of Cups shows two ornate golden urns on a chequered floor.

The card backs are a clean white ground with a fine repeating snowflake-star pattern in pale blue-grey — simple, elegant, and period-appropriate. The deck is presented in a rigid keepsake box wrapped in the distinctive Il Meneghello kraft paper printed with the publisher’s winged-cherub logo — one of the most collectible presentations in historical tarot. The box lid features XIX Il Sole (The Sun) — two figures dancing in a sunlit garden — and the first card visible in the open box is Il Matto (The Fool) — a jester with a staff and a dog nipping at his heels. Each deck includes a bilingual historical essay card (English and Italian) by Giuliano Crippa on the history of Gumppenberg and the Soprafino.

Deck Details

• 78 cards — Full Major and Minor Arcana
• Stock: Double-embossed premium card stock
• Art style: 19th-century Italian engraving — fine crosshatched metalwork, hand-coloured, aged cream ground
• Language: Italian card names
• Card backs: White with pale blue-grey repeating snowflake-star pattern
• Publisher: Il Meneghello, Milan
• Original engraver: Carlo Della Rocca (c.1830)
• Includes: Bilingual historical essay card (English/Italian) by Giuliano Crippa
• Box: Rigid keepsake box wrapped in Il Meneghello kraft paper with winged-cherub logo

What’s Included

• 78 double-embossed historical tarot cards
• Bilingual historical essay card (English and Italian)
• Rigid Il Meneghello keepsake box

Perfect For

For serious collectors of historical and antique tarot, students of tarot history, and anyone who wants to hold in their hands one of the most important and beautiful Italian tarot decks ever engraved. The Tarot Soprafino 1830 is a genuine piece of tarot history — and one of the finest reproductions available anywhere in the world.