One of my current projects which will take who knows how long is drawing, illuminating, and probably gilding a Italian-style “Il nuovo et piacevole gioco dell ocha” or Game of the Goose.

The goal is to make a game that I can take with me to demos and events so it can actually be played. So far, I’ve translated the Italian rules shown on the board that the British Museum has in their collection (museum number 1869,0410.2465.+) and done a bit of research, though I think more is required.

A few interesting things about Gioco dell Ocha via researcher Adrian Seville:

• The game dates to at least the mid-1400s in Italy, possibly earlier. By the 1600s, it’s being played across Europe. When looking for Italian/Venetian boards (hey, when your persona’s a Sibilia, you got to), I ran across boards from the late 1800s so clearly it lasted a while.
• All of the numbers/key game spaces are references to Italian numerological practices of the time. Loads of symbolism in this game.
• The game has 63 spaces because in Italy, the human life was thought to be governed by various crisis every 7 years. The one at age 63 was the most important – if you made it through that, the reward was peace and wisdom.
• The spiral of the game is the path to Paradise – the geese are spaced by nines in reference to the Trinity of Trinities.
• Another scholar, Donatino Domini, thinks that the goose was chosen for the game as a victory symbol. Geese were also seen as lucky (they still are in Italy) and a sign of prosperity for a medieval household.

Here’s the sketch of where I’m at now with the current board. It’s wonky because I stupidly started it on a piece of large crap paper as a relaxation project. I’m dithering over if I want to redraw on good paper, preferably a size easy to photocopy, or if I just want to go forward. Who knows?