Presentation and a Brentaspiel question

[Greger Sundin]

Dear all,

I met some of you at the Nuremberg colloquium, but for those of you that I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to, I would like to present myself and thank you for welcoming me into your group. My name is Greger Sundin, and I am an art historian currently working on my PhD thesis at Uppsala University, Sweden. It is directed towards the material culture of games and pastimes in early modern Kunstkammer collections (c. 1550-1750), and from a boardgame perspective, there are quite a lot of interesting games from that period (not only the more usual chess, tric-track and nine men’s morris). 

Therefor, I would like to ask you all if anyone is familiar with a game called ”Brentaspiel”. Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647) have it in his art cabinets (both the Pommersche Kunstschrank in Berlin and in his Uppsala cabinet), as well as referring to it in writing. 

The basic ingredients are a chequered board (a chess board is sometimes used, but often larger than that it seems), three dice (in Hainhofer's case Singwürfeln) and a funnel on a stand, mounted to the side of the board. Through the funnel, the three dice where thrown, and depending on the resulting pips and whether they landed on a black or white square, points were assigned. Hainhofer mostly refers to this game by name only, but in a letter to duke August the younger around 1643, he is slightly more detailed in his description: 

”Wann man die vergulte stänglen vnd Trachter (deren oben gedacht worden, vnd im hindern Vries dieses Corporis ligen.) in das auf der seiten vergulte röhrlin stecket, vnd mit dem vergulten würflen durch den trachter in diese brenten, auf die schwarz ebeno vnd gelb sandline stein wirft, so gibts ein brentenspiel ab, da dann, wie man sich vergleichet, der Jenig gewinnet, der mehr augen auf den würfeln hat, oder der auf gelben steinen ligen bleibt, vnd man dann auch durch den trachter die würfel nit knünpfen [?] kan.” [Gobiet (1984:842)] 

(Roughly translated into: “When you insert the gilded stand and the funnel ([…] located in the rear frieze of this corporis) in the gilded tube on the side, and cast the gilt dice through the funnel of this Brenta onto the black ebony and the yellow sandstone, so is a Brentaspiel played, because then, if one compares, the one wins, who has more pips on the dice or lies firm on a yellow field, and you cannot make another dice through the funnel.”)

 

I have only found one illustration (oil on panel, German artist, 17th century) of the game being played, but there might be others.

So my question to you is if anyone have any more information on this game; sources, descriptions, rules, other known examples etc. Was it played outside the German speaking countries, and how would the gaming mechanics relate to gambling etc.? I would be most grateful for any input. 

Kind regards,

Greger

PS. If anyone would like to know more about my project, or are equally interested in games and other humorous objects of the early modern era, let me know. It is so nice to get in contact with other people with similar interests.

[Ulrich Schädler]

It seems to be trinquetum, in  German called “Prentenspiel”.

In French also called drinquet or dringuet.

In some papers it is identified as trictrac, but this is not correct.

In dringuet, the players bet on dice falling on a white or black square on the chess board.

 

Ulrich

 

Jacques Robbe, Trictracus, Carminibus elegiacis illustratus, Paris 1710

 

"trinquetum"

C'est le trinquet, dringuet, autrement dit "point de l'échiquier", jeu de hasard, où l'on parie sur la chute d'un dé sur noir ou blanc (cases d'un échiquier). Le jeu est surtout médiéval, il avait disparu au temps de JB Thiers (qui invoque ici des vieilleries, ou plutôt doit citer une source médiévale).

 

L'équivalent allemand (et suisse-allemand) est le Prentenspiel

 

 

De : bgs4...@googlegroups.com [mailto:bgs4...@googlegroups.com] De la part de Greger Sundin
Envoyé : jeudi 28 avril 2016 10:33
À : bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Objet : [!!Mass Mail]Presentation and a Brentaspiel question

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[Thierry Depaulis]

Brentenspiel is a well-known gambling game of the early modern times in German-speaking countries (including northern Switzerland).

It is a game played with dice thrown into a chessboard from a funnel.

It seems to be more or less the same as "dringuet" or "trinquet" (also called "point de l'eschiquier") in medieval France, and as "quaekbert" in the Low Countries (also "queck" or "queckboard" in England).

On Brentenspiel you must read Manfred Zollinger, «Nundinae ludentes. Bemerkungen zum Zusammenhang zwischen Ökonomie, Emotion und Glücksspiel auf Messen, Jahrmärkten und Kirchweihfesten vom 15. bis zum 18. Jahrhundert», in: Ludica, 11, 2005, p. 132-150.

There you will find more pictures of the game.

Thierry Depaulis

[Wim van Mourik]

Hello Greger,

 

My name is Wim van Mourik, draughtshistorian from the Netherlands.

 

The game Brentaspiel is unknown to me.

 

For my database of draughts it could be interesting to receive an image of  the chequered board  of Brentaspiel on a painting.

At the moment I do have some 1230 image of draughts  playing in art in my database and there are a lot more.

 

Suggestions:

 

1.      The funnel

One of our members,  Roland  ( Roly) Cobbett is specialised on Roman dice towers. It could interesting to you that such  dice-equipment is used long before our times

 

In Holland I found a special way of using a dice.  In the town of Gorcum :    the members of the guilt of carriers ware selected for a job by dice

 

Here is some text of my mail to Roly in 2012 and the pictures I took there.

 

 

Yesterday I visited the Museum of Gorinchem.  Its was nice to be there, so many years after my last visit. 

In the Museum I couldnt find what I would see.  So, I asked the Museum staff.  One of them took me to the storage some streets away from the Museum 

On the third floor we found what I thought to find.   But it's a little disappointing.  Its not a dice tower as it was in my mind.

On the picture you can see that a wooden shoe is hanging on one side.  I remembered it as that it was a funnel in which you can put something and then its fall down.

But after so many years I have forgotten that you have to take the wooden shoe. To put a dice in it and then without manipulating with your fingers you have to throw the dice.  

The wooden shoe hangs on a nail to one of the sides

The dice ( "tower" )  is called in Dutch :  een :    SMAKBAK

A box you can translate as :   Bak

The verb  SMAKKEN  can be translate as :     throw down

The box  dated from the second half of the 18th century.  Used by the guild of carriers of bags

By throwing the dices the guildbrothers distributed the job that should to be done

 

 

2.      Jan Amos Komensky    John Amos Comenius published The Orbis Pictus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbis_Pictus

In this book a funnel is to be found

 

3.      Rules to play dringuet I found on the next site :

 

http://www.aisling-1198.org/dossiers/jeux-medievaux/les-jeux-de-plateau/les-des/le-dringuet-ou-point-de-lechiquier/

 

 

Best wishes

 

Wim van Mourik

 

 

Van: bgs4...@googlegroups.com [mailto:bgs4...@googlegroups.com] Namens Greger Sundin
Verzonden: donderdag 28 april 2016 10:33
Aan: bgs4ever <bgs4...@googlegroups.com>
Onderwerp: Presentation and a Brentaspiel question

 

Dear all,

 

I met some of you at the Nuremberg colloquium, but for those of you that I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to, I would like to present myself and thank you for welcoming me into your group. My name is Greger Sundin, and I am an art historian currently working on my PhD thesis at Uppsala University, Sweden. It is directed towards the material culture of games and pastimes in early modern Kunstkammer collections (c. 1550-1750), and from a boardgame perspective, there are quite a lot of interesting games from that period (not only the more usual chess, tric-track and nine men’s morris). 

 

Therefor, I would like to ask you all if anyone is familiar with a game called ”Brentaspiel”. Philipp Hainhofer (1578-1647) have it in his art cabinets (both the Pommersche Kunstschrank in Berlin and in his Uppsala cabinet), as well as referring to it in writing. 

 

The basic ingredients are a chequered board (a chess board is sometimes used, but often larger than that it seems), three dice (in Hainhofer's case Singwürfeln) and a funnel on a stand, mounted to the side of the board. Through the funnel, the three dice where thrown, and depending on the resulting pips and whether they landed on a black or white square, points were assigned. Hainhofer mostly refers to this game by name only, but in a letter to duke August the younger around 1643, he is slightly more detailed in his description: 

 

”Wann man die vergulte stänglen vnd Trachter (deren oben gedacht worden, vnd im hindern Vries dieses Corporis ligen.) in das auf der seiten vergulte röhrlin stecket, vnd mit dem vergulten würflen durch den trachter in diese brenten, auf die schwarz ebeno vnd gelb sandline stein wirft, so gibts ein brentenspiel ab, da dann, wie man sich vergleichet, der Jenig gewinnet, der mehr augen auf den würfeln hat, oder der auf gelben steinen ligen bleibt, vnd man dann auch durch den trachter die würfel nit knünpfen [?] kan.” [Gobiet (1984:842)] 

 

(Roughly translated into: “When you insert the gilded stand and the funnel ([…] located in the rear frieze of this corporis) in the gilded tube on the side, and cast the gilt dice through the funnel of this Brenta onto the black ebony and the yellow sandstone, so is a Brentaspiel played, because then, if one compares, the one wins, who has more pips on the dice or lies firm on a yellow field, and you cannot make another dice through the funnel.”)

 

I have only found one illustration (oil on panel, German artist, 17th century) of the game being played, but there might be others.

 

So my question to you is if anyone have any more information on this game; sources, descriptions, rules, other known examples etc. Was it played outside the German speaking countries, and how would the gaming mechanics relate to gambling etc.? I would be most grateful for any input. 

 

Kind regards,

Greger

 

PS. If anyone would like to know more about my project, or are equally interested in games and other humorous objects of the early modern era, let me know. It is so nice to get in contact with other people with similar interests.

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[Jonas Richter]

Hi Greger,

the Brentenspiel is mentioned in Fischarts list of games in his
Gargantua; Heinrich Rausch in his small book on this Spielverzeichnis
adds some information, see the attached image (Heinrich Rausch: Das
Spielverzeichnis im 25. Kapitel von Fischarts "Geschichtklitterung"
(Gargantua). Strassburg 1908, p. lix). It seems it was often referred to
as "in die brenten (spielen/ werfen)". It is mentioned in the entry on
"Brente" in Deutsches Wörterbuch:
http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/?sigle=DWB&mode=Vernetzung&lemid=GB11253#XGB11253

Regarding the letter you quote:

”Wann man die vergulte stänglen vnd Trachter (deren oben gedacht worden,
vnd im hindern Vries dieses Corporis ligen.) in das auf der seiten
vergulte röhrlin stecket, vnd mit dem vergulten würflen durch den
trachter in diese brenten, auf die schwarz ebeno vnd gelb sandline stein
wirft, so gibts ein brentenspiel ab, da dann, wie man sich vergleichet,
der Jenig gewinnet, der mehr augen auf den würfeln hat, oder der auf
gelben steinen ligen bleibt, vnd man dann auch durch den trachter die
würfel nit knünpfen [?] kan.” [Gobiet (1984:842)]

"deren oben gedacht worden" = which were mentioned above"
"so gibts ein brentenspiel ab" in my opinion = "then it becomes/ can be
used as a Brentenspiel"

"Würfel knüpfen" (of which "knünpfen" would be a misspelling or maybe
variant spelling) is an early modern German idiom meaning "cheating with
dice", according to Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch 8,1230 as well as
the Deutsches Wörterbuch mentioned above:
http://woerterbuchnetz.de/DWB/?sigle=DWB&mode=Vernetzung&lemid=GK09534#XGK09534

Yours,
Jonas

[Greger Sundin]

Dear Ulrich, Thierry, Wim, and Jonas,

This overwhelming response is indeed very appreciated! I will take some time to go through all of your sources and try to get the full picture... 

Ulrich and Thierry: Thank you both for correlate the game to trinquetum and drinquet, thus giving it international context.  

Wim: I had a long conversation with Roly during the excursion to the toy factory, and the similarities with dice towers are rather telling. The dexterities of dice players have been an issue/problem throughout history...

Jonas: Thanks for the source and the remarks on translation. Early modern German is a bit tricky for a Swede...

So in gratitude I remain to you all,

Kind regards,

Greger

[a.s...@kpnplanet.nl]

Dear Greger,

 

See also my book “Draughts in relation to chess and alquerque”, 2007:160-1, for a reference to this game in John Ashton, “The history of gambling” 1898:10, and in Jean Michel Mehl, “Les jeux au Royaumne de France du 13e au début du 16e siècle”, 1990:54.

 

With my best regards,

Arie van der Stoep

[Jonas Richter]

> I have only found one illustration (oil on panel, German artist, 17th
> century) of the game being played, but there might be others.

Can you name the artist or source of that image? Just curious.

I just came across another trace of a Brentenspiel: The Munich
Kunstkammer had a game board, now lost, see the attached pdf. (The image
is of the Uppsala funnel.) The page is taken from Willibald Sauerländer
(ed.): Die Münchner Kunstkammer. Band 2. Katalog Teil 2. München 2008.
[Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische
Klasse. Abhandlungen. Neue Folge, Heft 129]. The signature below the
entry 1926, LS, is for "Lorenz Seelig".

Jonas

[Greger Sundin]

Den fredag 29 april 2016 kl. 19:16:50 UTC+2 skrev Jonas Richter:

> I have only found one illustration (oil on panel, German artist, 17th
> century) of the game being played, but there might be others.
Can you name the artist or source of that image? Just curious.

Unfortunately no, as an answer to your first question. I've taken it from John Böttiger's major work on the cabinet – "Philipp Hainhofer und der Kunstschrank Gustav Adolfs in Upsala". 4 vols, Stockholm: Verlag der Lithographischen Anstalt des Generalstabs, 1909, p. II:43-44, ill. II:43, where it is reproduced with no relevant reference to origin.

Regarding Seelig's text on the game in Munich, I know it already, but thank you still. (I also have all the three volumes as pdf, if you want to have them).

/Greger

[Greger Sundin]

Thank you Arie! Those were new books to me.

Kind regards,

Greger 

[Wim van Mourik]

On the web I found  this site

 

In the list of findable objects  I havent find the painting

 

For those who are interested you can play a short movie  of the Hainhofer Cabinet

 

http://konstskapet.gustavianum.uu.se/webb/#__utma=1.368397634.1406024592.1406024592.1406024592.1&__utmb=1.8.10.1406024592&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1406024592.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=%28organic%29|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=%28not%20provided%29&__utmv=-&__utmk=119853832

 

Who will help to find the best image of the oil painting ?

 

Wim van Mourik

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[Greger Sundin]

Dear Wim,

No, the painting is not from the cabinet, but is rather something Böttiger uses as comparison (without stating where it’s from). The cabinet is in the University collections, just a few hundred meters from where I’m sitting, and I know it very well being a part of my research. I can also add that if someone has questions relating to the Hainhofer cabinet in Uppsala, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

But yes, let's find that painting!

Best,

Greger