Alfonso II in the twelfth-century Libro de los Testamentos.

es: Libro de Amós

eo: Libro de Amos

es: Libro de Alma

ia: Libro de Alma

* c. 1283: The game of astronomical tables, from Libro de los juegos Alfonso X of Castile in Spain commissioned Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas ( Libro de los Juegos ( The Book of Games )) translated into Castilian from Arabic and added illustrations with the goal of perfecting the work.

Todas tablas from the Libro de los juegos

an: Libro de Chosué

es: Libro de Josué

gl: Libro de Xosué

es: Libro de Nehemías

eo: Libro de Neĥemja

es: Libro de Jeremías

eo: Libro de Jeremia

es: Libro de Isaías

eo: Libro de Jesaja

gl: Libro de Isaías

es: Libro de los Jueces

The game of astronomical tables, from Libro de los juegos

The Libro de los Juegos, (" Book of games "), or Libro de acedrex, dados e tablas, (" Book of chess, dice and tables ", in Old Spanish ) was commissioned by Alfonso X of Castile, Galicia and León and completed in his scriptorium in Toledo in 1283, is an exemplary piece of Alfonso ’ s medieval literary legacy.

As Alfonso elucidates in the opening section of the Libro de Juegos, the Libro de ajedrex ( Book of chess ) demonstrates the value of the intellect, the Libro de los dados ( Book of dice ) illustrates that chance has supremacy over pure intellect, and the Libro de las tablas ( Book of tables ) celebrates a conjoined use of both intellect and chance.

ca: Libro de los juegos

cs: Libro de los juegos

es: Libro de los juegos

fr: Libro de los juegos

gl: Libro de los juegos

it: Libro de los juegos

pt: Libro de los juegos

* 1283 – The Libro de los juegos, an early European treatise on board games ( including chess, dice, and a version of backgammon ), is commissioned by King Alfonso X of Castile between 1251 and 1283.

The Libro de juegos contains an extensive collection of writings on chess, with over 100 chess problems and variants.

The miniatures in the Libro de juegos vary between half-and full-page illustrations.

The back or second ( verso ) side of Folio 1, in a half-page illustration, depicts the initial stages of the creation of the Libro de juegos, accompanied by text on the bottom half of the page, and the front or first ( recto ) side of Folio 2 depicts the transmission of the game of chess from an Indian Philosopher-King to three followers.

Having multiple artisans working on the Libro de juegos would have been a typical practice for medieval chanceries and scriptoria, where the labor of producing a manuscript was divided amongst individuals of varying capacities, for example the positions of scribe, draftsman, and apprentice cutting pages.

But in addition to performing different tasks, various artisans could have labored at the same job, such as the work of illustration in the Libro de juegos, thereby revealing a variety hands or styles.

The faces reveal a striking specificity of subtle detail, particular to a limited number of miniatures throughout the Libro de juegos, perhaps indicative of a particular artist ’ s hand.

In the miniatures of this style, the emphasis seems to be more on the posture of the player than the detail of their faces ; this crossed, lounging style is only found in the folios of the Libro de tablas, the third section of the Libro de juegos which explicates the game of backgammon, again perhaps indicative of the work of a particular artist.

Other visual details contemporaneous of Alfonso ’ s court and social and cultural milieu infuse the Libro de juegos.

The Libro de juegos can be divided into three parts: the games and problems it explores textually, the actual illuminations themselves, and the metaphysical extrapolation, or allegories, where an analysis of the texts and illuminations reveals the movements of the macrocosmos of the universe and the microcosmos of man.

As Arab contact with the West expanded, so too did the game and its various permutations, and by the twelfth century, chess was becoming an entertaining diversion among a growing population of Europeans, including some scholars, clergy, the aristocracy, and the merchant classes ; thus, by the thirteenth century, the iconography and symbolism associated with chess would have been accessible and familiar to Alfonso and his literate court culture, who may have had access to the private library, and manuscripts, of Alfonso, including the Libro de juegos.

The Libro de juegos manuscript was a Castilian translation of Arabic texts, which were themselves translations of Persian manuscripts.

The visual trope portrayed in the Libro de juegos miniatures is seen in other European transcriptions of the Arabic translations, most notably the German Carmina Burana Manuscript: two figures, one on either side of the board, with the board tilted up to reveal to the readers the moves made by the players.

As an inheritor of a dynamic mixture of Arabic and Latin culture, Alfonso was steeped in the rich heritage of humanistic philosophy, and the production of his Libro de juegos reveals the compendium of world views that comprised the eclectic thirteenth century admixture of faith and science.

These experiences can be played out and studied as they are lived, or as game moves played and analyzed in the pages of the Libro de juegos.