Author: Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais (1795-1840) from the library of Lothar Schmid
Year: 1838-1839
Publisher: Bureau de la Revue au Cercle des Echecs
Place: Paris
Description:
2 volumes in one. 336 pages with pictorial title, tables and diagrams, bound with volume 4 131 pages with diagrams. Royal octavo (9 1/2" x 6") bound in half leather with six raised spine binds with labels in gilt lettering over marbled boards. Volume 3 and 4. From the library of Lothar Schmid. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 6013) First edition.
In 1836, fans of Cafe de la Regence at the French Place du Theatre in Paris, and friends of Louis Charles Mahe De La Bourdonnais, decided to create a magazine, named Le Palamede, which would show the beauty on the game of chess. The untimely death of La Bourdonnais in 1840 interrupted the publication of the Palamède for two years, before it was relaunched by Pierre Saint-Amant, his successor in supremacy at the Café de la Régence. The magazine would live for another five years, approaching 300 subscribers, before dying out in 1847. The French, recognized as the best players in the world; since, in 1834 La Bourdonnais met Irish master Alexander MacDonnell in a series of six matches, with La Bourdonnais winning (+45, =13, -27) overall, and created a fervor for the game not only in England but France as well. It was named after Palamedes, the inventor of dice in Greek mythology.
Lothar Maximilian Lorenz Schmid (1928-2013) became one of Germany's strongest grandmasters, winner of countless medals at Olympiads and team championships. Internationally he was known as the arbiter in great matches, and a one of the world's leading collectors of chess books.
Condition: Schimd's sticker to front paste-down. Raised spine band rubbed, corners bumped, some foxing else a very good copy.