Gaetano Cozzi Prize for studies on the history of games

As part of its long-standing support for research into games, festive events, sports and leisure activities in general up to the outbreak of World War II, the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche sponsors two annual awards of 3,000 Euros each for young scholars.

The prize was first awarded in 2016 and is entitled in memory of Professor Gaetano Cozzi (1922-2001), who spurred the Foundation, from its earliest years, to pursue a special interest in research conducted by young scholars in the fields of study mentioned above.
From 2001 to 2015 the awards were called ‘Gaetano Cozzi scholarships for degree dissertations on the history of games’, and before that, from 1988 to 2000, they were dedicated to the memory of Stefano Benetton (1967-1985).

Chaired by Gherardo Ortalli, the Selection Board is made up of members of the Scientific Committee of the journal «Ludica. Annali di storia e civiltà del gioco».

 

Call for submissions, ninth year, 2025 ( pdf 586 kb)

Submissions must arrive no later than Monday 17th March 2025

The winners of the eighth year prizes, 2024

Benedetta Colasanti

Ludi scaenici nella Roma augustea. Appunti sul pantomimo Pilade di Cilicia

Marly Terwisscha van Scheltinga

“Out of love for the poor and in hope of profit”: early modern lottery players and their reasons to play the Haarlem lottery of 1607

 

honourable mentions

Francesco Borghero

Il dado e il dogma. Divieti di gioco d’azzardo nei monasteri medievali

Silvia Orione

Il palinsesto festivo degli Sforza. Il rituale delle feste nella Milano della seconda metà del xv secolo

The winners of the seventh year prizes, 2023

Aldo Giuseppe di Bari

La dimensione ludica nel mondo del lavoro. Incontri e sovrapposizioni fra mestiere e gioco d’azzardo (secc. XIII-XV)

Citation (pdf 275 kb)

Miquel Faus Faus 

“Jugava e malmetia del seu”: testimonios sobre los efectos del juego de azar en la Valencia medieval

Citation (pdf 275 kb)

honourable mentions

Maxime Kamin

Une condamnation du jeu d’échecs au XIIIe siècle : l’exemple original du Speculum prelatorum

Citation (pdf 273 kb)

Gesine Schuster

Tanzende Patrioten? Nationale und internationale Tendenzen des deutschen Gesellschaftstanzes im Übergang vom 18. zum 19. Jahrhundert

Citation (pdf 273 kb)

The winners of the sixth year prizes, 2022

George Brocklehurst

Convivial Humanism: Giovanni Pontano on Scholarship as Virtuous Play

 

Eleonora Gamba

Il compleanno di un patrizio veneziano alla fine del XV secolo fra divertimento ed erudizione: la testimonianza del “De ludo talario” di Leonico Tomeo

 

Citation (pdf 451 kb)

The winners of the fifth year prizes, 2021

Antonia Schorer

Historical Foundation of Game-Based Learning. Review of the prevailing game and learning theories of the early 20th century

Alessia Zubani

Truth or Dare? Ludic automata in the Medieval Islamic courts

 

honourable mention

Valerio Zanetti

The Sportswoman’s Paradox. Female athleticism in Girolamo Mercuriale’s De arte gymnastica

The winners of the fourth year prizes, 2020

Francisco Javier Bran García, El espacio de lo lúdico en la primera enciclopedia: manifestaciones del juego en la Historia Natural

Mattia CorsoI motivi dello scandalo

 

honourable mention

Marco Felicioni, Architectura ludens. Una breve fenomenologia del gioco in architettura e dell’architettura del gioco

The winners of the third year prizes, 2018-2019

Andrea BaldanAlla Cuccagna: percezioni del denaro e dell’attività nella letteratura cuccagnesca italiana e francese tra i secoli XIII e XVI

Naomi LebensA world of play: Pierre Duval and printed games on a marketplace for maps in seventeenth-century Paris

 

honourable mention

Leonardo SernagiottoMartiri come gladiatori. Performance atletica e spirito agonistico nell’antichità cristiana

The winners of the second year prizes, 2017

Guillaume Bureaux, Pas d’armes, littérature et théâtre à la cour du Saint-Empire: l’exemple de la tournée d’abdication de Charles Quint et des festivités de Binche (25-26 août 1549) 

Umberto Cecchinato, Tra concessione e divieto: le politiche di differenziazione sociale nel gioco d’azzardo a Treviso, secoli XII–XV

 

honourable mention

Vincenzo Tedesco«So, e credo, che non sia lecito, ma l’avidità del denaro mi spinse a far quanto ho deposto». Inquisizione romana e sortilegi per vincere al gioco d’azzardo

The winners of the first year prizes, 2016

Patrizia Giamminuti, Il Gioco dell’Oca: una proposta iconografica

Andreas Hermann Fischer, A Remedy for the Weary Mind. Intellectuals and Play in the Middle Ages

 

honourable mention

Mark Kaethler, Jean Barbier and Thomas Middleton Rewrite the Rules of Chess