John Amos Comenius’ Janua Linguarum Reserata (1629—)

Last updated: Friday, 21 February 2025.

John Amos Comenius first published Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Door of Languages Unlocked) in 1631. It contains a series of 1000 sentences in Latin, which were then translated into other languages by subsequent authors.Comenius was inspired by the earlier Janua Linguarum (The Door of Languages) by William Bathe, first published in Salamanca in 1611, and then in English in 1617.^A This earlier book mentions dice games in passing but provides nothing like a list of games. For more about William Bathe’s work, see William Bathe, S.J., 1564–1614: A pioneer in linguistics.

Chapter 96 (“De Ludicris”) contains a list of board and card games in sentence 941. As such, the translations of this passage are useful to see what games were being played in different countries at this time. Here I give a selection from several different editions.

English editions are:

The earliest (unauthorized) English edition translated by one John Anchoran was published the same year, in 1631, under the title Porta Linguarum Trilinguis Reserata et Aperta/The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened.
Another English edition translated by Thomas Horne was published as Janua Linguarum Reserata (3rd edition, 1636).
An expansion of Horne’s work was published as Janua Linguarum Reserata by John Robotham (5th edition, 1641).

Dutch editions are:

Ianva Lingvarvm Reserata Avrea by Jan Janssonius (1638)
Ianva Avrea Reserata Qvatvor Lingvarvm by Nathanaele Dhuëz (1644)

Below I collate the names into a single table. I have reordered some lists in order to align the similar games. Note that this is not an exact science as sometimes multiple game names are given which correspond to a single game in another language.

It is important to note that the Latin names might not correspond to any Roman-era board game, as they are a Latin as used by early modern scholastics. Some names which were used for games in Roman times were later repurposed to apply to other games (e.g. Latrunculis).

⚠️ The table is very wide and might scroll horizontally.

Porta Linguarum Trilinguis Reserata et Aperta/The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened (214) tr. John Anchoran, 1631			Janua Linguarum Reserata (n233) tr. Thomas Horne, 1636		Ianva Lingvarvm Reserata Avrea (250) ed. Jan Janssonius, 1638			Janua Linguarum Reserata (120,311) ed. John Robotham, 1641		Ianva Avrea Reserata Qvatvor Lingvarvm (305) ed. Nathanaele Dhuëz, 1644
Latin	English	French	Latin	English	Latin	German	French	Latin	English	Latin	German	French	Italian
Pilâ ball	balls	a la paulme	pilâ ball	ball	Pilâ ball	Ball ball	à la Paulme, à la pelote, à l’estieus hand-ball	pilâ datatim missâ	to play at stool-ball [hand-ball]	pilâ cum reticulo in sphæristerio	den ballen mit der racket im ballenhauß schlagen	de joüer à la paume avec la raquette au tripot ou jeu de paume	giuocare alla palla con la rachetta nel giuoco di palla
Sphęrâ & Conis ball and cones	bowles, rundels, and cones	a la boule	sphærâ & conis ball and cones	bowles or skittles	Sphærâ & Conis ball and cones	der Kugel unnd den Kegeln	à la Courte boule & aux Quilles	sphærâ & conis	at scale-bones	sphærâ & conis	mit kugel und kegeln	à la boule & aux quilles	alla palla & alli cioni
Trocho wheel	tops	au sabot, a la toupie	trocho	a top	Trocho	Kreusel	au Sabot, à la trompe, à la toupie shoe	vel trocho [turbine]	with a top or gyg	trocho, turbine	mit dem kreusel oder topff, mit de würtzel	à la toupie, à la piroüette	al trottolo, al pirlo
Sclopo	puffings of the checkes, at petlets	—	sclopo peashooter	elderne gun “elder-gun”, popgun^H (67)	Sclopo peashooter	Klatzschröhren “ball tube” = peashooter; modern German Blasrohr, blowpipe	à la Sarbatane blowpipe	sclopo, vel igne missili	with a pot-gun or squib	sclopo	mit den vogel-klatsch oder paustrohr =Blasrohr	à la sarbatane	alla cerbottana footnote: o sarbacanna
Globulis	little round bowles	aux boulets	globulis small balls	rebounding stones	Globulis small balls	Käulichen small balls — see kaule in [I]	aux Boulettes small balls	globulis	at bowls	globulis	mit käulchen oder krickern(?)	au chiques ou boullets	a’ globoli
Myindâ	hood man blinde or blinde man buffe	—	myindâ blind-man’s buff^J (201)	blind man buffe	Myindâ blind-man’s buff	Blindenkuhe ‘blind cow’	à Tastons modern French tâtonner, to feel one’s way, grope around in the dark	myindâ	at blind-man buff [blind hob]	myindâ	der blinden kuhe	à l’aveugle ou à cligne-mussette	al cieco
par impar even and odd	—	—	par impar even and odd	even or odd	par impar even and odd	gerade oder ungerade even and odd	à lignettes(?)	par impar	at even and od	par impar	grad oder ungrad	à pair ou non pair	à pari ô a casso
								empusâ	at fox in the hole footnote: “hopping on one leg”
								astragalismo	at cockall
Chartis lusoriis	charts	aux chartes	chartis lusoriis playing cards	cards	Chartis lusoriis playing cards	Karten cards	Cartes cards	Chartis lusoriis	at cards	chartis lusoriis	mit karten oder kartenblättern	aux cartes	alle carte
										turriculâ	würffel-trichtern	à la tournelle	alla torricella
Talis seu Tesseris	cockall =jacks	aux osselets	talis [tesseris] knucklebones	dice	Talis (Tesseris) knucklebones	Würffeln dice	Dés dice	talis, tesseris	tables, dice, or any game of hazzard	talis seu tesseris	würffeln	aux dez	a’ dadi, su’l tauoliero
Aleâ seu Fritillo	dice play	aux dez, ou jeu d’hazard, ou au tablier	aleâ (fritillo) dice (dicing box)	tables	Aleâ (Fritillo) dice (dicing box)	Bretspiel boardgame	Trictrac a table game	aleâ, fritillo	with a dice-box or a paire of tables	aleâ seu fritillo	un im brett speil	aux dames ou au tablier	da barattiere ô biscazziere
Latrunculis	chesse or tables	aux eschets	latrunculis	chesse	Latrunculis	Schachtsteinen stone-chess	Eschecs chess	latrunculis	chesse	latrunculis	im schach mit den schachsteinen	aux eschecs	a’ scacchi

Further notes on specific terms

Latin: Sclopo: This is given as “trunk”, an old name for a peashooter, in the 1729 English translation of Comenius’ other work Orbis Pictus.^K
French: Sarbatane · Italian: cerbottana/sarbacanna: In modern French this is sarbacane, which was also an archaic English word, derived originally from the Arabic سبطانة sabaṭāna, “blowpipe”.

References

Barbier, Jean (ed.) (1617). Ianva Lingvarvm, Qvadrilingvis. Or A Messe of Tongves: Latine, English, French, and Spanish. Nearly served up together, for a wholesome repast, to the worthy curiositie of the studious.. Matthæi Lownes: London.
Ó Mathúna, Seán P. (1986). William Bathe, S.J., 1564–1614: A pioneer in linguistics; Studies in the History of the Language Sciences volume 37. John Benjamins Publishing Company: Amsterdam/Philadelphia. ISBN: 90-272-4520-7.
A second edition was published in 1633.
Komenský, Jan Amos (1631). Porta Linguarum Trilinguis Reserata et Aperta/The Gate of Tongues Unlocked and Opened: or else A Seminarie or Seed-plot of all Tongues and Sciences, translated by John Anchoran. George Miller: London, UK.
Comenius, A. (1636). Janua Linguarum Reserata: or, A Seed-Plot of All Languages and Sciences (3rd edition), translated by Thomas Horne. Robert Young: London, UK.
An expansion of the Thomas Horne translation by John Robotham.
Comenio, J. A. [John Amos Comenius] (1641). Janua Linguarum Reserata (5th edition), edited by John Robotham, translated by Thomas Horn. R. Young: London.
Called “latest edition” on the title page.
Comenii, I. A. [John Amos Comenius] (1638). Ianva Lingvarvm Reserata Avrea: ; Sive Seminarivm Linvarvm & Scientiarum omnium: Hoc est Compoendiosa Latinam (& quamlibet aliam) Linguam. Ioannem Ianssonium [Joannem Janssonium]: Amsterdam, Netherlands.
First edition was published in 1640.
Comenii, I. A. [John Amos Comenius] (1644). Ianva Avrea Reserata Qvatvor Lingvarvm: , Sive compendiosa Methodvs Latinam, Germanicam, Gallicam & Italicam (2nd edition), translated by Nathanaele Dhuëz. Elseviriorum: Leyden, Netherlands.
Onions, C. T. (1911). A Shakespeare Glossary. University of Oxford: London.
Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen (2024). ‘Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch’ [Early Modern High German Dictionary; text in German]. Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen.
Smith, William, William Wayte, and George Eden Marindin (eds.) (1891). A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities volume 2 (3rd edition). John Murray: London, UK.
Comenius, John Amos (1729). John Amos Comenius’s Visible World: Or, a Nomenclature, and Pictures of all the Chief Things that are in the World, and of Mens Employments therein (11th edition), translated by Charles Hoole. Aaron Ward: London, UK.

John Amos Comenius’ Janua Linguarum Reserata (1629—)

Further notes on specific terms

See also

References