The story of this deck begins in Nuremberg in c.1544 with artist Virgil Solis, who created a deck of playing cards. In keeping with a German trend at the time, Solis gave his cards very unusual suits. In a time when world exploration was all the rage, with the discovery of the Americas some 50 years earlier, Solis explored exotic animals of the world, creating dynamic suit designs using Lions, Parrots, Monkeys and Peacocks.
Moving forward to France in 1557, a little known artist by the name of Catelin Geofroy played with the cards of Virgil Solis, enjoying their playful imagery. He decided to add a suit of trumps using his own designs. He copied the Virgil Solis deck for his minor arcana, and designed his own major arcana to go with it.
Flash forward to today, the tarot deck of Catelin Geofroy survives in a fragmentary state, with about half the cards extant. But, the original playing cards of Virgil Solis survive complete, along with a vast collection of his other artworks.
This deck is a recreation of Catelin Geofroy's vision, using his surviving cards as a template and substituting the missing cards with those of Virgil Solis, and using other images from Solis to fill in the blanks in the major arcana. The cards have new lineart and have been hand coloured with watercolour pencils in a modern style.
* Now with brighter colours and a vibrant green border *
Component | Quantity | Photo |
---|---|---|
Tarot Booklet | 1 | ![]() |
Tarot Deck | 1 deck of 80 cards | ![]() |
Tarot Tuck Box (90 cards) | 1 | ![]() |
Average Rating | 0 reviews |
---|---|
Publish Date | November 22, 2022 |
Edition | First |
Department | Tarot and Oracles |
More Info | Tarot of Geofroy & Solis web site |