#1 of 3 The Royal Game of Goose, history, game board stamp project.

 

I am re trying to carve a goose board print block. It will be a solid one not the many mini blocks put together. I think I can only do 2 squares at a time by hand, my hands cannot handle more. The limits of EDS (Ehlers Danlos Syndrome) means if I limit this work that I might be able to do the work everyday with out missing too many days in-between. If it turns out too much for my hands I will switch to working on it every other day. I have plans every weekend for the next 3 weekends

How  I am making this stamp.

I have graphite paper. I traced the period board through the paper it is printed on by putting it on a window to see though this is so I am working in the reverse. Stamps have to be carved in reverse so when you stamp they are facing the correct way. Folks that use printing presses have and had to be able to read upside down and backwards. 

I took the paper with the reverse board on it and then lay that on the rubber with Graphite paper between them. Then draw over the lines yet again.

I use wood working tools and exacto knives and linoleum carving tools to carve this rubber block. Despite it being rubber not a fruit wood or metal, my hands have a tough time, the curves and fiddly bits around numbers are especially hard. My hands start to ache after 2 squares so far. If I work a 3rd I find I get sloppy because I lose control of the tools. And you can't put material back as such I am only working 2 spaces a day.

This board has been on my todo list for a while I made it once on 6 small blocks glued together and I felt it was too sloppy. Since I am showing my Game of Goose research at TOA I would really like to have a board that I made to possible demonstrate. That is a period board design I am attempting to copy.

And while this board is out of period it is plain enough for me to attempt to carve it believing to be printed between 1750- 1775. Has the same spirit as the early boards.

http://www.giochidelloca.it/scheda_stampabile.php?id=850








3 most important pieces for this research
1st mention 1480ca advent sermon--------------------------Dominican Gabriele da Barletta Frier
oldest board 1500-1550ca Museum of art NYC-----------Board made of ebonized wood, shell & gem                                                                                                stones
oldest set of written rules 1598ca British Museum--------Plate printing with Rules in Italian printed on it

The Game of Goose 
According to Adrian Seville considered the expert of Game of Goose. 
The earliest mention of the board game that can be found is in a book of sermons by the Dominican friar Gabriel da Barletta in 1480 Advent Sermon by Barletti, G Sermons. The 1577 edition Mentioned playing the game over Advent, and please for the sake of aging eyesight of any have a second set of larger dice. Also making mention of the trick taking game Tarot as well as Goose. He considered both games to be accepted able and at the same time calling to mention that if Merriment must happen let wholesome games be played. 
Barletta probably dies c.1500
This source is in hand written Italian or Latin and is scanned in to a public church data base that has Many hundred of his sermons and is challenging to search. As such I am left to trust Seville word and his translator Thierry Depaulis of the first edition (Brescia,1497-98) the Royal Game of Goose Seville,A 2016) 
Seville has other books on Goose as well.
I found the sermon book online it however is scanned in it is in hand written Italian and is hard to read. even if I could read Italian  or Latin so I have to trust the authorities on the subjects.

The common situation for print is listed for the Royal Game of Goose (Jeu de l'Oie, Gioco dell'Oca) mentioning the game having its roots in Italy of Francesco de'Medici(1574-87) who is said [Carrera 1617], sent it as a present to King Philip III of Spain.
Many online and printed sources miss quote and say this is the oldest citation and set this as the creation date for the game.

The yet found oldest surviving Goose board is a 16th century board currently owned by the NYC MET Museum.
It follows a Italian printed design. It is made of Ebonized woo, with inlay of Ivory, horn and gold wire in a style associated with 16th century Gujarat in India.
The numbers and the spaces are in a 15th century Italian script. This suggests that it was made in Gujarat to an Italian Design. This board is lacking 2 of the common Hazard spaces, the Inn and the Bridge. The prison hazard space is a boat in the form of a Venetian galley. Though some other surviving Goose boards have a boat this is the only one with this type of boat found to date. A boat represents penal sentencing to serve time in a ship or boats galley in stead of a prison.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/120017999

The oldest example of a printed board with rules on it is held by the Trustees of the British Museum. An early Italian Game of Goose printed by Lucchino Gargano and dated to 1598 on a plate this plate has rules and is the oldest set of written rules I know of at this time..  
https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=00017738001  







Bibliography

de Montferrat del la Meslaya, Guy – editor
Indoor Games (or How to While Away a Siege)
The Compleat Anachronist No. 4
The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
Copyright 1983
Printed 1995
Page 35

Smith, Patrick J.
Period Pastimes
 Being a Timeline of Games, with Instructions and Commentary on Selected Games Played
 in Medieval Europe
The Compleat Anachronist # 71
The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc.
Copyright 1994
Pages 32 – 33

Hather, Jon
Historic Board and Dice Games, Roman to 1800
Gothic Green Oak
Copyright 2019
Pages 24 – 25

Seville, Adrian
The Royal Game Of The Goose
 400 Years of Printed Board Games
The Grolier Club
Copyright 2016

Salaamallah the Corpulent
Medieval Games
Jeffrey A. DeLuca
Copyright 1995
Page 105

Bell, R. C.
Board and Table Games from Many Civilizations
Revised Edition
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright 1960, 1969
Published 1979
Pages 14 – 16

Bell, R C
The Boardgame Book
The Knapp Press
Copyright 1979
Page 140

Grunfeld, Frederic V. – editor
Games of the World
 How to Make Them
 How to Play Them
 How They Came to Be
Hold, Rinehart and Winston
Copyright 1975
Pages 127 – 130

Botermans, Jack
The Book of Games
 Strategy, Tactics & History
Translated from the Spanish by Edgar Loy Frankbonner
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
Copyright 2006
Published 2008
Pages 141 - 152

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rules for Gluckhaus (House of Fortune)

Image
Gluckshaus (House of Fortune) This is a photograph of my hand stamped boards they are available for sale they email me for prices I have on cotton or linen or silk Gluckshaus  Is a very simple game there are only 2 known surviving boards from before the 17 century. There are a few theories one from Lady Heather Hall (Heather Rocchi) A Master playing card researcher and reconstruction artist, is that the game was played with just playing cards. This is backed by the concept that some boards from Germany have the Number 10 as a flag bearer, a boar for the number 2, a king or Ober for the 12. this would play into most of the rules of the game.   How to play Gluckshaus All persons wanting to play anti into the 7, then take turns rolling 2, 6 sided dice. On their turn they roll if the number on the board that they roll is empty they play a coin or token on that square if there is something on that square then they take it. EXCEPT for the 3 to 4 special places,...
Read more

#3 of 3 Game of Goose Boards as old as 1500 with rules Printed from1598

Image
Links provided  for each image and more information of the boars directly please check out  Goose and path games ( by Luigi Ciompi & Adrian Seville ) translations by Luigi Ciompi and google translate. Adrian Seville has many books of all the aspects of the game of goose and is the for most expert on the subject I only own one of his books.  Il Bello et Dilettevole Giuoco dell’Oca Gaspar ab Avibus Citadelensis, Venetis 1567/80. Acquaforte (taille-douce) (ecthing), 580x428. Collezione A. Toffanin (Gioco dell’Oca Classico)  http://www.giochidelloca.it/index.php Novo ( The ) Gioco de Loca ( The new Game of the Goose )  1580ca From: NEGRI, Ilio - VERCELLONI, Virgilio: "The games of dice of chance and pastime of gentlemen and pirates"  http://www.giochidelloca.it/scheda.php?id=252 Chess and goose game board India, Gujarat late 16th century(1500-1550) Currently oldest surviving board https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/202612 This next board has th...
Read more

#2 of 3 The Royal Game of Goose the rules

Image
 The Game of Goose A Board & How to play  The goose board, dice & pawn 2 to 6 player game. The game requires two, 6 sided dice, the board of 63 spaces with hazards marked, and game pawns for player   Goal land on 63 exactly first. Each player rolls one die and highest roll goes first then play moves to the left. Game can be played with gambling (I suggest chocolate kisses). If so players agree on the stakes at the start. Each player places 1 stake in the center making the pool. Every time a player lands on a Hazzard they pay one stake. When players land on other players including the prison and the well both players pay one stake. Fist player to land on 63 exactly wins the pool. Geese are not hazards.  (Bonus rule modern; you win one stake back every time you land on a Goose) 63 must be reached exactly, such Overthrows are completed by counting the excess spaces backwards from 63.  You will notice that the geese on the board are spaced in two sequen...
Read more