CAXTON'S
GAME AND PLAYE OF THE CHESSE.

1474.

[Transcribers Note: This is a reprint of Caxton's 1474 original."Englifh" long s's which look very similar to f's have been transposedto s's for readability; yogh (looks like a mutated 3) has been renderedas a 3; thorn, þ, has been left as such and macrons over lettersare given as e.g. [=o]. Otherwise the text has been left as is.

The original punctutation has been preseved. Virgula suspensiva, shownhere as / was in common use from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.Often used for short pauses (such as the cæsura in the middle ofa line of poetry), but sometimes was used as equivalent to the punctus.'9 represents a superscripted 9 and is an ancestor to the modern apostrophe.It usually indicates the omission of a terminal -us.

A small amount of text in this edition is in Blackletter, which wasused in the Caxton original, and these sections have been marked up assuch.

The book contains many attractive illustrations copied from the Caxtonoriginal and an HTML version exists to give a better representation ofthis.]

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION.

Jonathon Oldbuckon the Game of Chess, 1474

The First Edition: copies in libraries and at sales

Where was it printed?

Caxton's account of the translation

The Second Edition: copies in libraries and at sales

Ferron and De Vignay's "Jeu d'Echecs"

Jacques de Cessoles: "Liber de Moribus hominum"

Sermons on Chess

Ægidius Romanus, his life and his book: "De Regimine Principum"

Occleve's imitation

William Caxton as a translator

Bibliography of the Chess Book:

  Colonna

  Cessoles

  Ferron and De Vignay

  Conrad van Ammenhaufen

  Mennel

  Heinrich von Beringen

  Stephan

  Caxton

  Sloane

  The scope and language of the Chess-book

  Authors quoted and named

  Biblical names and allusions

  Xerxes the inventor of Chess!

  Sidrac

  John the monk

  Truphes of the Philosophers

  Helinand

  Classical allusions

  Mediæval allusions and stories

  John of Ganazath