Editing Backgammon (section)

==== Western Europe ====

[[Image:Codex Manesse 262v Herr Goeli.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Poet [[Herr Goeli]] playing in the 14c, ''[[Codex Manesse]]'']]

Tables games first appeared in France during the 11th century and became a favourite pastime of gamblers. In 1254, Louis IX issued a decree prohibiting his court officials and subjects from playing.<ref name="murray">{{cite book |last=Murray |first=H.J.R. |author-link=H. J. R. Murray |chapter=6: Race-Games |title=A History of Board-Games Other than Chess |publisher=Hacker Art Books |year=1952 |isbn=978-0-87817-211-5}}</ref><ref name="lillich">{{cite journal|last=Lillich|first=Meredith Parsons|title=The Tric-Trac Window of Le Mans|journal=The Art Bulletin|volume=65|issue=1|date=March 1983|pages=23–33|doi=10.2307/3050296|jstor=3050296}}</ref> They were played in Germany in the 12th century, and had reached Iceland by the 13th century. In Spain, the [[Alfonso X]] manuscript ''[[Libro de los Juegos]]'', completed in 1283, describes rules for a number of dice and table games in addition to its discussion of [[chess]].<ref name="wollesen">{{cite journal|last=Wollesen|first=Jens T.|title=Sub specie ludi...: Text and Images in Alfonso El Sabio's Libro de Acedrex, Dados e Tablas|journal=Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte|volume=53|issue=3|year=1990|pages=277–308|doi=10.2307/1482540|jstor=1482540}}</ref> By the 17th century, games at tables had spread to Sweden. A wooden board and counters were recovered from the wreck of the [[Regalskeppet Vasa|''Vasa'']] among the belongings of the ship's officers. Tables games appear widely in paintings of this period, mainly those of Dutch and German painters, such as [[Adriaen van Ostade|van Ostade]], [[Jan Steen]], [[Hieronymus Bosch]], and [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder|Bruegel]]. Among surviving artworks are [[Cardsharps (Caravaggio)|''Cardsharps'']] by [[Caravaggio]].