Tables (Early Backgammon)

This exhibition explores Asia’s fundamental role in the development and refinement of games. It brings together some of Asia's most significant examples of boards, pieces, and other game playing paraphernalia from museums and private collections worldwide.

A backgammon variant played in Spain and England from the 13th-17th centuries.

Medieval games, and especially children&# 39;s games, reconstruc ted from medieval manuscript s and descriptio ns.

Games of the Middle Ages, specifical ly focusing on board games popular in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Links to extant pieces of pre-17th century gaming equipment, as well as depictions of people playing games.

Dice and dice games, gaming pieces and board games (including hnefatafl, duodecim scripta, merels, halatafl, chess, and draughts), knucklebones, and riddles.

Philip Stubbes started writing around 1581 producing small tracts in which he sharply denounced the manners, pastimes, fashions and culture in England. His major work, The Anatomie of Abuses, was first published in 1583.

P hilip Stubbes had a gift for keen observatio n. Although his comments should not be considered to reveal mainstream thought or opinions of the time, (even his contempora ries thought him extreme) his virulent attacks on the abuses in fashion and English society provide us with a detailed, colorful and picturesqu e glimpse into the England of Shakespear e's youth.

Tabula is a Roman game dating back several centuries BCE. The game later spread to Europe and became popular in England where it was known as Tables. The word "tables" also became the generic term for any game played on a backgammon board, similar to the way "cards" is used today.