[MR] New Book on Medieval Chess

[Groff, Garth (ggg9y)]

Noble Friends,

New in the UVA library: CHESS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY MODERN AGE, edited by Daniel E. O'Sullivan (ISBN 9783110288513; our call number GV1442 .C44 2012). This work consists of ten contributed articles which discuss both the game of chess, and its significance in middle ages European culture. Among the chapter titles are "Games and Governance  to Twelfth -Century England", "Images of Medieval Spanish Chess and Captive Damsels in Distress", and "Defeating the Devil at Chess: A Struggle between Virtue and Vice in Le Jue des esches de la dame moralise". The volume is illustrated with a number of board diagrams, but there are only two other illustrations (both of Kempelen's Chess Automaton, and rather small). Of course, there is a rich bibliography at the end, but no index. Period gamesters and chess mavens will love this volume, but it also sheds an important light on the cultural importance of chess for understanding the middle ages.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, Isenfir's Unofficial Librarian
(aka Garth Groff, UVA Library Cataloging and Metadata Services)