Nothing has yet been said as to the place of this book in the history of chess, and, indeed, it must be confessed that it has very little practical bearing on the game. The learned dreams by which the chess of to-day was connected with the latrunculi and with the amusement said to have been invented by Palamedes, have been dissipated by the cool air of modern criticism. The student of the history of chess may now follow its fortunes under the safe guidance of Dr. van der Linde, who rejects unhesitatingly the claim made for it, and admitted even by Forbes, of an antiquity of 5,000 years.[41] The game of chess, which, whilst remaining an amusement, has acquired the dignity of a science, is one that Europe owes to India, where it was probably invented not earlier than five centuries before Christ; the triumphant progress of Islam aided in the extension of this oriental pastime. It was known at the courts of Nicephorus at Conftantinople and his contemporary Haroun-al-Rashid at Bagdad. One would like to add that Charlemagne also was acquainted with it, but there is no good evidence for that legend. It was known in Spain in the tenth century, since the library of the learned caliph Hakam II. of Cordova contained some Arabic MSS. on the game. By the middle of the eleventh century it was common in the western world. In 1061 a Florentine bishop is said to have been ordered by Cardinal Damiani to expiate the offence of playing chess in public by three recitations of the Psalter, by washing the feet of twelve poor persons, and by giving them liberal alms. The gradual developments of the game in Europe are illustrated in detail by Dr. van der Linde. Chess in its prefent form is comparatively modern, and refults from the enlargement of the powers of the Queen (originally the Vizier or minister) and of the Bishop (formerly the Alfil or Elephant). The greater powers of these pieces came into play between 1450 and 1500, but the period of transition was prolonged to a much later date in some cafes, and the Portuguese Damiano may be regarded as the founder of the modern school. The player of to-day on consulting the elementary directions given in this book (p. 159, et seq.), will see how greatly the present play exceeds in complexity and scientific interest the moves that excited the enthusiasm of Jacobus de Cessoles, and led him to the composition of the book of the chess which has had such long and widespread popularity.
Incidentally his book is a monument in the history of chess, but it was never intended to make its primary object that of teaching the game. The author's aim was almost exclusively ethical. It was to win men to a sober life and to the due performance of individual and social duties, that the preacher exhausted his stores of learning, and invoked alike the reproofs of the fathers of the Church, the history and legend of chroniclers, pagan and Christian, and the words of prophets and poets. As a memorial of the literature and learning of the middle ages, it must always possess a permanent value. From it we may learn, and always with interest, what was the literary taste and social ideal of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. There is, doubtless, ample room for dissatisfaction with that ideal, but it is not without some bright aspects. Possibly there are modern realms that are not any happier now than they would be if governed in strict accordance with the rules laid down by the earnest author of the game and play of the chess.
It only remains for the editor to thank the friends who have interested themselves in his work. Mr. J.E. Bailey, F.S.A., has shown his usual scholarly courtesy and liberality in the communication of books and references. To Mr. R.C. Christie, the Chancellor of the Diocese of Manchester, a similar acknowledgment is due. Mr. C.W. Sutton, and Mr. W.R. Credland, of the Manchester Free Library, on this, as on many other occasions, have not only given the editor many facilities for his work, but some suggestions by which he trusts he has profited. The index is chiefly the work of the editor's eldest daughter.
