Lockdown games
Arts of the Middle Ages,
Paul Lacroix, 1870.
In Arts of the Middle Ages, Paul Lacroix wrote that “…sufferings of hunger during a long and cruel famine invented nearly every game, especially that of dice. Later authors ascribe the honours of these inventions to the Greeks, when irritated at the tedious delays of the siege of Troy.”
Lacroix was curator of part of the national library of France in the mid-19th-century where he was known as Bibliophile Jacob*. Correcting earlier writers, Lacroix demonstrated that playing cards were introduced into Europe from Asia.
*bibliophile: book lover.
These medieval round-shaped German cards show the King of Parrots, Queen of Carnations, Knave of Columbine and Knave of Hares
Shut Up in Paris,
Nathan Sheppard, 1871.
For four months in 1870-71, Paris was besieged by occupying Prussian forces. In his diary of day-to-day life in the city during this lockdown, Nathan Sheppard used repeated references to games and pastimes to indicate that even under the “oppressive suspense” of this situation, people looked for ways for life to continue as normal.
“The crack billiard-player draws his usual audience; the silent chess-players have their usual group of silent lookers-on.”
