Jeu de mail

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
An illustration from Joseph Lauthier's Nouvelles Règles pour le jeu de mail (1717)

Jeu de mail or jeu de maille ('pallamaglio' in Italian,

palle-malle and croquet, and (by moving it indoors and playing on a table with smaller equipment), billiards
.

History

One of the oldest references to the game of 'pallamaglio', and to its Neapolitan origin, is by

Modern French maille), on the basis that the target hoops used in some versions of the game were sometimes made of bound straw.[6]
: 308 

Quite popular in various forms in the Kingdom of Naples, then in other parts of Italy and France in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, the game developed into pall-mall in the early modern period, which spread to Scotland then England; this, in turn, eventually led to croquet.[6]: 308 

According to

Louis XIV (ruled 1661–1715), who hated jeu de paume, was on the other hand enthusiastic about jeu de mail, and the playing court in the gardens of Tuileries Palace was enlarged during his reign.[7]

The game was still played in France, in the areas of

First World War.[7] An educational institution in Montpellier, Collège Jeu de Mail, still bears the name of this game.[8]

Game play

The game makes use of one or more balls that are generally of

golf club, respectively; it is essentially a heavy version of the billiard mace (which eventually developed into the cue stick). Different variants of the game may have differing goals or targets (if any), ranging from croquet-like hoops to golf-like holes in the ground. There are four known named rules variations of the game:[3]

  • Chicane ('quarrel', 'quibble') – similar to golf; the winner is the one who reaches a distant goal in the fewest strokes.
  • Grand coup ('great blow') – the goal is to launch the ball as far as possible; good players might exceed 200 yards (180 m)
  • Rouët ('wheel', modern French: roue) – played with several balls; ancestral to croquet and billiards
  • Partie ('party') – a team version.

References

  1. ISBN 978-8895063430
    .
  2. ^ Museo di Torino (16 March 2013). "Pallamaglio". Museo Torino.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780760316825
    .
  4. ^ Colasante, Francesco. "Enciclopedia dello Sport".
  5. ^ Berti, Domenico (1868). Vita di Giordano Bruno da Nola (in Italian). G. B. Paravia e compagni editore. p. 146.
  6. ^ a b c Jusserand, J. J. (1996) [1901]. Les sports et jeux d'exercice dans l'ancienne France. Paris: Plon-Nourrit et Cie.
  7. ^ a b Merdrignac, Bernard (2002). Le Sport au Moyen Âge. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes. p. 236.
  8. ^ "Collège Jeu de Mail | Montpellier". Clg-dujeudemail-montpellier.ac-montpellier.fr (in French). Retrieved 2016-07-16.
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