HYDE, THOMAS. Shahiludium…De Ludis Orientalium [The History of the Game of Chess]. Part I: Chess in the Arab, Persian, Indian and Chinese traditions. Part II: Historiæ Shahiludii Pars IIda, quæ est Hebraica [Chess in the Hebrew Tradition]

(CHESS)

n.p

Oxford

1694

FIRST LATIN EDITION. First part Latin with interspersions of Arabic, Greek, Sanskrit, and Chinese; second part Hebrew and Latin translation face-`a-face. Divisional title. Engraved illustrations of chess pieces and two folding plates illustrating chess boards; on p.107 image of giraffe.

Vinograd, Oxford 5; Steinschneider 3858

THE FIRST EDITION OF TWO HEBREW WORKS ON THE GAME OF CHESS. The allegorical poem attributed to Abraham ibn Ezra and the anonymous prose work entitled Ma’adanei Melech (“The King's Delight”) are two of the earliest works of Hebrew chess literature. Although the metrical and verbal skill of the poem suggests 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 HaNakdan’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“Elegant Address” and the anonymous prose work Ma’adanei Melech, see V. Keats, Chess Among the Jews (London, 1995, unpublished)