I've used tarot decks and oracles for years, a Minchiate is something entirely new to me and I've spent the last two weeks getting acquainted with it. A 97 card deck, this is a really lovely 2011 Lo Scarabeo reprint of the Etruria Minchiate deck from 18th century Florence Italy. The Minchiate deck consists of 41 Majors; the Fool through World normally found in tarot decks, plus 12 zodiac signs, 4 virtues, and 4 elements, and all the usual tarocchi/tarot suspects in the minors and courts. Designed for gaming, there is no particular proscribed way of using them for divination or introspection.
Lo Scarabeo card stock sets the standard in the industry, easy to shuffle, flexible, smooth as butter, with a strong inner core that allows for riffle shuffling without damage to the deck. The box for the book and deck is fairly new to their product line, super sturdy with a magnetic catch.
In use on my tarot blog Quirkeries, I found the Minchiate hit all my hot buttons...naturally, as it's time period of original design was the 16th century when church was the law and independent thought was discouraged. Setting that aside, the art is softly colored, nicely detailed, and as a newbie to the Minchiate, I appreciated Lo Scarabeo's addition of numbers to the originally unnumbered cards.
The companion book is digest style, with sections in five different languages. The english version is 25 pages long and covers quite a bit considering very little is historically know about the early decks.
A beautifully presented deck, fun to use in divination, who knows, it might encourage the original tarocchi gaming deck to make a come back.
