The Philosophers' Game

Rithmomachia in Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Anne E. Moyer

204 pages, parution le 01/10/2001

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Résumé

An exploration of the history of a mathematical board game played in medieval and Renaissance Europe.

In The Philosophers' Game, Ann E. Moyer invites us to engage with the forgotten chess-like game Rithmomachia ("The Battle of Numbers"), which combined the pleasures of gaming with mathematical study and moral education. Intellectuals of the medieval and Renaissance periods who played this game were not only seeking to master the principles of Boethian mathematics but were striving to improve their own understanding of the secrets of the cosmos.

The Philosophers' Game, which includes a complete, illustrated Elizabethan rulebook, examines the nature and importance of the game's appeal as well as some of the reasons why it faded into obscurity. Rithmomachia enjoyed a last wave of popularity during the Renaissance before the early Scientific Revolution led to its disappearance. The demise of Rithmomachia forms part of the great transformation of fields of learning and the classification of knowledge that marked the final dissolution of the quadrivium among the traditional liberal arts.

The Philosophers' Game will interest anyone who studies the history of science, mathematics, or education in medieval and Renaissance Europe; the intellectual or cultural history of those eras; or the histories of games, sports, and leisure. It will also interest scholars interested in astrology and magic.

Contents

Introduction
From Cathedral School to Univeristy
Games of Philosophers and Astronomers : From the Late Middle Ages to the Renaissance
The Renaissance
Decline and Dsappeareance
The Most Noble, Aucient, and Learned Playe (1563), Ralph Lever and William Fulke
Bibliography
Index

L'auteur - Anne E. Moyer

Ann E. Moyer is Assistant Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The University of Michigan Press
Auteur(s)	Anne E. Moyer
Parution	01/10/2001
Nb. de pages	204
Format	16 x 23,5
Couverture	Relié
Poids	492g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780472112289
ISBN13	978-0-472-11228-9