Versus de scachis

Versus de scachis

Versus de scachis is early European poem of 98 lines on chess.

A copy of the poem in manuscript 319 at Stiftsbibliothek Einsiedeln has been given the estimated date of 997 CE. If this date is accurate it makes the work the earliest known reference to chess in a Europe.

References

HJR Murray, A History of Chess, (Oxford University Press)

Helena M. Gamer, The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses, Speculum, Vol. 29, No. 4. (October 1954), pp. 734-750.