Gioachino Greco | Manuscript of Trattato del nobilissimo essercicio de’ Scacchi, 1624, contemporary calf

Gioachino Greco

Trattato del nobilissimo essercicio de’ Scacchi. Nel quale Sicontengono molti et bellissimi tratti e tavera scienza d’esso gioco. Composto da Gioachino Greco Calabrese. Manuscript in Italian and French, comprising prefatory comments, an introduction to the movement of pieces and other rules, and comments on regional variations, followed by an extensive series of instructive sample games and problems, 4to, [6], 244 pages, "Composé a Paris [...] l'an 1624" (p.1), contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt in six compartments, rebacked retaining original spine

Gioachino Greco was born around 1600 in Celico near Cosenza in Calabria, presumably of Greek parentage. He began his professional career in Rome and seems to have kept a manuscript record of his games from about 1619. He soon left Rome for France and was in Paris by 1621. The following year he was in England but he returned to Paris from 1624 to 1626, before travelling on to Madrid, where he defeated all opponents at the court of Philip IV. The current manuscript copy of Greco's games seems to be connected to his second sojourn in Paris and was presumably produced for presentation, although it has no named dedicatee. Murray records ten manuscripts connected with this period in Greco's life in his History of Chess (1913), but this manuscript was not known to Murray.

PROVENANCE:

Libraire d'Echecs Julien Guisle, Paris, ink stamp