This deck has long been up there as my favourite historical deck. I love the fact that people cannot bend it into their TdM list because it just doesn't fit. The Vieville is the Vieville.
I have no doubt whatsoever that many of the odd details we see in the 18th century decks can be traced back to the Vieville and he may have got them from a link which we have now lost.
It is the most expressive of the historical deck and the one I just keep coming back to again and again and again. It helps that the France-Cartes edition is perfect in every way. There is nothing I would like to be different about it. Im sure Flornoy's restoration will be wonderful but I find that I do not crave any other version except this one.
I have three copies; one at home, one at my partner's place and one in my desk drawer at work. Wherever I am, there is a Vieville nearby
It is the deck I have spent the longest amount of time doing an IDS with (before the phrase was coined). I studied the Vieville and the Vieville only for 6 months or more I think (or maybe 5)...
I always think that this is the deck which would have been used for gaming at Louis XIV's Versailles. In terms of the timeline, it is highly plausible.