ChessManiac.com - Chess History With Sarah Beth - Early modern writers: the poets and the rest
"Somewhere between 1275 and 1300 Fr Jacopo de Cessole (Jacob Cessolis), a Dominican Friar, wrote a book called De Ludo Scachorum or De Moribus Hominum ed de Officiis Nobilium Super Ludo Scaccorum which is latin for simply About the Game of Chess or About the Customs of Men and the Noble Actions Involving the Game of Chess.

This book is a series of sermons metaphorically using chess to depict the relationships between a King and the various estates of his Kingdom. The complicated metaphor was useless for those who didn't play the game, so the author gave detailed instructions concerning the rules of chess as it was played in the 13th century. For all its moralization, the main interst of the text today are these instructions. It was during the 14th century that this book was translated from the original Latin into Catalan, Dutch, English, French, German and Italian.
It was translated into French and printed in Toulouse in 1476. "
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