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The Game and Playe of the Chesse: Bibliography

Sources for, and Translations of, the Liber de ludo schachorum


Ambrose, St. De Tobia: A Commentary, with an Introduction and Translation. Ed. and trans. Lois Miles Zucker. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America, 1933.

———. De Officiis. Ed. and trans. Ivor J. Davidson. 2 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Augustine, St. The City of God. Trans. John Healey. 2 vols. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1931.

Ausonius. Ausonius. Ed. and trans. Hugh G. Evelyn White. 2 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1919.

Boethius. The Consolation of Philosophy. Trans. P. G. Walsh. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Brown, Carleton, ed. English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932.

Cato. The Distichs of Cato: A Famous Medieval Textbook. Trans. Wayland Johnson Chase. University of Wisconsin Studies in the Social Sciences and History 7. Madison, 1922.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Riverside Chaucer. Third edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1987.

Cicero. The Academic Questions, Treatise de Finibus, and Tusculan Disputations of M. T. Cicero. Trans. C. D. Yonge. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853.

———. De finibus bonorum et malorum. Ed. and trans. H. Rackham. London: William Heinemann, 1914.

———. De re publica, De legibus. Ed. and trans. Clinton Walker Keyes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928.

———. Pro Milone, In Pisonem, Pro Scauro, Pro Fonteio, Pro Rabirio Postumo, Pro Marcello, Pro Ligario, Pro rege deiotaro. Trans. N. H. Watts. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1953. Rpt. 2000.

———. De officiis. Ed. and trans. Walter Miller. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961.

———. Laelius, On Friendship, and The Dream of Scipio. Ed. and trans. J. G. F. Powell. Warminster: Aris & Phillips, Ltd., 1990.

Claudian. Claudian. Trans. Maurice Platnauer. 2 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1922.

Collet, Alain. Le Jeu des Éschaz Moralisé. Paris: Honoré Champion, 1999.

Curtius, Quintus. Quintus Curtius. Ed. and trans. John C. Rolfe. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1946.

Diogenes Laertius. Lives of Eminent Philosophers. Ed. and trans. R. D. Hicks. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.

Florus, Lucius Annaeus. The Epitome of Roman History. Ed. and trans. Edward Seymour Forster. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984, rpt. 1995.

Gautier de Châtillon. The Alexandreis of Walter of Châtillon. Trans. David Townsend. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.

Gellius, Aulus. The Attic Nights of Aulus Gellius. Ed. and trans. John C. Rolfe. 3 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1927.

Gesta Romanorum. Ed. and trans. Charles Swan. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1924.

Godfrey of Viterbo. Pantheon, sive Memoria Sæculorum. PL 198:871–1044.

Gower, John. Confessio Amantis. Ed. Russell A. Peck. 3 vols. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2002–06.

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun. The Romance of the Rose. Trans. Charles Dahlberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971.

Herodotus. Herodotus. Ed. and trans. J. Enoch Powell. 2. vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949.

Hoefer, Jean Chrétien. Nouvelle biographie universelle. Paris: Firmin Didot Fréres, 1852–66.

Jacobus de Cessolis.“Libellus de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium ac popularium super ludo scachorum.” Ed. Sister Marie Anita Burt. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, 1957.

———. “A Critical Edition of Le Jeu des Eschés, Moralisé Translated by Jehan de Vignay.” Ed. Carol S. Fuller. Ph.D. dissertation, Catholic University of America, 1974.

———. Le Livre du jeu d’échecs, ou la society ideal au Moyen Age, XIIIeme siècle. Ed. and trans. Jean-Michel Mehl. Paris: Editions Stock, 1995.

Jerome, St. Adversus Jovinianum. PL 23:211–338. A good English translation of this text can be found online at: http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-06/Npnf2-06-10.htm#TopOfPage (accessed 8-8-06).

———. On Illustrious Men. Trans. Thomas P. Halton. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1999.

John of Salisbury. The Statesman’s Book. Ed. and trans. John Dickinson. New York: Russell and Russell, 1963.

———. Frivolities of Courtiers and Footprints of Philosophers. Trans. Joseph B. Pike. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1938.

———. Policraticus: Of the Frivolities of Courtiers and the Footprints of Philosophers. Ed. and trans. Cary J. Nederman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Josephus, Flavius. Jewish Antiquities. Ed. and trans. Louis H. Feldman. 9 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1930–65.

Justin. Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus. Trans. J. C. Yardley. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994.

Lewy, Hans. “Josephus the Physician: A Mediaeval Legend of the Destruction of Jerusalem.” Journal of the Warburg Institute 1.3 (1938), 221–42.

Livy. Ab urbe condita. Ed. and trans. B. O. Foster. 14 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922–67.

Lucan. Lucan. Trans. J. D. Duff. London: William Heinemann, 1928.

Macrobius. Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. Trans. William Harris Stahl. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952.

———. The Saturnalia. Trans. Percival Vaughan Davies. New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.

———. The Saturnalia. A good online Latin edition of this text can be found at: http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Macrobius/Saturnalia/home.html (accessed 8-8-06).

Martial. Epigrams. Ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993.

Migne, J. P. Patrologiae cursus completus . . . Series Latina. 221 vols. Paris 1844–82. [I have identified the texts by the author’s name, the abbreviation PL, the volume number, the column number and the location within the column.] Orosius, Paulus. The Seven Books of History against the Pagans. Trans. Roy J. Deferrari. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1964.

Ovid. Metamorphoses. Ed. and trans. Frank Justus Miller. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1916.

———. Tristia, Ex Ponto. Ed. and trans. Arthur Leslie Wheeler. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1924.

———. The Art of Love, and Other Poems. Ed. and trans. J. H. Mozley. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1929.

Paul the Deacon. History of the Langobards. Trans. William Dudley Foulke. Philadelphia: The Depart­ment of History, University of Pennsylvania, 1907.

Plato. Republic. Trans. Raymond Larson. Arlington Heights, IL: AHM Publishing, 1979.

Pliny. Natural History. Ed. and trans. H. Rackham. 10 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1938–63.

Plutarch. Moralia. Ed. and trans. Frank Cole Babbitt. 14 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1927–76.

Quintilian. The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian. Ed. and trans. H. E. Butler. 4 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920–22.

Sallust. Sallust. Ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe. London: William Heinemann, 1931.

Seneca the Elder. Declamations. Ed. and trans. Michael Winterbottom. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1974.

Seneca. Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales. Ed. and trans. Richard M. Gummere. 3 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1917–25.

———. Moral Essays. Ed. and trans. John W. Basore. 3 vols. London: William Heinemann, 1928–35.

The Scholar’s Guide: A Translation of the Twelfth-Century Disciplina Clericalis of Pedro Alfonso. Trans. Joseph Ramon Jones and John Esten Keller. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1969.

Sidrak and Bokkus: A Parallel-text Edition from Bodleian Library, MS Laud Misc. 559 and British Library, MS Lansdowne 793. Ed. T. L. Burton. EETS o.s. 311–12. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998–99.

Siege of Jerusalem. Ed. Michael Livingston. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 2004.

Stoneman, Richard, ed. and trans. Legends of Alexander the Great. London: J. M. Dent, 1994.

Suetonius. Suetonius. Ed. and trans. J. C. Rolfe. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913–14.

Syrus, Publilius. Sententiae [Sayings]. The Latin Library: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/syrus.html (accessed 8-10-06).

Tacitus. The Complete Works of Tacitus. Trans. Alfred John Church and William Jackson Brodribb. New York: Modern Library, 1942.

Tibullus, Albius. “Tibullus.” In Catullus, Tibullus, and Pervigilium Veneris. Ed. J. P. Postgate. London: William Heinemann, 1913. Pp. 185–339.

Valerius Maximus. Memorable Doings and Sayings. Ed. and trans. D. R. Shackleton Bailey. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Varro, Marcus. Saturarum Menippearum reliquiae. Ed. Alexander Riese. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1865.

Vincent of Beauvais. Speculum quadruplex; sive, Speculum maius: naturale, doctrinale, morale, historiale. Graz: Akademische Druck-u. Verlaganstalt, 1964–65.

Virgil. Virgil. Ed. and trans. H. Rushton Fairclough. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Whiting, Bartlett Jere, and Helen Wescott Whiting. Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases: From English Writings Mainly before 1500. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1968.


Historical and Cultural Contexts for The Game and Playe


Adams, Jenny. Power Play: The Literature and Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

Antin, David. “Caxton’s The Game and Playe of the Chesse.” Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (1968), 269–78.

Axon, William A. E. See Caxton, Caxton’s Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474.

Batt, Catherine. “Recreation, the Exemplary and the Body in Caxton’s Game and Playe of the Chesse.” Ludica 2 (1996), 27–44.

Blades, William. The Life and Typography of William Caxton, England’s First Printer, with Evidence of His Typographical Connection with Colard Mansion, the Printer at Bruges. 2 vols. London: J. Lilly, 1861–63. Rpt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1966.

Blake, N. F. Caxton and His World. London: Andre Deutsch, 1969.

———. Caxton: England’s First Publisher. London: Osprey, 1976.

———. “Continuity and Change in Caxton’s Prologues and Epilogues: The Bruges Period.” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch (1979), 72–77.

———. William Caxton: A Bibliographical Guide. New York: Garland, 1985.

———. William Caxton and English Literary Culture. London: Hambledon Press, 1991.

Carlson, David R. “A Theory of the Early English Printing Firm: Jobbing, Book Publishing, and the Problem of Productive Capacity in Caxton’s Work.” In Caxton’s Trace: Studies in the History of English Printing. Ed. William Kuskin. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006. Pp. 35–68.

Caxton, William. Raoul Lefèvre’s The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye. Ed. H. Oskar Sommer. 2 vols. London: David Nutt, 1894.

———. The Game of the Chesse by William Caxton. Ed. Vincent Figgins. London: John Russell Smith, 1860.

———. Caxton’s Game and Playe of the Chesse, 1474. Ed. William E. A. Axon. London: Elliot Stock, 1883. (Available online at: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/6/7/10672/10672-h/10672-h.htm)

———. Jacobus de Cessolis, The Game of Chess: Translated and Printed by William Caxton, c. 1483. Ed. N. F. Blake. London: The Scholar Press, 1976.

Cooper, Lisa. Crafting Narratives: Artisans, Authors, and the Literary Artifact in Late Medieval England. Unpublished monograph.

Desmond, Marilynn. Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994.

Driver, Martha W. The Image in Print: Book Illustration in Late Medieval England and Its Sources. London: British Library, 2004.

Du Boulay, F. R. H. “The Quarrel between the Carmelite Friars and the Secular Clergy of London, 1464–1468.” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 6 (1955), 156–74.

Epstein, Steven A. Genoa and the Genoese, 958–1528. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Gill, Louise. “William Caxton and the Rebellion of 1483.” English Historical Review 112 (1997), 105–18.

Green, Richard Firth. A Crisis of Truth: Literature and Law in Ricardian England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.

Harriss, Gerald L. “Political Society and the Growth of Government in Late Medieval England.” Past and Present 138 (1993), 28–57.

Jotischky, Andrew. The Carmelites and Antiquity: Mendicants and Their Pasts in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Kaeppeli, Thomas. “Pour la biographie de Jacques de Cessole.” Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 30 (1960), 149–62.

Knowles, Christine. “Caxton and His Two French Sources: The ‘Game and Playe of the Chesse’ and the Composite Manuscripts of the Two French Translations of the ‘Ludus Scaccorum.’” Modern Language Review 49.4 (1954), 417–23.

Kolata, Judith. “Livre des Echecs Moralisés.” Master’s thesis, University of Chicago, 1987.

Kuskin, William. “Caxton’s Worthies Series: The Production of Literary Culture.” ELH 66 (1999), 511–51.

Mizobata, Kiyokazu. “Caxton’s Revisions: The Game of Chess, the Mirror of the World, and Reynard the Fox.” In Arthurian and Other Studies Presented to Shunichi Noguchi. Ed. Takashi Suzuki and Tsuyoshi Mukai. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 1993. Pp. 257–62. Murray, H. J. R. A History of Chess. Oxford: Clarendon, 1913.

Painter, George D. William Caxton: A Biography. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977.

Poole, William. “False Play: Shakespeare and Chess.” Shakespeare Quarterly 55 (2004), 50–70.

Rutter, Russell. “William Caxton and Literary Patronage.” Studies in Philology 84 (1987), 440–70.

Wilson, Robert H. “Caxton’s Chess Book.” Modern Language Notes 62 (1947), 93–102.

Wiseman, D. J. Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. Schweich Lectures of the British Academy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.