(CHESS)

n.p

Oxford

1694

HYDE, THOMAS. Mandragorias seu Historia Shahiludii…De Ludis Orientalium [The history of the game of Chess]. In three parts. Part I: Libri primi pars prima quæ est Latina [chess in the Arab, Persian, Indian and Chinese tradition]. Part II: Libri primi pars 2da quæ Hebraica [chess in the Hebrew tradition]. Part III: Historiam Reliquorum Luorum Orientis [chess in the Oriental tradition]

THE FIRST EDITION OF TWO HEBREW WORKS ON THE GAME OF CHESS. The allegorical poem attributed to Abraham ibn Ezra and the annonymous prose work entitled Ma’adanei Melech (“The Kings Delight”) are two of the earliest works of Hebrew chess literature. Although the metrical and verbal skill of the poem suggest that ibn Ezra was the author, the difficulty in ascribing it to him, is the reference to the double-pawn move. With another Hebrew work on chess, a rhymed prose “Elegant Address,” by Bonsenior ibn Yechia, which first appeared as an addenda to the Mantua 1557 edition of Berachiah Ha’Nakdan’s Mishlei Shu’alim. For a detailed examination of ibn Ezra’s poem, ibn Yechia’s “Elegant Address” and the anonymous prose work Ma’adanei Melech, see V. Keats, Chess Among the Jews (London, 1995, unpublished)