Gioachino Greco and books from the greats of old

I checked Amazon for the book that Gioachino wrote back in the 1600s. I found one in English, but with no reviews. Does anyone have Greco's book on chess, and is the translation and overall quality good?

Do you own Philidor's chess book, or any other great chess player of old's book? Thanks for any recommendations in advance.

Batgirl's article on Greco : http://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/gioacchino-greco

The English translation is strange. Example: when Greco talks about the first move in chess, he writes, " the first remove, for it is of great advantage". So, first move = remove. Poor translation, or just some kind of old English?

Greco never worte a book.  He prepared manuscripts of complete games for clients and patrons that were published in book form about 2 dozen years after his death. If you want to see the games in a viewer look HERE.

Philidor's book and some old collections made from Greco's mss are available on Google Books free. I'm working through the 1656 edition of his games as I have time.

The collections on chessgames.com and elsewhere are notoriously incomplete, presenting only the "main"games without Greco's extensive instructive variations.

batgirl wrote:

Thanks! Btw, your articles are awesome.

Greco never worte a book.  He prepared manuscripts of complete games for clients and patrons that were published in book form about 2 dozen years after his death. If you want to see the games in a viewer look HERE.

Ziryab wrote:

Philidor's book and some old collections made from Greco's mss are available on Google Books free. I'm working through the 1656 edition of his games as I have time.

The collections on chessgames.com and elsewhere are notoriously incomplete, presenting only the "main"games without Greco's extensive instructive variations.

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Wow. It's all on google, for free. I would need a lexicon on Old English, if that is what I am trying to read. Words like prife, houfe, lame.

Example: Greco on Scholar's Mate - White kings pawne one houfe...White queen takes the contrary kings Bifhops pawne gives mate.

The letter f must equal s. I have not seen Old English since college, back in 78-82.

That's not Old English.  This is what Old English looks like:

1656 is modern English. A few letters take some practice (the s has two forms, one of which looks like an f; the u is v and the v is u).

The Fooles Mate
Black Kings Bishops pawne one house.
White Kings pawne one house.
Black kings knight pawns two houses
White Queen gives Mate at the contrary
kings Rookes fourth house.
Gioacchino Greco, The Royall Game of Chesse-Play (London, 1656), 17. 

See my http://chessskill.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-fooles-mate.html 

This is middle English. I had to memorize these lines for a college English course. Sometimes, if you are drinking with me, you may hear me recite a few of them.

1: Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
2: The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
3: And bathed every veyne in swich licour
4: Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
5: Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
6: Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
7: Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
8: Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
9: And smale foweles maken melodye,
10: That slepen al the nyght with open ye
11: (so priketh hem nature in hir corages);
12: Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
13: And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
14: To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
15: And specially from every shires ende
16: Of engelond to caunterbury they wende,
 

It ain't everyday you hear somebody belting out Chaucer at the pub'.