Innovation and invention

In France, the classic Game of the Goose remained remarkably invariant. However, from the middle of the 17th century, a great flowering of educational variants took place, followed during the 18th century by an extension of the thematic range to represent various aspects of human life. Nowhere else in Europe enjoyed such a wide range of innovative variant games at this time: in England, for example, the invention of cartographic games in the middle of the 18th century was not followed by further inventions or importations until the very end of the century, at which point the development of moral and other games began in earnest.

This chapter begins with an overview of the French games, noting the very significant differences between the provincial production and that of Paris. Next, the history of the classic Game of the Goose in France will be described, followed by that of a closelyrelated non-educational variant, the Game of Cupid. The main body of the chapter is concerned with the educational variants of the 17th century, focussing particularly on descriptions of the earliest known example of each sub-genre, followed by an account of the 18th-century widening both of thematic subject matter and of the target market for these games. The chapter concludes by examining how far evidence from other sources supports the account of cultural history derived from the games themselves.

Literature

The main modern reference work for French Goose games and their variants is the excellent and indispensible book by D’Allemagne. It includes fine reproductions of 48 games in legible format, with descriptive notices. There is an extensive and valuable chapter on the history of these games, by René Poirier, who – rather than D’Allemagne himself – was responsible for much of the book. Even more valuable is the ‘iconographie’, or listing of games, also by Poirier. This is not confined to the 48 games treated in detail but is intended to be exhaustive in its listing of all French printed games up to about 1900, though the treatment of post-1900 games is acknowledged to be only partial, particularly in regard to advertising games. The present chapter does not attempt to duplicate Poirier's work.