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Luis Ramírez de Lucena
~1472/1477 - ~1530
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by Daniele Ciani
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 Luis Ramírez de Lucena, giocatore e teorico spagnolo, visse a cavallo tra il XV e il XVI secolo; č l'autore del primo libro stampato, ancora esistente, degli scacchi moderni. (1).
Di lui ci sono giunte poche notizie: figlio di Juan Ramirez de Lucena (2), ambasciatore dei Re Cattolici di Spagna, originario del regno di Aragona, viaggiň nella penisola iberica, in Italia e in Francia al seguito del padre nelle sue missioni diplomatiche.
Il suo incunabolo (3), che ha per titolo "Repetición de Amores e Arte de Axedrex con CL iuegos de partido" (4), fu pubblicato a Salamanca, nel periodo in cui l'autore era studente universitario, approssimativamente intorno all'anno 1497. Il trattato contiene l'analisi di undici aperture, fra le quali l'apertura Francese e la Scandinava, ed č scritto nel periodo in cui le regole non erano ancora definitivamente codificate in quelle attuali (5) per cui, delle 150 posizioni (6) talune sono del vecchio gioco, altre nel nuovo o, come egli stesso definisce, "de la dama". Diversi studiosi ritengono che Lucena possa essere stato l'autore anche del famoso manoscritto di Gottinga. (7)
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- Il trattato di Francesc Vicent, pubblicato a Valencia il 15 maggio 1495, č probabilmente antecedente al libro di Lucena ma di esso vi č notizia solo attraverso la testimonianza di antichi bibliofili poiché il testo non ci č mai pervenuto. -
"Libre dels Jochs partitis del Schachs en nombre de 100; ordenat e compost per mi Francesch Vicent nat. en. la ciutat de Segorb e criat de la insigne e valerosa ciutat de Valencia." - Valencia; estampat per mans de Lope de Roca Alemany e Pere Trinchet librere a XV de May, del any M.CCCCLXXXXV. (1495). 4to.
L'ultimo esemplare conosciuto era conservato nella biblioteca del monastero benedettino di Monserrant. Del prezioso libro si sono perse le tracce durante l'invasione napoleonica del 1811. Le truppe francesi, che si erano trincerate presso Monserrant, utilizzarono purtroppo i manoscritti, le pergamene e libri antichi della biblioteca nella costruzione di cartucce per i propri fucili.
- I Lucena erano una delle grandi famiglie di judos conversos o cristianos nuevos (nuovi cristiani ovvero convertiti con la forza). Il nome stesso dell'omonima cittŕ dell' Andalusia deriva dal termine ebraico Eli hosanna ossia Dio salvaci. Questa cittŕ, tra il secolo IX e XII, era abitata esclusivamente da ebrei. All'inizio del XIV secolo fu presa dai Mori.
Con il nome di "Cristianos nuevos" (detti anche in termine spregiativo Marranos), erano chiamati in Spagna quanti erano stati costretti a convertirsi al cristianesimo da altre religioni (nella stragrande maggioranza Islam ed Ebraismo) e i loro discendenti. Questi, inizialmente tollerati, vennero perseguiti dall'Inquisizione (Ferdinando e Isabella d'Aragona affidarono a Tomás de Torquemada nel 1481 il compito di trovare e punire i conversi. A questa repressione la famiglia dei Lucena non fu estranea tanto che il fratello di Juan fu incarcerato. Il 31 marzo 1492 Ferdinando emanň l'editto di espulsione degli ebrei dichiarando che "todos los jodios y judias grandes y pequenyos" dovessero abbandonare i suoi regni.
Questo tragico grande esodo (oltre 200.000 persone) favorě il rapido diffondersi, in tutta Europa, delle nuove regole scacchistiche dal momento che i mussulmani e gli ebrei erano tra i maggiori cultori del gioco del tempo.
- Con il termine incunabolo (o incunabulo) si definisce convenzionalmente un documento stampato con la tecnologia dei caratteri mobili e realizzato tra la metŕ del XV secolo e l'anno 1500 incluso. A volte č detto anche quattrocentina.
- Il Libro č stato dedicato al figlio del Re Ferdinando di Aragona, il principe Don Juan, deceduto nel 1497. Il titolo completo della parte scacchistica dell'incunabolo č: Arte breue, e introduccion muy necessaria para saber jugar al axedres con ciento y cinquanta juegos de partido. Intitulada al Serenissimo e muy esclarecido don Johan el tercero principe delas Spańas por Lucena hijo del muy sapientissimo doctor e reuerendo prothonotario don Johan Remirez de Lucena embaxador y del co(n)sejo de los reyes nuestros senores studiando en el pleclarissimo studio de la muy noble cibdad de Salamanca.
Nel Nuovo manuale illustrato del giuoco degli scacchi di Jules Arnous de Rivičre e Duncan Forbes (Trieste - 1861) leggiamo: "Quest' opera č rara oltremodo e non fu tradotta; in essa contengonsi specialmente dei bellissimi finali di partite: fra le massime date da Lucena, se ne trovano di assai piacevoli: per esempio, ei vi dice: "Se giuocate di sera, al lume di una sola candela, ponete questa dalla parte sinistra, perché il vostro colpo d'occhio sarŕ meno offeso; di giorno poi, collocate l'avversario dirimpetto la luce, il che vi tornerŕ di assai vantaggio, ecc. ecc." Un fatto curioso che ha rapporto con l'opera di Lucena si č che, per la prima volta troviamo nč suoi studi il cammino dei pezzi quale si č ai nostri tempi, salvo alcune insignificanti differenze. Ciň accresce di molto il valore del vecchio trattato, perché in tutti i manoscritti che lo producono s' incontra invariabilmente le leggi e i movimenti del giuoco orientale lo Shatrany, sul quale il signor D. Forbes ha date le piů complete delucidazioni: da ciň si puň conchiudere che i cangiamenti operatisi nel cammino della Regina e dell'Alfiere ebbero origine in Ispagna".
- Le regole antiche si differenziavano dalle attuali particolarmente nel movimento dell'Alfiere e della Regina, come si evince anche nella nota precedente. In particolare, al posto della Regina, esisteva un altro pezzo denominato Alferza (il nome deriva dall'arabo-ispanico Alfarza, firzan in arabo classico che a sua volta deriva dal persiano farzin, "guardiano"). L'Alferza era posto accanto al Re ed era l'equivalente di un Visir o di un Consigliere. Il suo raggio di azione era molto limitato rispetto a quello della Regina attuale, potendo infatti muoversi solamente in diagonale e per una casa alla volta, sia avanti che indietro. Nell'ultimo quarto del secolo XV, nel levante Spagnolo, l'Alferza fu sostituito da un pezzo molto piů forte ed agile, la Dama o Regina, probabilmente ad imitazione della poderosa monarca Isabella di Castiglia. Queste modifiche rivoluzionarono il gioco e lo resero molto piů flessibile e attraente. Le nuove regole si estesero nel rinascimento in tutta Europa; anche nel De Ludo Scachorum di Luca Pacioli, recentemente ritrovato nella biblioteca Coronini Cronberg di Gorizia, sono contenuti partiti giocati alla maniera medievale ed altri definiti a la Rabiosa, ossia giocati con la nuova tecnica.
- Sull'originalitŕ delle posizioni analizzate da Lucena riportiamo uno stralcio dell'articolo apparso sul "The Chess player's chronicle" del 1845: That Lucena was really and truly himself the creator and inventor of this collection of splendid Chess Problems, we say is not satisfactorily proved. We hold it to be mure probable that he gleaned them from existing manuscript materials, as authors have at times got together collections of proverbs, apothegms and fables; the produce of the learned and wise throughout anterior years. We read that a work existed in Spain, printed at Valencia by Vicent, in 1495; consisting of one hundred "Jochs partitis del Schachs." We have never had the good fortune to see this book, nor have we ever heard of any person who had succeeded in disinterring a copy; but it is not improbable that both Vicent and Lucena were merely the recorders of the riddles and "dark-sayiugs" of earlier Chess-players. And we must not be too severe upon Damiano for not quoting the name of Lucena, since it must be admitted the former only directly claims to have acted as "revisor" and "corrector;" and may have well-known that the authorship of the positions could not have been exactly and satisfactorily traced home to any one individual.
Anche Charles Tomlinson nel suo libro del 1845 scrive: It is probable that neither of these writers (Vicent, Lucena e Damiano) ever claimed the invention of the problems which they published, but merely gave them to the world as a collection of the best problems then extant.
- Redatto in latino e costituito da 33 fogli č conservato presso l'Universitŕ di Gottinga. Il manoscritto tratta esclusivamente del gioco moderno e non fa menzione delle regole antiche. L'autore e la data precisa di pubblicazione sono sconosciute ma alcune somiglianze con la Repeticion de Amores e Arte de Axedres di Lucena fanno supporre che sia stato scritto dallo stesso Lucena. Nella Encyclopaedia Britannica del 1833 si scriveva:
In 1490 we have Die Gottinger Handschrift, a work containing nine different openings and fifty problems. The author of this manuscript is not known. It is supposed that both he and Lucena were indebted to an earlier source, now unknown. Then comes Vicent, a Spanish writer, whose book bears date 1495. This is pretty well all we know about him, for only the title page has been preserved, the rest of the work having been lost in the first Carlist war, forty years ago. Of Lucena, another Spanish author who wrote in or about 1497, we are better informed. His treatise (Repeticiónda Amores y Arte de Axedres) comprises varions practical chess matters, including 160 positions, illustrated by 160 well executed wood-cuts. Various of those positions are identical with those in Die Gottinger Handschrift. Damiano's work is an unacknowledged reproduction of Lucena's
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Fonti Storiche
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William Lewis
"Letters on chess"
London 1848
The title of Lucena's work is "Repeticion de amores e arte de axedres con CL juegos de partido." The first part, on love, occupies 67 pages; then commences the Treatise on Chess, dedicated to John III. King of Spain by Lucena, son of the very learned Doctor and reverend Prothonotary Don Johan Remirez De Lucena, studying in the University of Salamanca; this part contains 170 pages. The volume is a quarto, or perhaps in those days was called a small folio; there is no date to the work, but it is supposed to have been printed about the year 1495; a copy is very rarely met with, it being one of the scarcest works on chess.
Lucena begins with openings of games, and concludes with about 150 positions or ends of games, on diagrams apparently printed from wood blocks; most of them are troublesome to make out.
He begins by teaching you how to place the pieces, and then describes the moves. It appears that in his day a Pawn might take en passant, as is now the law in most parts of Europe, and that when it reached the last line it assumed at once all the powers of a Queen; this proves that the modern practice of allowing a plurality of Queens is no innovation, as some have supposed. Lucena next proceeds to give some rules and maxims in playing, some of which are amusing; for example, " if you play in the evening with one candle only, place it on your left hand, because it does not then so much disturb the sight;" by daylight, place your adversary opposite the light, this being a great advantage to you. &c. &c.
The first game is that commonly known by the name of Damiano's Gomito (which might with more propriety be called Lucena's, though probably he was not the inventor); ...
The chief merit of Lucena's work consists more in the ends of games than in the beginnings. Of the former he has about 150, from which the greater part, if not the whole, of the 88 given by Damiano have been taken. It is very probable that Lucena copied many of his from Vicent's work, the rarest of all the printed books on Chess, and probably the first Chess book that ever was printed. I have not been so fortunate as to meet with a copy, nor do I know any one who has. The title runs thus in the Catalan language:- " Libre dels jochs partitis del seachs en nombre de 100, per Francesch Vicent. En Valencia, Lope de Boca, 1495. "It concludes with the following :- "A loor e gloria de nostre Redemtor Jesu Christ, fonc acabat lo dit libre que ha nom libre dels Jochs partitis dels seachs en la insigne ciutat de Valencia e estampat per mans de Lope de Eoca, Alemany, e Pere trinchet librere a XV dias de May, del any MCCCCLXXXXV."
Many of Lucena's positions are very ingenious; the best of them have been published by subsequent writers, but the work itself has never been translated into any other language, at least to my
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Hovard Staunton
"The Chess player's chronicle"
London 1852
... The honour of being the first practical writer upon Chess is generally given to Vicent, of Valencia, in Spain. His work was printed at Valencia, A.D. 1495. Of the merits of this treatise we cannot speak; we can but echo the words of Vogt: "We have not been so fortunate as to meet with a copy, nor do we know any one who has." It is suspected by many writers that his work may have given considerable assistance to his better-known countryman, Lucena. We are not disposed to agree with this opinion, for the following reasons:- Lucena's work was published without any date or place being named, but by the universal voice of tradition has been assigned to no year later than 1495, the very year in which Vicent's treatise was printed. The dedication to Lucena's work states it to be written by Lucena, son of the very learned Doctor and Reverend Prothonotory, Don Johan Remirez de Lucena, studying in the university of Salamanca. From such a dedication in that age we may infer that it was printed at Salamanca; Vicent's treatise appeared at Valencia. Now, although the crowns of Arragon and Castile were united in 1469 under Ferdinand and Isabella, so great was the jealousy that subsisted between the two kingdoms for many years, that it is very improbable that a student of the University of Salamanca, a town of Leon, one of the most distant provinces of the kingdom of Castile, should have been acquainted with and based his work on a treatise published on the 15th of May, in the same year, by an inhabitant of Valencia, a city in one of the most remote provinces of the Arragonese monarchy. The composition of a book upon Chess with numerous woodcuts would be much too difficult a task, and printing too scarce at that time, to admit of so speedy a reappearance. A curious question arises relative to the sovereign to whom Lucena dedicated his work. Vogt states it to have been dedicated to John, third King of Spain. By a reference to the history of the period we find this to be impossible. John, second King of Castile, the father of Isabella, died in 1454. Upon the deposition of her brother, Henry IV., in 1465, Isabella succeeded to the throne of Castile, united it as an independent kingdom to Arragon in 1469, and continued to reign until the year 1504. Her only son, the Infant John, died before his mother, and as he had no share whatever in the government, he could not with any propriety be called John III. Nevertheless, he is the only person to whom the dedication can have been made. Printing was introduced into Valencia in 1574, and into Salamanca in 1480; consequently, if Lucena wrote his work at any time between 1480 and 1495, which it seems that he must have done, he must have dedicated his work to the Infant of Spain, the son of the reigning sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella. And as in that case he was addressing a young prince, we can better understand the reason why the book in question is of so curiously mixed a nature. The first part treats of Love, the latter of Chess. It is no little proof of the esteem in which Chess was held in Spain at that period, that in twenty-one years from the introduction of printing into the kingdom, two treatises on Chess should have already been given to the public, one in each of its great monarchies. But no legitimate evidence is alleged to prove that either of these works was a copy of the other, nor even, if this were the case, that Lucena's is the copy. We cannot then, in the total absence of proof, consent to place Lucena, the father of European Chess, at the head of the band of plagiarists ...
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Kling and Horwitz
"The Chess player"
London 1852
Abont 1495, appeared the first practically useful treatise. It is the work of a Spaniard, Lacena, and written in Spanish. Lucena prefaces his work, oddly enough, with certain love sonnets, written no doubt to gain the attention of some fair lady. He then proceeds to his subject, giving eighty-seven leaves upon various practical Chess matters, inclnding one hundred and lifty critical positions, or Chess problems. These end games render Lucena's treatise really valuable, they are illustrated by woodcuts, and the whole, as regards paper and print, is said to be a remarkably handsome early specimen. An interesting fact with respect to the work of Lucena is, that his studies are the first in which we find the powers and moves of the pieces the same as they are now, excepting a few minor points. This much enhances the value of the old treatise, as in all the previous manuscripts relating to Chess, we find the pieces invariably moving after the laws and fashion of the East; whence we might suppose that the various Chess pieces assumed their present powers first in Spain. Lucena's fine collection of positions constitute him the first valuable Chess anthor known to us.
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Archeologia Scacchistica 
