By Carol Symes, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Board games and games of chance were of enormous importance during the medieval period, crowned by that other medieval “sport of kings”, chess. In fact, many representations of medieval chess matches suggest that the game was also a spectator sport and an opportunity for players to perform and show off the newest fashions.
Chess and Its Terminology
The earliest written accounts of chess, in medieval Sanskrit and Middle Persian, give it similar names: chaturánga in Sanskrit and chatrang in Persian, both referring to the four limbs, or divisions, of an army which, in those lands, included elephants and chariots or camels, as well as cavalry and infantry.
The names for chess in Arabic and Greek are obviously related—shatranj and zatrikion.
The Latin term ludus scaccorum or scacci and its vernacular derivatives have been tied to a different Persian word, shāh, or “king”, yielding both check and chess. The etymology of mate is more contested, with some historical linguists pointing to the Persian māt, which means “helpless” or “abandoned”, while others relate it to the Arabic māta, “is dead”.
Chess: Moving from Mediterranean to Europe
That chess had already been well established in the medieval Mediterranean world by the early 11th century is clear from a letter of complaint written by Peter Damian, a theologian and bishop of Ostia, the port of Rome, in which he officiously informs another high-ranking churchman that he had happened upon the bishop of Florence absorbed in a game of chess.
Damian had rebuked his fellow bishop and insisted that Church canons forbidding games of chance, like dice, also applied to chess. But Gerardus, the Florentine bishop so accused, retorted that chess was a game of skill.
Another early indication of the game’s adoption in Italy is the so-called chess set of Charlemagne, made from elephant ivory, which actually dates from the 11th century and is, thus, contemporary with Peter Damian’s anecdote. The famous Lewis chessmen, found on that Hebridean island in Scotland, are made of walrus ivory and were probably crafted in Norway during the 12th century—evidence of how quickly the game had traveled from the Mediterranean to the northernmost reaches of Europe.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Medieval Legacy. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
European Version of the Game
As chess took hold in medieval Europe, the distinctive appearance of its pieces, their movements, and the rules of the game began taking on the forms familiar today, via a relatively rapid process of codification that indicates how widespread and universal the game had become.
European influence is most significant in the substitution of the queen for the figure of the vizier, the advisor or “fixer” of the king, who could only move one square, diagonally, at a time. This replacement had begun to occur by the beginning of the 11th century, with the word vizier becoming, in Old French, fiers, “proud lady”; within the next few centuries, moreover, the queen had become the most powerful figure on the board, moving fluidly and mirroring the tricky movements of a powerful woman’s political maneuvers.
In addition to the king, the most stable pieces, over time, were those of the horseman, or knight, and the pawn, whose deliberate but vulnerable pacing matched the slow movements of medieval infantrymen.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the Asian elephant became a bishop (in English), a fool (in French), or a herald (alfiere, in Italian), but its role remained the same. The Indo-Persian chariot or Arab camel (rukh) became, in Europe, la Roche, or rook, reflecting the new importance of fortified castles in the 11th century.
A Popular Game
Indeed, it is clear that part of chess’s allure derived from the ways that it mimicked or commented on the roles of various categories of people in medieval society, which made chess a metaphor, not only for warfare and kingship, but also for political strategy, business dealings, and seduction.
Chess games are featured in thousands of extant medieval artworks, from ivory carvings to manuscript illuminations to love poems. Chess was also an apt allegory for life lessons.
A Socio-Moral Treatise on Chess
In the 13th century, a Dominican friar called Iácopo of Cessole (an aptly named town in the Piedmont region of Italy) composed a Latin treatise titled On Human Morals and Noble Duties according to the Game of Chess, a text which was soon translated into French as Le Jeu des échecs moralisé (The moralized game of chess).
Iácopo offers a fanciful origin story for the game, claiming that it was invented by a Greek philosopher, improbably named Xerxes. According to the Middle English translation of William Caxton, published in 1474, the philosopher wanted to teach “the maners and conditions of a kyngs, of the nobles, and of the comun people, and of theyr offices, and how they shold be touchid and drawen [that is, handled and influenced]”.
The philosopher also wanted to teach the reader “how he should amende himself & become vertuous”. After explaining the setup and rules of the game, Iácopo then devotes a section of the text to the role of each piece and how it teaches us about its human counterpart in society.
He even gives each pawn a separate identity, corresponding to the types of commoners in a medieval city-state: laborers, smiths, notaries, merchants, physicians, innkeepers, watchmen, and entertainers. Iácopo then goes on to discuss the virtues and vices common to each class of people, and the ways that a good ruler can make laws and use his influence for the betterment of society.
A gorgeously illuminated copy of this work, now in the Vatican Library, shows Iácopo preaching from a pulpit adorned with a large chessboard, his audience rapt with interest.
Common Questions about the Origins of Chess
The earliest written accounts of chess, in medieval Sanskrit and Middle Persian, give it similar names: chaturánga in Sanskrit and chatrang in Persian, both referring to the four limbs, or divisions, of an army which, in those lands, included elephants and chariots or camels, as well as cavalry and infantry.
In the 13th century, a Dominican friar called Iácopo of Cessole composed a Latin treatise titled On Human Morals and Noble Duties according to the Game of Chess.
Chess in the medieval times became a metaphor, not only for warfare and kingship, but for political strategy, business dealings, and seduction. Chess games are featured in thousands of extant medieval artworks, from ivory carvings to manuscript illuminations to love poems. Chess was also an apt allegory for life lessons.
