One of only two known examples of this board game, each in a different state, this being the second. The author Don Casimir Freschot was a Benedict Priest and the author of about 50 books mainly on historical subjects and a few dedicated to Venice and its nobility. While in Venice he also composed a Goose game to facilitate “the teaching of geography to the young Venetian nobility” (title). This game is one of the earliest geographical games ever published. It would lead to numerous spin offs not least is the better known English game Snakes and Ladders. Its origins are Italian like the item offered here but date from the time of Francesco de Medici (1574-87). This is an example in its traditional form played on a decreasing spiral with an implicit track. The original game was with 63 spaces but here is enlarged to 154.

The copper plate was engraved by A F Lucini who uses the same honorific title seen only on the reduced sized charts of Sir Robert Dudley indicating its issue late in his life. It comprises 4 larger maps of the continents and 153 smaller maps of other areas, numbered in a decreasing concentric circle, with a prospect of Venice at the centre. Each of the main maps is about 52 mm. square. The first state was published by Giovanni Pare’ in Venice.

There is only one known example surviving of the first state at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. The author of the article cited below was unaware of this later state. In our issue there are the following alterations. The publishers imprints lower left and centre to the right of the panel are erased, although the license remains. To the left of the central view the text ‘Pertutto doue si trouue rano Stella le gansi le regole’ translates as ‘everywhere where you find the stars [see] the rules’. The first state had the maps so numbered above bearing a star on each. Here they have been erased, to what purpose is unclear. Freschot appears to have lived from 1640-1720 but the publisher Pare is only active in the 1670’s and 80’s. Therefore an estimated date of 1700 can be placed on this second state. “Charta Geographica” vol.1, page 76. Hill “Cartographical Curiosities”; Seville “The Game of the Goose” IMCoS Journal no. 115 pp. 51-7.