About a 17th century board game of a nobleman from Krain and his teacher, and about geography, without which great deeds are silent and history blind
Keywords:
board games, social games, educational games, pedagogy, education, history of games, game theory, geography, history of geography, cosmography, cartography, toponymy, compass, astrology, history of astronomy, Jesuits, Auersperg (family), proverbs, Latin languageAbstract
The article deals with the book entitled Orbis lusus seu lusus geographicus (A game of the world or geographical game), which describes the purpose of the game as a socially entertaining, geographical learning tool. The game, initially publicly presented at the Graz University in August 1659 by an 18-year old student from Ljubljana and his 28-year old professor from Verona, was based on a world map divided into 1,680 fields, which the players attempted to occupy with their chess-like pieces. In addition to describing the rules of the game and the ways it might be played, the book contains explanations of geographical terms and concepts that the players should understand, as well as considerations about scientific questions that were of interest to educated people at that time. The first part of the article in the current issue addresses the reasoning behind the game and the circumstances in which the book was written. The second part, to be published in the next issue of Kronika, will deal to a greater extent with the game itself.
