Institute for Game Research and Playing Arts

The Institute for Game Research and Playing Arts (English Institute for Ludology and Playing Arts ), also Archive Game Research and Playing Arts , is part of the Mozarteum University in Salzburg . When it was founded in 1990, it was the first research institution at a university to focus exclusively on ludology . It was founded by the then rector of the university, Günther G. Bauer , under the name of the Institute for Game Research and Game Education at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg . The first employee was Rainer Buland , who took over management as his successor in 2007.

Game research in Salzburg has two main focuses:

• the European cultural history of the game since 1500.
• the further development of game pedagogy towards the creative and creative game movement Playing Arts.

Unusually for a research institute, Bauer and Buland were able to put together a collection with the help of sponsors, which was added to the list of Austrian large-scale research infrastructure in 2016. This archive, unique in the world, is part of the Mozarteum University Library and is therefore available for research.

collection

The collection includes the following areas:

• around 450 antiquarian books before 1920: historical game books, chess textbooks, treatises and dissertations on the game and early works on game history. The oldest book is an oracle game book from 1541.
• about 60 game boards from the 17th to 19th centuries: goose and owl games, “bell and hammer” and the like. A highlight is the Magic Flute Game, Leipzig 1793, which, according to current knowledge, is only preserved in this one copy.
• around 2,500 graphics (copperplate, etchings, wood engravings) showing how people play: board and card game scenes, ball and ball games (such as bowling), children's games, but also many scenes in which people play a musical instrument. The oldest graphic is an engraving by Albrecht Dürer from 1505.
• around 40 board games and playing cards: the institute cannot build up a collection of games due to lack of space. Only a few thematically particularly interesting games were purchased for the collection. The comparison of the two board games about the Boer War, an English and a Dutch game, is particularly appealing; both are firmly convinced of their victory.
• about 30 circulars, patents, gambling bans and the like from the 17th and 18th centuries, including one personally signed by Empress Maria Theresa .
• 4 oil paintings, by lesser known artists, depicting chess and card game scenes.
• about 20 books of playing arts courses showing original traces of this playing movement between around 1995 and 2005.

These documents with catalog descriptions in German and English are made available on the Internet via the repository project.

Rainer Buland in the game research archive in Salzburg

The material was used to organize 25 exhibitions and published four catalogs. There were also exhibitions in the Albertina in Vienna, in Schloss Hof , in the Hygiene Museum Dresden, in the Diocesan Archives in Munich and Freising and in the Biblical Museum in Stuttgart . At several exhibitions including the catalog of the Munich Chess and Culture Foundation, contributions came from game research in Salzburg.

Web links

• Institute for Game Research and Playing Arts

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mozarteum University: Digital Resources. In: Index of the collection. Mozarteum University, accessed on July 6, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Institute for Game Research. Retrieved July 18, 2019 .