Medieval Game Cultures
Goals for this week (September 29th)
Our goal this week is to survey the history of play and games during the Middle Ages.
On Friday, the professor will lecture about the history of games (touching a bit on Antiquity).
Read/Watch/Listen
Spanos, Apostolos. Games of History: Games and Gaming as Historical Sources. Milton: Taylor and Francis, 2021. This book is available as an open access book (you can download it here) and a pdf is posted on Perusall.
chapter 1. "Pregame"
Consult the manuscript of the Libro del axedrez, dados e tablas [The Book of Chess, Dice and Tables] by Alfonso X el Sabio (1221-1284), Sevilla, 1283, located at the Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial (ms. T.I.6). Catalogue description. The game of Azar is written (and illustrated) on folio 67r.
The manuscript is printed in the following edition:
Alfonso X, King of Castile and Leon, and Arnald Steiger. Libros de acedrex, dados e tablas: das schachzabelbuch König des Weisen. Vol. 10. Genéve: E. Droz; [etc.], 1941. (not available online)
Practice
Create reference notes, as outlined in exercise no 5.
Going Further
An article about the reception and representation of chess by medieval English clergy:
Robert Bubczyk, “LUDUS INHONESTUS ET ILLICITUS?” CHESS, GAMES, AND THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE in Patterson, Serina. Games and Gaming in Medieval Literature. Edited by Serina Patterson. First edition. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (Available on Teams).
A dense book focussed on late medieval engagement with Chess:
Adams, Jenny. Power Play : The Literature and Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/lib/oculcarleton-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3442075
You can explore the additional works which look more at the historical and political context of Alfonso's manuscript:
Michael A. Conrad, "The Playing Eye: On the Transfer of Game- Related Knowledge through Miniatures in Alfonso X's Book of Games (1283/84)," in Games and Visual Culture in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Brepols: Turnhaut, 2020; 237-259. (posted on Teams)
Linde M. Brocato, "Alfonso X's Libro de ajedrez e dados e tablas or Libro de los juegos: Interrogating Convivencia," Revisiting Convivencia in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia, ed. Connie Scarborough (pp. 297-334) (posted on Teams)
PhD Dissertation: LOS LIBROS DE ACEDREX DADOS E TABLAS: HISTORICAL, ARTISTIC AND METAPHYSICAL DIMENSIONS OF ALFONSO X’S BOOK OF GAMES by Sonja Musser Golladay (2007)
Fidel Fajardo-Acosta, "The King is dead, long live the game Alfonso X, el Sabio, and the Libro de açedrex, dados e tablas," eHumanista: Journal of Iberian Studies, 31, 2015, págs. 489-523.
Download pdf here
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