The Book of Chess

...since it was dreamed by him, and he had commanded it. And those who surrounded him all had to forfeit their lives unless they could tell him exactly what it was and, furthermore, the interpretation. This refers to the biblical account in the Book of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar demands his wise men describe a dream he has forgotten and then explain its meaning. Afterward, the young Daniel helped him out of this distress; otherwise, they would all have been dead. God gave him sense and wisdom, so that he told the king the dream told which weighed heavily upon him, and also what it signified. Just as God has given to us, so he saved the lives of the masters. Hear more of this elsewhere: read of this king in the book called the Bible, where the twelve prophets are recounted. There, Daniel is named, through whom he [the king] came to a better state. The author also sought this in the Historia Scholastica original: "hystoria scolastica"; a famous 12th-century biblical history by Peter Comestor used widely in the Middle Ages., as it is called; there he finds many specific details. I must say more of this here.

Of the game I shall write, for it is useful to us. One may also find knowledge of the game and how it was devised in that hour before Troy, while it was besieged. A common medieval myth attributed the invention of chess to the Greeks during the ten-year siege of Troy to keep the soldiers occupied. But this master writes that it was invented in Chaldea and was then brought to Greece by the master who devised it.

He was called Diomedes, and there it should be known that the masters in Greece considered it a clever invention, and they practiced it diligently. Later, in the time of Alexander, whose power grew so great that he rode across all the land of Egypt, it was recognized afterward that it was spread like a rolling ball original: "raitete also eine bal"; a metaphor for the rapid global spread of the game. and given to the whole world. Thus it has also come to us; we have understood it very well. Under which king it was found in those same hours—I will tell you here immediately what he was called who first found it.

I begin the book thus: there was a good philosopher who was a true master of nature, as I have read. From the Orient, where Evil-Merodach original: "exerses"; the text uses "Exerses" (Xerxes), but in the context of the Book of Chess, this king is identified as Evil-Merodach, the son of Nebuchadnezzar. ruled, in the Chaldean tongue, it was found. He [the philosopher] had a name in the Greek tongue that he did not need to be ashamed of, for he was upright in his conduct and praiseworthy. Because of this, the name suited him well: Philometor original: "Philomyt"; from the Greek for "Lover of Justice." was this same man. He was skilled in philosophy; I say here that his name means Lover of Justice. original: "amator iustice" I have never told you of a better name.