GARZON ROGER, José Antonio. En pos del incunable perdido. Francesch Vicent: Llibre dels jochs partitis dels schachs, Valencia, 1495. Valencia: Biblioteca Valenciana, Colección Bibliofilia, 2001.
This study was written by J.A. Garzón and published in 2001; it is a study in Spanish of the first chess incunabulum.
In the mid-13th century the queen did not yet exist in chess. Her square was filled by a piece known as an alferza; this was recorded in a 13th-century codex of Alfonso X the Wise, for example. It was a rather clumsy chessman that was used for defence against the dangerous castles. It only moved one place diagonally and was therefore far removed from the versatility, the dynamism, and the extensive movement of the queen on the board. A queen that was born in Valencia, as has been shown by the research carried out by José Antonio Garzón that he has described in this book.
It was also the time when the geographical limits of the world were expanding. Extensive diagonals were drawn on the boards of the maps of discoveries.
It was in this context that the queen of chess was born as is investigated in this book. Most chess encyclopaedias do not mention the fact that the incunabulum Llibre dels jochs partitis dels schachs, which was written in 1495 by the man from Segorbe Francesch Vicent and published in Valencia, is the earliest printed book in the world on chess. It is the first to include 100 problems of modern chess, naturally with a queen. Some years before the Vicent manual the presence of the queen on the board had already featured in the Scachs d'amor manuscript. Documents prior to or contemporary with the two Valencia works makes no mention of a queen, which proves that the origin of modern chess must be attributed to Valencia in the last third of the 15th century. The first Italian document on modern chess ("Alla rabiosa") dates from the early 16th century. The last known copy was kept at Montserrat Abbey and is believed to have disappeared during the Napoleonic invasion.
The researcher has immersed himself in a fascinating search for the incunabulum. Its quest led him to a well known antique book dealer from Barcelona, who is alleged to have sold the incunabulum to a North American collector in the mid-20th century.
Garzón is untiring in its efforts to recover the work that has intrigued so many bibliographers and chess players. Meanwhile, he has based the whole of his research on the historical documentation referring to Vicent’s book.
(**) A digitalised work that can be accessed by means of the Valencia Digital Library Biblioteca Valenciana Digital, BIVALDI).
The return of Francesch Vicent
