The Lost History of Serious Play

Reading order

1. 1
   Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in CultureBook

   Johan Huizinga, 1938 (English: Beacon, 1955)

   Begin with Huizinga. The first chapter is the chapter that matters. Underline it.

2. 2
   Rules of Play: Game Design FundamentalsBook

   Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman, MIT Press, 2003

   Salen and Zimmerman as the contemporary counterpart — what design discipline now looks like.

3. 3
   The Oxford History of Board GamesBook

   David Parlett, Oxford University Press, 1999

   Parlett for the panoptic view: the field's reference work, opinionated and generous with citations.

4. 4
   A History of Board-Games Other Than ChessBook

   H. J. R. Murray, Oxford University Press, 1952

   Murray as the senior reference. Older than Parlett, and indispensable for what survives in his footnotes.

5. 5
   Ancient Board Games in PerspectiveBook

   ed. Irving L. Finkel, British Museum Press, 2007

   The Finkel-edited British Museum colloquium. Read Schädler on Pente Grammai and Finkel on Senet.

6. 6
   Coins, Bodies, Games, and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic GreeceBook

   Leslie Kurke, Princeton University Press, 1999

   Kurke's chapter on the politics of board games in archaic Greece. The book reframes what the Academy thinks Pente Grammai was for.

7. 7
   The Philosophers’ Game: Rithmomachia in Medieval and Renaissance EuropeBook

   Ann E. Moyer, University of Michigan Press, 2001

   Moyer on Rithmomachia. The medieval and Renaissance case in detail.

8. 8
   Pente Grammai and the “Holy Line”Article

   Charlotte Roueché, in: Board Games Studies (1998)

   Roueché's article on the sacred line. Short, careful, and decisive.