This book grew out of an exhibition based on my collection of board games that I curated at the Grolier Club of New York in 2016. Entitled The Royal Game of the Goose – 400 years of Printed Board Games, its aim was to show how one of the simplest of board games had produced variants in many countries of Europe that covered a very wide range of human activity and interest. Ed Rothstein, writing in the Wall Street Journal, was kind enough to call the exhibition ‘a mind-opening cultural event’. The book seeks to record the cultural legacy of the game, first by tracing its history and development up to about the end of the 19th century, then by showing the persistence of its influence in more modern times, even to the present day. The emphasis on cultural aspects, rather than the technicalities of game design or production, is intended to widen the pool of readers to include historians who are interested in aspects of material culture. International links are fully explored.

My sincere thanks go to Thierry Depaulis, whose expertise on French games is unrivalled; to John Spear, who has most kindly contributed a check list of British Games; to my colleague in Italy, Luigi Ciompi, who is responsible for our Giochidelloca web site, and not least to my wife Mirjam Foot, who has read my drafts with her habitual thoroughness and keen understanding. Thanks are also due to the staff of those many museums and libraries whose collections have enriched my studies.