ANSA reports that a 48-page study of chess dating from around 1500 has been discovered in an Italian library. The manuscript, De Ludo Scacchorum ("On the Game of Chess"), by mathematician Luca Pacioli, was cited in other works but was feared lost itself. It was found by book dealer Duilio Contin amongst the books of the last count of Coronini in the library of the Palazzo Coronini Cronberg (Galizia). The heavily-illustrated text was apparently acquired by Coronini in 1963.
Pacioli, whose authorship of the chess treatise has now been confirmed by experts, was an early tutor to Leonardo da Vinci and is considered the "father of modern accounting" for his 1494 work Summa, which outlined the double-entry system used by Venetian merchants.
I'm not a chess player, but it's always fascinating to see re-emergences like this.
(via Shelf:Life and UPI)
