Golden Botticelli

[frelkins]

I just got my amazon.com mail saying delivery of this deck has been moved from later this month to november. it looks sooooo beautiful. i wish ric were here to tell us what the shipping issue is!

 

[firemaiden]

For all those who complain about all the languages, what on earth do you have against the languages?

Would you be happier if it were only Italian?

If there only Italian, it might be quaint, the French and Spanish speakers would recognise the words but how would they market the deck to German speakers? and English speakers?

Without the languages, the cards would lose their flavour of being European, like everything else that we Americans process to remove all flavour...

 

[Abrac]

I don't have anything against the languages. I agree it's what gives them a European flavor. It's just that on some of LS's decks the titles consume an inordinate amount of space. But this deck looks reasonably well done. They seem to be making the titles slightly smaller lately than they have in the past. I could be wrong, it just seems that way to me.

 

[frelkins]

Would you be happier if it were only Italian?

well, i would be happier if everything were only in italian. . . but then i speak fair italian and my goal in life is to buy a house in capri. . .so. . .

 

[HearthCricket]

I would either prefer no language on them or have them get more creative with the languages. Putting one on each side, and with a pretty font. Not just ugly and typed on the top. Using a font that matches the theme of the deck and be creative about it would be a really good start and change. Tarot may be for reading, but it is always also a work of art, but those plain fonts and languages all squished together just take away from the beauty of the deck. They could definitely get more creative about it.

 

[Papageno]

I too would prefer no languages, or more specifically, no titles.....let the images speak for themselves, however, in many cases it's difficult to decipher the identity of the card if the artwork is really abstract and thematically strays too far from a recognizable standard.

I've always wanted to see the adoption of universal symbols applied to each of the 78 cards, it would be a kind of Tarot short-hand to overcome the language barrier. ideally they would be fluid, compact and unobtrusive......

any number of creative minds could devise an elegant system to serve this purpose but I doubt it will ever happen.

edited:

getting back to reality.......my personal feeling is that the card titles should solely be in the language of the originating country/artist...........it's an education OK.......you have to learn the card meanings so you'll get a small education in foreign language as well........it really isn't that difficult.

printing all those languages in the border really detracts from the beauty of the art and imparts a very cold, text book-like feeling.

edited again:

the language of the card titles didn't seem to be a big hurdle for anybody prior to LS's decision to adopt this multi-lingual feature.

 

[.traveller.]

getting back to reality.......my personal feeling is that the card titles should solely be in the language of the originating country/artist...........it's an education OK.......you have to learn the card meanings so you'll get a small education in foreign language as well........it really isn't that difficult.

printing all those languages in the border really detracts from the beauty of the art and imparts a very cold, text book-like feeling.

I agree totally. If there needs to be words/titles on the cards, let them be in the language of origin. There is always the multilingual lwb for the translations if you need them. Barring that, I agree with Hearthcricket that incorporating the languages in a more aesthetic or subtle fashion would be welcome. I really don't like to trim cards, especially LoS cards because they are small to begin with.
Even though I love the look of the Botticelli, I probably won't buy it, just like I passed on the Thousand and One Nights. Had they even used an off-white border, I would have bought both... just not that stark white.

*edit
Thanks to AngelC's post I looked at the Botticelli again and saw that it does have black borders rather than the white. My mistake, although I think I would still prefer a cream colored border but that's just me. I've just been drawn to that colour lately.

 

[AngelC]

I've never really been bothered by those titles, it's been the white borders and the titles always placed the same way that has made the decks seem like copies of one another without their own identity.
I think LS has done a lot to change that, a lot of the decks coming out now (UFO, Universal fantasy, sensual wicca, just to mention a few) has borders that go with the deck and make them unique.
The Botticelli is the same, it has the titles but still its own style so I'm happy.
It's a lovely deck too and I got it on my "think it over and maybe get it" list.

AngelC

 

[willowfox]

The languages are blunt, stark, and certainly spoil the beauty and symmetry of the card, therefore, for an English speaking audience, one language is quite sufficient. For those cards for sale in Italy then put only an Italian title on it, very easy for the printer to do. I for one to do not want to know what the title is in Italian, French or Chinese.

 

[Hemera]

I totally agree with Willowfox.
Many decks are printed in different language editions without problems (Morgan-Greer is a fine example).
I´d rather there was no text at all, just numbers and symbols. And if text is needed, then one language is surely enough!
Having 6 or 7 languages does not make the deck "European", since dozens of quite "important" European languages would still be missing.