Playing It by the Book

Playing It by the Book addresses lacunae in existing scholarship by focusing on book game as a physical object – that is, manuscript and printed materials that served themselves as playthings. It explores games and gaming cultures in various social contexts throughout Europe, from Southeast and Central Europe to Scandinavia and from England to Italy and France, thus covering linguistic regions and cultural spheres which no longer correspond to today’s political map. The book games underscore the permeability of political and social boundaries while also attesting to transformations and adaptations in political and cultural sensibilities. Through play, they reinforce various aspects of social discipline and reveal the mentalities that shaped many aspects of life from the beginning of book printing to the 17th century. The volume provides a new framework for investigating games by studying book games through the lens of book history. The essays are also influenced by their authors’ engagement with literary studies, textual research, art history, and the history of philosophy, ideas, and religion. It looks at the culture of early modern games, their printing, and their distribution in a more comprehensive fashion than has previously been attempted. Most importantly, the research material at the core of these essays is the books themselves.