One of the conclusions of the I International Symposium held in Valencia in September 2009 was the need for the promoting of an International Prize to search for the book by Francesch Vicent.

A summary is given below of the Round Table on Chess Bibliophilia and Collecting (24/09/2009) at which the creation of the prize was promoted.  

** The participants in the historic session in Valencia on 25th September 2009 were the Germans Lothar Schmid, Thomas Thomsen, and Ulrich Schädler and the Spaniards José A. Garzón, Josep Alió, and José María Gutiérrez, who backed the idea of the great Russian historian Yuri Averbakh

SUMMARY OF THE ROUND TABLE

Now that nobody in his right mind doubts the importance of Vicent’s incunabulum (the first printed book on chess in the world) and its content (the work that gave modern chess to the world with all its rules), “a physical encounter with the book” is being promoted from Valencia in the knowledge that at least one copy survived into the 20th century.

Rules will be drawn up for the purpose to explain the prize in detail and its amount. This is an old idea that was put to Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo in the late 19th century by the writer Josep Pin i Soler and José Tolosa y Carreras. We believe that if the prize had been offered at the time the copy that was sold in Barcelona in the early 20th century would now be in good hands. However, the possibility of finding this holy grail of Valencian and Spanish culture is still alive today.

In Ruy López, Volume IV, April 1899, pp. 103-105, “Bibliography”, Dr. José Tolosa y Carreras returns to the subject of Vicent’s book:

“This was the last copy to survive (...) the celebrated Menéndez Pelayo recently wrote a letter to Mr. Pin i Soler which reads as follows: “I have never seen Francesch Vicent’s book either nor know of anyone who has been lucky enough to do so”; if such a famous and influential literary figure, the current president of the Archivists and Librarians of Spain ...were to request a prize from the Government so as to reward the lucky person who finds the Vicent treatise, this might have the desired result. The book is of enormous bibliographical interest”.

El Campo magazine, Madrid 16th May 1892.

Dr. Tolosa mentions a letter that Von der Lasa sent him from Wiesbaden on 27th March 1892. He encourages Dr. Tolosa to “render this outstanding service to the literature on the game” and to ask librarians from all over Spain to search for the first printed collection of problems, Francesch Vicent, Valencia 1495; he adds “they may discover it bound together with another book”.

Von der Lasa refers to another letter written to José Brunet so as to pass on his request to the Asociación Excursionista de Catalunya, and tells him “The same thing could happen regarding the Vicent treatise if someone were to search for it diligently”. He speaks of his inquiries in Madrid, in La Colombina, and in Paris, which he calls superficial. Tolosa takes up the gauntlet spiritedly: “Although we may be called dreamers, we cherish the hope that a copy still exists in Spain of the ancient work we have heard of so often”.

We are convinced that the copy offered for sale in Barcelona in 1913 appeared as a result of the continuous evoking of the work by such distinguished men. Would the work have been located if a prize had been offered? We are convinced it would.

Von der Lasa amazes us with his tenacity, total honesty, and awareness, and spreads the word as to the value of Vicent’s book. He mobilises the prominent Spanish scholars of the time: Tolosa, Brunet, Pin i Soler, Paluzíe, and Fábregas.

We now propose the creation of this prize at this round table shared by us three Spanish friends and three very distinguished German researchers. It is only fair to recognise Von der Lasa and to remember his noble ideals in this way.

Name of the Prize: International Von der Lasa Prize.