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|
Medieval & Renaissance Games
Medieval & Renaissance Games Home Page
Welcome to a page specifically dedicated to Really Old Games. This page
is intended to cover anything and everything pertaining to games in the
Medieval and Renaissance periods. All are welcome to contribute; I am particularly
looking for relevant sites to point to.
Bookmarking this page: If you are bookmarking or creating a link
to this site, please use the form:
http://www.waks.org/game-hist/
I own that domain, and it should always forward to the correct place,
even if the actual location of the site changes.
What's New: New files and changes to this site:
8/25/08: Added pointers to Michel Wolffauer's pages on Losing
Loadum, Gleek, El Mundo, Go, Tarot, Tafl, and cheat sheets for Laugh and
Lie Down and Shogi.
5/8/05:Yes, yes -- I owe the site a major overhaul. But as a
start, I've updated my bibliography with a
number of recent acquisitions.
3/27/04: Updated my description of Astronomical Tables to reflect new information about the dice.
10/26/03: Added an appendix to my Primero reconstruction,
discussing the differences between it and David Whittaker's. Updated
my cheat sheet with modifications based on his ideas, but haven't updated
the main reconstruction itself yet. Also, added links to all the
other primary sources. Added an alternate transcription of the Trump
section from Familiar Dialogues.
8/24/03: A long-overdue update of lots of things. Added the Berni
article on Primiera. Added the Trictrac Yahoo group. Add a pointer to Imran's
copy of the Nare article on Primero. Tweaked the URL for EBro Software.
Added Phillipe Lalanne's Trictrac page. Added a couple of images of apparent
games played on ice. Added the Bocce links page. Added the Collegium Cosmicum
ad Buxeas bocce page, and several bowling-history pages. Added James Masters'
Croquet-history page. Added Imran's transcription of The Royal Game of
the Ombre, and that of Cotgrave's description of Gleek. Added a number
of Game of the Goose links. Added a link to Faire Angel's games page. Added
a pointer to the Marostica live chess match. Webbed Antron de Stoc's transcription
of Belloc, and his reconstruction of Trump. Webbed James Wickson's new
Tarot reconstruction. Added the TarotL page on Tarot history. Added David
Whittaker's Primero reconstruction (which is probably better than mine
in several respects). Added a link to the good online image of Breughel's
Children's Games. Added links to two vendors selling seven-sided dice;
I don't like either set completely, but we're getting there. Tweaked the
link to Robert fitz John's Alquerques page. Most important of all, added
a link to Sonja Musser Golladay's translation in progress of the Alfonso
MS.
11/11/02: Added a couple more Primiera-related transcriptions from
Thierry Depaulis.
11/10/02: Added Rowan O'Sidhe's description of Fidchell; Gwynydd
of Culloden's descriptions of Morris and Cent; a Latin transcription of
Cardano; three transcriptions and the translated game list from Gargantua;
several pointers into Imran's pages under Research Materials; the Accademia
della Tarocchino Bolognese; the Dictionnaire de l'Académie Française;
Hans-Joachim Alscher's tarock page (under both tarot and transcriptions);
Thierry Depaulis' transcriptions of a couple of sources relating to Prime;
my transcription of Metromachy.
10/13/02: Added my new reconstructions of Italian and English Primero.
9/22/02: Added pointers to: the British Kubb Federation; Greenwood
Press; La Boule Bleue; the Far Isles Guild of Gamers; Hildegarde Stickerin's
Tarot page; the CD-ROM reprint of Chatto; Imran Ghory's History of Backgammon
and Albanian chessman image; Karen Larsdatter's games in art page; several
pointers into the ORB; the Hartshorn-dale games page; a couple of games
from the Shire of Isenfir.
6/19/02: Added pointer to the Kunshistorisches Museum game board
images, to the Transcriptions and Images page. Beefed up the links to the
Games Guild of Ealdormere, which has been busy. Added Pastyme Games.
6/11/02: Added a new Ace's Boke article, on false dice.
5/1/02: Added Justin's reconstruction of Astronomical Tables (aka
"Seven-sided Backgammon"), under Tables Games.
4/18/02: Updated the links to games on James Masters' Traditional
Games Page.
4/7/02: Added Roselyne's translation of the Zodiac games from the
Alfonso MS.
3/28-29/02: Updated the links to the Venshavn Tafl pages. Added
the Y Cam description of Gwyddbwyll. Added the Chesmayne Chess page, and
the MatchMate origins of chess page. Updated pointer to the Alfonso X site,
and added pointer to the Alfonso transcriptions; moved both of those to
the transcriptions & images page. Added the RenGeekCentral Rounders
pages. Added link to the Sloan article on the origin of Chess. Added the
German Merels site, and a couple of tafl pages. Added the IPCS History
of Cards. Added the Smithsonian Tafl page. Updated the Tattershall links.
Added the Games Guild of Ealdormere. Added the CueCare history of Billiards.
Added Leif Bennett's Java games. Added the EarthGaming Tafl pages. Added
the KnowOdds Cotton transcription. Added a pointer to Zillions of Games.
Added the Slade Tafl page. Added the Taeflor discussion group. Added the
Tafl Gild. Added the Blackmask transcription of Bird's Chess History. Added
the White Chess Collection. Removed dead pointers to Wulfric's pages.
2/23/02: Fixed the link to Gunnora's Tafl page. Added link to EBro
Software Tafl implementation. Fixed the links to David Levy's Trictrac
page. Added pointer to 1457 act outlawing Golf. Moved a bunch of old updates
to the old update page.
Older Updates.
Descriptions of Period Games, and Research Materials
Rules for a variety of period games.
Transcriptions and images of period sources.
Bibliographies of period game sources.
The Ace's Boke, a series of articles written
in period style about games and gaming.
The first draft of a brief History of Card
Games, by Seaan McAy.
(Who wants to stress that this paper is currently far from done.)
A good overview of what's known about Games
of the Viking and Anglo-Saxon Age, assembled by Regia
Anglorum.
A selection of concrete resources (including pretty pictures of real period
game boards) can be found at The
Museum and Archive of Games. Note particularly their detailed version
of Peter Brueghel's important painting Young
Folk at Play.
A page of resources for
16th c. Landsknechts, which has a listing of several appropriate games.
Ravensgard has
an interesting article on Norse
Games.
The IPCS has a nice (if brief) History
of Playing-Cards.
The Games
Guild of Ealdormere has a big
page of links, a collection
of articles on period games, and an online
periodical called "Games, Period".
Karen Larsdatter has a nice page on Games
in Medieval and Renaissance Works of Art.
The ORB is one of the more interesting
research sites for period subjects in general; searching on games there
produces a number of interesting results. It has a short
essay on Sports and Games in general.
Imran Ghory has a number of
useful files relating to the history
of games, including a very nice listing
of period card games and when they are attested.
Frequently Asked Question
I'm looking for information on period games for children. Do you have
information on this?
While there is no site that I'm aware of dedicated to period kid's games
in specific, the book "Medieval Games" is quite rich in games appropriate
for children. A
full citation,
including ordering instructions, can be found in
my
bibliography.
(I don't have any direct connection with the author, nor do I get any
profit from the book; it's just that this is the most common question at
this site, so I call it out specifically.)
Discussion of Period Games
Information about the Period
Games Mailing List, including pointers to its archive.
Some messages
culled from the Rialto (which is the SCA newsgroup), on the subject
of period entertainment, with a lot on games.
Recreating Period Games
An article on Acquiring Period Card Decks.
Records of the Carolingian Low Company,
a group of game players and researchers.
Related Sites
James Masters has a nice collection of Rules
for Traditional Games. Not all of them are period, but many are.
There is a page on Geocities of Ancient,
Foreign, and Esoteric Board Games, mostly made up of links to other
sites.
The Compendium of Common
Knowledge has a couple of brief pages on common Elizabethan games
and other recreations,
including sports.
The homepage of the International
Playing-Card Society, which does all sorts of research into the history
of cards and their games.
There is a very pretty site devoted to Roman
Games. However, I have received a detailed
critique of this site indicating a number of issues with the reconstructions,
which is worth reading before you decide to use the games described therein.
The Playing Cards
Home Page, including rules
to a variety of games, a very useful FAQ
on playing cards, and other stuff on the topic (some of it period-related).
Mikael Johansson maintains
a page on Brädspel, which is a Nordic game of the Tables/Backgammon
variety. Versions of the rules are available in both English
and
Swedish.
Ravensgard maintains a page specifically about Norse
Games.
The Barony of Dragonsspine
maintains an interesting page of games
they have played at SCA events. Not all period, but many are. Similarly,
they have a nice article on Children's
Games and Contests.
The Far Isles
Guild of Gamers has several articles, including one on Making
Game Boards.
An interesting article on Celtic
Knucklebones, more on the making than playing.
Board Games Studies is
an academic journal devoted specifically to research into board games.
Not strictly period, but interesting nonetheless. Note that, like many
international journals, it publishes in a variety of languages.
Off the Wall Boardgames
is a nice little site with concise rules for many board games (many, though
not all, period) and printable boards and pieces for them.
Rose and Pentagram have put together a nice timeline
of game history.
The Games
Guild of Ealdormere is an SCA guild dedicated to games. Their homepage
has a lot of related links.
Arjan Verweij's Dice
Site has photos of many different kinds of dice, including a large
number of different period and pre-period dice.
Game Software
Zillions of Games is arguably
the best game engine in existence, at least for period games. It can't
go everything, but it can do a lot, and it comes with many period games
already implemented. (If you hadn't guessed, I *really* like this program.)
EBro Software has a good-looking freeware
implementation of tafl.
A very pretty Java implementation of Tablut
is available on the Web. Note that the rules in this version make capturing
the King rather easier than in the variants I'm accustomed to. ("Black
wins? Whaddaya mean, black wins?".) They have recently added a Windows
implementation as well.
For those with up-to-date browsers, Gamelan
maintains a rather nice collection
of board game applets, to play against the computer or an opponent
over the Net. Most require Java to use. Not all are period, but the majority
are.
Steve Neeley has an interesting collection of shareware
games, several of them period or pre-period. (In particular, an implementation
of Halatafl/Fox & Geese.)
A very large collection of DOS Shareware games can be found at Tommy's
Toys, with several period games scattered throughout (including the
only computer versions of Piquet, Gleek and Primero I am aware of, and
a brand-new implementation of Rythmomachy). Runs on any DOS box (that is,
any PC system except for Windows NT).
Stargraphics has a shareware
implementation of Rythmomachy for Windows. (They call it Ambush.)
Someone named "The Vole" is running online games of Gwyddbwyll.
NSoftware has
shareware versions of Nine Men's Morris and Alquerques. (Not tested yet.)
There are several implementations of Fanarona:
John Stracke has a version
designed to work under Gnome.
Dominic Yu has versions
that run under Hypercard and Java.
David Eppstein has a fancier
Java applet, which actually plays against you.
There are also a few implementations of Mancala:
There is a rather nice Java
implementation.
There is also a Web implementation.
And a rather pretty JavaScript
implementation.
Leif Bennett has written Java
implementations of several period games, including a lot of variations.
EarthGaming has a shareware implementation of Tafl, which they call Tabula
Letum.
Benjamin Slade has a free
implementation of tafl.
Vendors of Period Games and Materials
Pastyme Games sells a variety
of historic games, many of them period.
The Viking Trader
sells nice leather boards for several major period board games (hnefetafl,
alquerques, and others).
Bryanna's Treasure Box sells
a variety of hand-painted cloth board games, mostly from the core of SCA
period. (Including Rhythmomachia; she is one of the few I know who sells
this!)
Lady Pegleg sells
a variety of nice game
boards for various period games.
Gregory Blount maintains a listing of some Purveyors
of Period Games, as part of his Juried
Merchants Listing.
Tattershall Arms,
which mostly deals in period military tack, also apparently sells my favorite
Elizabethan card
decks. Not 100% period, but the closest I've found for sale yet. They
really enhance a game...
Francesco Sirene, who mostly
appears to deal in spices, also sells a couple of period
toys.
A variety of period games, mostly with Celtic-inspired artwork, are available
from Rose & Pentagram Design,
including inexpensive period-style cards and several printed-fabric board
games.
Tara Hill, a small Viking-oriented company, is selling several
period games, including Tafl, Merelles, Fox & Geese, and a sort
of Vikingized version of Senet.
The Scribes of Caerthe,
an SCA scribal guild, is running a fundraiser by selling individual card
suits, with novel subjects but done in more-or-less Renaissance style.
It's a good cause, and some of the cards are very nice. Check it
out. (And as a bonus, each suit comes with a booklet of a period game,
from these pages, nicely typeset...)
Less specialized, but still useful, is 3
Trolls Games, a general gaming mail-order shop. They have their catalog
online, including a bunch of the basics (Chess, Go, Cribbage, etc). Look
under "Classic Games" in their catalog.
Kadon Enterprises sells a vast
array of games, mostly abstract board games. One or two are period (in
particular, they sell a pretty Goose set), but all are very, very cool...
Masters Games sells several
traditional pub games, a few of which are more or less period. (Including
a very pretty Shove Ha'penny set.)
The Dozens of Games site sells seven-sided
dice, which don't look terribly period, but probably work well
for seven-sided backgammon. MacGregor Games also now sells seven-sided
dice; the pentagonal ones match the original description closely, but
I find them a bit uneven for actual play.
This page is maintained by
Justin
du Coeur. I am highly active in the Society
for Creative Anachronism (among other things). I expect that most of
the people particularly interested in this topic are going to be involved
in the SCA or other re-creative/re-enactment organizations, but anyone
should feel free to wander around and schmooze. I can be contacted at
justin@waks.org.
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