Od hazardu do alegorii Mądrości Bożej. Gra w kości w łacińskich tekstach z XVI i XVII wieku
From Gambling to the Allegory of Divine Wisdom: The Game of Dice in Latin Texts from the 16th and 17th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: The topic of the game of dice is vividly present in ancient culture. Based on numerous references in literary works and iconography, researchers are trying to reconstruct the rules of the game. However, the aim of this article is to examine the form and content of Neo-Latin texts on the games with animal bones. In the 16th and 17th centuries, authors of philosophical and moral treatises, as well as mathematicians wrote on this topic All these writers reached for ancient literature, although they used it in different ways, according to the purpose they had in mind. The outstanding humanists Niccolò Leonico Tomeo and Erasmus of Rotterdam used the same literary form, namely dialogue, but they implemented it in slightly different ways. For Leonico Tomeo, the philosophical interpretation is the most important, while for Erasmus, the philological and moral layer is principal. The great scholar from Rotterdam also included in his dialogue a detailed instruction on playing at knucklebones as gambling. However, this was a special case, because the Latin treatises in which dice were present had primarily a didactic purpose. The most extensive work devoted to the subject of games Palamedes, sive, de tabula lusoria, alea, et variis ludis by Daniel Souterius, who was the opponent of gambling, has a moral message. Remarkably, in the annex, the author included the laws of the Polish king Casimir the Great, prohibiting games of knucklebones. On the other hand, Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski discusses Venus in one of the chapters of the treatise Dii gentium. The starting point for his long considerations was the naming of the luckiest throw in a game of knucklebones after Venus (iactus Veneris). In his allegorical interpretation, Sarbiewski argues that playing using a board, pawns and dice is like the action of Divine Wisdom, and iactus Veneris for everybody is the heavenly homeland. Reading early modern Latin texts allows for a better understanding of the genesis of the astragals and the history of games. The game of dice should therefore be treated not only as entertainment and gambling, but also as a tool of cultural communication rich in symbolism.

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