Power Play: The Literature and Politics of Chess in the Late Middle Ages

by Jenny Adams and Jenny Adams

The game of chess reached western Europe by the year 1000, and within several generations it had become one of the most popular pastimes ever. Both men and women, and even priests played the game despite the Catholic Church's repeated prohibitions. Characters in countless romances, chansons de geste, and moral tales of the eleventh through twelfth centuries also played chess, which often symbolized romantic attraction or sexual consummation...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 081223944X
• ISBN13: 9780812239447
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 9.2"