The tratado (booklet) “La Filosofia Cortesana Moralizada” (Courtly Philosophy) describes a board game created by Alonso de Barros in the late cinquecento (16th C). Akin to the modern game titled “Life”, players use pieces to move along the path according to rolls of the die or instructions on the board. The purpose of the game is to show how to survive and advance at court, achieving success among the pitfalls of life as a Cortesana (Courtier). The player mimics the progress of an ambitious courtier, handling the ups and downs of their courtly career. The challenges and rewards are reflected in the names of some of the caselle, which means little “casa” (spaces, or houses as the author names them) of the game which leads to and ends for the winner at the “Palm of Victory”.
Barros shows his intimate knowledge of courtly life and of the deceptions and disappointments which come to its followers. In the game of court, as in his own, there is only one winner, who takes all. Alonso de Barros speaks of his own experience labelling life at court a “sea of suffering” across which the hard workers and lucky can sail.
The origin of the game is gioco dell’ocha from Florence:
“It is clear that clever men, after the first invention of one thing, adding or changing on the same basic idea, find out other inventions. We know this happened for the Game of the Goose, at the time of our fathers: that game was invented in Florence and, since it was very much appreciated, Francesco de Medici, Granduke of Tuscany, decided to send it to his Majesty Philip II of Spain. When it was published there, it gave the opportunity to some smart minds to invent other games little different from the first one, among which there is the game known as the Courtly Philosophy invented by Alonso de Barros from Spain.” – Game of the Goose, in Il Gioco degli Scacchi diviso in 8 libri by Pietro Carrera, 1617 (p.25)
For translations of the board directions go here.
La Bella Donna 
How is the game played? What do the spaces mean…I understand the translation, but I don’t understand what to do while in play.
I’d love to add this to our game rotation (we portray Venetian courtesans at Michigan Ren Fest)
Think of it like the game Life. Each space either moves you forward or sets you back as your goal is to reach the end with as much $ as possible. I have a paper that details each space and the action to take that I can share with you.
Here is the link. The only time there is an action you either have to move to another space, and/or lose your turn, and/or pay to the pot of money that the winner gets to keep. http://wp.me/p33YNE-7t
yes, I understand it’s like the game of Life..Thank you! I did review the board (beautiful) and the translations (how interesting). What I’m having trouble with are the actions that are supposed to occur when one lands on the ‘action’ spaces.
For example.. many are translated to (WORK)..but also diligence… chance..adulation..pay, etc.
What is the player to DO when they land on one of those spaces? Is it up to interpretation.
OR.. is it
Move to another space
lose a turn
pay (a certain amount to the pot for the winner)
I’m not trying to be obtuse.. just really curious..thanks in advance!
I see. So those spaces done have any action. They just have advice and “wise sayings”. The first action space is 15, where the steps of hope allow you to skip to space 26. The only action spaces have a notation of the action in brackets that tell you “al” or “alla” meaning to “go”… or a. Othe to pay the pot.
Thank you so much for explaining this to me! One last (I hope) request–do you have a high resolution copy of the gameboard so that I may use it to make the game to play. I would NOT make the game for sale-just a one off for our amusement.
My pleasure! I only have the ones I found doing a google search. Try searching the images and an HD version. Buona fortuna!