Jacobus de Cessolis, The Game of Chess, translated by William Caxton
Flanders [Ghent or Bruges], 31 March 1474.
An essay by Lotte Hellinga
Caxton’s second translation into English followed immediately on the Recuyell of the histories of Troy. Jacobus de Cessolis (c. 1250 — c. 1320), De ludo scachorum, in English The game of chess, is an allegorical treatise using the rules of chess to deliver moralizing messages. It was written in Latin late in the thirteenth century in Lombardy by a Dominican friar. The text became popular, saw many translations, and had an extensive tradition in manuscripts. Caxton’s translation may be the first time that the text appeared in print (a Latin version was printed in Utrecht in the same year). It was followed by sixteen later editions in the fifteenth century, in Latin (five), Dutch (four), German and Low German (five) and Italian (one). Although there was also a tradition of translations of the text into French — Caxton worked from a French version — no early editions in French are known. None of the editions of the chess-book in Latin is illustrated, but most of the editions in vernacular languages include images representing the pieces of chess: King, Queen, Knights, Rooks, Pawns, etc.
The five editions represented in The John Rylands Library offer an exceptional opportunity to follow the evolution of the illustrations of a text with popular appeal.
The version published in Latin in Toulouse in 1476 [JRL R6042, ISTC ic00408500] is bare of illustration. Among the four editions in vernacular languages, Caxton’s first edition [JRL 14387, ISTC ic00413000] is the exception: it was not illustrated. Illustrating his books was never going to be his strong point; he did not introduce it in his publications until c. 1481, in his first edition of The mirror of the world [JRL 3469, JRL R4744, ISTC im00883000], where the woodcuts, mainly diagrams, were required for understanding the text. In 1483 he did add woodcuts to his second edition of The game of chess [JRL 15386, ISTC ic00414000], which despite being extraordinarily clumsy have become famous. In 1479 a translation into Dutch appeared in Gouda. It was just before the printer, Gheraert Leeu, obtained the services of a talented wood-engraver. In the Scaecspul spaces were left open in the typesetting for illustrations to be painted in. The John Rylands copy [JRL 17262, ISTC ic00411000] has watercolour paintings of great charm, in which we may recognize the style of the woodcuts that began to appear in profusion in Leeu’s books a little later. Finally, in 1493, the Florentine printer Antonio Miscomini published an Italian translation [JRL 12669, ISTC ic00419000] with woodcuts in the best tradition of stylish decoration that is the hallmark of printing in Florence.
Caxton dedicated his first edition of The game of chess to the Duke of Clarence, brother to King Edward IV and Margaret of York. There is no sign that either Margaret of York or her brothers were charmed by the novelty of printing. The books may have looked too modest to those who — like Margaret and later Edward IV — preferred the luxury of grand manuscripts or who — like the duke — may not have looked much at books at all. (Clarence was much occupied with the political upheaval of the day, and was executed in 1478.)
Caxton was learning rapidly; after his two books in English he had learned that it would be better to direct his publications in English to a different kind of audience, to be daring, and not rely on the protection of royal or noble patronage.
