Versus de Scachis

Versus de Scachis (verses from Chess ) is an early medieval, Latin chess poem by an unknown author in the 10th century. It was probably 900-950 in northern Italy. Versus de Scachis comprises 98 verses on the front (68 verses ) and rear (34 verses ) of a sheet of parchment and is in the Abbey Library of Einsiedeln stored ( in the canton of Schwyz ). The " hermit chess poem " as Versus de Scachis is also known, is considered the first written evidence of the Western chess.

Reception history

The Chess poem was pasted as a mirror sheet in another handwriting, and was only removed in 1839 by the then pin archivist Gall Morell ( 1803-1872 ). 1877 made ​​the Berne Professor Hermann Hagen ( 1844-1898 ), the verses in his Carmina medii aevi to a broad public. 1913 printed and interpreted them, the English chess historian Harold James Ruthven Murray. In their extraordinary importance, however, revealed only HM Gamer 1954 carefully. It (but not the Codex Einsidlensis 365 ) exists in addition an early medieval copy of lines 65 to 98 with a more classical orthography, which is dated to the year 997 and is also retained in the hermit monastery library.

Content

Versus de Scachis begins with a paean to the game of chess. This is followed by a description of the board, said today natural two-tone design of the fields was first mentioned. The Indian and Persian- Arab precursor of chess, Chaturanga or Shatranj, did not know the checkerboard pattern. Finally, a detailed description of the moves of the pieces, which in some cases considerably different from today's. This is especially true on the old runners and today's lady, who became the most powerful figure of the kurzschrittigen Fers only towards the end of the 15th century. The oldest example of this is found also in a poem, namely the Catalan Scachs d' amor. H.J.R. Murray pointed out that hardly be used in the poem chess terms. The term rochus for the tower is at his first mention of the term marchio explained (Latin for Markgraf ). This suggests a very low awareness of the game.

Source Edition and Literature

  • Gabriel Silagi in conjunction with Bernhard Bischoff, The Latin poet of the German Middle Ages. Fifth Band: The Ottonian, Part Three, Munich 1979, p 652-655 (MGH poetae latini medii aevi 5.3 ) the beginning of the digital object, authoritative edition
  • Richard Forster: Swiss chess literature 1 The Chess poem about Einsiedeln (ca. 900/950 ). In: Swiss chess magazine in 2004, No. 5, pp. 16-17 ( PDF, 84KB ).
  • Carmen Romeo: The introduction of Chess into Europe, 2006.
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