History

• Asia Society on Pachisi -- (more)
• Irving Finkel's detailed reconstruction of the game -- A more-than-typically detailed writeup of the game, the available source material, and how to interpret it. (more)
• Gluckhaus at The Reverend's Musings -- A good quick description of the game, with a little history and illustrations of several boards. (more)
• Islamic Backgammon -- Uses period illustrations to show that something like Irish was played in the Eastern Islamic territories in period. (more)
• The TarotL History Information Sheet -- Compiled by members of the TarotL group, this is a concise look at various myths about the deck, and the current historical understanding. (more)
• Strawberry's reconstruction of Karnöffel -- A dash of history, and a couple of reconstructions. (more)
• Parlett on Loo -- He has several reconstructions, and is looking at a broader sweep of history; I haven't yet checked his writeup against Cotton specifically yet. (more)
• An in-depth paper on Metromachy -- Written in French, including a translation of the Latin primary source into French. (Sadly for us English monoglots.) (more)
• Description at The History of Chess -- Goes into more detail about this game than most sites. (more)
• David Parlett on Noddy -- Nicely detailed description, including some history (more)
• A History of Chess, by HJR Murray -- The definitive work on Chess history and variants. A century old, but still the gold standard. (more)
• History of Boules and Petanque -- From "la boule bleue", a French company making high-end boules sets. (more)
• Description on The History of Chess -- (more)
• The Full History of Board Games -- A long blog post that skims over the surface of the topic. Slightly breathless and necessarily very light on detail, but mostly accurate and hits at least many of the high points. Well-suited counter to any misimpressions that board games are a modern phenomenon, and gives a good sense of the scope. (more)
• Games Galore -- A very useful summary chart of which games were introduced where and when. (more)
• Ragnar Thorbergsson's Analysis of Tafl -- One of the more important articles on the subject, this doesn't just use the sources, it also does some analysis of the playability of different reconstructions, in order to find the most plausible reconstruction. (more)
• Parlett on Losing Lodam -- (more)
• Liar's Dice in Folklore in History -- A good article tracing what we do and don't know about Liar's Dice, and evaluating what is actually plausible in the historical claims. (more)
• Alternate reconstruction of Grande Acedrex -- A very detailed reconstruction that goes back to the Alfonso MS and looks at it carefully. (more)
• James Masters' History of Chess -- A quick overview of where the various subfamilies fit in. (more)
• The History of Playing Cards -- An overview history hosted at the IPCS. (more)
• Accademia del Tarocchino Bolognese -- In Italian -- has a number of interesting-looking articles on the game, some of them relating to its history. (more)
• Pachisi on Traditional Games -- (more)
• Nine and Three Men's Morris on Traditional Games -- Has some nice pictures. (more)
• Archive of an email discussion about Tablero -- This is where the hoax originally came to light. (more)
• The Lewis Hoard of Gaming Pieces: A Re-examination of their Context, Meanings, Discovery and Manufacture -- (more)
• Description from Abstract Games -- Discussion of Alquerques and a bunch of similar games. (more)
• Organizing the Greed for Gain: Alfonso X of Spain’s Law on Gambling Houses -- An academic article about a little-known law code. No translation, but includes a number of quotes in the original form, and a fair amount of analysis about what we can infer from it. (more)
• History of Backgammon on Traditional Games -- Brief outline of the history of Tables games. (more)
• Jean-Louis Cazaux' History of Chess -- An excellent in-depth site, giving lots of information on the topic. Discusses the history, the archaeology, lots of papers about chess, many variations (including a lot of Eastern variants), etc. (more)
• Pre-Gebelin Tarot History -- A blog focusing on "The Moral Allegory of Tarot". It is a refreshing middle ground: explicitly skeptical about the occult side (much of which was an 18th century invention) but looking seriously at Tarot imagery as allegory. Highly opinionated and intriguing, and contains many images of less-known period decks. (more)
• The Asia Society on Sugoroku -- Brief, but useful. (more)
• Hickock Sports on the History of Croquet -- Via the Wayback Machine. Touches on Pall-Mall along the way. (more)
• Dagonell's description -- (more)
• Maproom Publications -- Publishers of a couple of books specifically on the subject of the early history of the Tarot deck and its games. (more)
• Met Lecture 1 on the History of Chess -- A YouTube video lecture on Chess (more)
• Biography of a Board Game: Game of the Goose -- A very good, short (~9 minute) capsule history of the game, in podcast form. (more)
• Deciphering the World's Oldest Rule Book -- A YouTube video (about 7 minutes) by the curator at the British Museum who managed to put the board and the cuneiform rules together. (more)
• On the Explanation of Chess and Backgammon -- A medieval Persian source, describing how Chess came to Persia and how "backgammon" (games within the Tables) was invented. (more)
• History of Quoits at Traditional Games -- Goes into some detail about the regional variations in Britain. (more)
• Shovelboard on Traditional Games -- (more)
• Discussion at The History of Chess -- By far the most detailed discussion of this game that I know of. Mainly focuses on debunking the myths about the antiquity of this variant, arguing strongly that, while it is SCA-period, it isn't as ancient as folks usually claim. (more)
• Dagonell on Curling -- (more)
• A 14th c. MS with info about Merels and Tables -- (more)
• From Ur to Aseb: The Evolution of the Game of Twenty Squares -- A look into the Royal Game of Ur and the Egyptian game Aseb, and the historical relationships between them. (more)
• Taxonomic map of Playing Cards -- A lovely map showing the evolution of the suits, by Lady Heather Hall. (more)
• Carolus Chess page -- An interesting overview of the history of chess. A few sections need a grain of salt, but worth looking over. (more)
• Hnefatafl World Championship -- Run by the Fetlar organization, and gives a bit of info about the game itself (more)
• Modar on Pall-Mall -- Includes a speculative reconstruction of "Ground Billiards". (more)
• A page on Austrian Tarock -- Collected by Hans-Joachim Alscher; in German, but mostly links, including lots of links to various period sources. Well worth going through for those links. (more)
• History of Battledore and Shuttlecock -- A brief discussion on Traditional Games. (more)
• Parlett on the Leaf Game -- A discussion of what we know about the ancient Chinese game that purportedly led to the invention of cards (more)
• A Medieval Battle of Numbers -- An overview of Rhythmomachy by Peter Mebben, one of the more serious students of the game. (more)
• The Enigma of the Birth of Chess -- A multi-page analysis of what we know about the early history of Chess (more)
• Sten Helmfrid on Tafl Games -- Nominally focused on Hnefetafl, but really a fine, deeply detailed overview of the entire family. (more)
• On the Origin and Diffusion of European Ball Games, a Linguistic Analysis -- An academic paper on where the games came from (more)
• Mancala on Traditional Games -- An overview, describing the variety of the games. (more)
• Hazard - History of the Game and How to Play -- (YouTube video, 17 minutes) (more)
• A brief history of the Tarot -- (more)
• History of Games Timeline -- A partial but useful timeline of a number of games, from Rose and Pentagram. (more)
• Merels at the Museum of Games -- (more)
• Parlett on Karnoeffel -- (more)
• Sonja Musser Golladay's Dissertation on the Alfonso MS (PDF) -- A PDF copy of the full, 1400-page tome about the Alfonso. This is the single most important source when working on this MS, including a full translation, lots of notes and reconstruction details, information about the culture and context, and so on. (more)
• Discussion on The History of Chess -- (more)
• Gwyddbwyll reconstruction from Y Camamseriad -- A nicely detailed article on the Gwyddbwyll and Towlbrwdd, which may or may not be the same game. (more)
• The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia -- A longish and very scholarly essay, adducing lots of evidence for early forms of the games in Persia, and discussing what we know about them in Persian society. (more)
• The Viking Answer Lady on Tafl Games -- A lovely, detailed article on the Tafl family in general, outlining the major variants. (more)
• Imran Ghory's Listing of Tables in English Literature -- Via the Wayback Machine. A useful chronology of pre-20th century references to Tables Games, likely useful for research. (more)
• Billiards on Traditional Games -- A quick but good overview of the evolution of this family of games. (more)
• A court case, described on ORB -- Involves a fixes quek board, which is a clever twist. (more)
• Trionfi -- A substantial website dedicated entirely to the history of Tarot. Well worth digging into if you are interested in the early history of the decks. (more)
• Chronology of Backgammon and Tables in England -- Via the Wayback Machine. A summary of some major references to Tables in English literature. (more)
• Pall Mall at Traditional Games -- A good look at the known history of the game, during and after period. (more)
• The History of Bocce -- A concise one-pager outlining some of the history we know about. (more)
• Ringing the Bull at Traditional Games -- (more)
• The Origins of Backgammon -- A very neat page, citing several solidly medieval sources. (more)
• A History of Cribbage -- By James Masters, on the Traditional Games page (more)
• Shove Ha'penny at Traditional Games -- Has some nice pictures of boards, and an extensive Glossary. (more)
• Sonja Musser Golladay's dissertation on the Alfonso MS (hardcopy) -- This link is a search into University Microfilms' dissertation service. Golladay's dissertation is the masterwork on the Alfonso MS, including a full translation, copious notes and reconstruction details, and all sorts of information about the art and culture surrounding the book. It is a must-have for anyone researching this text. (more)
• Traditional Game Rules -- James Masters' site, some of which is indexed by game here. Some of this is period, but not all. (more)
• Stoolball at Traditional Games -- (more)
• Fithcheall and Gwyddbwyll: Hnefatafl or Not? -- An interesting little article, summarizing the open question of whether these games were actually in the Tafl family (as is often assumed). (more)
• A Pictish Origin for Hnefetafl? -- Speculations about the possible origins of the game. (more)
• The Old Texts -- A deeply detailed chronology of the known Chess sources. Note that this runs five pages -- don't miss the navigation bar at the end! Nicely color-codes the sources (Indian, Chinese and European) so you can keep track of these highly parallel histories. (more)
• Rounders at Traditional Games -- (more)
• Abbas Agraphicus -- The Hnefatafl-focused blog of Alessandro Arzani (more)
• The Game Cabinet on Tafl Games -- An overview of the family, including some of the more distant cousins, Seega and Latrunculi. (more)
• A brief history of playing cards -- By Thierry Depaulis. (In French) (more)
• Rithmomachia, the Great Medieval Number Game -- Article published April 1911 in The American Mathematical Monthly. (8 pages) (more)
• Wareham Forge on Hnefetafl -- Includes a bunch of links. (more)
• Hickock Sports on Curling -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
• Chess History and Reminiscences -- A 19th century book on Chess, by HE Bird, transcribed by Project Gutenberg. (more)
• Discussion on the History of Chess page -- Makes the point that we are working from very thin information here. (more)
• Tennis at Traditional Games -- (more)
• Skittles on Traditional Games -- Gives a good deal of history, and information about regional variations in Britain. (more)
• History of Bocce at bocce.org -- Via the Wayback Machine. (more)
• Medieval European Chess at The History of Chess -- A very good, not-too-long description of core SCA-period chess. (more)
• The Asia Society on Backgammon in Persia and China -- (more)
• Parlett on Maw -- (more)
• New York Magazine, 9 Oct 72 -- Has a small ad for Tablero de Jesus for sale, on page 89. (more)
• Dagonell on Gameball -- (more)
• A Family Tree of Card Games -- A lovely infographic, showing many different games and roughly how they are connected. (more)
• Parlett on Reversis -- (more)
• Fox and Geese - How to Play and History of the Game -- (YouTube video, 15 minutes) (more)
• Damian Walker's Hnefetafl Site -- A large and deep site on All Things Hnefetafl, and really, on the Tafl family in general. Especially strong sections on Archaeological Finds, Literary Sources, and stuff like that. (more)
• The Wikipedia page on Harpastum -- (more)
• Description at The History of Chess -- (more)
• Jean-Louis Cazaux' speculations about Ashtapada -- This page has an in-depth discussion about why the author disagrees with HJR Murray's reconstruction, and provides his own best guess about how the game way played. (more)
• Imran Ghory's notes on the History of Backgammon -- Via the Wayback Machine (more)
• Description at The History of Chess -- (more)
• Cricket on Traditional Games -- (more)
• Susan Granquist's page on Tafl -- A relatively brief description. (more)
• New Thoughts on Dominoes -- A brief page citing some evidence that dominoes may have been known in England as early as the time of Henry VIII. (But see notes below.) (more)
• James Masters' page about the Alquerques Family -- This talks briefly about Alquerques, as well as related games such as Fanarona and Draughts. (more)
• Parlett on Piquet -- Goes into quite a bit of history, since this period game has more or less survived down the centuries; does not actually give the detailed rules. (more)
• Parlett on Ombre -- (more)
• A bit on the history of Courier Chess from The Chess Collector -- (more)
• New York Magazine, 20 Dec 71 -- In "Best Bits" on page 89, has a small segment specifically calling out Tablero as a modern invention. (more)
• Wikipedia on Curling -- (more)
• Parlett on Costly Colors -- Goes into some detail about what little we know about the game (more)
• History of Bowls at Traditional Games -- Much of this is post-period, but it's useful to understand how the family is related. (more)
• Board Game Studies -- The main journal of board games research, recently (2014) rebooted as an online journal. Currently run by Ludus, a Portugese games organization. Not exclusively historical or SCA-period, but has enough relevant material to be worth keeping an eye on.

• Fidchell in Dreoilin's Weblog -- A discussion of the game of Fidchell, plus a lot of cultural background. (more)
• The Beginnings of Chess -- An in-depth academic paper analyzing the sources, with an eye towards figuring out where Chess came from. (more)