Sorry, I wrote originally Bistecci instead of Vespasiano da Bisticci , which should be correct. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespasiano_da_Bisticci In twenty-two months Vespasiano had 200 volumes made for Cosimo by twenty-five copyists . He devoted fourteen years to collecting the library of Federic...

Hi MikeH, ... good work. It looks natural to see 716 as earlier, the difference was expected. I knew about 3 editions. Montefeltro worked with Bisticci and Bisticci had been in Florence. This might explain a little bit, how the manuscripts developed. There are 5 manuscripts containing all or part of...

The legend of the chess village Ströbeck has it, that Gunzelin von Kuckenberg became prisoner in their village in the year 1009, and that this man taught them chess (which might have been the Courier game), initiating a great chess tradition in the village. Ströbeck is located in about 20 km of Qued...

Jacopo Antonio had close contact to Sforza already at the time of the wedding 1441, so he naturally knew Trionfi cards. The earliest dated evidence of carte da trionfi is February 10, 1442. No matter how much you want to believe the Cary Yale was the "wedding deck" of Francesco and Bianca...

Who played it? The professional elite (that the courts had to employ) - lawyers, doctors, military officers. Military officers/politicians - Jacopo Antonio Marcello (Milan-Monselice, 1448-1449). Diplomats - Scipio Carafa (Milan, 1448). Jurists - Ugo Trotti (Ferrara, 1456). Physicians - Francesco Ac...

In the "man with horses" question in the Hofämterspiel ... If all 4's would contain a man with horse, one would easily analyze or at least suspect, that it is a 7th court card - the Hofämterspiel has already six, and the definition is made just according the structure and parallel decks (J...

The reason Ferrara is not preferable to Bologna-Florence is that the popular deck - Marchione's - already existed by 1442, and was presumably made in Bologna. If invented in Ferrara as a luxury item, that would be too short a time for a popular production to begin in another city. Secondly, the fir...

http://www.rosscaldwell.com/chart/trionfiitalia.jpg Ferentino ... Orbetello ... Brescia / Domodossola ... Recanati For Ferentino, Orbetello, Brescia / Domodossola I've nothing, for Recanati I've only the following provisionally note: Document 36b Recanati ca. 1480 For the moment we've only the info...

Well ... somebody said " Bingo ". Rithnomachia is played with 28 "pawns" at one side and "29" at the other - though in the base configuration on the board ... http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d3/Ritho.jpg/310px-Ritho.jpg ... one can only identify 2x...

http://aritmomachia.blogspot.com/2004/09/rithmomachia-philosophers-game.html 2. The History of Rithmomachia In many old records Boethius or Pythagoras were presumed as the inventors of Rithmomachia, however, they only created the mathematical basis of this game. It is certain, that the oldest writte...