The game of astronomical tables, from Libro de los juegos
The Libro de los juegos (Spanish: "Book of games"), or Libro de axedrez, dados e tablas ("Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish), was a Spanish treaty of chess which synthesized the information from other Arabic works on this same topic, dice and tables (backgammon forebears) games,[1] commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283.[2][3] It contains the earliest European treatise on chess as well as being the oldest document on European tables games, and is an exemplary piece of the literary legacy of the Toledo School of Translators.
The Libro de los juegos is one of the most important documents for researching the history of board games. This "celebrated MS book of games" has been described as "one of the choicest treasures of the library of the Escorial"[4] as well as the "perhaps the greatest source of information on board games ever compiled during the Middle Ages."[5] It is both "the earliest treatise on chess and the oldest document relating to tables which have had their origin in Europe."[4]
Description
The book consists of ninety-seven leaves of parchment, many with color illustrations,[3] and contains 150 miniatures.[2] The text is a treatise that addresses the playing of three game types: a game of skill, or chess; games of chance, or dice; and a third game type, tables, which combines elements of both skill and chance. These games are discussed in the final section of the book at both an astronomical and astrological level. Examining further, the text can also be read as an allegorical initiation tale and as a metaphysical guide for leading a balanced, prudent, and virtuous life.[6] In addition to the didactic, although not overly moralistic, aspect of the text,[7] the manuscript's illustrations reveal a rich cultural, social, and religious complexity.
Location
The earliest manuscript is in the library of the monastery of El Escorial near Madrid in Spain, as manuscript T.I.6. It is bound in sheepskin and is 40cm high and 28cm wide (16in×11in).[3] A 1334 copy is held in the library of the Spanish Royal Academy of History in Madrid.
Background
Alfonso was likely influenced by his contact with scholars in the Arab world.[3] Unlike many contemporary texts on the topic, he does not engage the games in the text with moralistic arguments; instead, he portrays them in an astrological context.[3] He conceives of gaming as a dichotomy between the intellect and chance. The book is divided into three parts reflecting this: the first on chess (a game purely of abstract strategy), the second on dice (with outcomes controlled strictly by chance), and the last on tables (combining elements of both).[3] The text may have been influenced by Frederick II's text on falconry.[3]
Chess
Chess problem #35Chess problem featuring Moors of Spain.
The Libro de los Juegos contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100 chess problems and variants.[3] Among its more notable entries is a depiction of what Alfonso calls the ajedrex de los quatro tiempos ("chess of the four seasons"). This game is a chess variant for four players, described as representing a conflict between the four elements and the four humors. The chessmen are marked correspondingly in green, red, black, and white, and pieces are moved according to the roll of dice.[3] Alfonso also describes a game titled "astronomical chess", played on a board of seven concentric circles, divided radially into twelve areas, each associated with a constellation of the Zodiac.[3]
Another variant described in the book is the "Grant Acedrex", played over a 12x12 board with alternative pieces as the giraffe and the unicornio.[8][9]
Tables
Seis, dos, y as
The book describes the rules for a number of games in the tables family. One notable entry is todas tablas, the equivalent of the Anglo-Scottish game of Irish, which some scholars have argued has several similarities to modern backgammon including an identical starting position and the same rules for movement and bearing off, albeit the accompanying image has a different opening layout.[10] Alfonso also describes a variant played on a board with seven points in each table. Players rolled seven-sideddice to determine the movement of pieces, an example of Alfonso's preference for the number seven.[11]
A 13th-century illustration in Libro de los Juegos of Nine men's morris being played with dice
The miniatures in the Libro de juegos vary between half- and full-page illustrations. The half-page miniatures typically occupy the upper half of a folio, with text explaining the game "problem" solved in the image occupying the bottom half. The back or second (verso) side of Folio 1, in a half-page illustration, depicts the initial stages of the creation of the Libro de juegos, accompanied by text on the bottom half of the page, and the front or first (recto) side of Folio 2 depicts the transmission of the game of chess from an Indian Philosopher-King to three followers.[12] The full-page illustrations are almost exclusively on the verso side of later folios and are faced by accompanying text on the recto side of the following folio. The significance of the change in miniature size and placement may indicate images of special emphasis, could merely function as a narrative or didactic technique, or could indicate different artisans at work in Alfonso's scriptorium as the project developed over time.[13]
Having multiple artisans working on the Libro de juegos would have been a typical practice for medieval chanceries and scriptoria, where the labor of producing a manuscript was divided amongst individuals of varying capacities,[14] for example the positions of scribe, draftsman, and apprentice cutting pages. But in addition to performing different tasks, various artisans could have labored at the same job, such as the work of illustration in the Libro de juegos, thereby revealing a variety hands or styles. The Libro de Juegos offers such evidence in the difference in size between the half- and full-page illustrations in addition to changes in framing techniques amongst the folios: geometrical frames with embellished corners, architectural frames established by loosely perspectival rooftops and colonnades, and games played under tents. Other stylistic variances are found in figural representation, in facial types, and in a repertoire of different postures assumed by the players in different folios in the manuscript.
For example, in a comparison of two miniatures, found on Folios 53v and 76r, examples of these different styles are apparent, although the trope of a pair of gamers is maintained. In Folio 53v, two men are playing chess, both wearing turbans and robes. Although they may be seated on rugs on the ground, as suggested by the ceramic containers that are placed on or front of the rug near the man on the right side of the board, the figures' seated positions, which are full frontal with knees bent at right angles, suggests that they are seated on stools or perhaps upholstered benches. The figures' robes display a Byzantine conservatism, with their modeled three-dimensionality and allusion to a Classical style, yet the iconic hand gestures are reminiscent of a Romanesque energy and theatricality. Although the figures are seated with their knees and torsos facing front, their shoulders and heads rotate in three-quarter profile toward the center of the page, the chess board, and each other. The proximal, inner arm of each player (the arm that is closest to the board) is raised in a speaking gesture; the distal, outside arms of the players are also raised and are bent at the elbows, creating a partial crossing of each player's torso as the hands lift in speaking gestures. The faces reveal a striking specificity of subtle detail, particular to a limited number of miniatures throughout the Libro de juegos, perhaps indicative of a particular artist's hand. These details include full cheeks, realistic wrinkles around the eyes and across the brow, and a red, full-lipped mouth that hints at the Gothic affectations in figural representation coming out of France during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.[15]
The style in the miniature in Folio 76v is markedly different from the style in Folio 53v. In this case, the framed miniature contains two men, perhaps Spanish, with uncovered wavy light brown hair that falls to the jaw line. The men seem young, as the player on the left has no facial hair and his face is unlined. In both folios, both pairs of players are playing tables and seem to be well-dressed, although there is no addition of gold detailing to their robes as seen in the wardrobes of aristocratic players in other miniatures. These players are seated on the ground, leaning on pillows that are placed next to a tables board. In this miniature, the figure on the left side of the board faces the reader, while the figure on the right leans in to the board with his back to the reader. In other words, each player is leaning on his left elbow, using his right hand to reach across his body to play. In the miniatures of this style, the emphasis seems to be more on the posture of the player than the detail of their faces; this crossed, lounging style is only found in the folios of the Libro de tablas, the third section of the Libro de juegos which explains tables games, again perhaps indicative of the work of a particular artist.
Other visual details contemporaneous of Alfonso's court and social and cultural milieu infuse the Libro de juegos. Although some of the miniatures are framed by simple rectangles with corners embellished by the golden castles and lions of Castile and León, other are framed by medieval Spanish architectural motifs, including Gothic and Mudéjar arcades of columns and arches. At times, the figural depictions are hierarchical, especially in scenes with representations of Alfonso, where the king is seated on a raised throne while dictating to scribes or meting out punishments to gamblers. Yet a contemporary atmosphere of Spanish convivencia is evoked by the inclusion nobility, rogues, vagrants, young and old, men, women, Christian, Muslim, and Jewish characters. Alfonso himself is depicted throughout the text, both as participant and spectator and as an older man and as a younger.[16] The pages are filled with many social classes and ethnicities in various stages of solving the challenges presented by games.
Iconography
The Libro de los Juegos can be divided into three parts: the games and problems it explores textually, the actual illuminations themselves, and the metaphysical allegories, where an analysis of the texts and illuminations reveals the movements of the macrocosmos of the universe and the microcosmos of man.[17] The symbolism within the medieval illuminations, as explained by the accompanying texts, reveal allusions to medieval literature, art, science, law and philosophy.[18] Intended as a didactic text, the manuscript functions as a manual that documents and explains how and why one plays games ranging from pure, intellectual strategy (chess), to games of pure chance (dice), to games that incorporate both elements (tables). Conceivably, Alfonso hoped to elucidate for himself how to better play the game of life, while also providing a teaching tool for others. The game of ajedrex, or chess, is not the only game explained in the Libro de los Juegos, but it does occupy the primary position in the text and is given the most attention to detail.
In the thirteenth century, chess had been played in Europe for almost two hundred years, having been introduced into Europe by Arabs around the year 1000. The Arabs had become familiar with the game as early as the eighth century when the Islamic empire conquered Persia,[19] where the game of chess was alleged to have been originated. It is said that a royal advisor had invented the game in order to teach his king prudence without having to overtly correct him.[20] As Arab contact with the West expanded, so too did the game and its various permutations, and by the twelfth century, chess was becoming an entertaining diversion among a growing population of Europeans, including some scholars, clergy, the aristocracy, and the merchant classes;[21] thus, by the thirteenth century, the iconography and symbolism associated with chess would have been accessible and familiar to Alfonso and his literate court culture, who may have had access to the private library, and manuscripts, of Alfonso, including the Libro de los Juegos.[21]
The Libro de los Juegos manuscript was a Castilian translation of Arabic texts, which were themselves translations of Persian manuscripts.[1] The visual trope portrayed in the Libro de los Juegos miniatures is seen in other European transcriptions of the Arabic translations, most notably the German Carmina Burana Manuscript:[19] two figures, one on either side of the board, with the board tilted up to reveal to the readers the moves made by the players. The juxtaposition of chess and dice in Arabic tradition, indicating the opposing values of skill (chess) and ignorance (dice),[22] was given a different spin in Alfonso's manuscript, however. As Alfonso elucidates in the opening section of the Libro de los Juegos, the Libro de ajedrex (Book of chess) demonstrates the value of the intellect, the Libro de los dados (Book of dice) illustrates that chance has supremacy over pure intellect, and the Libro de las tablas (Book of tables) celebrates a conjoined use of both intellect and chance.[23] Further, the iconographic linkage between chess and kingship in the Western tradition continued to evolve and became symbolic of kingly virtues, including skill, prudence, and intelligence.[24]
Literary context
Most of the work accomplished in Alfonso's scriptorium consisted of translations into the Spanish vernacular from Arabic translations of Greek texts or classical Jewish medicinal texts.[25] As a result, very few original works were produced by this scholar-king, relative to the huge amount of work that was translated under his auspices. This enormous focus on translation was perhaps an attempt by Alfonso to continue the legacy of academic openness in Castile, initiated by Islamic rulers in Córdoba, where the emirates had also employed armies of translators in order to fill their libraries with Arabic translations of classic Greek texts.[25] Alfonso was successful in promoting Castilian society and culture through his emphasis on the use of Galaico-Portuguese and Castilian, in academic, juridical, diplomatic, literary, and historical works. This emphasis also had the effect of reducing the universality of his translated works and original academic writings, as Latin was the lingua franca in both Iberia and Europe; yet Alfonso never desisted in his promotion of the Castilian vernacular.[26]
Legacy
In 1217, Alfonso had captured the Kingdom of Murcia, on the Mediterranean coast south of Valencia, for his father, King Alfonso IX, thereby unifying the kingdoms of Castile and León, bringing together the northern half of the Iberian Peninsula under one Christian throne.[12] With the Christian Reconquista of the Peninsula underway, inroads into Islamic territories were successfully incorporating lands previously held by the taifa kingdoms. The arts and sciences prospered in the Kingdom of Castile under the confluence of Latin and Arabic traditions of academic curiosity as Alfonso sponsored scholars, translators, and artists of all three religions of the Book (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim) in his chanceries and scriptoria.[27] Clerical and secular scholars from Europe turned their eyes to the Iberian Peninsula as the arts and sciences prospered in an early Spanish "renaissance" under the patronage of Alfonso X, who was continuing the tradition of (relatively) enlightened and tolerant convivencia established by the Muslim emirate several centuries earlier.[28]
As an inheritor of a dynamic mixture of Arabic and Latin culture, Alfonso was steeped in the rich heritage of humanistic philosophy, and the production of his Libro de los Juegos reveals the compendium of world views that comprised the eclectic thirteenth-century admixture of faith and science. According to this approach, man's actions could be traced historically, and his failures and successes could be studied as lessons to be applied to his future progress. These experiences can be played out and studied as they are lived, or as game moves played and analysed in the pages of the Libro de los Juegos.[29] It is a beautiful and luxurious document, rich not only in workmanship but also in the amount of scholarship of multiple medieval disciplines that are integrated in its pages.
Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back nearly 5,000 years to the regions of Mesopotamia and Persia. The earliest record of backgammon itself dates to 17th-century England, being descended from the 16th-century game of Irish.
The Cantigas de Santa Maria are 420 poems with musical notation, written in the medieval Galician-Portuguese language during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile El Sabio (1221–1284). Traditionally, they are all attributed to Alfonso, though scholars have since established that the musicians and poets of his court were responsible for most of them, with Alfonso being credited with a few as well.
Alquerque is a strategy board game that is thought to have originated in the Middle East. It is considered to be the parent of draughts and Fanorona and the diagonals of its grid are the predecessor of the checkering of the draughts board.
Alfonso X was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Germany on 1 April. He renounced his claim to Germany in 1275, and in creating an alliance with the Kingdom of England in 1254, his claim on the Duchy of Gascony as well.
Tables games are a class of board game that includes backgammon and which are played on a tables board, typically with two rows of 12 vertical markings called points. Players roll dice to determine the movement of pieces. Tables games are among the oldest known board games, and many different varieties are played throughout the world. They are called 'tables' games because the boards consist of four quadrants or 'tables'. The vast majority are race games, the tables board representing a linear race track with start and finish points, the aim being to be first to the finish line, but the characteristic features that distinguish tables games from other race games are that they are two-player games using a large number of pieces, usually fifteen per player.
In chess, a smothered mate is a checkmate delivered by a knight in which the mated king is unable to move because it is completely surrounded by its own pieces.
Spain in the Middle Ages is a period in the history of Spain that began in the 5th century following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ended with the beginning of the early modern period in 1492.
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia, where it was modified in terms of shapes and rules and developed into Shatranj. Following the Arab invasion and conquest of Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Europe via Spain and Italy. The game evolved roughly into its current form by about 1500 CE.
Alfonso X of Castile, also known as Alfonso the Wise, ruled from 1252 until 1284. One of Alfonso’s goals for his kingdom was to lift Castile out of the Dark Ages by producing a united, educated, artistic, and religious population. His desire to bring Castile into the mainstream of high civilization led to a boom of cultural activity, including the production and translation of a great deal of literature. The literature produced during his reign was intended to aid him in achieving his goal by giving the common people of Spain access to great intellectual works. Therefore, all of the prose attributed to Alfonso X’s efforts was written in the language of the common people, Castilian, rather than Latin, which was the language of prestige at that time. Although the works are generally attributed to Alfonso X, being a king with other business to deal with he did not himself write most of them. Instead, Alfonso’s role was that of choosing works to be produced and translated, funding the projects, selecting the true authors of the work, overseeing the production, and occasionally contributing personally.
Catch the Hare is a two-player abstract strategy board game from Europe, and perhaps specifically from Spain. It is a hunt game, and since it uses a standard Alquerque board from the game Alquerque de Doze, it is specifically a tiger hunt game. In some variants, some or all of the diagonal lines are missing which makes it difficult to classify as a tiger game in general. One hare is going up against ten to twelve opponents(hunters or hounds). The hare is the "tiger" in this hunt game which is prey and predator at the same time. The hare can capture the opponents by leaping over them. The opponents attempt to surround and trap the hare.
The history of games dates to the ancient human past. Games are an integral part of all cultures and are one of the oldest forms of human social interaction. Games are formalized expressions of play which allow people to go beyond immediate imagination and direct physical activity. Common features of games include uncertainty of outcome, agreed upon rules, competition, separate place and time, elements of fiction, elements of chance, prescribed goals and personal enjoyment.
The Estoria de España, also known in the 1906 edition of Ramón Menéndez Pidal as the Primera Crónica General, is a history book written on the initiative of Alfonso X of Castile "El Sabio", who was actively involved in the editing. It is believed to be the first extended history of Spain in Old Spanish, a West Iberian Romance language that forms part of the lineage from Vulgar Latin to modern Spanish. Many prior works were consulted in constructing this history.
Rabbi Zag de Sujurmenza was a Jewish convert of 13th-century Spain who helped King Alfonso X of Castile with his scientific works.
The Libros del saber de astronomía, literally "book[s] of the wisdom of astronomy [astrology]", is a series of books of the medieval period, composed during the reign of Alfonso X of Castile. They describe the celestial bodies and the astronomical instruments existing at the time. The collection is a group of treatises on astronomical instruments, like the celestial sphere, the spherical and plane astrolabe, saphea, and universal plate for all latitudes, for uranography or star cartography that can be used for casting horoscopes. The purpose of the rest of the instruments, the quadrant of the type called vetus, sundial, clepsydras, is to determine the time, which was also needed to cast the horoscope. The king looked for separate works for the construction and use of each device.
Grant Acedrex is a medieval chess variant dating back to the time of King Alfonso X of Castile. It appears in the Libro de los Juegos of 1283.
Astronomical chess or Astrological chess for seven is a game from the book Libro de los Juegos, written under king Alfonso X the Wise in 1283. The game was played on a round board with concentric circles. The sky, zodiac signs and planets are the elements of this chess. The book described the games and problems of playing situations in chess, dice and other board games that formed the basis of modern backgammon.
Laquet is an historical Castilian tables game that was described as a new game in the 13th century. It may be the ancestor of Jacquet. Unlike Backgammon and most other tables games, it has an asymmetrical starting position; only three of the four quadrants are used and the pieces may not be 'hit'.
Irish or the Irish Game was an Anglo-Scottish tables game for two players that was popular from the 16th to the mid-18th centuries before being superseded by its derivative, the "faster paced" backgammon. In its day, Irish was "esteemed among the best games at Tables." Its name notwithstanding, Irish was one of the most international forms of tables games, the equivalent of French toutes tables, Italian tavole reale and Spanish todas tablas, the latter name first being used in the 1283 El Libro de los Juegos, a translation of Arabic manuscripts by the Toledo School of Translators.
Ludus Anglicorum, also called the English Game, is an historical English tables game for two players using a board similar to that used today for Backgammon and other games. It is a "strategic game for serious game-players" and was well known in the Middle Ages. At one time it was considered the most popular tables game in England.
Doublets or queen's game is an historical English tables game for two people which was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Although played on a board similar to that now used for backgammon, it is a simple game of hazard bearing little resemblance to backgammon. Very similar games were played in mainland Europe, the earliest recorded dating to the 14th century.
References
1 2 Robert I. Burns, "Stupor Mundi," in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, ed. Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990): 1–13, 2.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wollesen, Jens T. "Sub specie ludi...: Text and Images in Alfonso El Sabio's Libro de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 53:3, 1990. pp. 277–308.
↑ Luis Vázquez de Parga, "Alfonso X el Sabio," in Libros del ajedrex, dados y tablas, edited by Vicent García Editores, Valencia, and Ediciones Poniente (Madrid, Spain: Patrimonio Nacional, 1987): 13–28, 17.
↑ Dwayne E. Carpenter, "Fickle Fortune: Gambling in Medieval Spain," in Studies in Philology 85, no. 3 (Summer, 1988): 267–278, 278.
↑ Bodlaender, Hans (11 March 2000). "Grande Acedrex". Chess Variants. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
↑ Ana Domínguez Rodríguez, "El Libro del los juegos y la miniatura alfonsi," in Libros del ajedrex, dados y tablas, edited by Vicent García Editores, Valencia, and Ediciones Poniente (Madrid, Spain: Patrimonio Nacional, 1987): 29–123, 32.
↑ Thomas F. Glick, "'My Master, the Jew': Observations on Interfaith Scholarly Interactions in the Middle Ages," in Jews, Muslims and Christians in and Around the Crown of Aragón, edited by Harvey J. Hames (Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004): 157–182, 159.
↑ Ellen Kosmer and James F. Powers, "Manuscript Illustration: The Cantigas in Contemporary Art Context," in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, edited by Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press, 1990): 46–58, 50.
↑ Jose Guerrero Lovillo, Miniatura Gótica Castellana: Siglos VIII y XIV. (Madrid, España: Laboratorio de Arte de la Universidad de Sevilla, Instituto Diego Velázquez, del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: 1956), 24.
↑ Golladay, "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games," 1222.
↑ Golladay, "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games," 1225.
1 2 William L. Tronzo, "Moral Hieroglyphs: Chess and Dice at San Savino in Piacenza," in Gesta 16, no. 2 (1977): 15–26, 18.
↑ Ricardo Calvo, "El libro de los juegos de Alfonso X el Sabio," in Libros del ajedrex, dados y tablas, edited by Vicent García Editores, Valencia, and Ediciones Poniente (Madrid, Spain: Patrimonio Nacional, 1987): 125–386, 138.
1 2 Tronzo, "Moral Hieroglyphs: Chess and Dice at San Savino in Piacenza," 15.
↑ Tronzo, "Moral Hieroglyphs: Chess and Dice at San Savino in Piacenza," 19
↑ Dwayne E. Carpenter, "'Alea jacta est': at the Gaming Table with Alfonso the Learned," in Journal of Medieval History 24, no. 4 (1998): 333–345, 336.
↑ Tronzo, "Moral Hieroglyphs: Chess and Dice at San Savino in Piacenza," 21.
1 2 Lloyd Kasten, "Alfonso’s Language," in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, ed. Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990): 33–45, 34.
Canettieri, Paolo, "The Book of Games: A critical edition" (Italian: "ALFONSO X EL SABIO – Il Libro dei giochi – Introduzione, edizione e commento"). Google Knol collection.
Cazaux, Jean-Louis and Rick Knowlton (2017). A World of Chess. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Fiske, Willard (1905). Chess in Iceland and in Icelandic literature: with Historical Notes on other Table-Games. Florence: Florentine Typographical Society.
Golladay, Sonja Musser, "Alfonso X's Book of Games: A translation" (old link archived from the University of Arizona: A translation)
Gordon, Stewart (July–August 2009). "The Game of Kings". Saudi Aramco World. Houston: Aramco Services Company. 60 (4): 18–23. Archived from the original on 20 July 2009. Retrieved 22 June 2010. (PDF version) Cf. especially section on "The Alfonso X 'Book of Games'".
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