Re: A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana

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.... :-)

Definitely the "7 planets" are part of Evrart de Conty's 16 gods. And in the Mantegna Tarocchi. And at many other places.

We've "Trionfi decks" as the origin of Tarot. We've the expression appearing at the same time (1440) with the popularity of the Trionfi of Petrarca. We've Petrarca motifs inside the Trionfi/Tarot motifs. We've - likely - a lot of modifications in the long run between "first Trionfi deck" and "First Tarochi deck".

We've also a "rather empty time" between 1370 and 1440, which might have been filled with lots of playing card experiments. In the Michelino deck we've an example, how different the decks might have been.

That's complex enough. We have no need for the hardly proven elephant of "goose game" inside our Trionfi porcelain shop ... :-)

Image

Alfonso the Wise c. 1284
Folio 97 verso of the Libro de los juegos by Alfonso X, depicting the game of astronomical tables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alfonso_LJ_97V.jpg

Running games existed before, nobody minds that ...
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana

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There are several reasons why Goose is of interest relative to the tarot. First, it is of uncertain origin, but documented close to the same place and time as the rise of the game of Triumphs. Second, it has the "psychomachia" structure, that is, if you land on some squares, you get help, if you land on other squares, you get harmed. That was the main reason, for me. The allegory is clear and simple; good trumphs, bad is overcome, in a "game of life", unlike in the trick-taking game, where the allegory is not clear at all, and bad often triumphs over good. Third, its variations show an increase in complexity over time, with more squares filled out later compared to earlier, which is comparable to more cards over time rather than fewer; in the Met's, 13 goose-squares and 6 other ones, symbolic; but in "Filosofia Cortesana" 9 work-squares (with same effect as geese, but each with a different saying) and 17 others, symbolic. If you can give other running games have these three characteristics, any or all, I will be interested.

Besides goose, the only other game I have found that fits the first two of these characteristics is the ancient Indian game known in 19th century England as "snakes and ladders". Given that Italian merchant ships bought numerous crafts in Muslim ports in the early 15th century, from places as far away as India (many parts of which we ruled by Muslims) and China, I would expect that this last game would have made its appearance in Italy. It is even possible that the young Ciriaco might have gotten lessons in how to play it when he visited Alexandria, twice, with his uncle in 1412-1414, or older in 1436, when he went as far as the pyramids. That game indeed probably would have had many more squares than goose, and in a different array. But when you introduce a game from one culture into another, it is natural to simplify it for the new market. From there it would have grown more complicated again, as goose and "Filosofia Cortesana"..

Re: A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana

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mikeh wrote:Given that Italian merchant ships bought numerous crafts in Muslim ports in the early 15th century, from places as far away as India (many parts of which we ruled by Muslims) and China, I would expect that this last game would have made its appearance in Italy.
Sea way to India
Vasco da Gama 1498
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Baretta and his ...
Si vult venire in domum meam in istis festis paravi plura. Si voluerit ludere ad triumphos sunt in domo; ad tesseras, habeo plura tabularia. Ad Occam, habeo taxillos grossos, & minutos: grossos ut si fortè male videret,
... in 1480 is earlier.

All, what we can say, is, that the game name is rare in the 1480s. Possibly it appears with the development of printing technology. Likely the occam used (mostly) paper as board, with the exception of the table in New York.

Well, let's take the usual matrix board, let's say a chess-board 8x8. The men shall run in snake-lines, meeting each of the 64 fields and you've chess pawns to play the runners. You can define specific fields as "events", positive or negative. You don't need an occam board to play occam. Every multi-use game board would do it. The game name "snake and ladders" with "ladders" needed, if you ascend the levels (from A row to B row etc.), and the "snake" needed to describe the running way from A1 to H8 in common chessboard notation, is just the description of such a board. One really does not need "old India" to invent it, it's just a game archetype, which might have developed everywhere, where one used matrix boards and dice, and that likely was given in each culture.

Image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_and_Ladders
Such complicated interpretations of the game are not necessary for the essential game.

Possibly schemes like the "Tower of Wisdom", which we discussed some time ago, also once had a running board
existence.
Alfonso's games collection is a good example, that one could do a lot of games with a minimum of playing material.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana

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Huck wrote,
mikeh wrote:
Given that Italian merchant ships bought numerous crafts in Muslim ports in the early 15th century, from places as far away as India (many parts of which we ruled by Muslims) and China, I would expect that this last game would have made its appearance in Italy.
Sea way to India
Vasco da Gama 1498
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Baretta and his ..
Si vult venire in domum meam in istis festis paravi plura. Si voluerit ludere ad triumphos sunt in domo; ad tesseras, habeo plura tabularia. Ad Occam, habeo taxillos grossos, & minutos: grossos ut si fortè male videret,
... in 1480 is earlier.
I meant by way of the Red Sea or the Silk Road. That's where Muslim ports got some of their wares, and Italians bought them, much earlier than 1480--although Alexandria may have opened up only in the early 15th century.

I am well aware that Italy was capable of inventing goose without help from India. I was just talking about the only other game I knew of before goose that fit the conditions. If you know of one of Alfonso's games that is a running game, allegorically of life, that has obstacles as well as helpers in different squares along the way, I'm interested. Then it could have come from there, I suppose.

Re: A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana

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Running games are mostly children games. I think, that Alfonso's approach is more serious.

But here ...

Image

http://historicgames.com/alphonso/F91V.html

... we see a board, which could be used for the Korean Yut game, about which I spoke earlier. It has for Alfonso, as I understand it, a multi-use function, it's used for different games.

Here we have a Mitelli running game, naturally later than the "official" game of goose.

Image

http://www.osteriadelsole.it/html/tx-storia.htm

It runs from 1 to 59, precisely in the manner, that I described before (in snake-lines), on a 6x10 board. It's an archetype to arrange a running game in this manner. You could do the same game on each chess board, just using pawns and dice. There's no need to have a goose game board for playing the game (in its essence), similar as you don't need Tarot trumps to play the Tarot game (in its essence).
A nice board or nice cards are just luxury and addition ... but the common society of the medieval time had not so much money and time for luxury additions.
Huck
http://trionfi.com