This evening I attended a lecture given by Rosamond Purcell who is a photographer. She's worked on a bunch of books but one that struck my fancy was co-written with Ricky Jay, the sleight of hand master. If you're not familiar with Jay believe me if you see him coming at you with dice or cards in his hands run away screaming. Anyway in their book Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck Jay covers some popular topics concerning dice, one of which was medieval punishment for cheating at dice. I'm a little scetchy on particulars but I seem to remember him saying that in Germany during the 1400s if you were caught cheating at dice you were publicly scourged, if you were caught selling loaded dice you had your hand(s?) cut off, and if caught making loaded dice you were blinded. He also mentioned a warrant issued by Queen Elizabeth but I don't recall the particulars of it. Anyway I thought it was interesting to hear about cheating at dice way back in the day. Here's a link to the book at amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-...p;n=507846

Rosamond herself was quite an interesting lady with a nice body of work to show featuring oddities and odds and ends from various history museums.

You know, on 2 May 1340, Edward the Black Prince lost 12 d. gambling (possibly dice, but I don't know); it might be a very good thing that he was congenial about it. :eek:

-Grey

Hehehe, I didn't know that. Man those Plantagenet boys must have been fun to hang with.

Yep, he lost that money to Sir John Chandos, one of his close friends. About 6 months later (if memory serves), the household accounts include money for Chandos to arm himself for a tournament. I need friends like that!

-Grey