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The geographical Jeux de l'Oieof Europe

Adrian Seville

ABSTRACTThe Jeu de L'Oie (Game of Goose), a unicursal race game played with tokens and dice,is named from the goose symbols on the favourable spaces. Many variants have beendeveloped of the original 16th century Italian game. An important genre, originating inFrance as an educational aid, is that of geographical games, many being based on maps.The paper discusses the history of cartographical games that have an international dimen-sion within Europe.Six such games are illustrated, originally published in 17thC France, 18thC England, 19th CNetherlands, 19thC England (a non-unicursal variant), 20thC Italy and 20thC Germany. Therules of each are contrasted with those of the parent game of Goose. Techniques of print-ing and cartography are compared.Each game goes beyond simple cartographic representation to convey, through its rulesor iconography, a deliberate «message», whether political, commercial or cultural. Thegames give insights into international relationships, perceptions and misconceptions atvarious points in the history of Europe.

KEY WORDS: board game history, dice, Europe, France, Germany, Netherlands, England,Italy, cartography, printing, propaganda, advertising, culture, international relations, com-merce, trade, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th century

RÉSUMÉLES JEUX DE L’OIE GÉOGRAPHIQUES DE L’EUROPELe nom «Jeu de l’Oie» (jeu de parcours où l'on déplace des pions en fonction des résul-tats des dés) provient de la représentation d’une oie dans certaines cases bénéfiques. Denombreuses variantes de ce jeu, qui trouve son origine dans l’Italie du XVIe siècle, ont étédéveloppées. Parmi celles-ci, les jeux géographiques, souvent basés sur des cartes,représentent un genre important, apparu en France en tant que support éducatif. Cet article examine l’histoire des jeux cartographiques ayant pris une dimension interna-tionale à travers l’Europe.Nous illustrerons ici six de ces jeux, apparus en France au XVIIe siècle, en Angleterre auXVIIIe, aux Pays-Bas et en Angleterre au XIXe (dans ce dernier cas il s’agit d’une variantenon unicursale), en Italie et en Allemagne au XXe siècle. Les règles de ces jeux sont misesen contraste avec celles de leur ancêtre. Nous comparerons également les techniquesd’impression et les cartographies.Chacun des jeux dépasse la simple représentation cartographique pour apporter, par sespropres règles ou son iconographie, un «message» délibéré: politique, commercial ouencore culturel. Ils donnent également un aperçu des relations internationales, percep-tions ou idées erronées à différents moments de l’histoire européenne.

MOTS-CLÉS: histoire des jeux de société, dés, Europe, France, Allemagne, Pays-Bas,Angleterre, Italie, cartographie, imprimerie, propagande, publicité, culture, relations inter-nationales, commerce, XVIe, XVIIe, XVIIIe, XIXe, XXe siècles

The title of the paper is perhaps contro-versial. On the one hand, geographi-

cal games that are strictly based on thetraditional Jeu de l’Oie with rules identicalin all respects are nowhere to be found.On the other, if the term Jeu de l’Oie isapplied in the widest sense, meaning anysort of game of chance, then the subjectbecomes diffuse. The paper concentrateson those geographical games that arerecognisably connected, through theirrules, with the traditional Jeu de l’Oie. (Fordiscussions on rule variations, see Seville(1991) and Zollinger (2003)). Accordingly,the games treated here are all (exceptone included as a comparison) single-track race games of pure chance, usingdice or their equivalent to determine themovement of tokens along the tracktowards a finishing space.The term «geographical» refers to thethematic aspect of the game. However,though games with a geographic themeoften use maps structurally, this is not uni-versal. For example, games on the «worldtour» theme often show illustrations of theplaces visited rather than a map. Thispaper is primarily concerned with map-based (cartographic) games. Even within the class of map-basedgames, a number of different sub-classesmay be identified. There are those inwhich the playing track is laid out on theface of a single map, while others providea separate track; or the track itself mayconsist of numerous small maps. The mapmay be in outline or relief and may beillustrated, for example with vignettescharacteristic of each place, or may beartext characterising those places. Mapgames thus demonstrate considerablevariety in appearance, even without tak-ing into account the usual differences inprinting processes, colouring, format etc.found in cartographic studies generally.There is also considerable variety in how

«real» they are. In some games, the trackrepresents an actual voyage rather than asupposed journey – for example,Stanley’s March across the DarkContinent for the Relief of Emin Pasha(Royal Museum for Central Africa,Tervuen, shelf mark 74.53). Or it may rep-resent the travels of a fictional character.Indeed, the territory «represented» by themap may be entirely of the imagination –for example, the imaginary seascape inWilliam Darton’s game published in 1836:A Voyage of Discovery or the FiveNavigators (Goodfellow, 1991, p. 40).Most of the standard works on racegames of the Jeu de L’Oie type includesome brief account of geographical vari-ants. Grand-Carteret (1896, pp. 257-256)includes a note on their history and devel-opment in his chapter on the game; seealso Grand-Carteret (1895) and Rabecq-Maillard (1961, pp. 155-160). Whitehouse(1951, pp. 5-23) devotes a chapter to theEnglish games of this genre in theGeorgian and Victorian eras. D’Alle-magne (1950, p. 46) in his book on theFrench Jeux de l’Oie gives a short note onthe history of French geographicalgames, and Girard and Quétel do likewise(1982, p. 39). Mascheroni and Tinti (1981,p.78) mention Italian geographical gamesbriefly. The Buijnsters (2005, pp.137-138)note various examples held in theNetherlands. However, no systematictreatment exists for the genre.It is difficult to estimate the number ofpublished map-based games. All listsmust be regarded as incomplete, for it isinevitable that many games are lost overthe years. Nevertheless, for the years tothe end of the 19th century, some indica-tive figures may be useful. Whitehouse(1951, pp. 5-23) gives 30 published inEngland to the end of the 19th century.D’Allemagne (1950, pp. 218-219) lists 19French games up to that date under the

428 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

SCOPE OF THE PAPER

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heading «Jeux à cartes geographiques»,though these include one that is not a racegame and five re-editions. The Buijnsters(2005) list perhaps another five publishedin the Netherlands, ignoring re-editions ofFrench games. For Italy, Mascheroni andTinti (1981) mention a few map–basedgames. The exhibition catalogues of theGerman collections (see for exampleHimmelheber (bayerische National-museum, 1972), Kohlmann (Museum fürDeutsche Volkskunde, Berlin, 1978), andvon Wilkens (Germanisches NationalMuseum, Nürnberg, 1985)) indicate thatmap-based games do not figure greatly inthem until the end of the 19th century,when an important sub-genre, typified bythe title Tour of Switzerland, but includingother «tours», began to appear: some ofthese were based on maps. For the prolif-eration of games in the 20th century,including many hundreds of advertisingand promotional games of an ephemeralnature, no useful numerical estimate of

map-based games can be made, thoughthey certainly figured significantly in theoutput. Indeed, a notable sub-genreencompasses map-games of geographi-cal propaganda, showing the advance ofarmies, the extent of empire, or the sphereof influence generally (Milanesi, 1995).The present short paper can cover only asmall fraction of this material in detail. Thefocus is on games that have Europe astheir theme or have an internationaldimension within Europe, giving insightsinto international relationships, percep-tions – and misconceptions – at variouspoints in history.The end result of this narrowing of focus isthe set of six games illustrated here. Itincludes some of the earliest and mostinteresting educational race games,spans four centuries, and presents gamesoriginating in five different countries ofEurope. A number of other games are dis-cussed briefly in the text.

THE TRADITIONAL JEU DE L’OIE

The Jeu de l’Oie (Game of Goose,Gi(u)oco dell’Oca, Ganzenspel, Gänse-spiel etc.) is historically the most importantspiral race game ever devised. It has itsroots in the Italy of Francesco de’ Medici(1574-87), who, as Carrera (1617, p. 25)reports, sent it as a present to King PhilipII of Spain. The game took hold there andelsewhere in continental Europe, where itis still played. It is played with double diceand the usual tokens, the aim being toarrive exactly at the final space, num-bered 63 in the standard form of thegame. Images of geese denote thefavourable spaces. After landing on agoose, the player goes on by the amountof the throw. There are also unfavourablespaces, or hazards, which involve payingto the pool and other penalties. Mostnotable of these is death, on space 58: theunfortunate player who lands here mustbegin the game again. The other usualhazards are at 6, a bridge – go on to 12;19, an inn – lose two turns; 31, a well – waituntil another reaches the space thenexchange places; 42, a maze – go back to

39 (usually); 52, a prison – wait as for thewell. Being hit by another player’s tokeninvolves changing places and paying tothe pool. Winning requires the player toland exactly on space 63 – overthrows arecounted backwards. This adds greatly tothe excitement, since an overthrow mayhit the «death» space. Indeed, the rulesare ingeniously contrived to produce ahighly playable game (Seville, 2001).Waiting in the prison or the well for someother unfortunate to arrive and take one’splace is a chastening experience!In this traditional form, the game was evi-dently a game of human life, with thegeese evidently having a favourable sym-bolical significance (Domini, 1999, pp. 37-38). It was also imbued with numerologi-cal significance, deriving from the theoriesof the Cabala (Menestrier, 1704, p.196).This was a system of Jewish mystical the-ology developed in Spain in the 12th - 13th

centuries but then adapted for Christianuse in the Renaissance, by Italian schol-ars especially (Blau, 1944). In this system,the number 63 was highly significant, rep-

Educational games based on the Jeu del’Oie for the teaching of geography wereinvented in France by Pierre Duval (1619-1683), well known for his educationalmaps. One of the distinguished school ofFrench geographers initiated by NicolasSanson, he was appointed Géographe duRoi in 1650. His first game was Le Jeu duMonde. This was published in Paris in1645 by Mariettte, who had previouslypublished the earliest known French edu-cational jeu de l’oie, the Jeu Chronolo-gique, dated 1638. (D’Allemagne, 1950,p. 44). The Jeu du Monde had a spiraltrack made up of 63 circles, each being asmall map of a different country of theworld: the final winning circle representedFrance. There followed two other mapgames by Duval on a similar plan. First,Etienne Vouillement published Le Jeu deFrance in 1659, in which each circularspace was a small map of a province ofFrance (Seville, 2005). Then, in 1662,Nicolas Berey published Duval’s Le Jeudes Princes de L’Europe. In this game,described in some detail below, each ofthe 63 circular spaces of the spiral track isa small map of a region or country ofEurope, with France as the winningspace. A map of Europe is in the centre.Duval went to considerable lengths toproduce games with the canonical num-ber 63 as the winning space. His choiceof the territories for the Europe game(«...each figure represents a Country,State or Island of this part of the world»)may seem arbitrary but is directed to this

end. For example, the first four spacesare labelled: Espagne, Castille, Arragon,Navarre; but then Portugal is given only asingle space.The general rules of the game are closelybased on the Jeu de l’Oie:Play with two common dice and 2, 3, 4, 5or 6 players. Each plays once in turn,marking his place with a marker and mov-ing according to the points on the dice. Itis necessary to agree the stake: «un Icu,un Liard, un Sol, un Teston, une Pistolle»,which each player must put on the Map ofEurope in the centre. All the other pay-ments are of the same value and all this isto the profit of the winner. To win thegame, one must arrive exactly at France,the eye and pearl of the World and whichis to Europe as Europe is to the otherparts of the Earth. He who arrives there ismaster of all the payments, ransoms, lots,fines and other contributions.Reverse overthrows are played, as inGoose. But then comes a special rule,which clearly indicates that Duval seesthis as an educational game:Who would take profit in Geography con-cerning Europe should take care to saythe names of the places when he arrivesand to read the names of the principaltowns.This approach also influences the cartog-raphy of the maps themselves: they areselective as to detail, concentrating onthe key features of each territory.The detailed «laws» of the game derivefrom those of the Jeu de L’Oie but are

resenting the crucial year, or «grand cli-macteric», of life (Sir Thomas Browne,1615, Ch XII).At first sight, this background may seemirrelevant to the geographical variants.These variants have their own rules – whyshould a player be concerned with thedetails of a game he or she is not playing?However, this would be to ignore the factthat, for many players, the rules of thewell-loved Jeu de l’Oie would be entirelyfamiliar. A game that related to this would

feel comfortable to play and – to theextent that the original rules were main-tained – would benefit from the excite-ment and playability of the original game.Also, the significance of the playingspaces – especially the «good» spacesand the «bad» spaces – would carry over,either by direct reference or ironically.Indeed, this is a key feature of the manythousands of variants of the game pro-duced on different themes throughout thecenturies (Dietsch, 1983).

430 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

THE BEGINNING: EDUCATIONAL GAMES IN 17th CENTURY FRANCE

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Figure 1. Le Jeu des Princes de L’Europe – Pierre Duval (1662).

In England, the development of educa-tional race games began about 100 yearslater than in France (Shefrin, 1999).Whitehouse gives the first dated game ofthis kind as that invented by John Jefferysin 1759: A Journey through Europe, or thePlay of Geography published byCarrington Bowles in London. The rules tobe observed in the game begin: «TheJourney through Europe is to be played inall respects the same as the Game ofGoose. Whoever begins to spin the Totumfirst must place his man on the very num-

ber that turns up...».The «totum» (later known as theTeetotum) is a top-like spinner, usedbecause in this period the use of dice wasfrowned upon, as associated with gam-bling and cheating. Jefferys does notspecify how many sides the totum is tohave. Versions numbered from 1 to 8 werecommon, but some games use a six-sided teetotum, to be spun twice, so giv-ing the true effect of double dice. Twelve-sided versions were also in use.The rules then explain how the next move

cleverly adapted to provide lessons ininternational relationships and percep-tions of the period:5 Portugal Stay to make the voyage to

the East Indies until another playerarrives and pays (the Goose Wellrule).

6 Holande Embark at Flushing for Dover,No. 60 England, to assist in the mar-riage ceremonies of the King of GreatBritain to the Princess of Portugal.(Similar to Goose rule for initial throwof 9).

10 Switzerland Stay to make a debauchwith those of this nation and pay hisscot, while the others play twice.

22 Sicily Shipwreck at the lighthouse ofMessina, where the perils of Scyllaand Charybdis used to be, and pays.

41 Denmark Must pay the tax to the Sundto dislodge the Hollandais who havelent money to the King during the war.

50 Muscovy Must advance once accord-ing to the points on the dice (a Gooserule). The Muscovites do not permitentry to their country, yet you pay.

52 Hungary Receives from each playerthe agreed stake, for the fortification ofthe realm and to make levees againstthe Turk, meanwhile advancing toTransylvania, No 54.

57 Little Tartarie Must pay ransom inorder not to be enslaved inConstantinople and must go to SpainNo. 1 to begin the game again (com-pare the Goose death rule).

59 Candie Must be arrested to serve

against the infidels and must stay untilanother takes his place (Goose prisonrule).

The entry for Holland is particularly inter-esting as it implicitly confirms the publica-tion date of 1662: King Charles II ofEngland married Catherine of Braganza,Infanta of Portugal, by proxy in Lisbon on23rd April 1662. The overall effect is up-to-date and lively,suited to the intended market for thegame: the young «cadets» of aristocraticfamilies who were studying in Paris. Aswell as geography, their studies wouldinclude heraldry, history and the art ofwar, and their moral and spiritual devel-opment was not neglected. All theseaspects of life are well represented ingames of the period derived from the Jeude l’Oie.Indeed, Duval himself produced a gameon the conduct of war as early as 1660:Le Jeu des François et des Espagnolspour le Paix. This was also a spiral racegame, but less closely based on the Jeude l’Oie than those mentioned above.Again, circles containing individual mapswere used, one for each year of the warfrom 1635 until the peace of 1660: eachmap showed the disposition of the Frenchand Spanish forces in the particular year.The legacy of the educational gamesinvented in 17th century France wouldcontinue there for more than three cen-turies, with continual updating and varia-tion across themes both traditional andnew.

432 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

ENGLISH ENGRAVED GAMES OF THE 18th CENTURY

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Figure 2. A Journey through Europe – John Jefferys (1759).

is to be made by adding the next numberspun, that the directions given for the var-ious places encountered are to be fol-lowed, and that if the number spun carriesa man past the winning space (London, at77), the excess is to be counted negative– i.e., reverse overthrows are played, justas in the Game of Goose.The Game of Goose was familiar andwidely played throughout England, soJefferys’ reference to it is not surprising.His game is not of 63 spaces, suggestingthat the numerological importance waslost on him. Nevertheless, the game hasconsiderable structural similarity to thetraditional Jeu de l’Oie. The chief charac-teristic of that game is the doubling for-ward of the throw when a goose space isencountered. In Jefferys’ game, theequivalent spaces are «...any numberwhere a King lives», and the player wholands on such a number has the privilegeof reckoning his spin twice over. Theplaces concerned are: Copenhagen(Denmark and Norway), Stockholm(Sweden), Petersburg (Czarina ofMuscovy), Warsaw (Poland), Berlin(Prussia), Vienna (Queen of Hungary),Constantinople (Emperor of the Turks orOran De Seignior), Naples (Naples),Madrid (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal), Paris(France), London (Great Britain), Dublin(Lord Lieutenant of Ireland who repre-sents the King of England), Turin(Sardinia).Unlike the Duval game, this is not a gam-bling game. There is no reference to stakesor payments. Indeed, the benefit to thewinner is not monetary: «He who rests onNo. 77 at London wins the play, shall havethe honour of kissing the King of GreatBritain’s hand and shall be knighted andshall receive the compliments of all thecompany in regard to his new dignity».Instructions for other numbers imposedelays (miss one or more turns) and sendthe player off to appropriate destinations.Many of the instructions refer to aspectsof commerce of the period. For example,«he who lands on No. 23 Frankfurt muststay one turn, to buy Printer’s Black tosend to England».

But others are more widely educational:«he who lands on No. 42 Venice must stayone turn, to see the noble bridge calledthe Rialto; while he who lands on No. 29Mentz (Mainz) must stay one turn, to learnthe art of printing which was found outthere by John Faustus in 1440». JohnFaust was one of Gutenberg’s partnersbut it is surprising that he gets all thecredit for the invention of printing frommovable type!There are also references to theHanoverian connection: «he who rests at28 at Hanover shall by order of the King ofGreat Britain who is Elector be conductedto No. 54 at Gibraltar to visit his country-men who keep garrison there»; while theProtestant hatred of the Pope is all too evi-dent: «He who rests at No. 48 at Rome forkissing the Pope’s Toe shall be banishedfor his folly to No. 4 in the cold island ofIceland and miss three turns».These various instructions succeed inmaking vivid the characteristics of theplaces visited but have no resonance withthe original Jeu de l’Oie.The Duval and Jefferys games have fewsimilarities in their selection of aspectsconsidered to be of importance. Passingthe Sound (Sund) for entry to the Baltic isfeatured in both, but generally the gamesdiffer considerably, the Jefferys gamereflecting strongly the significance of con-tinental European trade in Great Britain’seconomy.Jefferys’ game was to have few imitatorsfor a decade or so. Thomas Jefferys (norelation to John Jefferys) published anoth-er Europe map game in 1768 but there-after games using a map of Europe werepublished by several of the major Londonmap publishers: Robert Sayer (1774),John Wallis (1794), and Bowles & Carver(1790s). Several of these publishers, andothers, produced games based on theworld map, as well as games based onnational maps. This was part of a generalproliferation of engraved race games inthe England of the 18th and early 19th

centuries, covering educational games ofmany kinds as well as games of amuse-ment, including the Game of Goose itself.

434 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

The traditional Jeu de l’Oie has beenpopular in the Netherlands from an earlydate. Engraved examples survive from1640. Existing woodblock versions are oflater date but their close similarity to thosefound in England suggests links goingback to the earliest English goose games.Geographical games of local origin (asopposed to local versions of Paris origi-nals) are found from the early 1800s.The example selected here is by Mortierand Zoon of Amsterdam, dated 1819. It isentitled «Game of a Journey though theFatherland for the Youth of theNetherlands», thus declaring its educa-tional intent. It consists of a map of theNetherlands surrounded by a track of 86spaces, each containing the name of atown or city, and is to be played as a racegame in the normal manner.

At first sight, this selection of a gameshowing a journey through a single nationmight seem to contravene the internation-al purposes of the current paper.However, a moment’s inspection of themap will show that it includes the territo-ries of Belgium and Luxemburg. When thenew Kingdom of the Netherlands wasformed in 1815, the Austrian Netherlands(now Belgium) was added, whileLuxemburg was a crown Dominion of theDutch King. In 1830, Belgium was againseparated, but between 1815 and 1830Dutch children had to learn the geogra-phy of all three territories, as reflected inthis game. Games on the principle of the Jeu de l’Oieremain popular in the Low Countries tothis day, with innumerable variants andstyles.

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GAMES FROM THE NETHERLANDS

LITHOGRAPHED GAMES OF THE 19th CENTURY

The development of lithography in the 19th

century enabled the production of highlyattractive geographical games using thenew technique. An early example inEngland was The Travellers or a Tourthrough Europe, published in London byWilliam Spooner in 1842. This is acoloured map of Europe, with vignettes ofmany of the places to be visited, includingsea areas. Lines of latitude and longitudeare shown and indeed the game is to beplayed on the intersections of these lines.Movement of each player’s marker isdetermined by the spin of a four-sided tee-totum bearing the letters N E S W for thepoints of the compass, to give the direc-tion in which the marker is to be moved, asfar as the next intersection. Each playerbegins from a different starting point andis required to journey to a specified capi-tal city, e.g. the player who starts fromJerusalem must reach Vienna, while fromCairo the aim is to reach St Petersburg,etc. A city is reached by reaching eitheradjacent point on the same line as the let-ter denoting that city. Some moves requirea player to pay or take from the pool – a

player who loses all his initial 20 counters(his «expenses» for the journey) becomes«bankrupt» and must leave the game. Atraveller who reaches any capital city(marked by three daggers on the map)must announce the name of the country ofwhich it is capital, or pay a fine of twocounters. The first player to reach his orher specified city wins the pool.This is clearly an educational game. Likethe Jeu de l’Oie, it is a game of purechance, with no skill and no choice ofmoves. However, unlike that game, it is atwo dimensional random walk, rather thana progress along a single track. The mainpurpose of including it here is to make thepoint that not all geographical race gamesare unicursal.Another purpose is to show the beautifuleffects that could be produced in themedium of lithography. The section shownillustrates geographical features such asthe Giant’s Causeway, gives vignettes ofthe main cities and also illustrates topicalmatters such as the perils of whaling.Lithographed map-based games arefound throughout Europe.

436 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

Figure 3. Vaderlandsch Reisspel voor die Nederlandsche Jeugd – Mortier en Zoon (1819).

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Figure 4. Travellers of Europe – Spooner (1842).

It may seem strange to leave the games ofItaly until this point – after all, Italy was theplace where, as the Gioco dell’Oca, theJeu de l’Oie was invented at the end of the16th century. Though Italy was responsiblefor many popular «world tour» (Giro delMondo) games on the principle of the Jeude l’Oie – lively productions, seldombased on maps, but with attractivecoloured views of the places visited – thesame principles were not used in thedevelopment of map-based games for theteaching of geography. Indeed Masche-roni and Tinti (1981, p.78, present author’stranslation) comment on the boring natureof some of these games dating from the18th and early 19th centuries:The information was always of the samekind: the world was divided into four sec-tions. The principal cities were specified.There were notes on economic resourcesbut these were concerned only with gold,diamonds, commerce in porcelain, and silk.

The play was particularly fatiguing since itrequired repeated reference to a detailedrulebook, specifying the move or paymentto be made, unlike the Jeu de l’Oie, wherethe simple rules were apparent from theface of the game. The use of a complicat-ed rulebook was of course not restrictedto Italy – many of the English educationalgames of the Victorian period, and someof the earlier French, adopted this worthybut stultifying device.The game selected for description here isof a much later era – the 20th century –when the Italians under Mussolini were atthe forefront of enthusiasm for innovation,especially in aeronautics. It shows thevoyage in 1926 of the dirigible Norge fromits base in Oslo first to Rome then on to theNorth Pole until its landing in Alaska. The72-space track is shown as series of smallnumbered circles, supplemented by larg-er spaces, of which some show scenesfrom the voyage and others show small

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

438 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

Figure 5. Il Dirigible Norge alla Scoperta della Polo Nord – Marca Stella (1926).

maps, on which the path of the Norge ismarked. These maps are of no great car-tographic quality but are of interest: forexample, one marks the aerostation atPulham Market, in England, now longdefunct.Also of interest is that this is clearly agame based on the Jeu de l’Oie. Here,though, the favourable spaces are

marked not with a goose but with a dog,named Titina, the mascot taken on thevoyage by Umberto Nobile, its organiser.The dog occurs one in every six spaces(unlike the Jeu de l’Oie where the series ofgeese are on every ninth space, usuallywith two such series). However, the char-acteristic rule of doubling the throw onthese spaces is retained.

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ADVERTISING, PROMOTION AND PROPAGANDA

Although they operate at national ratherthan international level, brief referencemust be made to the thousands of racegames which were published in 20th cen-tury for advertising and promotional pur-poses, or for politics and propaganda.An example of a map-based game pro-moting a product is that offered gratis bythe manufacturers of Chartreux table oil inWillems, Belgium – see Van Bost (1990,p.111) for an illustration. It is a crudelydrawn map of Belgium, showing the route

of a cycle tour beginning at Willems,where the oil is made, and ending atBrussels. Informative details of the townsencountered on route are given but haveno playing significance. The rules are asimplified version of the Jeu de l’Oie,where landing on a space marked with abottle of the oil entitles the player to moveon by the amount of the spin. The intentionto associate the product with the «good»spaces of the Jeu de l’Oie is obvious.

TOURING IN EUROPE

Some promotional race games, though,were aimed internationally, particularlythose for encouraging tourism. Racegames designed to attract the tourist are anotable feature of Switzerland andGermany, constituting almost a separategenre. They must be presumed to derivefrom an original different from the tradi-tional Jeu de l’Oie, for their playing fea-tures show no resemblances to that game.The track lengths are arbitrary and therules equally so. In this, they follow themany non-cartographic travel gamesfound in Germany, typified by Post-und-Riesenspiel.Easy international tourism (as opposed tothe aristocratic «Grand Tour» of earlierdays) grew out of the technical revolutionin travel from the second half of the 19th

century, when railways began to makepenetration into the mountain ranges rela-tively convenient. Switzerland was the pro-totype destination and the Tour ofSwitzerland the archetypal game.

However, it was primarily the Germanmanufacturers who put such games intheir catalogues beginning towards theend of that century and continuing wellinto the 20th: Scholz (Mainz), Sala (Berlin),Spear (Nurnberg and London), Maier(Ravensburg) and Hausser (Ludwigs-burg) all produced such games – seeAudisio and Schädler (2006), also Kayseland Etter (1989). Not every one was map-based: the board often consisted of aseries of attractive views, reproduced bycolour lithography, though a small mapmight be added as a guide. Again, not allwere unicursal race games: there wasconsiderable variety of playing structure,for example the multicursal layout of therailways could be used as a basis – e.g.the Jeu de chemin de fer suisse (Milanesiand Lanari, 2001, p. 95).The example shown here is a relativelyhumble production, dating from about1935, showing a tour of Germany butintended to promote the use of agricultur-

al chemicals. It represents a land evident-ly peopled with happy couples in colour-ful costumes of the region – but to thenorth a German warship lurks. In fact, thisgame is a clear reflection of the ThirdReich – the game begins in Berlin, with anexplicit reference in the text to 21st March1933 and the opening of the newReichstag by Hitler. The map shows EastPrussia as separated from the rest of

Germany by Danzig and the PolishCorridor, legacies of Versailles – but thejourney loops across the divide almost asthough it did not exist. These games of travel are of course man-made representations of the areas theycover. It is particularly characteristic ofthem that they aim to convey messagesabout that area, whether as publicity orpropaganda.

440 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

Figure 6. Eine Reise durch Deutschland – about 1935.

GAMES BASED ON PLANS

Some «map games» would be betterdescribed as being based on plans.These include games based on plans ofcities and towns, together with those ofeven more local or ephemeral signifi-cance. These are generally excluded fromthis paper since they lack an international

dimension. However, it may be appropri-ate to mention that Expo 58 in Brussels –a truly international event of some signifi-cance for Europe – gave rise to a racegame in its own right, though not one hav-ing much to do with the Jeu de l’Oie.

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MAP GAMES WITH A MESSAGE

Maps are representations on a surface,made by humans for human purposes. Infulfilling those purposes, the makers of con-ventional maps may feel under an obliga-tion to create representations that are, as faras possible, objective and value-free. Nosuch obligation seems to have occurred tothe minds of those creating map-basedgames. Their games are full of messagesextraneous to the playing purpose: mes-sages that are sometimes overt, sometimesconcealed.To modern European eyes looking at hisgame of 1662, Duval’s patriotism, thoughperhaps understandable in one so relianton the patronage of the King of France,seems over-fervent: «France – the eye andpearl of the World», with Europe similarlyexalted in relation to the other continents.Yet this patriotic view was enduring: inabout 1815, the Paris firm of Basset pro-duced the Jeu Instructif des Peuples etCostumes des Quatre Parties du Monde etdes Terres Australes. This was a gamestrongly based on the Jeu de l’Oie in whicheach of the 63 spaces showed a nation ofthe world, with inhabitants in national dress.The winning space was France, as in themuch earlier Duval game – but here thecountries of Europe were selected for thefavourable «goose» spaces. «Europe isgood!» was the message – whereas in con-trast New Zealand was chosen for the«death» space on 58, with the legend:«Voyageur prêt à être mangé par lesAnthropophages» and a correspondinglygraphic illustration.The Jefferys game of 1759 is likewiseovertly patriotic: London is the winningspace and references to the Protestantmonarchy abound. Here, though, is anelement of religious bigotry, evident in thetreatment of Rome.

Even the Netherlands game, though neutralin its cartography, makes the claim in its titlethat the map shows the «Fatherland» – abold claim in respect of the Belgian andLuxembourg territories.In the Spooner game, there are messagesthat reflect the spirit of the age. The perils ofthe whaling industry are highlighted where-as today the cruelty to the whale and theneed for conservation might be moreacceptable messages. The Norge game of 1926 carries, in the sen-timental choice of the little dog for the«Goose» spaces, a sign that its message isintended for children. That message,though, is to glorify an international dimen-sion of the aeronautical achievements ofItaly at a time of its development as a worldpower. A game (not shown here) of thesame era, entitled: «Din Don, ovvero Tutte leStrade conducono a Roma» emphasisesItaly’s imperial aspirations. The cities of Italyare shown in a layout that is diagrammaticrather than cartographic, with Rome at thecentre as the winning point. But the outer-most ring of cities – which includes aswould be expected those remote fromRome such as Taranto, Como etc. – alsoincludes Pola (Croatian Pula), Tripoli,Mogadiscio, and Asmara, the intentionbeing to show that these cities, too, may bethought of as being part of Italy itself.Likewise, the Tour of Germany game indi-cates a clear message concerning the self-image of that country during the build-up tothe Second World War. The Jeu de l’Oie, because of its familiar andcomforting resonances of childhood enjoy-ment, is a potent vehicle when adapted forsending messages, whether of the obviouspromotional kind, as in the Chartreux TableOil game, or on the more subtle level of thegames of propaganda.

CONCLUSION

Map games merit study on several levels.The cartography itself may be interesting,especially in a historic context. The rulesof the game may relate to those of other

games and, if so, may carry resonancesthat go beyond the mere playing process.The games may have distinctive iconogra-phies and are often attractive objects in

their own right. Both the social milieu andthe commercial market for these gamesmay influence their design and theme.Their effect may be, wittingly or unwitting-

ly, to convey interesting, amusing or dis-turbing messages about their time andplace. This short paper has by no meansexhausted these possibilities.

442 The geographical Jeux de l'Oie of Europe

• DIETSCH P. (1983), «Variations sur letheme du Jeu de l'Oie», Vieux Papier,fasc. 290, octobre, pp. 106-120.• GRAND-CARTERET J. (1896), «LeMonde vu par l'Image – les Jeux de l'OieGéographiques», Journal des Voyages,No. 963, pp. 63-64.• MILANESI F. (1995), «Percorsi Italiani diPropaganda», Charta, November-December, pp. 55-57.• SEVILLE A.H. (1999), «Tradition andVariation in the Game of Goose», BoardGames in Academia III (Proceedings ofColloquium in Florence), pp.163-174.

• SEVILLE A.H. (2001), «Statistics ofEnjoyable Race Games», Board Games in Academia V (Proceedings of Colloquiumin Barcelona, unpublished: available fromthe author).• SEVILLE A.H. (2005), «Le Jeu de France– Pierre Duval's Map Game», Brussels,International Map Collectors Circle,Newsletter, 21, pp. 24-26.• ZOLLINGER M. (2003), «Zwei Unbe-kannte Regeln des Gansespiels», BoardGame Studies, 6, Leiden University, pp.61-84.

REFERENCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Adrian Seville

City University, London, UK

Tudeley HouseRoyal ParadeChislehurst

Kent BR7 6NWUnited Kingdom

Adrian.Seville@btopenworld.com

manuscript submitted in December 2007; revised in January 2008

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