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<DIV>In a message dated 6/24/2008 6:08:38 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
jon@gothicgreenoak.co.uk writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; MARGIN-LEFT: 10px"><FONT
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>>>I agree Rithmomachy / Rithmomachia
(someone who knows please send a message) would only have been played by the
educated, and numerate at that. <<</FONT></DIV></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV>I believe either form is correct. Spelling wasn't regularized until the
eighteenth century, and you have the Latin/English variation besides.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> >><FONT face=Arial size=2>However for an
early medieval game it has survived well so must have been played by a
sufficient number of the educated and numerate over the past centuries for the
rules to have survived<<</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I wonder how much more numerate our ancestors were than we are? As with the
ability to memorize and recite lengthy chronicles or forecast the weather from
the behavior of leaves and birds, I suspect this is a skill that fades fairly
rapidly with disuse. (Having said that, I have to admit that Rithmomachia relies
upon some math that is certainly not used in any daily living activity that I
engage in, with or without calculator or abacus. . . .)</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2><FONT face=Arial size=2> >>( also, I make it
and it sells well !)<<</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>This is wonderful. It would be interesting to know how
many people actually play it more than once? (I own the Star Trek chess
game--it's lovely but I think it's been played twice since I bought it. . .
.)</DIV></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">Sally
Wilkins<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#008000 size=2
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