ONE HUNDRED LIBERAL AND INGENIOUS GAMES

BY MESSER original: "M."; abbreviation for Messer, a title of respect similar to "Sir" or "Master." INNOCENTIO RINGHIERI.

BOOK ONE.

GAME OF THE KNIGHT. I.

A large ornate woodcut initial letter 'G' depicting a seated figure, possibly a scholar or classical philosopher, holding a compass or instrument within a frame of decorative scrollwork and foliage. NOBLE original: "GENEROSE"; implying both high birth and a magnanimous, generous spirit. Ladies, because I know that by nature you have always been friends to brave and valiant men—being yourselves of great intellect, and delighting to have as your favorites and lovers men of noble heart, who are foremost in arms and in every other honorable and praiseworthy endeavor: seeing you often gathered at banquets, exceedingly elegant and adorned, and assembled in fair numbers, desiring that some honest and pleasant Game be played to pass the time in celebration and joy: I, as one who has always been eager (in all things possible to me) to please you, and who is in effect entirely yours, could not—observing you as I do, and knowing you all to be most worthy of being observed—fail to give you certain forms and rules of games, so that your desires may be satisfied and content. Let us then imagine that a noble mind—considering your condition and your desire, having first formed a graceful circle original: "Corona"; literally a crown, referring to the social circle formed by participants sitting together. of other honorable persons around you—should propose to you as a game, before all others, a noble Knight, who was shortly to show himself at a solemn Joust in the Field, being in other respects well-prepared in spirit, strength, and arms; and he should ask of you the Device Impresa: a personal emblem or symbolic image used by aristocrats to express a specific aim or state of heart, usually accompanied by a motto., the Motto, and the Color of his clothing and liveries original: "diuise"; the specific colors and patterns worn by a knight and his attendants to show their affiliation., just as you would do for some faithful and dear one of yours who was about to show himself among the others in such spectacles; I know that being very affable and kind, each of you, likening him as much as possible to her own lover, would not wish him to present himself to the...