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
Significance
The Libro de los juegos is one of the most important documents for researching the
Description
The book consists of ninety-seven leaves of
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 40 cm high and 28 cm wide (16 in × 11 in).[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.
Chess
The Libro de los Juegos contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100
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
The book describes the rules for a number of games in the
The tables games described are:
Spanish name | Translation | Remarks |
---|---|---|
Quinze Tablas | Fifteen Pieces | |
Doce Canes, Doce Hermanos | Twelve Dogs, Twelve Brothers | |
Doblet |
Doublet | Related to the English game of Doublets |
Fallas | Drop Dead | Related to the English game of Fayles |
Seys Does e As | Six, Two and Ace | Related to the English game of Six-Ace |
Emperador | Emperor | |
Medio-Emperador | Half Emperor | |
Paireia de Entrada | Paired Entry | |
Cab e Quinal | Alongside Fives | |
Todas Tablas | All Pieces | Related to the Anglo-Scottish game of Irish |
Laquet | Related to the French game of Jacquet | |
Buffa Cortesa | Courtly Puff | Related to the German game of Puff |
Buffa de Baldrac | Common Puff | |
Rencontrat |
Art
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
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
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
In the thirteenth century, chess had been played in Europe for almost two hundred years, having been introduced into Europe by
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
Legacy
In 1217, Alfonso had captured the
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.
See also
References
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b Sonja Musser Golladay, "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games" Archived 17 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2007), 31. Although Golladay is not the first to assert that 1283 is the finish date of the Libro de Juegos, the a quo information compiled in her dissertation consolidates the range of research concerning the initiation and completion dates of the Libro de Juegos.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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.
- ^ a b Fiske (1905), p. 87.
- ^ Cazaux and Knowlton (2017), p. 223.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Cazaux, Jean-Louis (19 April 2020). "Alfonso X's Grant Acedrex". History of Chess. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-87817-211-5.
- ^ Sonja Musser Golladay (9 March 2001). "Los libros de acedrex dados y tablas by Alfonso X, el Sabio". Archived from the original on 8 September 2006.
- ^ a b Vázquez de Parga, "Alfonso X el Sabio," 13.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Burns, "Stupor Mundi," 7.
- ^ Guerrero Lovillo, Miniatura Gótica Castellana: Siglos VIII y XIV, 13.
- ^ Burns, "Stupor Mundi," 2.
- ^ Kasten, "Alfonso’s Language," 42.
Further reading
- Canettieri, Paolo, "A critical edition of The Book of Games". Google Knol collection.
- Canettieri, Paolo, "The Book of Games: A bibliography". Google Knol collection.
- 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. 60 (4). Houston: Aramco Services Company: 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'".
- Vazquez-Campos, Braulio, "Alfonso X and Chess"[permanent dead link] (Spanish: "Alfonso X y el ajedrez"). Google Knol collection.