Description:
[i-viii]+430 pages. small octavo (7" x 4 1/2") bound in contemporary half leather with marbled boards. Foreword by Friedrich Nicolai, Translated by K F Trost. First published in French (Paris) in 1775 as Traite Theorique et Pratique du Jeu des Eches. From the library of Borje Borjesson. (Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 414) First German edition.Le Traite des Amateurs is a chess treatise composed, by a "Society of Amateurs" contemporaries of Philidor; who all frequented the Cafe de la Regence, in Paris. Of these, the strongest players were Bernard, Carlier, Leger, and Verdoni. Philidor, constantly resident in London, took no part in writing the "Traite des Amateurs;" which in fact embodies many criticisms and comments upon his earlier printed book. Only four masters of the group, considered the strongest, are known: Bernard, Carlier, Leger and Verdoni. A part, partially, from Verdoni, who is the only one of the Amateurs with his own entry in the Oxford Companion to Chess, not very much is… Read More