Jakob Mennel · Christian Egenolff
Original title: Schachzabel
Egenolff's expanded edition of 1536 brings together Jacob Mennel's chess poem, an explanation of the old game and an appendix on the new manner of play. Different historical layers meet within one volume: earlier conceptions of pieces and rules persist alongside the changes from which modern chess emerged.
Readers are introduced to the board, the movements of the pieces and preparations for the struggle, together with discussions of the game's origins and merits. Practical instruction stands beside poetry and moral explanation. The letter-based records and old designations deserve special attention: they show how positions were described and chess knowledge transmitted before familiar coordinate notation.
The book's chief value is the opportunity to observe a transition between two chess traditions without retrospectively making their rules identical. The edition preserves the printed text and engravings of the selected source; editorial notes and modern interpretations of the records help readers compare old and new. It offers substantial reading on the history of chess, printing and the language of sixteenth-century chess instruction.
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