The cards are based on Paul Huson's research. The deck has "Marseilles-inspired majors and Etteilla-inspired, fully illustrated minors", which in my view makes it a very interesting and rewarding alternative to RWS- or Thoth-clones. Get Paul Huson`s "Mystical Origins of the Tarot" along with the deck and you have a very extensive and deep "Little White Book" for the deck. This is a historical tarot deck of sorts, in that it draws upon what tarot was before the Golden Dawn while being not as different from RWS decks to make reading the cards all too difficult (RWS and Golden Dawn did of course draw lots from earlier tarot wisdom). I always wanted a "Marseilles tarot with illustrated pip cards" and while this deck - due to the deep research it is based on - quite certainly is more that that to me it is just the fulfillment of this wish of mine. The illustrations are quite beautiful, btw, and the material quality of the Lo Scarabeo deck to me seems excellent. Definitely recommended. I got two decks :-) ( )