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Jacopo da Cessole (Jacobus de Cessolis)
Cessole d'Asti ~1250 - Genova ~1322
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by Daniele Ciani
(Translated by Alexis Jade Ciani)
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Jacopo da Cessole (Jacobus de Cessolis) was an Italian monk (1) from the Dominican brotherhood. He lived between the XIII and the XIV century. He was born in Cessole d'Asti around 1250 and died in Genoa around 1322.
We don't know much about his personal life. He lived in Lombardy and after in Genoa in San Domenico's convent (2) as the Inquisition's Vicar (3).
He wrote one of the first books on the game of chess in Latin: "De ludo scacchorum or de moribus hominum et de officiis nobilium super ludo scacchorum". The book had great diffusion and during the XV century it was translated in many other languages (5): Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.
De Ludo Scacchorum: 1300 ca.
He was a theolog and a tireless orator; he used the game of chess for a series of sermons on mortality. Through an allegory on the game itself and its pieces, he used an impersonal but wise didactic system like the Greek "fabulists". This book taught how the folks didn't have just obligations to the reach people but also rights.
The Liber was very much important for the diffusion of the game also if it was poor in technical contents.
His work is divided in four main books:
Trattato I: "Della cagione del trovamento di questo gioco"
Trattato II: "Delle forme degli Scacchi nobili"
Trattato III: "Delle forme degli Scacchi popolari"
Trattato IV: "Del movimento e dell'andare degli Scacchi"
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- Fonts: Thomas Kaeppeli - "Pour la biographie de Jacques de Cessole" in Archivum fratrum praedicatorum vol. 30 (1960) pp. 149-162 - published some historical documents which proved that the priest was born in Piemonte, in a village called Cessole d'Asti and that he was alive between 1317 and 1322. Other fonts stated his origin in Tiriache, in the diocese of Reims in Piccardia.
- San Domenico's convent in Genoa was a very important source of production of religious-popular literature. This allowed a great diffusion of his work both in Latin and vernacular.
- The office of "Inquisition's Vicar" was usually given to a priest from the order of the Mendicants, often to a Dominican or Franciscan.
- Quetif said that no other book from those centuries obtained more fame than this one.
- Was translated in French from Giovanni Duvignay, Priest Ospitaliero of S. Jacopo d'Altopascio in 1330 and from Monk Giovanni Ferron in 1347; then in Italian on the 1st of March 1493 "for Master Antonio Miscomini". The first printed edition of the book was from Utrecht during 1473. The following year the "De Ludo" was translated in English from William Caxton with the title: "The Game and Playe of the Chesse", which was the second book ever printed in Great Britain.
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Historical Sources
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Chess Archeology 
