Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

91
A book ...

Chess Variants
By Wikipedians
PediaPress
http://books.google.de/books?id=q5e2Inv ... navlinks_s
... has appeared.
An unusual author

Between many other things it says, that the modern Chess variant (quick bishop, quick Queen), when it was invented in 15th century, got in Italy the surname "alla rabiosa" ("in the mad manner"), also "Queen's chess" or "mad woman chess".

In some regions (Russia) the queen could also move like a knight.

At ...
http://books.google.de/books?id=q5e2Inv ... bo&f=false
... there is description of a very old game called "Liubo".
Wikipedia notes it, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liubo
I personally never heard of it before.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

93
"De Vetula" ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_vetula
De vetula ("On the Old Woman") is a long 13th-century elegiac comedy written in Latin. It is pseudepigraphically signed "Ovidius", and in its time was attributed to the classical Latin poet Ovid. It consists of three books of hexameters, and was quoted by Roger Bacon. In its slight plot, the aging Ovid is duped by a go-between, and renounces love affairs. Its interest to modern readers lies in the discursive padding of the story.

Its actual author, "Pseudo-Ovidius" to scholars, has been thought to be Richard de Fournival; but this is not universally accepted. The attribution to Ovid was reinforced by an implausible claim that the poem had been found in his tomb. The poem presents him as a Christian convert. The authorship of Ovid was questioned by the fifteenth-century humanist Angelo Decembrio; in fact Petrarch had already denied that Ovid could be the poet.

There was a translation or paraphrase of the 1370s into French as La vieille ("The Old Woman") by Jean Le Fèvre. This was followed by a Catalan prose translation Ovidi enamorat by Bernat Metge in the 1380s.

The work was published in 1470.
Hübsch referred in a vague manner to this work, presenting in this context information about chess and to an assumption, that Ovid already played chess. I found others in the web, who also referred to it in the context of chess. I didn't find the text to confirm this. Generally it's stated, that it referred to games.

Ovid was an error, and also Hübsch referred to this error. Nonetheless it was long believed, that the text was from Ovid, with early contradictions from Petrarca and Angelo Decembrio, both related to Milan.

Ovid (and his Metamorphoses) is said to have influenced the medieval iconography of Greek/Roman gods. So he influenced the pictures of Albrici text, the god pictures in the Evrart de Conty chess book editions, the Mantegna Tarocchi and also ... the Michelino deck, which used Daphne as the most significant figure and Daphne got its major role by Ovid.

If Ovid had been connected to games generally (as it is said for "De Vetula", which was made by a pseudo-Ovid), the appearance of Daphne in a card game becomes natural. The place for the critique on the assumption, that the text was from Ovid himself, was Milan, but the place for a special favor for Daphne had been also Milan.

Image

... assumed to present Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona of Savoy as Apollo and Daphne.

This seems to be a complete version of 1534, but it's not very comfortable for research ...
http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de ... 00005.html
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

94
The pdf-file ...
http://www.svkoblenz.de/downloads/geschichte_svkoblenz
... by Dr. Thomas Bohn (Koblenz) has a nice "chess collection in development" with lots of old notes to chess.

I detected a new Courier chess game note (these notes are rare) in his collection:
1430: (erschlossen) Die Herzogin Margarethe von Braunschweig (ca. 1365-1442)
teilt ihrem Bruder Herzog Adolf VII. von Jülich und Berg (um 1375-1437 Köln)
brieflich aus ihrer Witwenresidenz Kloster / Burg Hardegsen (bei Northeim,
Niedersachsen) mit, dass sie ihm einen Boten mit Geschenken zu seiner Hochzeit mit
Herzogin Elisabeth von Bayern[-München] (1406-1468) nach seiner Residenz
Düsseldorf (?) geschickt habe. Dieser Bote sei aber nach einer Rast auf dem
herzoglichen Schloß Burg / Wupper „uppe dem Solinge“ vom [Burgmann] Hans von
Marnholte [Freiherrn VON MARENHOLTZ?] aus Everstein (Weserbergland / LK
Holzminden) beraubt worden. Zu dem kostbaren Diebesgut gehörten u.a. „eyn
currerspel, al schone unde kostlich gesneden [Brettspiel] …, eyn schakspel mit der
bedütnisse darover, [nämlich] … eyn schachtaffelnbuch“. (53)
...
Footnote 53:
STEINHAUSEN, Privatbriefe 1899, 28ff. nach zwei Originalen HSta Düsseldorf Jülich-Berg Litteralien
Nr. 35, 36 und STEINHAUSEN ebda 24f.
Burg Hardeg, place for the widow Margarethe
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Hardeg

Husband of Margarethe: Otto der Quade, duke of Braunschweig und Lüneburg
http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Otto_der_Quade

Father of Margarethe: Wilhelm II (Berg)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II._(Berg)

Brother of Margarethe: Adolf VII. von Jülich-Berg
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_(J%C3%BClich-Berg)

Wife of brother: Elizabeth of Bavaria-Munich, daughter of duke Ernst of Bavaria-Munich, was married in 1430 in Düsseldorf. Elizabeth was 24 and her husband much older.

The story: Widow Margarethe wanted to send a currer game (= Courier chess) and a chess game and some other presents to the wedding of her brother in Düsseldorf. The messenger was robbed by a hostile knight near Solingen. The currer game and the chess game were lost. The letter, which reported the loss, survived.

*************

In this context it jumps to the eyes, that Courier chess was described by Selenus alias duke August II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (once reported in detail in this thread) in his chess book in 1616, in other words a follower of the title, which once was held by Otto der Quade.
And Burg Hardeg in Hardegsen is rather close to the chess village Ströbeck, where possibly once the Courier chess variation was born (also reported once in this thread).

Image
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

95
I found the letter (STEINHAUSEN, Privatbriefe 1899, 28ff. nach zwei Originalen HSta Düsseldorf Jülich-Berg Litteralien
Nr. 35, 36 und STEINHAUSEN ebda 24f.), actually there are 2, but the second isn't very interesting.

http://diglib.uibk.ac.at/ulbtirol/conte ... iew/121319

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Well, that's a very difficult German. Beside the "currerspel" a horse, some money, 8 trousers and some books were robbed, between them also a "Schachfaffelnbuch" ... possibly a book with chess problems, or, alternative possibility,
a chess moralization.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

96
Huck wrote:
Image

http://www.khm.at/it/ambras/sammlungen/ ... a9cada1a1d

An unusual chessboard from mid 16th century with "15x8" fields ... whereby this 15x8 might be an error, as each player according the description has 32 figures, so it actually should be 16x8 fields (?). Though it might be, that two figures had special function or had been positioned outside of the usual 2-rows-system (possibly the pawns were positioned at 3rd and 6th row for quicker advance in the game.

Figures are:

1 King
1 Queen
2 knights = flying horses
2 rooks = elephants
2 bishops = like bishops
2 knights = men dressed as Spanish knights with axe
2 turks = with shield and saber
2 men with beard and bald head
2 standard bearer

The rules are, as it seems, unknown.

The other side of the board container is painted with a Venus motif
Spielbrett und Schachfiguren
Mitte 16. Jahrhundert
noted in an inventory of archduke Ferdinand II. 1596

Das Schachspiel mit 15 x 8 goldenen bzw. silbernen Feldern im Inneren des Kastens ist ein Einzelstück. Von den ursprünglich 64 vergoldeten und versilberten Figuren aus Holz fehlen 11, die sich aber aufgrund der Symmetrie beider Parteien hypothetisch ergänzen lassen, wobei die Anzahl der Figuren darauf hindeutet, dass von den Schmalseiten aus gespielt wurde. Die Bauernreihe ist verdoppelt - 16 silberne "Bauern" sind erhalten - und auch die "Offiziere" nehmen zwei Reihen ein. Jede Farbe setzt sich aus einem "König" (Mann mit Barett, Bart und Amtskette), einer "Dame" (gekrönte Frau), zwei "Springern" (geflügelte Pferde), zwei "Türmen" (Elefanten) und zwei "Läufern" (wie in der englischen Schachtradition in Gestalt von Bischöfen) zusammen. Dazu kommen vier neue Figuren: zwei Ritter im Harnisch mit spanischem Helm und Streitaxt, zwei Türken mit Schild und Streitkolben, zwei Bärtige mit Glatze, zwei Wappenträger. Die Bedeutung dieser vier weiteren Figuren kann durch einen Vergleich mit dem auch noch im 17. Jahrhundert von Nordeuropa bis Deutschland verbreiteten Courierschach mit 12 x 8 Feldern erahnt werden. Auch bei dieser Form des Spieles gab es zusätzliche Figuren, den "Ratgeber", den "Schleich" (Narren) und zwei "Couriere". Die "Couriere" waren beim Ambraser Spiel wohl die Wappenträger mit den Schriftrollen.
Die Außenseiten des Kastens zeigen die Allegorien von Justitia und Venus in jeweils einem bemalten Rahmen mit ovalen Schriftfeldern in der Mitte jeder Seite. Neben Justitia, die ohne Augenbinde, aber mit dem Schwert in der Rechten und der Waage in der Linken wiedergegeben ist, steht als Symbol der Wachsamkeit ein Kranich, der mit der rechten erhobenen Klaue einen Stein umklammert. Die Gegenseite des Spielkastens zeigt Venus mit den beiden ihr zugeordneten Sternzeichen Waage und Stier. Sie hält ein brennendes Herz in der Rechten sowie einen Pfeil in der Linken und repräsentiert Leidenschaft und Unberechenbarkeit. Die beiden Gegenbilder symbolisieren das für das Schachspiel nötige Kalkül auf der einen, Kampfeslust und Unbedachtheit auf der anderen Seite. Im Nachlassinventar Erzherzog Ferdinands II. von 1596 ist das Schachspiel im 18. Kasten seiner Kunstkammer erwähnt.
The webpage http://bilddatenbank.khm.at/viewArtefac ... _17424.jpg

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... gives additional pictures to the object. Actually one can count now, that the board indeed had 8x15 fields (I was suspicious about it earlier).
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

97
By Manuel Stoffers and Pieter Thijs (Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands)
A Question of Mentality: The Changed Appreciation of Thomas Murner' Logical Card Game (c. 1500)
in
Memory & Oblivion: Proceedings of the XXIXth International Congress of the History of Art held in Amsterdam, 1–7 September 1996
A.W. Reinink, Jeroen Stumpel
Springer Science & Business Media, 6 Dec 2012 - Art - 1114 pages
https://books.google.de/books?id=TM3oCA ... er&f=false

In this text, who also some interesting and detailed information to general playing cards, Murner's game "Chartiludium" is mentioned to having used the cards, a chess-board and dice. Footnote 8, p. 285.

Image

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The same footnote 8, a little later in the text, p. 286, presents a quotation of Fischart, the German interpreter of the Rabelais text, who mentions, that Murner invented also a chess game

Image


http://www.zeno.org/Literatur/M/Fischar ... raitschlag
has the larger context of the passage. Fischart stands naturally for mockery and irony, and his words shouldn't (likely) be interpreted as truth.
Ich will mir für eyn ruhm rechnen, daß man von mir sagt, ich hab mehr an Wein gehenck, als im Oel ertrenckt: Dann man pringt an Höfen, inn Klöstern und sonst Häusern eym viel eher eyn trunck den er versuch, als eyn Buch darinn er eyn guten Spruch such: Dieweil die geschrifft, wie die Regengern sagen, lehrt ketzerlich gifft: Das wust wol König Ludwig der Elfft inn Franckreich, der wolt nit daß sein Son inn Historien lese: quare? Dare: dann die da lesen, sprach er, von schweren geschichten, schreckt es sie ab solche außzurichten: Unnd warumb muß mein Tochter nit schreiben lernen? auff daß sie kein Bulbrieflin schreibe: Darumb war unsers Barfüserischen Superioristen Murrnarrs Fund mächtig wol bedacht, und nimbt mich wunder, wie es Polidor Vergil in seim buch von Erfindern allerhand sachen hat außlassen können: er sahe wie ärgerlich ding oft inn Bůchern stund, darumb erfand er Cartiludium Institutionum, und ein Schachspiel, ubi trahunt quantitates.
Derhalben schetz ich es noch einmal für ein ehr, wie noch der fratzen mehr, wann man mich für ein guten Prillenreisser und Grillenscheisser außschreit, ich bin darumb nit gescholten, sonder des wolkommener in allen meinen Pantagruelistischen gantzdurstigen gesellschafften und zünfften. Dem[30] Demostene ward es für ein unehr nachgesagt, daß er vor angsthafftem Fleiß, unnd fleissiger angst, den er inn stellung seiner Reden brauchet, meher an öl verthat dann an Wein, unnd mehr bei dem Liechtschein schrib, als es bei dem Wein trieb, und daß seine Orationen wie ein Salat nach öl stancken. Dasselb Cherephonisch nachteulisch und Fledermäusisch klittern will ich mir bei leib nicht nach lassen sagen: Sonder Wein her, der scherpffet das Hirn, fürnemlich wann einer die Stieg einfellt.
The context is a very drunken statement, in the end new vine is ordered.

To translate "ubi trahunt quantitates" I'm not qualified enough, but I attempt "Where they draw the most from" or "where they plunder the most from". Likely the object is "more vine, please".

***************

Added: I found this text ...
https://books.google.de/books?id=EKQx4i ... tt&f=false
... which gives the description of the used chess-boards (I aren't really chess-boards). Murner used the name "scacus infallibilis quantitatis syllabarum" in 1508 for this chess board, Fischart used his quantitates likely to address the quantitatis used by Murner.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

98
An article to chess in the Canterbury Tales of Geoffroy Chaucer:

viewtopic.php?f=11&p=16858#p16858

******************

An interesting Cessolis-edition (pictures)

http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/lu ... lis?pgs=50

of special interest: A figure with a bird (falconer ?)
http://bodley30.bodley.ox.ac.uk:8180/lu ... lis?pgs=50

******************

Forerunner of the text of Evrart de Conty
https://books.google.de/books?id=xfGZAA ... navlinks_s

About "Quaedam moralitas de scaccario"
http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/f ... troduction
https://books.google.de/books?id=xfGZAA ... navlinks_s
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

99
Le livre eschecs amoureux by Evrart de Conty in the edition of c. 1500 ....
Titre : Evrart de Conty, Le livre des échecs amoureux moralisés
Titre : Jacques Legrand, Archiloge Sophie
Date d'édition : 1401-1500
Type : manuscrit
Langue : Français
Format : Vélin, miniatures, lettres ornées
Description : Contient : 1° « Des Eschez amoureux et des eschez d'amours » ; 2° « L'Archiloge Sophie », de « Frere JACQUES LE GRANT, de l'ordre Saint Augustin »
Droits : domaine public
Identifiant : ark:/12148/btv1b8426258c
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français 143
Provenance : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Date de mise en ligne : 31/01/2011
... is online (already since 2011). In my earlier research it was difficult to get all the pictures together.

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8 ... checontact

This seems to be Cybele-Rhea ...

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This is Jupiter ....

Image


... and Pan ...

Image


... totally there are 32 pictures, in contrast to the edition of c. 1467, which has 24 full page pictures
http://classes.bnf.fr/echecs/feuille/amour/index.htm

Evrart de Conty had finished his work in 1398, and used 16 gods in this work, which used chess as a meta-structure, but actually served also the interest to arrange a sort of very excessive encyclopedia.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Chess variants 14th/15th century

100
Well, the classical book of chess history is now online ...

A History of Chess: The Original 1913 Edition
H.J.R. Murray
Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 19 May 2015 - Games - 912 pages
A History of Chess: The Original 1913 Edition
https://books.google.de/books?id=dNSBCg ... ry&f=false

... at least a preview to some greater parts. An earlier version had only snippet view.

912 pages, and, as I see it after a few views, a lot of early variants I never heard of.
Huck
http://trionfi.com
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