The Origins of Chess

Goddesschess is pleased to present this essay by Carmen Romeo, who presented this paper to a meeting of the Initiative Group Koenigstein Berlin, Germany, October 21-23, 2005.  She has graciously granted Goddesschess permission to publish her work. Thanks, Carmen!

Alfonso X the Wise:
The Law of Gambling Houses and Chess
(El Ordenamiento de las Tafurerias y el Ajedrez)

by M.C.Romeo

(translation from the Spanish by J.Byrne) July, 2005
Goddesschess Edition November, 2005
(minor editing by J. Newton)
 

 

There is nothing like organizing or arranging the books in a bookcase for rediscovering titles we have forgotten about or misplaced in our libraries and cannot locate.

It is not the first time this has happened to me, but this time the small brochure I recovered refreshed my memory; it was a recent (1994) edition of the "Ordenamiento de las Tafurerias que fue fecho en la era de mill e trescientos y quatorse años por el Rey Don Alfonso X (followed by a heraldic coat of arms with the royal crown and Toison d'Or) de orden y a expensas de S.M., Madrid en la Imprenta Real año 1836". ("The Law of Gambling Houses enacted in the year 1314 by order of and at the expense of H.M., at the Royal Printing Press in the year 1836").  After the first flyleaf appears the note that this work belongs to "legal tracts of King Alfonso the Wise, published and compared to several old manuscripts by the Royal Academy of History." (In the year in which this edition was ordered, Queen Isabel II was a six year-old girl and had reigned for only three years, her mother the Dowager Queen Maria Cristina de Borbón being Regent.)Via the Internet I have been able to check all these tracts and have compared the pamphlet in my possession with the pages shown on the Internet.

According to the stamps visible on them, they were taken from the University of Seville and are marked as CBS 701626. Anyone curious about them and interested in seeing them on Internet should look for the Pixilegis page at http://fama2.us.es/fde/opusculosLegalesT2Indice.pdf where the possibility exists for accessing the facsimile of this 1836 document in PDF format.

How and why this law was enacted
(Image 1: Alfonso the Wise ordered the rules of the dice game).  Alfonso X , a monarch so enamoured of learning and books that history has christened him "The Wise King", had to concern himself first of all with the establishment of rules for gaming and the regulation of the complicated politics of his time.The basic reference for studying this incredible ruler's works is "The Intervention of Alfonso X in the Creation of his Writings", which can be found in the Review of Spanish Philology. II, (1915) pp. 283-288.A timely paragraph of "General y Grande Estoria" puts it this way:

"El Rey face una libro non por quel escriua con sus manos, mas porque compone las razones del e las enmienda e yegua e enderesça e muestra la manera de cómo se deuen fazer e desi escribe las qui el manda pero dezimos por esta razón que el rey faze el libro. Otrossi quando decimos que el rey faze un palacio o alguna obra non es dicho porque lo el fiziese con sus manos mas porque el mano fazer e dio las cosas que fueron mester para ello."

The first work of a judicial kind created under his orders was the "Setenario" (begun during the lifetime of his father, Fernando III). "El Fuero Real" or royal privilege granted beginning in 1255 to a number of cities had as its purpose the substitution of local privileges. His work "El Espéculo" was drafted around 1260 and marked one more step in the direction of compiling an exhaustive legal treatise, equivalent to an initial draft of his "Siete Partidas" (the name of the treatise, of which the first five books are preserved that "quiere tanto dezir como espejo de todos los derechos" (i.e., have so much to say as a mirror of all rights.)The monumental work of this unifying legal project was the "Siete Partidas". The need for it had been explained by Alfonso X in the rough draft of "El Espéculo". It was of immense importance in the construction of the systematic legal framework of the state and during the entire Middle Ages it was translated into the major European languages, serving as a legal basis. For example he ordered "Libro de la Esfera" to be "translated by Yehuda el Coheneso and Guillén Arremón Daspa." "Lapidario" he ordered to be composed "based on the books of the ancient philosophers." In the forward to the "General Estoria" one finds: "I, don Alfonsso... ordered...this book to be made."

García Solalinde (a pupil of Ramón Menéndez Pidal and one of the major Alfonso X research scholars) has shown that the king intervened at two points in his work: the initial point, to design it and the end, to correct and conclude it. In between these points came the contributions of collaborators, although from time to time there were personal interventions by the king and in some cases, such as the "Cantigas", his interventions were practically continuous, making this one of his most personal works. Indeed, it is composed in the Galician language, used by the king for his more intimate compositions rather than in the Castilian employed in the rest.

Various specialists appear repeatedly in the translations and composition of the very technical passages, such as the king's personal Jewish doctor, Jehuda ibn Moshe, who was responsible for drafting much of the astrological and astronomical material. It was Jehuda who had translated in 1256 the first version of this book with the help of Guillén Arremón Daspa, he explained in a paragraph of "El libro de las Estrellas fijas" how the king participated, stating that the stylistic correction of 1276 was made directly by Don Alfonso.

It is evident that the king's mandate (as occurred with the group in charge of writing the judicial summary of the "Siete Partidas" or "El libro del saber de Astronomia") (The Books of the Knowledge of Astronomy) often included his direct, personal participation in selecting and arranging the material and the order of the contents, no matter how technical it might be.The names of the team of King AlfonsoÕs collaborators in Seville are not known, nor are other details of their personalities aside from what can be indirectly deduced or imagined from such a vigorous multicultural cooperative activity.

Jehuda speaks of his "helpers" and, in the "Libro Conplido" (1254), of the "translators and corrector."In other cases, such as the "Ordenamiento de las Tafurerías" (Law regulating gambling houses), the king entrusted responsibility for the work to an expert he trusted, the famed legal authority Master Roldán, as is explained in the opening paragraph of the Law (Image 2, figure on the left is probably Master Roldan): 

 

The presentation of Law by the jurist Maese Roldan

Era de mill e trescientos e quatorse anos. Este es el libro que yo maestre Roldán ordené e compuse en razon de las tafurerias por mandado del muy noble e mucho alto señor Don Alfonso, por la gracias de Dios, rey de castilla, de leon, de Toledo, de galicia, de sevilla, de Cordova, de Murcia, de jaen, del algarbe, porque ningunos playtos de dados nin de las tafuferias no eran escritos en los libros de los derechos, nin de los fueros, nin los alcaldes no eran sabidores, nin usaban, nin juzgaban de ello, fiz este libro apartadamente de los otros fueros, porque se juzguen los tafures por siempre, porque se viede el destrez, e se escusaen las muertes e las peleas, e las tafurerias: e tobo por bien el rey como savidor, e entendiendo todos los bienes, que oviesen cada uno pena e escarmiento del descreer, e en los otros engaños que se facen en las tafurerias.

In the year 1314, I, master Roldan, ordered and composed this "Law of Gambling Houses" by order of my lord, the King Don Alfonso, king of Castilla, Leon, Toledo, Galicia, Sevilla, Cordoba, Murcia, Jaen and Algarbe, because neither in the books of laws nor in the jurisdictions is there anything written about the games of dice and the Gambling Houses, nor is it known by the mayors, nor used or judged by them.  For this reason, the king orders us to make this book, separate from the other jurisdictions, so that gamblers are forever judged and punished and that fights and deaths in the gambling houses cannot be excused.  For this reason, as the king knows about all these damages, he has decided that anybody causing offenses and damages in the gambling house should be punished.

In the Appendix we include the index of this legal text wherein 44 laws covering all aspects to be found in such gambling dives are minutely legislated, and we transcribe in its entirety Law II which deals explicitly with dice playing and "Chess of Four Times."

What were those gambling houses like, and the environment and atmosphere that favoured them?

It can be said that since olden times, and in every country and society, games - whether they were of chance or not - have attracted the attention of mankind, utterly changing some people's lives, through gambling and gambling houses, in a marginal and picturesque way of life. For others, games became an obsessive pastime, constantly renewed and updated (and sometimes abolished) through the tempting fantasy of easy fortune and get-rich-quick dreams.

The gaming establishments ("tafurerias") were gambling houses, sometimes known as "the kingÕs gambling houses", which I believe must have referred to the fact that they needed some kind of permit to open and had to be licensed in a register by the city where they were situated. The proprietor or manager of the house must have had to pay taxes for the permit or royal license needed to open for business, whereby it became not royal property but a house subject to royal laws. Ill fame has always surrounded dice players like a dark shadow. In Law I of the gambling legislation in question, dated 1276, we read of gamblers who play dice "e non usan otro menester, e viven e guarescen por las tafurerias..." In the "Carmina Burana" mention is made in the mid-13^th century of gamblers and wandering students, calledÔ'scholdrers', with the comment that they lived poorly but travelled about from one town to another seeking to attract children or adults to their games with bets. (Image 3, F68R from the "Book of Dice", showing some of the amusements available in a gambling house). 

Dice playing was forbidden by law at various times and has always been frowned upon throughout history by leaders of society, from Buddha to Mohammed and including philosophers and Roman rulers, with explicit condemnation by the Fathers of the early Christian Church. Echoes of this condemnation are to be found in popular literature such as "Carmina Burana" (207, III) which lists as accompanying dice such ills as "...lies, quarrelling, poverty, distrust, robbery, plunder and squalor." Another of the reasons for rejecting it would be its pernicious example and multiplier effect of misfortune. That at least is what can be drawn from the curious distinction between "playing during the day or playing at night" which appears in the text of the Ordenations é bans del Compat de Ampuries: "Item que tot hom qui juch anagun joch de daus ni de scachs en cosa de manger ni en alters coses de dias exceptal joch de taules..." The exemption conceded to the royal board game has no clear explanation.

(Image 4, F70V from the "Book of Dice", a fight breaks out over a game). The medieval ambiance surrounding dice playing is that of taverns, brothels and dens of gambling. Since monetary bets were the central reason behind games, participation by at least a third person was needed with whom the players deposited in custody their bet money. The institution of the guardian and referee of the wagers became firmly established in the daily life of medieval communities.

It was possible to pawn garments as loans for gambling and for wine. "Os dejamos una mesa, os dejamos los dados. Dejad vuestras ropas para el vino y las jarras", we are told in another passage of "Carmina Burana".

The basic rules for gambling in a tavern were the following: The legal validity of games involving bets was only guaranteed if a referee-guardian was present. Money payment was postponed and a referee simply went along taking note of the results of each game, with settlement of accounts at the end of each session. The "tablegero" moneylender ("Pfander" in German, "Stakeholder" in English) always had to pay the winner, even out of his own pocket if it turned out that the loserÕs property could not cover the total of the wager. On the other hand, the winner had to pay the Pfander a percentage of his winnings ("Pfandrecht"), variable according to each case but agreed upon before the start of the game. If a player lost but was insolvent and unable to pay his debt, the "Pfander" could demand payment in kind or impound any belongings "untz an das hämde" ("even his shirt"). (Image 5, the Stakeholder ["tablegero" or "Pfander"] is a curious figure who appears in numerous scenes of the "Codex of Games" and offers a goblet to, or stands near, someone who is going to win the problem in question, as if the illustrator wanted to represent victory in this way).

(Image 6, F67R from the "Book of Dice").  Including clothes as collateral for a bet ("betting the shirt on one's back") was common when someone had lost all his money. In the miniatures illustrating Alfonso's "Libro de los Dados" naked players appear continually. The "Carmina Burana" also relates:

 

Nackte schielen unterm Spielen schräg auf den Genossen;

Um miene Hemde würfeln Fremde rastlos unverdrossen.

Statt der Decke wärmen Säcke den vom Spiel Entblössten!

Zornesröte, Todesnöte, Bacchus weiss zu trösten!

("During the game, those who go nude look cross-eyed at their companions. Some tireless outsiders are playing for my shirts. Instead of a cloak, the destitute player has to look for a sack to cover himself. Blushing with anger, wishing he were dead, Bacchus will know how to console him.")

In Vienna it was forbidden to wager parts of one's own body: ("Chain man mag dez nicht vrspilen mit recht, das got an im beschaffen hat, es sein augen, nas oder orn, hende oder fuezz, und es set auch hintz einem phantner") -  "Nobody can wager what God has given him, whether it be his eyes, nose or ears, hands or feet, even though it be in the presence of a Pfander." The practice could follow its own brutal rules. "If someone has broken this law and cannot pay the high penalty, let him be deprived of one of the parts of his body that he has two of": "ein aug gegen einem augen, ob er versplit hat, ein hant gen einer han" (an eye for another eye, if he has bet it and lost, a hand for the other hand). The player guilty of dirty tricks in gambling must pay a big fine, and if he were unable to pay it he would have a hand amputated.

The team of middlemen in the medieval gambling dives evolved into four different types: one who rented the gaming material, one who kept count of the results, one who held the bets and the proprietor. These four functions could be concentrated in a single person, any of the aforementioned, but ordinarily it would be the landlord of the dive, as Konrad of Haslau describes in his educational poem "Der Jüngling":

 

"A player of good stock

has four people who use his money:

The one who lends the dice and the one who keeps records of the result

And the one who holds the bets.

The fourth one is the one who provides the game table and the light,

Who is the landlord of the place."
 
 

"Ein itslich rehter spiler

hat vierhande gutswender:

der wurfel und der da zelt

und der zu der pfande ist erwelt;

der vierde von dem tische und dem liht,

daz ist der wirt."

 

In the tavern, a player could reinvest his winnings in wine or in mercenary sex. The owner of the gambling house earned tax-free income and as is noted in verse in Carl Orff's orchestration of Carmina Burana:
   

"In taberna fraus eternal semper est in ludo"

(In the tavern the eternal swindle is always being plotted.)

In the event, apparently very frequent, that a dispute arose between the winner and the loser, the Pfander had the right to decide. However, if the two players reached an agreement the referee-holder had to accept it , even if he had a different opinion or if the account keeper made a mistake. (This "accountant" or "Zähler" [Zeler] is yet another auxiliary figure in the arbitration of the game. His task was to calculate the amounts won or lost after each round. Before a court of law, the testimony of the lender had complete validity as evidence, but not the testimony of the players. If necessary, the proceeding was completed with the testimony of two honourable witnesses. In the case of conflicts between "cavalleros e fijosdalgo" (gentlemen and nobles), the rules of the "Ordenamiento" make an exception and remit them to their own jurisdictions (Law V).

Since the monetary wagers were the central reason for game playing, the participation of a third person became necessary; players deposited in his custody the money being bet. The institution of the guardian of the wager money, or tablegero (a sort of intermediary/arbiter) became firmly established in medieval communities. This is the character who is depicted in the illustrations of the period regarding all sorts of game playing, whether in the Codex of "The Book of Games" or, for example, in the imagery found in the Carmina Burana that shows him holding a goblet or jug. And as seen in the "Law of Gambling Houses" of Alfonso X, it is the man lending and renting the playing material, whether it be dice, gameboards or chess sets. He is a curious figure who appears in numerous scenes of the "Book of Chess" of the Codex of Games and offers a goblet to, or stands near, someone who is going to win in the problem in question, as if the illustrator wanted to represent victory in this way:

"el tablegero que sea tenido de los cambair e de emprestargelos

quando lo quisieren los jugadores que juegan en las tafurerias."

As examples, we could mention the folios of Codex 7a, 10b, 12b, 14b, 23b (Games) and in the "Libro de los dados" folio 68a. The rate charged by the tablegero to the proprietor of the house for his services tended to be regulated, a set fee, since any demonstrated excess meant a fine of twice the amount disputed, one-seventh part for the king and all court costs. In the event of insolvency, the punishment was fifty lashes (Law IX).

Another character depicted was "the owner of the gambling house", who rented the permit or royal license.

The first text describing the nature and the rules of the dice game in medieval Europe was the Codex of King Alfonso (1283).

The motivation of the King in writing about games of chance was as an intellectual, philosophical coherence. Philosophical reflection aside, however, the whole ambiance underlying the murky world of dice games must have caused sociological concern to a king like Alfonso X, who had to take a position on the subject. The result was an order to draw up "The Law of Gambling Houses".

Prudently, there were no prohibitions for the population in general but only regulations for the betting sector. On the other hand, clergymen were not allowed to wager and if they were to be punished ecclesiastic jurisdiction was excluded, subjecting them instead to ordinary courts as is indicated in Law XXV:

"que cualquier clérigo que sacare tablaje o jugare los dados, o sobre algunas cosas que fagan a él, o él a alguno en las tahurerías , o dixiere o hiciere algunas coasas de las que defiende la santa eglesia, e este libro, es se quisiere alzar al juicio de la santa eglesia , non le valga, ca después que el clérigo saca tablaje, e siguiere los dados, viene contra aquello que defiende la santa eglesia a las ordenes, porque debe pasar e juzgarse por el juicio que pasan los otros tafures." - ("that any clergyman who takes out a gameboard or plays dice, or certain things they may do to him or he may do to someone in a gambling house, or which he may say of things the Holy Mother Church defends or of this Book, or which they may raise against the judgment of the Church, is not valid, since after he takes out a gameboard or continues playing dice he comes up against what the Church defends and her orders, he must pass to be judged the same way that other gamblers are tried.")

Law II, the text of which we include in the Appendix, mentions a special chess, not "chess" in general but rather one called "of Four Times".  After looking through the "Book of Games" several times I can find only this reference: el "Ajedrez de los Quatro tiempos" ("Chess of Four Times").  (Image 7, the Chess of Four Times).  It can be played with or without dice (for which reason we think that it is this variant of chess to which the Law refers).

As far as we know, there are neither indications nor more or less remote written sources in which this game or the board game known as "The World" appear. As a hypothesis it can be assumed that there was some sort of previous board game of neo-Pythagorean origin, based on the allegory of four bodily humors clearly derived from the thinking of the schools of Pythagoras.

We find the description of this chess in the fifth section of the Book of Games, folios 87 to 90; they are loose folios and, contrary to those of the other sections, have no headings identifying them as belonging to a determined group. This leads us to suppose they were added to the original project at the last moment and perhaps a bit hastily.

Using two miniatures, each occupying a full page, a chess modality for four players is described ("Chess of Four Times") along with another board game called "The World", neither of which achieved fame or glory, and both were promptly forgotten.

Folio 87a starts out by explaining that  the "Chess of Four Times" symbolizes the struggle of the four elements, the four seasons of the year and the four humors "que se crian en el cuerpo dell omne" ("bred in the human body"). Each player chooses a color: green stands for springtime, air and blood; red symbolises summertime (the codex calls spring the "uerano"), fire and anger; autumn, earth and melancholy are represented by black, and the white pieces express winter, water and phlegm.

Each player has a king, a rook, a knight, a bishop and four pawns, which are situated in the four corners of the board. On the board (as shown in the miniature) two larger diagonal lines are traced in the central 4x4 square used to separate the respective sides and the direction in which pawns advance following the sides of the board. When it reached the far side, a pawn became an "alferza" (an archaic chess piece which took a position beside the king; it no longer exists).

Green opens by attacking Red, which defends itself from Green and in turn attacks Black, which also defends itself and attacks White, which closes the circle by attacking Green. The players set up a common pool of money, which steadily grew with each capture and Check. Upon being checkmated, the remaining pieces were taken by the winner and the game continued until there was only one unbeaten player left.

(Image 8, F89V from the "Book of Dice", the game "The World", which appears to be a backgammon version of "Chess of Four Times").  In folio 89 the corresponding variety of ties or draws had been described. On a round playing board, four divisions of six squares or points each are shown. Each of the four players has twelve pieces or chessmen of his colour (green, red, black or white); they draw lots with a toss of normal dice to see who starts first, with playing turns following counter-clockwise, to the starting playerÕs right.

Depending on the luck in each play, pieces enter as in the Twelve Dogs Game already described, which each one must move to the right as far as the third player's area. The tosses that cannot be used may be taken advantage of by the next player, "si este non el tercero - si non fagala el quarto" (and otherwise in turn the third, or if not then the fourth). Once set up in the arrival area, they may be removed or "leuadas", and the player who removes his pieces first will win the wager with the player to his right.
 

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APPENDIX

1.  INDICE DEL ORDENAMIENTO DE LAS TAFURERIAS

2.  Law II

Aquellos que metieren a juego e jugaren con dados que ayan nombre los quatro, porque es furto manifiesto, que pechen por la primera vez todo aquello que jugaren doblado a su dueño, e costas e misiones si las ficiere en demandando lo suyo, e las setenas al rey; e se non oviere de que lo pechar este, que le den cinquenta azotes en la plaza con los dados colgados al cuello, e por la segunda vez que le corten el dedo pulgar de la mano derecha o de la izquierda, con cualquier que jugare. E aquellos que jugaren con dados que ayan nombre seis o siete, o con otros dados que ayan de mas o menos en sus suertes, que ayan las la pena que deven aver los que jugaren con los dados que han de nombre los quatro, porque es otrosi furto manifiesto. E el que metiere o jugarew con dados plomados nin desvenados, que peche por la primera vez todo aquello que ganare doblado a su dueño, e costas, e misiones si las ficiere en demandando lo suyo, e si non oviere de que pechar esto, que le den treynta azotes por la primera vez, e por la segunda cinquenta azotes, e por la tercera que le azoten por la villa conn los dados colgados al pescuezo, e échenlo fuera de la villa por malo e engañador. E el que metiere nin jugare a juego ninguno con dados afeytados, que aya la pena que deven aver los que jegan con dados plomados, o con los dados desvenados, ca tambien es fiel el dado afeitado, después que los savidores de los dados de las tafurerias, los escogen los dos, facen de su quadra e de los tantos e de las quadras, como el plomado e el desvenado. E aquellos que jugaren con los escaques que dicen los quatro, e con los otros escaques, que ayan de mas o de menos sus suertes, que ayan la pena que deven aver los que juegan con los dados, que ayan nombre los quatro, porque es otrosi furto manifiesto. E que aquellos que saben fincar los dados, que jueguen sin escatima ninguna, e el sabidor que fincare lo otorgase que lo fará , devegelo tener por quanto lo otorga e lo asegura primeramente. 

3. Transcripción del texto original sobre el ajedrez de los cuatro tiempos y las tablas llamada "El mundo" (se incluye ademas la forma de hacer el tablero y los trebejos)

"Aquí se comiença otro acedrex, que fue fecho a semejança de
los quatro tiempos del año, que assacaron los sabios antigos.

Otro acedrex hay que fizieron los sabios antigos a semejança de los quatro tiempos del año, e fue ordenado desta guisa:

El primer tiempo es el verano, e comiénçase mediado março e tiene fasta mediado junio. El segundo tiempo es el estío, e comiença mediado junio e tiene fasta mediado setiembre. El tercero tiempo es el otoño, e comiénçase mediado setiembre e tiene fasta mediado deziembre. El quarto tiempo es el ivierno, e comiença mediado deziembre e tiene fasta mediado março.

E estos quatro tiempos partiéronlos a manera de los quatro elementos. El verano por el elemento del aire. El estío por el elemento del fuego. El otoño por el elemento de la tierra. El ivierno por el elemento del agua.

E porque en el primero tiempo del verano que desuso dixiemos se crían todas las cosas e refrescan los omnes e verdecen los árboles e las yervas, por que el su elemento es el aire que es más claro que en ninguno de los otros tiempos, por ende pusieron este tiempo verde.

E el estío, que es caliente e seco más que los otros tiempos, pusiéronlo a semejante del fuego que es dessa natura, e por ende pusieron este tiempo vermejo, por el su elemento que es tal.

El otoño es seco e frío, por que es del elemento de la tierra, e es más temprado que el estío, ca tira más a la friura que a la calentura, e las cosas que fincaron quemadas del estío, nacen e refrescan en este tiempo, e por que el su elemento es la tierra e la su complexión friura e sequedat, por ende pusieron este tiempo de color negra.

E el ivierno pusieron por el elemento del agua, que es fría y húmida, ca en aquella sazón faze los grandes fríos e eladas e nieves e grandes aguas de lluvias, e por que el su elemento es el agua, por ende le pusieron de color blanca.

E esta semejança les dieron segund los quatro humores que se crían en el cuerpo del omne, así como la sangre que pusieron al verano, e la cólera al estío, e la melenconía al otoño, e la flema al invierno. 

De las humores que se crían en cada tiempo

Destos quatro tiempos, que desuso avemos dicho, es el primero el verano, e críase en él la sangre más que en todos los otros. E en el estúio la cólera. E en el otoño la melenconía. E en el ivierno la flema. E estos tiempos se departen desta manera.

El verano es temprado por que es entre el ivierno que es muy frío e el estío que es muy caliente, e segunt departieron lios sabios antiguos, tira mas a la calentura que al frío, por (que) tomó más del estío que viene, que non recibió del ivierno que es passado.

El estío es caliente e seco, porque tomó de la calentura del verano que passó e recibe otrossí de la calentura del otoño que viene.

El otoño es temprado e tira más a friura que a calentura por que es entre el estío que es / muy caliente e el ivierno que es muy frío, e toma más del tiempo que viene que non recibió del pasado.

El ivierno que viene entre el otoño e el verano es muy frío porque tomó de la friura del otoño que passó e recibe otrossí de la friura del verano que viene.

E desta guisa toman estos quatro tiempos, los unos de los otros. E a manera destos quatro tiempos e destas quatro humores, partiueron los juegos del acedrex en quatro partes, cada una de su color, segunt que desuso oyestes, que conviene a cada tiempo. 

De cómo es fecho este tablero de los quatro tiempos e de quántas colores son los sus trebejos e de cómo han de ser entablados en él.

Este tablero debe ser fecho desta guisa: quadrado, e en cada quadra ha de aver ocho casas que son por todas sessaenta e quatro, e ha de aver en él quatro carreras en guisa de aspa, que toma el una carrera de la segunda casa del un canto del tablero, e va fasta la segunda casa del otro canto en su derecho a postpunta, e el otra carrera esso mismo. E la que va por las casas blencas, ha de ser prieta, e la que va por las prietas, blanca, por que fagan departimiento entre los unos juegos e los otros. E estas señales que atraviesan estas casas departen a quál parte han de mover primeramientre los peones, ca los que sovieren a siniestro esso mismo, e en yendo tomarán en sosquino como peones han de tomar.

E estos trebejos son por todos treinta e dos e hanse de entablar a los quatro cantos del tablero, e ha de aver en cada entablamiento ocho trebejos que son: un rey e un roque e un caballo e un alfil e quatro peones, e todos los trebejos han de jogar a qual parte quisieren, según su andamiento, assí como andan en el otro acedrex que es más usado. E el su entablamiento es éste: los reyes están entablados en las casas postremeras de los cantos del tablero, e el roque del un cabo a cada rey e el caballo del otro e el alfil ante sí. E los dos peones, que caten al un rencón del tablero, e los otros dos al otro. E en este acedrex no ha alferza ninguna, fasta que se faga con los peones, e ha en él quatro reyes e han de jogar en él quatro omnes, cada uno con sus trebejos de su color. E las colores son estas quatro que avemos dichas que conviene a los tiempos. Los trebejos del verano son verdes. E los del estío vermejos, Los del otoño negros. E los del ivierno blancos. 

De cómo han de començar a jugar con estos trebejos

El jogador que tiene los trebejos verdes ha jogar primero, e debe començar a la mano derecha contra el otro que tiene los vermejos, asi como el verano va contra el estío. E el que tiene los vermejos debe jogar esso mismo contra el otro que tiene los prietos, guardándose del que tiene los verdes que nol empeezca. E el que tiene los negros ha de jogar otrossí a la mano derecha contra el que tiene los blancos, guardándose toda vía del otro jogador que tiene los vermejos que nol empeezca. E el que tiene los blancos debe fazer esto mismo, guardándose del que tiene los prietos que nol empeezca otossí./ E depués que juegue cada uno a su voluntat. E assí toman estos quatro jogadores jogando unos de otros, segundo los quatro tiempos del año reciben otrossí unos de otros.

E deven poner estos quatros jogadores seños tantos primeramientre por coto, ante que comiencen a jogar. E depués por cada juego que tome el un jogador al otro, quel dé un tanto, e por cada xaque que den al rey, otrossí un tanto, e si fuere xaque e mate , que de a aquel quel dio xaque e mate, tantos dineros quantos juegos tiene e saque sus trebejos. E de los tres jogadores que fincan depués, el que primero fuere vencido dexe en el tablero quantos dineros y oviere ganados, e demás quantos trebejos le fincan quando es vencido. E de los otros dos jogadores que finacn, el que venciere debe tomar todos los dineros que estudieren en el tablero. E demás quantos juegos fincaren al vencido, que dé tantso dineros.

E ésta es la figura del tablero e de los trebejos e éste es el su entablamiento, que aquí está pintado. /

Éste es el tablero de las tablas de los quatro tiempos del año, a que dicen el mundo, que comiença assí:

Pues que avemos dicho del tablero de los quatro tiempos del año, segundo lo ordenaron los sabios antiguos, agora conviene que mostremos el tablero de las tablas que se juega segund aquella manera.Este tablero es quadrado e las barras son puestas en redondura e la redondura es partida en quatro partes e cada parte ha seis casas que son cavadas a manera de media rueda en que se encasen las tablas

E en este tablero han de jogar quatro omnes, cada uno con sus tables de su color segundo los colores de los trebejos del acedrex que avemos nombrado. E cada uno destos jogadores ha de tener doze tablas de las colores de los trebejos sobredichos, que son estas: verdes, vermejas, blancas, prietas, e son por todas quarenta y ovho, e juéganse con los dados deste mismo acedrex, e han de lançar batalla, e el que vence la batalla juega primero. E luego el otro que está cabo de él a la mano derecha, e assí va todos ed derredor.

E el que primero començare ha de encasar las tablas como le viniere la suerte de los dados, assí como los doze canes e todos los otros esso mismo. E desque ovieren encasadas todas las tablas, hga de klevar cada uno las suyas a aquel logar do el tercero jogador encasó primero las suyas que está en su derecho, jogando todos en derredor a la mano derecha segundo las suertes de los dados. E el que lançare suerte que non pueda fazer, fágala el otro que estudiere luego cabo de él a la mano derecha, e si éste non, el tercero, e si non, fágala el quarto. E otrossí en este juego, si lançare suerte de guisa que pueda alcançar a las tablas de los dos jogadores que están a la su mano derecha, e fallare alguna descubierta, ferirla-ha. E aquél cuya fuere la tabla, hala de tornar ó primeramientre la entabló. E non han de levar ninguna tabla, fata, ó las hayan entabladas en el tercero entablamiento, cada uno en su derecho, segund sobredicho es. E el jogador que primero sacare las suyas ganará al otro que está a su mano derecha e assí los otros en derredor.

E éste es el departimiento deste juego. E esta es la figura del tablero e de las tablas e de sus colores e del entablamiento." 

4. Facsímil de 1836

.1ª pagina del Indice

.2ª pagina del Indice Presentacion ,

.Ley I y parte de ley

Image 4.  Index of the Laws, Part 1
 
 
 
 

Image 5.  Index of the Laws, Part 2
 
 
 

 

Image 6.  Pages 216-217 of Laws
 
 
 

 

Image 7.  Pages 218-219 of Laws