Magic: The
Gathering Product Spotlight: Renaissance

Release Date: August 12, 1995

Renaissance, much akin to the Chronicles set, saw release exclusively
in the German, French, and Italian markets. It came in booster packs,
each containing eight cards, comprising six commons and two uncommons.
Each card retained the expansion symbol of the set it was originally
featured in.

German and French Versions

Both the German and French versions of Renaissance were identical.
They featured black-bordered cards, amounting to a total of 122 cards.
These cards were chosen from expansions that transitioned into 4th
Edition, and from sets that had not been printed in these two languages.
The breakdown encompassed Arabian Nights (10 cards), Antiquities (23
cards), Legends (55 cards), The Dark (32 cards), and two cards from
Unlimited that were absent in Revised (Ironclaw Orcs & Twiddle). The
release of this set stemmed from a company policy, necessitating that a
card must first appear in a black-bordered set in the respective
language before inclusion in a white-bordered set. The number of cards
in each color category differed: 18 white, 18 blue, 19 black, 23 red, 16
green, 25 artifact, and 3 land cards.

Italian Version

In the Italian rendition of Renaissance, known as Rinascimento, it
retained a black-bordered design and featured only 60 cards. These cards
were exclusively chosen from Arabian Nights, Antiquities, and Unlimited,
as Italian versions of Legends and The Dark had already been released.
The Italian version included all cards featured in the German and French
sets, with the exception of Piety. Additionally, it incorporated all 26
cards from Arabian Nights and Antiquities that had been reprinted in
Chronicles.

Reprints and Rarities

Similar to Chronicles, both Renaissance and Rinascimento were printed
on two 121-card print sheets. Notably, there were three times as many
‘common sheets’ compared to ‘uncommon sheets.’ Some cards appeared
multiple times on the sheet, which increased their commonality in
comparison to cards that appeared only once. It’s important to note that
there’s no official distribution list available for these sets, except
for the common and uncommon categorizations. Different sources offer
varying insights into the actual distribution, creating some uncertainty
regarding the card availability.