The (Spanish: "Book of games"), or ("Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish), is a 13th century Spanish treatise of chess that synthesizes the information from Arabic works on this same topic, dice and tables (backgammon forebears) games,Robert I. Burns, "Stupor Mundi," in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, ed. Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990): 1–13, 2. commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283.Sonja Musser Golladay, "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X’s Book of Games" (PhD diss., University of Arizona, 2007), 31. Although Golladay is not the first to assert that 1283 is the finish date of the Libro de Juegos, the a quo information compiled in her dissertation consolidates the range of research concerning the initiation and completion dates of the Libro de Juegos.Wollesen, Jens T. "Sub specie ludi...: Text and Images in Alfonso El Sabio's Libro de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 53:3, 1990. pp. 277–308. It contains the earliest European treatise on chess as well as being the oldest document on European tables games, and is an exemplary piece of the literary legacy of the Toledo School of Translators.
Significance The is one of the most important documents for researching the history of board games. This "celebrated MS book of games" has been described as "one of the choicest treasures of the library of the Escorial"Fiske (1905), p. 87. as well as "perhaps the greatest source of information on board games ever compiled during the Middle Ages."Cazaux and Knowlton (2017), p. 223. It is both "the earliest treatise on chess and the oldest document relating to tables which have had their origin in Europe."
Description
The book consists of ninety-seven leaves of parchment, many with color illustrations, and contains 150 miniatures. The text is a treatise that addresses the playing of three game types: a game of skill, or chess; games of chance, or dice; and a third game type, tables, which combines elements of both skill and chance. These games are discussed in the final section of the book at both an astronomical and astrological level. Examining further, the text can also be read as an allegorical initiation tale and as a metaphysical guide for leading a balanced, prudent, and virtuous life.Luis Vázquez de Parga, "Alfonso X el Sabio," in Libros del ajedrex, dados y tablas, edited by Vicent García Editores, Valencia, and Ediciones Poniente (Madrid, Spain: Patrimonio Nacional, 1987): 13–28, 17. In addition to the didactic, although not overly moralistic, aspect of the text,Dwayne E. Carpenter, "Fickle Fortune: Gambling in Medieval Spain," in Studies in Philology 85, no. 3 (Summer, 1988): 267–278, 278. the manuscript's illustrations reveal a rich cultural, social, and religious complexity.
Location The earliest manuscript is in the library of the monastery of El Escorial near Madrid in Spain, as manuscript T.I.6. It is bound in sheepskin and is 40 cm high and 28 cm wide (16 in × 11 in). A 1334 copy is held in the library of the Spanish Royal Academy of History in Madrid.
Background Alfonso was likely influenced by his contact with scholars in the Arab world. Unlike many contemporary texts on the topic, he does not engage the games in the text with moralistic arguments; instead, he portrays them in an astrological context. He conceives of gaming as a dichotomy between the intellect and chance. The book is divided into three parts reflecting this: the first on chess (a game purely of abstract strategy), the second on dice (with outcomes controlled strictly by chance), and the last on tables (combining elements of both). The first section of the book also speaks of some other games of abstract strategy, notably alquerque and nine men's morris, among others. The text may have been influenced by Frederick II's text on falconry.
Chess
The contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100 chess problems and variants. Among its more notable entries is a depiction of what Alfonso calls the ajedrex de los quatro tiempos ("chess of the four seasons"). This game is a chess variant for four players, described as representing a conflict between the four elements and the four humors. The chessmen are marked correspondingly in green, red, black, and white, and pieces are moved according to the roll of dice. Alfonso also describes a game titled "astronomical chess", played on a board of seven concentric circles, divided radially into twelve areas, each associated with a constellation of the Zodiac.
Another variant described in the book is the "Grant Acedrex", played over a 12x12 board with alternative pieces as the giraffe and the unicornio.
Tables
The book describes the rules for a number of games in the tables family. One notable entry is todas tablas, the equivalent of the Anglo-Scottish game of Irish, which some scholars have argued has several similarities to modern backgammon including an identical starting position and the same rules for movement and bearing off, albeit the accompanying image has a different opening layout. Alfonso also describes a variant played on a board with seven points in each table. Players rolled seven-sided dice to determine the movement of pieces, an example of Alfonso's preference for the number seven.
The tables games described are:
Spanish name Translation RemarksQuinze Tablas Fifteen Pieces Doce Canes, Doce Hermanos Twelve Dogs, Twelve Brothers Doblet Doublet Related to the English game of Doublets Fallas Drop Dead Related to the English game of Fayles Seys Does e As Six, Two and Ace Related to the English game of Six-Ace Emperador Emperor Medio-Emperador Half Emperor Paireia de Entrada Paired Entry Cab e Quinal Alongside Fives Todas Tablas All Pieces Related to the Anglo-Scottish game of Irish Laquet Related to the French game of Jacquet Buffa Cortesa Courtly Puff Related to the German game of Puff Buffa de Baldrac Common Puff Rencontrat
Art
The miniatures in the Libro de juegos vary between half- and full-page illustrations. The half-page miniatures typically occupy the upper half of a folio, with text explaining the game "problem" solved in the image occupying the bottom half. The back or second (verso) side of Folio 1, in a half-page illustration, depicts the initial stages of the creation of the Libro de juegos, accompanied by text on the bottom half of the page, and the front or first (recto) side of Folio 2 depicts the transmission of the game of chess from an Indian Philosopher-King to three followers.Vázquez de Parga, "Alfonso X el Sabio," 13. The full-page illustrations are almost exclusively on the verso side of later folios and are faced by accompanying text on the recto side of the following folio. The significance of the change in miniature size and placement may indicate images of special emphasis, could merely function as a narrative or didactic technique, or could indicate different artisans at work in Alfonso's scriptorium as the project developed over time.Ana Domínguez Rodríguez, "El Libro del los juegos y la miniatura alfonsi," in Libros del ajedrex, dados y tablas, edited by Vicent García Editores, Valencia, and Ediciones Poniente (Madrid, Spain: Patrimonio Nacional, 1987): 29–123, 32.
Having multiple artisans working on the Libro de juegos would have been a typical practice for medieval chanceries and scriptoria, where the labor of producing a manuscript was divided amongst individuals of varying capacities,Thomas F. Glick, "'My Master, the Jew': Observations on Interfaith Scholarly Interactions in the Middle Ages," in Jews, Muslims and Christians in and Around the Crown of Aragón, edited by Harvey J. Hames (Leiden, Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004): 157–182, 159. for example the positions of scribe, draftsman, and apprentice cutting pages. But in addition to performing different tasks, various artisans could have labored at the same job, such as the work of illustration in the Libro de juegos, thereby revealing a variety of hands or styles. The Libro de Juegos offers such evidence in the difference in size between the half- and full-page illustrations in addition to changes in framing techniques amongst the folios: geometrical frames with embellished corners, architectural frames established by loosely perspectival rooftops and colonnades, and games played under tents. Other stylistic variances are found in figural representation, in facial types, and in a repertoire of different postures assumed by the players in different folios in the manuscript.
For example, in a comparison of two miniatures, found on Folios 53v and 76r, examples of these different styles are apparent, although the trope of a pair of gamers is maintained. In Folio 53v, two men are playing chess, both wearing turbans and robes. Although they may be seated on rugs on the ground, as suggested by the ceramic containers that are placed on or front of the rug near the man on the right side of the board, the figures' seated positions, which are full frontal with knees bent at right angles, suggests that they are seated on stools or perhaps upholstered benches. The figures' robes display a Byzantine conservatism, with their modeled three-dimensionality and allusion to a Classical style, yet the iconic hand gestures are reminiscent of a Romanesque energy and theatricality. Although the figures are seated with their knees and torsos facing front, their shoulders and heads rotate in three-quarter profile toward the center of the page, the chess board, and each other. The proximal, inner arm of each player (the arm that is closest to the board) is raised in a speaking gesture; the distal, outside arms of the players are also raised and are bent at the elbows, creating a partial crossing of each player's torso as the hands lift in speaking gestures. The faces reveal a striking specificity of subtle detail, particular to a limited number of miniatures throughout the Libro de juegos, perhaps indicative of a particular artist's hand. These details include full cheeks, realistic wrinkles around the eyes and across the brow, and a red, full-lipped mouth that hints at the Gothic affectations in figural representation coming out of France during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.Ellen Kosmer and James F. Powers, "Manuscript Illustration: The Cantigas in Contemporary Art Context," in Emperor of Culture: Alfonso X the Learned of Castile and His Thirteenth-Century Renaissance, edited by Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press, 1990): 46–58, 50.