Versus de Scachis

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Versus de scachis (verses from Chess) is an early medieval , Latin chess poem by an unknown author of the 10th century. It was probably created between 900 and 950 in northern Italy . Versus de Scachis comprises 98 verses on the front (68 verses) and back (34 verses) of a parchment sheet and is kept in the Abbey Library in Einsiedeln (in the canton of Schwyz ). The "Einsiedler chess poem", as Versus de Scachis is also called, is considered the first written occidental evidence of the game of chess.

Reception history

The chess poem was glued as a mirror sheet in another manuscript and was only removed in 1839 by the then collegiate archivist Gall Morel (1803–1872). In 1877 the Bern professor Hermann Hagen (1844–1898) made the verses in his Carmina medii aevi available to a broad public. In 1913 it was printed and interpreted by the English chess historian Harold James Ruthven Murray . However, it was not until 1954 that HM Gamer drew attention to its extraordinary importance. There is also an early medieval copy (but not of Codex Einsidlensis 365) of lines 65 to 98 with a somewhat more classic orthography, which is dated to the year 997 and is also kept in the Einsiedler monastery library.

content

Versus de Scachis begins with a hymn of praise to the game of chess. This is followed by a description of the game board , with the two-tone fields being mentioned for the first time. The Indian and Persian-Arabic forerunners of chess, Chaturanga and Shatranj , did not yet know the chessboard pattern . Finally there is a detailed description of the gait of the figures, some of which differed greatly from today's. This is especially true of the old runner and today's lady , who only advanced from short-stepped heels to the strongest figure at the end of the 15th century . The oldest evidence of this can also be found in a poem, namely the Catalan Scachs d'amor . HJR Murray pointed out that chess minibars are rarely used in the poem. The term rochus for the tower is explained when it is first mentioned with the term marchio (Latin for margrave ). This suggests that the game is still very poorly known.

Source edition and literature

  • Gabriel Silagi in connection with Bernhard Bischoff , The Latin Poets of the German Middle Ages. Fifth volume: Die Ottonenzeit, third part , Munich 1979, pp. 652–655 ( MGH Poetae latini medii aevi 5,3) Beginning of digitization , decisive edition
  • Richard Forster: Swiss chess literature 1. The chess poem to Einsiedeln (approx. 900/950) . In: Swiss Chess Journal 2004, Issue 5, pp. 16-17 ( PDF file, 84KB ).
  • Carmen Romeo: The introduction of Chess into Europe , 2006.

Web links

Wikisource: Versus de scachis  - Sources and full texts (Latin)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Codex Einsidlensis 365, pp. 95-94 (sic).
  2. ^ HJR Murray: A History of Chess , London 1913, pp. 496-499; 512-514.
  3. ↑ HM Gamer: The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses , Speculum 29, 1954, pp. 735ff.
  4. ↑ Under the title “De aleae ratione” in Codex Einsidlensis 319, pp. 298–299.