Details
CESSOLIS, Jacobus de (fl. late 13th/early 14th century, O.P.). De Ludo Scachorum Libri I-III. [France: second quarter of the 15th century].
170 x 128 mm. MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. Collation: 1-410 (4/8-10 cancelled blanks): 37 leaves. Black ink, school script, 30-33 lines. Spaces for headings, initials and miniatures left blank. (Upper outer corner of the last 6 leaves defective with loss of some text, 5 pages rubbed, last leaf stained). 19th-century German boards. Provenance: Augustinus Amadus (16th-century inscr.).
Book I treats the origin of the game of chess. Books II-III deal with the pieces and pawns as symbols of the orders and ranks of society, illustrated by anecdotes; "it is these two books which made the sermon one of the most favourite works during the Middle Ages, and gave it a vitality that outlasted the variety of chess it describes" (H.J.R. Murray, A History of Chess 1913, p. 541). Book IV has been omitted from this manuscript.
170 x 128 mm. MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM. Collation: 1-410 (4/8-10 cancelled blanks): 37 leaves. Black ink, school script, 30-33 lines. Spaces for headings, initials and miniatures left blank. (Upper outer corner of the last 6 leaves defective with loss of some text, 5 pages rubbed, last leaf stained). 19th-century German boards. Provenance: Augustinus Amadus (16th-century inscr.).
Book I treats the origin of the game of chess. Books II-III deal with the pieces and pawns as symbols of the orders and ranks of society, illustrated by anecdotes; "it is these two books which made the sermon one of the most favourite works during the Middle Ages, and gave it a vitality that outlasted the variety of chess it describes" (H.J.R. Murray, A History of Chess 1913, p. 541). Book IV has been omitted from this manuscript.