PS: updated the linked and the attached image with the much better image in mjurst's post.A game with 63 numbered cells, counter clockwise, centripetal. The “goose” cells are replaced by “travaglio” (work) cells, that do not respect the classical placement of the game of the goose and are at number 4, 12, 17, 23, 30, 34, 41, 48 and 57. It is the oldest dated racing game (1588). Very likely, it is the same game given as a gift to the Spanish court by the Medici court, whose relationship was kept by a “joker”.
At the top. “Courtly philosophy by Alonso de Barros”; to the left: dolphin and anchor with writing “Make haste slowly”; to the right: a woman with half shaved hair with writing “Do not miss me” [occasion].
At the bottom: to the left, before cell 1, “Think of the end”; from the swan's trumpet: “Know thyself”; to the right: a hand points to a clock with writing “Until the last [hour]”. Below: “Made with permission of our Lord the King. With exclusive right by his majesty for ten years in the kingdom of Naples”. “Engraved by Marius Cartarius, Naples, 1588”.
At the centre: at the bottom on the right a fisherman holds a fish while he is losing a shoe with writing: “You will never reach anything great, if you think of the price [to pay]”. Top centre a banner: “The sea of suffering; whoever is ambitious must suffer, as whoever is born must die”.
Rules: they are not on the board (see the book “Filosofia cortesana”, chapter: “Explanation of the game and rules to play it”).
Cells: some have a label (the “goose” cells are replaced by the 9 work cells).
1 - “Reason looks at the feet. Opinion at the wheel”.
4 – Work: “You feel your work when your gain is small or nothing”.
7 – The Profligate. “the profligate has his friends with him whenever he eats in company”.
10 – Adulation. “Adulation and deception, they look good but are made of worthless tissue”.
12 - Work: “The results of righteous work are honour, profit and pleasure”.
15 - “Go to private n.26. Pay” “Pass of Hope”. “No good hope ever depends on other people”.
17 – Work: “Poverty comes from idleness; richness from work”
20 – Diligence: “All the effort dedicated to the world is rubbish”.
23 – Work: “Don't call it work if you can exit it whenever you want”
26 – Pay. The Private. “Do not look for other hands, if yours are not full”.
28 - “Chance”. “If fortune is mean to you, all chance becomes an hazard”.
30 - Work. “Fortune must surrender in the end, if it has to face work”.
32 - “By the rope. Stop on 1 and 2”. “Pit of oblivion”. “The ungrateful forget all that they receive”.
34 – Work: “The fruit of hope is earned by work”.
36 – Go to Chance n.28. Pay. “What they will say”. “If you think of what they will say, you [only] take what they want to give you”.
39 – To the Profligate n.7. “Untrue friendship”. “When wise men negotiate, they thank for the insults they receive”.
41 – Work. “It's hard work not to have anything to eat or drink”.
43 – To adulation n.10. Pay. “New ministers”. “Whoever limits his hopes will suffer the stroke of change”.
46 - “Restart from the beginning”. Pay. “Death of the helper”. “A man trusting in other men, remains as a blind man without a guide”.
48 – Work: “Even if fortune changes easily, it always is favourable to work”.
51 - “Play twice”. “House of Fortune”. “Everything can be obtained, with fortune and permission”.
53 - “Chance”. “Every chance has bad results, wherever there is poverty”.
55 – Go to diligence n.20. Pay. “Think that”. “Think that fortune runs away, and the fortune you have now will last but shortly”.
57 – Work: “Work will bring you prizes and makes you soul shine”
60 - “Begging, go to chance 53”. “House of Poverty”. “Poverty dries all humour at the roots of good luck”.
63 – Victory. “Whenever you have good luck, remember that it is as mutable as the Moon”.
“Not little, nor much”.
A 1588 board game: Filosofia Cortesana
1Here is a 1588 “Game of the Goose” that was mentioned by mmfilesi a few years ago. I provide a translation of the description (including all the texts on the board) from www.giochidelloca.it:
Last edited by marco on 02 Jan 2013, 16:55, edited 3 times in total.