Overview

The Game of the Goose (Juego de la Oca) came to Spain towards the end of the 16th century, as a royal gift to Philip II, giving rise to the variant game of the Filosofia cortesana invented by Alonso de Barros. It is not known whether the game that came to the Spanish Court was of the classic form, though the fact that the de Barros game is of 63 spaces arranged as an anticlockwise spiral in vertical format strongly suggests that it was, although the placement of hazards does not conform to the classic model. Also, only some but not all of the earliest surviving Spanish games dating from the 17th century that show the image of the goose on the favourable spaces are of the classic form. However, the classic game survives to the present day as a game for children that can be bought in Spanish toyshops, often printed in bold colours on a wooden board of square format, frequently having a version of Ludo for six players printed on the other side. The ‘reverse overthrow’ rule is usually replaced by the rule that, beyond space 60, a single die is used. This greatly diminishes the excitement of the game since there is no possibility of reaching the death space and being required to start again. Spain does not seem to have shared in the transformation to thematic variants that occurred so remarkably in France from the middle of the 17th century, nor in the introduction of ‘monkey’ games and ‘journey’ games that became so popular in Germany from the end of the 18th century onwards.

In Portugal, a distinctive form of the game is the Jogo da Gloria, which employs an anticlockwise spiral track of 90 spaces, with the favourable spaces on 9, 18, 27 etc. The track length suggests that this is based on the Italian variants from the second half of the 19th century and indeed the earliest examples appear to date from that period. The Portuguese firm Majora, established in 1939, continues to supply modern versions of these games. Both Spain and Portugal are significant in the spread of games of the Goose type to the countries of Latin America, where they continue to be played.