The Research Group Speaks
Episode 11
Saturday 8 July 2023 online
12:00–1:30 pm EDT (GMT-4) by Zoom

“Gamified Numbers and Digitalized Castles:

Digital Reconstructions of Medieval Board Games
and Other Forms of Data Visualization
as Methods in the Humanities“

Michael Allman Conrad

[Posted on 5 June 2023, with updates]

For Episode 11 in the online series of The Research Group Speaks, our Associate Michael Allman Conrad will talk about his ongoing work on games, board games, and interrelations between gameplay and numbers.

Left: Rhythmomachy Simulation (Player 1’s turn). Image © 2023 Michael A. Conrad.
Right: Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section Médecine, Montpellier, H 366, f. 13v, with rhythmomachy pyramids at the top flanking a lion’s mask. Image via Creative Commons.

Recently, Michael spoke about some aspects of this work for a Session co-sponsored by the Societas Magica and the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence at the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies in May.  See the Program for our activities there (2023 Congress Program) and the illustrated Abstract for Michael’s paper.

In our co-sponsored Session on “Teaching Astrology and Other Liberal Arts”, Michael’s topic was “Gamified Numbers:  Board Games as Educational Instruments for Teaching Astrology and Other Quadrivial Arts”.  In the short time-span permitted by a full Session with four individual presentations, he briefly examined the game of rhythmomachy (rhitmomachia or “Battle of Numbers”), an early mathematical board game, and described his project of studying and preparing a computer simulation for its play.

Now we have the opportunity to hear Michael describe this complicated game, its origins, and its intricate relationship with knowledge of Boethian theories on the mathematical arts. That is, its structure is grounded in the understanding of those arts expounded by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (circa 480 – 524 CE) in his influential manual De Institutione arithmetica Libri duo, based upon his loose translation of the treatise on the subject composed in Greek by the Neopythagorean philosopher Nicomachus of Gerasa (circa 60 – circa 120 CE).

More than that, Michael’s explorations of the game and its underlying theories build a bridge to a more general debate on the use of digital methods in the humanities, which he is also exploring in different ongoing data projects of his, some of which he is also going to introduce briefly in the course of his paper. The discussion will start with reflections on his experiences with using these methods, their requirements, benefits, and downsides.

Please register to attend this online event (see below).

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