Statuta de ludo

Le leggi sul gioco nell’Italia di Comune (secoli XIII-XVI)

The laws governing games and gaming in Italian communes (XIII-XVI centuries)

edited by Alessandra Rizzi

texts assembled by Claudia Cardinali, Andrea Degrandi, Andrea Di Salvo, Gherardo Ortalli, Alessandra Rizzi

introduction by Gherardo Ortalli

Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche-Viella

Treviso-Rome 2012

640 pages

40 euros

ISBN 978-88-8334-772-6

(Ludica, 11)

Statuta de ludo is a collection of laws governing games and gaming in the city-states of Italy during the XIII-XVI centuries.

Organized as a guide to ludic practices current in the urban and village communities in this period, it is an indispensible research tool for study of the history of ludicity. The intricate web of regulations reconstructed here evinces not only a resolute commitment to controlling ludic activities and thus protecting communities from the “dangers” they represent, but also an inescapable and ubiquitous need for games; it also illustrates the authorities’ “discovery” of the opportunities they could offer, including their economic potential. The research records an extraordinary wealth of ludic terms – primarily concerning games of chance, but also games of skill and ingenuity, pastimes, “armed” competitions between groups or individuals, the palios of the great saint’s-day festivities and dance – and provides telling evidence of the breadth and complexity of the ludic system as a whole.

 

Contents

Premessa di / Preface by Alessandra Rizzi

Gioco e legge nella tradizione dei comuni italiani / Games and the law in the tradition of the Italian Communes, introduzione di / introduction by Gherardo Ortalli

Criteri di edizione / Edition criteria

Elenco delle abbreviazioni o forme latine / List of abbreviations or Latin forms

Statuti censiti. Bibliografia / Statutes included in the survey. Bibliography

Elenco degli statuti censiti / List of statutes included in the survey

Statuta de ludo. Repertorio / Statuta de ludo. Catalogue

Indice analitico / Index

 

Alessandra Rizzi is a research fellow at Ca’ Foscari University, Venice, working mainly in the field of the history of ludicity and of mediaeval Venice. She is the co-director, with Gherardo Ortalli, of “Ludica”, the series dealing with the history of games and gaming published by the Fondazione Benetton Studi Ricerche, with which she has been associated for many years.