The History of Alquerque-12. Texts of the game. Volume III

The History of Alquerque-12.  Texts of the game. Volume III 

ISBN:   978-0-244-07274-2  515 pages

--- I dedicate this work to Mr. Joaquín Salmerón, Director of the Museum Siyasa of Cieza (Murcia) in Spain.

Thanks to his enthusiasm and generous help I could initiate the investigation of the Alquerque-12 game in Spain.

  

The reason to write three volumes about alquerque-12 was due to the fact that there are researchers who affirm that alquerque-12 was a very popular game in France. On the other hand they confirm that alquerque-12 is a draughts game played in the Roman times. In Volume I we have shown that the alquerque-12 board was not popular in France, but in Spain while in Volume II it becomes clear that the game was also very popular in Portugal and Italy.

In the case of Spain we observe that the game was played more in the northern provinces than in the southern ones, which invalidates the general opinion that the game had been brought to Spain by the Arabs.

Researchers are always referring to the fact that alquerque or Quirkat was being played throughout Egypt. In this sense we have to take into account that with regards to the alquerque games we have three man morris, six man morris, nine man morris, and twelve man morris.  Each game was played in a certain period.

Most historians and archaeologists were following Murray, and stated that alquerque-12 was native to Egypt in the 14th and 13th century B.C., because boards had been found carved into the blocks of stone that form the Luxor temple’s roof in Kurna, Egypt. However, alquerque-12 has nothing to do with this period. At first Friedrich Berger states that the drawings cannot be dated due to Coptic (Christian) crosses. Secondly the German archaeologist and Egyptologist Rainer Stadelmann came to a similar conclusion with good documentary evidence. Research of the Dutchman Wim Van Mourik and Dr. Stadelmann clearly proves that the drawing by Parker was not the correct one and was completely different from the drawing shown in Stadelmann's photo. For that reason we can state today that the Kurna temple had nothing to do with alquerque-12 and draughts.

Alquerque-12 in various countries always had to do with Christians and the church. It was probably played by the church authorities, European crusaders, Knight Templars, Knights of the Order of Santiago, and other soldiers. For that reason we hypothesise that the game was an invention of or related to the activities of the Catholic Church not earlier than the sixth century.

We have to be careful in considering all alquerque-12 drawings as board games. There are many vertical drawings of alquerque-12 that have nothing to do with the board game, since they could have been used for apotropaic and esoteric practices. In this respect one can take into account the Knights Templar and their carvings at the Donjon du Coudray, Chinon (France).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Mr. Rob Jansen (Amsterdam) for his deep research of alquerque-12 documents and images for years. Without his collaboration this book could never have been written. I also send words of thanks to Dr. Ulrich Schädler (Switzerland) who generously gave me a lot of critical notes. The fact that I did not use them in this book has to do with adverse personal circumstances. I   thank Marisa Uberti (Italy) for her comments and images. Dr. Franco Pratesi (Italy) also gave me a lot of information about Italy.  The draughts icon researcher Wim van Mourik (Holland) kept me posted about his alquerque-12 researches. Dr. Jorge Nuno Silva (Portugal) was kind to facilitate me several images of alquerque-12 boards. The anthropologist and archaeologist Luis Lobato de Faria (Portugal) has found many alquerque-12 boards and drawings and kept me posted about them. I thank him very much for his efforts to bring so many boards to light!

More people have collaborated on the preparation of this book and it is not possible to mention all of them.  Thanks to all of you!

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My young Years by the side of Harm Wiersma and Ton Sijbrands, Future World Champions

My young Years by the side of Harm Wiersma and Ton Sijbrands, Future World Champions 
Draughts is more difficult than Chess - 308 pages

ISBN:   978-0-244-66661-3            -       2018    Hard cover     Lulu Editors

At the end of 2017 a draughts player asked me to have translations of some of my Spanish books that deal with the history of draughts. In one book I describe my draughts career by the side of Sijbrands and Wiersma, and in another book of two volumes I describe the life of the draughts world champion Maurice Raichenbach. I decided to start with the first book and  add some information about my business life in Spain. With that schoolteachers become aware of the great benefit that draughts has on the mind of children and their future business possibilities.

There are not many biographies of draughts players and the books there are usually deal with the game. It is clear that I did not want to write them in Dutch, because there are many books about these players in the Netherlands and I cannot teach them anything. They know much more than I do. It is much more difficult to see Spanish texts about them and that was the reason why I wrote books in Spanish about Amadou Kandi, Woldouby, Maurice Raichenbach, Baba Sy, and others, because hopefully this way we can rescue future players in South America from obscurity.

This time I will write in English so that the international players can also learn about some of the initial draughts lives of Wiersma and Sijbrands that today can be considered as history.

After the short introduction to the history of draughts in chapter 1 here come some words about the other content of this book. I wrote (in Spanish) the biography of Maurice Raichenbach, for several reasons. Firstly because with the "Raichenbach coup" against young Sijbrands I could have become immortal in 1963, as Harm Wiersma said. Secondly Raichenbach made the same victorious continuation in his game against Herman de Jongh, as Harm Wiersma did in 1963 against me in the Brinta Youth Tournament when he was just 10 years old. On the other hand Raichenbach was noted for his corner game on the board, as I used to play in 1965. Finally Raichenbach played to win tempi, as I also used to do in 1965. All these events are explained in chapters 2-6 which describe my short draughts career. I think that knowing Raichenbach’s game is necessary, since it now belongs to the theory that we must master draughts when we play it.

Finally, I am attracted to Raichenbach, because this player left checkers to engage in successful business.

During my many trips to Africa and South America I saw the way of life of their inhabitants. Checkers for them is a means of getting out of isolation. In Holland we already have many African players who make a living by playing in different draughts clubs. Draughts does not serve only to earn money, but also to increase our intelligence by 25%.

I hope my books on checkers will be useful for the young people of certain countries to come out of their isolation. In this short work the reader will realize that three children prodigies (Ton Sijbrands, Harm Wiersma, and Andreas Kuijken), among whom I was lucky to be, began to make life impossible for Russian draughts players. In this way Holland gradually regained its hegemony in draughts between 1972 and 1984.

It is my desire that with my historical works about Woldouby,  Maurice Raichenbach, Baba Sy, other famous draughts players, and my short draughts career in Holland as expressed in this book readers become interested in the game of checkers, as was my case in the Netherlands. I met Baba Sy, visited many foreign countries, and witnessed other cultures to finally settle in Spain and believe me, I owe a lot to checkers.

The game of draughts deserves a more respectful place than it has and in this sense one should remember that draughts is more difficult than chess, as is explained in chapter 7 of this book.

Draughts players are very good at analyzing, tactics, strategy, intuition, fighting spirit, performance drive, thinking ahead, long-term planning, numeracy, patience, perseverance, creativity, concentration, logical thinking, imagination, and many other good qualities.  On the other hand draughts players are very creative. They are often able to discover a draw in a hopelessly standing position by means of threats or shots.  All of that is explained in chapter 8.

I left draughts in 1965, but I felt myself playing draughts with the creation of products in various companies. For me the new products were like new variants in checkers. Draughts awakened my desire to master several languages and gave me a very competitive spirit, since I always wanted to be the best in the world with my products. I was co-owner and founder of an important company in the world of citrus extracts and among my wise friends and partners were two rectors of the University of Murcia.

After the sale of this company in 1989 to a multinational I did the same job of competitive intelligence until 2012 (the year of my retirement) in other new companies, which nowadays are also on a high level in the world with their products. One of them was sold in 2015 to an Israeli multinational.Some of my business, draughts and history activities are explained in chapter 9.

Since this book will be read by international readers and the term “King” for the most powerful piece in the game can give confusion to other speaking countries, I have dedicated some pages to the origin of this new powerful piece on the board in 1495, such as explained in chapter 10. In Holland we have in the international draughts game a square on the board on which we place the “kroonschijf” (crown piece) and that is known in the English game as king-row piece. In chapter 11 I discuss its Spanish origin.

In chapter 12 there finally are some words about the Frenchman Dr. Diego Rodríguez (1940-2015) who gave me a lot of information by phone and sent me many photos of the draughts tournaments and players in the past. He was the ambassador of draughts in the Spanish-speaking world and a man of immense generosity.

I recommend this book to psycologists and all professionals who work with children as a source of knowledge and a challenge to think in new concepts.

Contents
1    History of draughts    1
2    My brief career in draughts    10
2.1    Introduction    10
2.2    The draughts club in Midden-Beemster    10
2.3    The draughts club in Zaandam    10
2.3.1    My mentor Ed Holstvoogd    12
2.4    The child prodigy Tonnie Sijbrands    12
2.4.1    The child prodigy Andreas Kuijken    14
2.5    Sijbrands and Baba Sy    14
2.6    Sijbrands and Grandmaster Keller    14
2.6.1    The Youth Championship of North Holland 1962    16
2.6.2    The Youth Championship of Amsterdam 1962    17
2.6.3    The youth championship of North Holland 1963    18
2.6.4    The Dutch Youth Championship 1963    26
2.6.4.1    Piet Roozenburg    27
2.7    My mentor Ed Holstvoogd, in Yalta.    34
2.8    The senior championship of North Holland, 1963.    38
2.9    The great work of Keller    39
2.10    The Brinta Youth Tournament, 1963    42
2.10.1    The child prodigy Andreas Kuijken    50
2.11    The confession of Sijbrands    63
2.11.1    Prediction    63
3    The year 1964    65
3.1    Correspondence with Sijbrands    66
3.2    Harm Wiersma    67
3.3    The come back of Sijbrands    68
3.3.1    The Youth Championship of North Holland    68
3.3.2    The Youth Championship of Holland    70
3.3.3    The Hoogezand Youth Tournament    72
3.3.4    The Youth Tournament of Huizen    73
3.3.4.1    Ed Holstvoogd    73
3.3.5    The V.O.S. Tournament    74
3.3.6    The Amsterdam Tournament    74
3.4    Harm Wiersma again    76
3.5    The World Championship in Merano    78
4    The year 1965    83
4.1    Ed Holstvoogd    83
4.2    Harm Wiersma    87
4.3    Rudi Palmer    90
4.4    Ton Sijbrands    95
4.4.1    North Holland’s Youth Championship, 1965    95
4.4.2    The  National Senior Championship    96
4.5    The Third International Brinta Tournament    98
4.5.1    Ton Sijbrands    98
4.5.2    Ruud Palmer    104
4.6    The European Draughts Championship    105
4.6.1    Andreas Kuijken    105
4.7    The Turkstra Youth Tournament    107
4.8    The Turkstra Senior Tournament    110
4.8.1    Ton Sijbrands    110
4.9    The Senior Championship of  the North-Holland province    111
4.9.1    Ton Sijbrands, Ed Holstvoogd,  Govert Westerveld    111
5    The year 1966    119
5.1    Botter Tournament in Volendam    119
5.2    Ton Sijbrands    124
5.2.1    The simultaneous exhibition of Sijbrands in Purmerend    124
5.3    Harm Wiersma    135
6    Finally the child prodigies among the best    136
6.1    The year 1967    136
6.2    Harm Wiersma    138
7    Draughts is more dificult than Chess    143
7.1    Seeing Draughts    143
7.1.1    Dr. Max Euwe    143
7.1.2    Edgar Allan Poe    145
7.1.3    Dr. Marion Tinsley    147
7.1.4    Irving Cherney    148
7.1.5    François André Danica Philidor    148
7.1.6    Harry N. Pillsbury    149
7.1.7    Gerard Welling    149
7.1.8    H. Kramer    150
7.1.9    A Draughts writer    150
7.1.10    Albert Huisman    150
7.1.11    Hans Vermin    151
7.1.12    Anton Dusseldorf    152
7.1.13    Jack de Haas    152
7.1.14    Ron Heusdens    153
7.1.15    Palmans    154
7.1.16    Jannes van der Wal    154
7.1.17    Hendrik van der Zee    155
7.1.18    Alexei Tsjizjov    156
7.1.19    Eddy Budé    156
7.1.20    V. Cornetz    157
7.1.21    Harm Wiersma    157
7.2    Blind Draughts    157
7.2.1    Newell William Banks    158
7.2.2    Erno Prosman    159
7.2.3    Ton Sijbrands    160
7.3    Computers    161
7.3.1    Draughts on the 64-square board    161
7.3.2    Chess    162
7.3.3    Draughts on the 100-square board:    162
7.4    Mathematics    162
8    The great advantage of draughts    165
8.1    Acceptance of the rules    165
8.2    Acceptance of the result    165
8.3    Analysis    165
8.4    Attention    166
8.5    Self-criticism    166
8.6    Concentration    166
8.7    Creativity    166
8.8    Decision making    166
8.9    Emotional control    167
8.10    Empathy    167
8.11    Goal setting    167
8.12    Imagination    167
8.13    Increase reading ability    167
8.14    Initiative.    167
8.15    Mathematical logical reasoning    168
8.16    Memory    168
8.17    Numerical operation    168
8.18    Organization    168
8.19    Prevention of Alzheimer’s    168
8.20    Prevention of Parkinson’s    169
8.21    Responsibility    170
8.22    Self-esteem    170
8.23    Social skills    170
9    My way of playing draughts    171
9.1    In Business    171
9.2    In History    197
9.2.1    The history of the Moriscos (Morisks)    197
9.2.2    The history of draughts    204
9.2.3    The unknown authors of La Celestina    216
9.2.3.1    Intuition    220
9.2.3.2    Stylometry    222
9.2.3.3    Study of ancient Spanish words    222
10    The King    224
10.1    Isabella  I  of Castile as the    224
Virgin Mary on the chessboard    224
10.1.1    Notre Dame    225
10.1.2    Gesta Romanorum in England    227
10.1.3    Nubian queen    227
10.1.4    The queen replaced the vizier    228
10.1.5    The Virgin Mary in France    228
10.1.6    The Firzan to Alferza and Virgin Mary    230
10.1.7    Lucena and the Gesta Romanorum    231
10.1.8    Professor Petzold    232
10.1.8.1    Pope Pius II    232
10.1.8.1.1    Juan Ramírez de Lucena    233
10.1.8.2    Dr. Miguel Albert    235
10.1.8.2.1    Scachs d’amor    236
10.1.8.3    Isabella I of Castile    236
10.1.9    Virgin Mary and Isabella I of Castile    240
10.1.10    The Satiric School in Valencia    254
11    The king-row piece    258
11.1    Timoneda in 1547    258
11.2    Lucena in 1520    259
11.3    King in the beginning    261
12    Dr. Diego Rodríguez of France    265
13    Bibliography:    270

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Draughts and La Celestina’s creator Francesch Vicent (Lucena) in Ferrara with Lucrezia Borgia

Draughts and La Celestina’s creator Francesch Vicent (Lucena) in Ferrara with Lucrezia Borgia  -  316 pages
ISBN:   978-0-244-05324-6            -       2018

Writing about the medical student Lucena, the inventor of draughts  and first writer about modern chess was not easy and it took us many years to find out about his activity and what exactly was his name. Today we know much more about him thanks to much research and time spent on it. The explanation of why Diego de San Pedro and Juan de Flores could be pseudonyms of Lucena is fully described in one of our works . That was at the end of the 15th century in Castile. Around 1494 he was working in the printing department of Antonio Nebrija and thanks to him we see new words such as dama and andarraya  appear in the Latin dictionary. In this dictionary we find the new powerful dama in the new draughts (checkers) - and modern chess  as a result of the change of andarraya. The only thing we know is that this latest game was played on a checkered board like draughts. Probably the introduction of the powerful dama, based on Isabella I , changed this game completely to a game known in Valencia as Marro de punta around 1550.

Today most chess historians agree that the weak chess queen, named “dame” in France as from the XIV century, changed to a powerful chess queen in Spain in 1475. Around this year we also see a change of the weak bishop to a strong bishop, according to the chess poem Scachs d’amor . In order to strengthen our hypothesis of Isabella I of Castile (Isabel la Católica) we have written a book about the new bishop  and a book about Scachs d’amor in English.

Concentrating now on Virgin Mary in relationship with Isabella I of Castile  we observe that the Augustinian monastic Martin de Córdoba wrote in 1468 the work El Jardin de las donzellas. It was directed to Princess Isabel I of Castile with the intention to contribute to her education as future Queen. Cordoba was the first writer who draws equivalencies between Isabella I of Castile and Virgin Mary, which became one of her standard portrayals. Shorty thereafter we see the appearance of a new powerful chess queen.

As we know, Juan Ramírez de Lucena worked with the Pope Pius II for several years and perfectly knew the influence of Virgin Mary in many countries. Furthermore Petzold stated that probably around 1300 in England a collection of stories was compiled from the ancient Roman period under the name of "Gesta Romanorum". It narrates the legends about the origins of the game of chess. The chapter "the chess game" reads that the powerful King on the 64 fields of the chessboard could be considered as "our Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of all in heaven and on Earth". He could move to any place. "Finally he also takes with him the Queen, i.e. the religious mother of mercy, Virgin Maria .

The new bishop in chess has been a great mystery from the XV century until now, because not only was the power of the Queen greatly introduced, but so was also the position of the church. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza was the partisan of Princess (later Queen) Isabella I of Castile and fought for her in the Battle of Zamora and Toro between 1475 and 1476. This warrior churchman had a prominent part in placing Princess Isabella on the throne and served her tirelessly in her efforts to suppress the disorderly nobles of Castile with the money of the church. Cardinal Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza remains one of the most striking and picturesque figures of the XV-century, and was equally great as churchman, statesman and warrior. He was considered as “the third king of Spain” and Isabella’s best adviser .

It is known that the protonotary Juan Ramirez de Lucena was already in the Aragonese court around 1468 and that he was one of the advisers of the young prince Ferdinand II, the future husband of queen Isabella I of Castile. Virgin Mary’s influence was great in those years and the church extended it in Valencia to the chessboard. The man who had influence in the court to change the rules of the chess game was the protonotary Juan Ramírez de Lucena, follower of the pope Pius II.

He was a great admirer of Isabella I of Castile and his protector was the archbishop of Seville and great cardinal of Spain, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. Due to his travelling abroad he was aware of the necessary chess manuscripts and chess positions that later resulted in a chess book printed by his son Lucena in 1495. The manuscript of “Scachs d’amor” was written in 1475, precisely in the year of pestilence in Valencia and when the influence of Queen Isabella I of Castile reached the peak of her power against her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon. And so we see appear Isabella I of Castile, as the Virgin Mary, on the chessboard.

Lucena, the son of Juan Ramírez de Lucena, was in charge of translating Historia de duobus amantibus (1444) from Eneas Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) in order to publish the Estoria muy verdadera de dos amantes, Euríalo franco y Lucrecia senesa in Salamanca in 1495. He could do so since his father was in the service of this Pope between 1560 and 1564 in Rome. His father’s protector in those years was the cardinal Próspero Colonna (1426-1463), who opened the door to our Lucena during his future book activities with Agnesina Montefeltro (married to Fabricio Colonna), her sister Gentile Montefeltro, and Agnesina’s daughter Vitoria Colonna who was married to the Marqies of Pescara, Fernando de Ávalos.

In 1495, through the print of the first chess book in the world in Valencia, Lucena let us know that his name was Francesch Vicent and he was born in Segorbe.  Two years later he adopted the name Lucena, son of the prothonotary Juan Ramírez de Lucena . He was an illegitimate son of the prothonotary who was at the court of prince Ferdinand in Valencia in 1468-1470. We can therefore stipulate Francesch Vicent’s date of birth to around 1469, thus a birthdate more or less equal to his great friend Juan del Encina, who was a law student in Salamanca.   Lucena mentions in his work Arte de Ajedrez con CL juegos de partido that he visited Rome, many places in Italy, and other places in France. Lucena’s chess book from 1497 is a proof that he indeed had visited Italy – Ferrera - because Lucena used the Civis Bononiae of the Estense library of Modena known as Tractatus partitorum Schachorum Tabularum et Merelorum Scriptus anno 1454.

Perez de Arriaga let us know that considering the Modena manuscript allows us to clarify that Lucena literally copied the game Mod 487 that there is to be seen. This party game and its solution is not found in any other known manuscript. This case alone would be sufficient to assert that Lucena disposed of a manuscript similar to that of Modena. Another clear case is the game Luc 12.

So far researchers have considered its origin in the game Picc 20, but it is also found in the manuscript of Modena Mod 374 from which it could have been copied by Lucena since it is not in any other manuscript of the Civis Bononiae Family . In other words Lucena had already established contacts with scholars in Ferrara before staying there in 1505.

It is clear that Lucena had acquired very good knowledge of chess thanks to his travels abroad. He must have been a very good chess player at the time, because we knew various manuscripts in relation to Lucena. Notwithstanding this he must also have been a strong admirer of the new powerful dama piece in chess, seeing the fact that he discussed draughts in his manuscript and gave it the name Ludus Dominarum.

One of the chess manuscripts written by Lucena is known as Göttingen and only bears the name of Lucena, and it is clear from the texts that it was addressed to a prince: Dominatio vestra, Serenissime princeps, Magnifice domine. The letter of the manuscript is similar to the letter of another chess manuscript known as Les Éches amoreux which was copied and illustrated on behalf of Luisa de Saboya (1476-1547) between 1500 and 1515 with about 30 games. Another one is the Paris/Place chess manuscript that includes chess problems taken in their entirety from Arte de Ajedrez (1497), in this case 28 games.

He published Repetición de amores and Arte de Ajedrez in Salamanca in 1497 in the name of Lucena. In 1499 and 1502 he published his father’s book Vita Beata in Burgos, where he also published the first work La Celestina in 1499 or 1500. This was a beautiful copy of Calisto y Melibea and Lucena himself was the proofreader of this work, because we see the medical terms of the physicians Eras and Crato. Lucena could do so, because he was a medical student and the author of the first act (and the following 5 acts). Since thereafter these physicians were changed to Crato and Galieno it is clear that the editions from 1500 (Toledo), 1501 (Seville), Zaragoza (1507) were proofread by others, such as Alonso de Proaza and probably Fernando de Rojas.

One of the future characteristics of Lucena would be that he always edited very beautiful books and if possible, with beautiful images. On the other hand if we observe an author criticizing the works and languages of other proofreaders, we should take into account that this author’s name could be a pseudonym of Lucena. This is the case of, for example, the proofreader Francisco Delicado, but also the author of La Celestina printed by Antonio Blado in 1520. This edition showed the year 1502, and complained severely about other printers. It was Lucena’s habit to complain about printers who changed words and texts in his books.

In the meantime Lucena’s friend Juan del Encina became friends with Cesar Borgia and could introduce himself to the Papal court in Rome. In 1503 Lucena had to help his father by writing a protest letter to king Ferdinand in Zaragoza for him, because the brother of his father was put in prison in Zaragoza without taking into account that the prothonotary and his brothers and sisters were exempt from Zaragoza’s jurisdiction and that of any other inquisitor. His father probably died around 1504, because in 1505 we see that Francesch Vicent (Lucena) adapted the name Francesco and became the chess teacher of Lucrezia Borgia. In those years an anonymous author dedicated a poem to Lucrezia that was published in 1522 in the book Arnalte y Lucenda. Again this is going in the direction of Lucena, because as we know, the books of Diego de San Pedro were introduced by Lucena in Ferrara.  Lucena did not waste his time in Ferrara and took charge of two chess manuscripts - one in Modena and another in Perugia, which were copies of his Valencian chess book from 1495. In these two chess manuscripts we see the first diagram of a draughts game of twelve pawns for each player, as must have been the case in the book of 1495 Ludus Dominarum. This draughts game is the alquerque-12, popular in Spain , Portugal , and Italy, placed on a chessboard with obligatory capture. Francesch Vicent had time to get to know the professor of Greek and Latin Caelius Calcagninus in Ferrara, who learned from him and years later wrote about alquerque-12 . 

Thereafter there is no more information about draughts in Spain and Italy and we have to wait until 1547 when according to the Spanish scholars Antonio de Torquemada wrote a draughts book. Although Garzon  and we ourselves  have written about the fact that Antonio de Torquemada never could have written this book, scholars continue believing in Torquemada. The real situation is different, because the author of the draughtsbook from 1547 was Juan de Timoneda. In spite of the fact that there is no more information about draughts we continue stating the life of Lucena in Spain and Italy, because one day documents related to Lucena and draughts may appear in future. The humanist influence of Lucena in Ferrara is noted in Baldassare Castiglione’s Courtier book. Did Castiglione  not say in his book: "Spagnoli Guardate i, i quali maestri che siano della par Cortegiania?"

Without Lucena Castiglione could never have written his book. The Courtier's book was dedicated to Alfonso Ariosto (1475-1525) of Ferrara, a cousin of Ludovico Ariosto, since he had given the idea to Castiglione. Logically speaking, it was Alfonso Ariosto who was in contact with Francesch Vicent (Lucena) in Ferrara.

Baldassare Castiglione wrote his work between 1504 and 1506 when he was in the service of the Duke of Urbino Guidobaldo of Montefeltro who was married to Isabel Gonzaga. Elizabeth Gonzaga had a brother Francisco who was married to Isabella d'Este. In the court of Urbino we find Pietro Bembo, Lucrezia Borgia’s platonic lover, between 1506 and 1512. Then we have Emilia Pio, the widow of Antonio de Montefeltro. Furthermore Federico Fregoso, Ottaviano Fregoso, and Constance Fregoso, sons of Gentile da Montefeltro (Gentile Feltria of Campo Fregoso). She was the widow of Agostino Fregoso and financed the Italian version of La Celestina. 

The chess contacts between Federico Fregoso with Francesch (Lucena) resulted in Federico instructing Marco Girolama Vida to write a chess poem. And as stated before, we see that his mother Gentile da Montefeltro financed Lucena’s work La Celestina. After some years in Ferrara Lucena started a new life in Rome under a pseudonym. It was not easy to find out what one, but it appeared to be Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi. Strangely enough, nobody knew about his life before 1508, and as we see, in his pseudonym he used the letters “Vicent” that had a connection with chess and his first name disclosed the first name of Lucena: Ludovico . This new research resulted in a book  that was published some time ago and in another new book .  Around 1510 Lucena, now using the pseudonym Ludovico Vicentingo degli Arrighi, was a bookseller in Rome. Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) who was in Urbino in 1506 moved to Rome in 1512 where he was appointed Secretary to Pope Leo X. That was good news for Arrighi, who had started working in the Papal Chancery under Bembo’s supervision  as papal scribe and type designer. Researchers cannot understand how Arrighi, an unknown youth from the provinces, could attain this important position in the papal Curia and enter a network that allowed him to publish for some of the most powerful people in Rome.

It is clear that Lucena’s father must have been a very important person in Rome, thus opening the doors with ease to our Lucena. In 1510 a ten-year privilege was granted to Ludovico di Varthema and his heirs for his Itinerario which was printed by Stephano Guillereti in collaboration with Hercole Nani at the expense of Lodovico de Henricis da Corneto Vicentino. Researchers think that Lodovico de Henricis da Corneto Vicentino  was the same person as Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi. The book was printed on 6 December 1510 in Rome and dedicated to Agnesina Feltria, sister of Gentile Feltria and mother of Vittoria Colonnna. It should be observed that Fernando de Rojas had this book in his collection. Bernardino López de Carvajal y Sande (146-1523) had a translation made into Latin in 1511. The translation from Latin into Spanish was made by Cristóbal de Arcos in 1523. A Latin chess manuscript known as the Göttingen (1505-1515) only bears the name of Lucena and from the texts it clearly appears that it was addressed to a prince: Dominatio vestra, Serenissime princeps, Magnifice domine.

In 1511 appeared a chess manuscript of Joannes Chachi  and in 1512 the chess book of Pedro Damiano  in Rome. Both works have a connection to Francesch Vicent (Lucena) and it is clear that the names of the authors are simply pseudonyms of Francesch Vicent (Lucena), who did not like to disclose his real name. Some years later - in 1517 - appeared the book Propalladia and thanks to recent research we could confirm that texts in the book have a connection to Juan del Encina and Lucena, as we suspected years ago . However, we could not confirm that Juan Ramírez de Lucena was the ancient author of La Celestina, because our latest research showed this to be Lucena. Since the foreword to Propalladia was written by Lucena, it is logical to suppose that this work was edited by Lucena. This book was in the possession of Fernando de Rojas, because Lucena and Fernando de Rojas kept close contact. In 1518 Lucena (Luis de Lucena) was back in Rome and had again printed the chess book of Pedro Damiano. On its front page there are two chess players - one of them should be Lucena and the other was probably Juan del Encina. Antonio Blado printed the chess book of Pedro Damiano in 1524 and was involved in the tricky printing of La Celestina (Tragicomedia) in 1520, which bears the year 1502 and was destined for Antonio de Salamanca who was an editor in Rome. Between 1520 and 1530 Lucena was in France, because we see his activities and influence on other highly positioned people due to the appearance of French editions of Cárcel de amor and La Celestina.

On the other hand there is a chess manuscript of those years signed by Lucena. Since 1991 this manuscript has been in the possession of the New York bibliophile David DeLucia  and NEBEA  thinks that the date of the manuscript was around 1530.

As already indicated, Federico Fregoso was the son of Gentile Feltria, the noblewoman who funded Francesch Vicent (Lucena’s) La Celestina. Federico took many years to complete the chess poem and we see that Francesch Vicent (Ludovico Vicentino) published it at the papal court years later in 1527 in gratitude for his friendship. Lucena, who had the advantage of being at the papal curia as scribe, survived the sack in Rome. Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi (Lucena) had to escape Rome and went to Venice in 1528, where he started to work. However, he was not sure about his life and therefore our mysterious author adopted another pseudonym - Francisco Delicado - and continued working in his field in his new residence. There he reunited with old friends and was soon back in the highest cultural sphere. Francisco Delicado stayed in Venice for four years - from 1530 till 1534.

Lucena went to Spain in 1535 according to Beltrán de Herrera . Surely to help in one way or another his familiar Diego de Castillo who was put imprisoned by the inquisitors. We see that Lucena was again involved in several books in Spain, because books were his life.   There he worked under other pseudonyms which will be explained in forthcoming books.  In 1543 Lucena was in Brussels and apparently returned to Rome in 1549 where he was well placed, so as to become a doctor of Claudio Tolomei and even then the chief physician of Pope Julius III. Lucena never stopped travelling and was in Rome again from 1533 with interruptions to his continual stay in Spain. Tolomei considered Lucena to be an expert in Vitruvius and that may be the reason why Lucena could compose Il Commentario al Libro IX di Vitruvi .  In this respect we must be aware that Lucena could have known Bernardo Bembo, who was also involved with the Vitruvius. The contact must have been established through his son Pietro Bembo, Lucena’s friend from the time in Ferrara.

That Luis de Lucena was fully aware of the situation of Vitruvio becomes clear when we take into account that Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi (Luis de Lucena’s nickname) worked with Fabio Calvo and  Raphael Sanzio da Urbino in earlier years and printed Antiquae urbis Romae cum regionibus simulachrum in 1527. We should also bear in mind that Luis de Lucena (under the nickname of Ludovico Vicentino) knew Claudio Tolomei. Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi (Lucena) printed the work De le lettere nuovamente aggiunte libro di Adriano Franci da Siena intitolato Il Polito in 1525 for Adriano Franci. However, Adriano Franci is wrongly attributed as the author of the work, because its real author was Claudio Tolomei, a friend of Adriano Franci.

Although there is some reason to believe that Lucena must have known the printer Juan de Timoneda in Valencia, it is possible that there was an earlier contact between them in Tolosa when Lucena wrote his Latin medical work in 1523. Whatever it be, there is a draughts book printed in 1635 that bears Juan de Timoneda  as its author. We always thought that this was the lost draughts book of Antonio de Torquemada from 1547 who never could have written this book. Our hypothesis  was confirmed in 2010 by the best Spanish chess historian José Antonio Garzon Roger . In this book the reader will find our analysis of the ancient texts that figure in Timoneda’s book and which we think to be from around 1518. On the other hand we include the texts of the whole book which we have in our possession and does not exist in any Spanish library. The first analysis by JGAAP showed that Lucena had  a hand in the texts of this draughts book. We do not know if Lucena was the proofreader of this book, but considering his age it is possible that he looked for a quieter life. He found it in Venice and Rome, where he was held in high esteem.

Lucena’s latest nickname that we could detect was that of Alonso Núñez de Reinoso in Venice. The final word about Lucena has still not been pronounced. One thing is clear  - that he remains a mysterious unknown and fascinating person to whom Spain is greatly indebted for his many discoveries in draughts, chess, and literature.

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