The sermon was so well received that his fellow friars insisted he write it out.
From kings and queens, to farmers and gamblers, Jacob outlined the virtues and vices, obligations and inclinations of various members of medieval society: those who governed, those who fought and those who worked, playing out their qualities on the chess board. 16 woodcuts from Caxton's 1474 edition.This edition offers the first English translation of this famous work since Caxton's printing of 1474. This metaphor comes down from the thirteenth century when Jacob de Cessolis, a Dominican friar in the Lombard region of Italy, delivered a sermon based on the game.