Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Title: A Game of Backgammon
  • Creator:
  • Description: A man with a crown and a lady sit in an enclosed garden and play a game of backgammon (a courtly activity). The over-abundant fabric of the woman’s veil and dress symbolize courtly excess. Long veils such as hers (which flap in the wind) were sometimes called the “devil’s sails” in sermons, and the trailing parts of dresses (hers pools to a point) were condemned as “a tail upon which the devil would ride”).
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Clothing Games Gardens Headdresses Psalters, Liturgical Books Veils
  • Geographic Area: British Isles
  • Century: 14
  • Date: ca. 1325-1335
  • Related Work: Luttrell Psalter
  • Current Location: London, British Library, Add. MS 42130, fol. 76v
  • Original Location: Lincolnshire
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment)
  • Donor: Layman; Geoffrey Luttrell, Lord of Irnham Manor
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): //
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: