Conrad (2023 Congress)

Michael Allman Conrad
(Research Group on Manuscript Evidence)

“Gamified Numbers:
Board Games as Educational Instruments
for Teaching Astrology and Other Quadrivial Arts”

Abstract of Paper
presented at the 58th International Congress on Medieval Studies
(Kalamazoo, 2023)

Session on “Moving Parts and Pedagogy, Parts I–II”
Part II:  “Teaching Astrology and other Liberal Arts”

Organized by David Porreca

Co-Sponsored by the RGME and the Societas Magica

2023 Congress Program

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Abstract

To use games and play in medieval education was by no means unusual but a rather common practice. Nicolaus Cusanus (1401–1464) — who in De ludo globi or “The Globe Game” (1463) introduces his own educational, in fact theological, game — once even remarked that every liberal art can be associated with at least one specific game with conceptual similarities, thus hinting at a notion of a double-nature of games constantly oscillating between instruments and pleasurable pastimes. One of the most illustrative and unique examples in this context certainly is rhythmomachy (rhitmomachia or “Battle of Numbers”), an early mathematical board game.

Presumably created in Germany in the 11th century and based on Boethian theories on the mathematical arts, the scholarly board game was still known to scholars of the 17th and 18th centuries, including very illustrious ones such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716). It therefore comes as little surprise that it was associated with the four disciplines of the quadrivium, especially arithmetic, which together provided the interpretational framework for its deeper meaning. Treatises on rhythmomachy were in fact often bound into manuscripts on the mathematical arts.

Collapsing mathematical operations and motions of game pieces, rhythmomachy embodies a deep, intrinsic connection between numbers and gameplay that was already known to antiquity and conveys the cosmological idea of the inseparability of all branches of knowledge within the microcosm of a game. Consequently, the game was perceived as a microscopic mirror of macrocosmic relations.

This holism makes a striking reappearance in other examples, such as the astrological games of Alfonso X of Castile (1221–1284) and their Arabic models, which the paper will also explore in comparison, yet not without pointing out decisive conceptual differences. Such differences stem not least from a changed reevaluation of cosmological principles, determinism, and voluntarism in respect to the human condition in the light of later scholasticism.

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Some Images, courtesy of Michael

I. Specimens of Rhithomacy, Depicted

1. Montpellier

Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section Médecine, Montpellier, H 366, f. 13v, with rhythmomachy pyramids at the top flanking a lion’s mask. Image via Creative Commons, via https://portail.biblissima.fr/fr/ark:/43093/mdata268b7df0d12be6fa155f802fd66b4123b9ddd65a.

2. Close Up, #lionincluded #cutecritter

Two rhythmomachy pyramids with the image of a lion, 14th century, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section Médecine, Montpellier, H 366, f. 13v. Image via Creative Commons, via https://portail.biblissima.fr/fr/ark:/43093/mdata268b7df0d12be6fa155f802fd66b4123b9ddd65a.

Two rhythmomachy pyramids with the image of a lion’s frontal mask, 14th century, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section Médecine, Montpellier, H 366, f. 13v. Image via Creative Commons, via https://portail.biblissima.fr/fr/ark:/43093/mdata268b7df0d12be6fa155f802fd66b4123b9ddd65a.

3. Rhythmachy Simulation (© 2023 Michael A. Conrad) as #boardgame

Rhythmomachy Simulation (Player 1's turn). Image © 2023 Michael A. Conrad.

Rhythmomachy Simulation (Player 1’s turn). Image © 2023 Michael A. Conrad.

II. So-called “Astrological Chess” Depicted, #boardgame and #peopleincluded

The so-called "Astrological Chess" game. Alfonso X, Libro de acedrex. El Escorial, Ms. j.T.6, fol. 96v. Circa 1284. Image via Wikipedia via Creative Commons.

The so-called “Astrological Chess” game. Alfonso X, Libro de acedrex. El Escorial, Ms. j.T.6, fol. 96v. Circa 1284. Image via Wikipedia via Creative Commons.

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Note that Michael will expand upon this subject for Episode 11 of our online series wherein “The Research Group Speaks” to be held online on Saturday 8 July 2023.

Registration via our RGME Eventbrite Collection here: Michael Allman Conrad Speaks on Gamified Numbers.

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Michael has contributed frequently to RGME Sessions at ICMS and our other events, for which we give thanks. For example:

Poster for our Sponsored Session on the " 'Libro de los juegos': Big Results from Small Data", organized by Linde M. Brocato and sponsored by the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 2018 International Congress on Medieval Studies. Poster set in RGME Bembino.

2018 Poster for ‘Libro de los juegos’ Session

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