Les Loix du Paillemail, France. Before 1655

The earliest extant rules for a European club and ball game are published here for the first time. Seemingly comprehensive, precise and unequivocal, the rules were riddled with mistakes and imprecise formulations. An unknown contemporary mail expert entered numerous hand-written corrections on the printed text, that were largely unheeded in subsequent codes of rules published through the end of the seventeenth century. Games blessed with royal patronage, tended, not surprisingly, to become popular with the aristocracy. Such recreations were quickly codified and assumed a different character from those of the common people. Visible characteristics of games played by the aristocracy were expensive courts, crafted equipment and tailored kit.

Several hand-written pages entitled Loix et ordonnances du pallemail de Paris are attached to this document, which bears the arms of France and Navarre.

Bibliothèque Nationale (ms. Dupuy 777, folio 93), Paris, France

Literature

• Games for Kings & Commoners, Part Two, p. 221 e.v.. 2014. ISBN 978-2-9540069-2-5 ([email protected])