An inquiry into the antient Greek game, supposed to have been invented by Palamedes, antecedent to the siege of Troy
Subtitle: with reasons for believing the same to have been known from remote antiquity in China, and progressively improved into the Chinese, Indian, Persian, and European chess ; also, two dissertations, I. On the Athenian Skirophoria, II. On the Mystical meaning of the bough and umbrella, in the Skiran rites.
Contributors: Tresham, Henry, 1749?-1814.
Publisher: T. Becket
Published: 1801
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 169
Subjects: Chess -- History.; Greece -- Religion.; Athens (Greece) -- Religious life and customs.
Notes: Published anonymously. By James Christie. Cf. Dict. nat. biog.
Three of the illustrations are by Henry Tresham. Cf. Pref.
Special illustrated title pages for parts of the main work read: [p. 1] Of the antient games of skill. Of the [petteía, triódion], and ludus latrunculorum; [p. 27] Of the mixed games of chance annd skill. Of the alveus and [plinthíon]; [p. 53] Of the Chinese, Indian, Persian, and European Chess. Of the [petteía], as known among the Chinese.
"Appendix" contains: Of the Scythian rites (p. 89-95); A dissertation upon the Athenian Skirophoria ... (p. [97]-122); A second dissertation upon the mystical signification of the bough and the umbrella ... (p. [123]-169, including "Postscript": Of the religion of the Pelasgi)