Bøker av Govert Westerveld

Juan García Canalejas, vecino de la ciudad de Granada, debió ser un gran jugador, porque vemos aparecer su nombre en el manuscrito del licenciado Bada, cuyo manuscrito se pudo haber escrito entre 1645 y 1750. De momento no ha sido posible determinar con exactitud la fecha, porque sus composiciones también figuran en los libros de 1650, 1684, 1718, 1740 y en el texto del Canónigo de Sacro Monte de la ciudad de Granada.

En el siglo XV, la Corona de Aragón jugó un papel importante en el desarrollo de la nueva dama poderosa; tanto en ajedrez como en las damas teniendo a la ciudad de Valencia como epicentro. Los libros de Juan de Timoneda (1547/1635) y Lorenzo Valls (1597) también comprueban este hecho. El hecho de que veamos tan rápidamente otro libro en Valencia, seis años después del libro de Pedro Ruiz Montero, implica que el juego de las damas era muy popular en esa ciudad. En este libro de historia reflejamos los finales y composiciones de estos tres autores mencionados. Por otro lado, dedicamos capítulos a la influencia del ajedrez en las damas, al poeta Alonso de Bonilla, a los libros del juego de las damas españolas y al hecho de que el juego de las damas es más difícil que el ajedrez.

Researchers are always referring to the fact that alquerque or Quirkat was being played throughout Egypt. In this sense we have to take into account that with regards to the alquerque games we have three man morris, six man morris, nine man morris, and twelve man morris. Each game was played in a certain period. Most historians and archaeologists were following Murray, and stated that alquerque-12 was native to Egypt in the 14th and 13th century B.C., because boards had been found carved into the blocks of stone that form the Luxor temple's roof in Kurna, Egypt. However, alquerque-12 has nothing to do with this period. Alquerque-12 in various countries always had to do with Christians and the church. It was probably played by the church authorities, European crusaders, Knight Templars, Knights of the Order of Santiago, and other soldiers. For that reason we hypothesise that the game was an invention of or related to the activities of the Catholic Church not earlier than the sixth century.

This book, Volume II, at this moment is one of the most profound, rigorous and well-documented investigations ever into the history of draughts or chess. In this monumental work, around one thousand books dealing with history, bibliography, technical treatises, literature, general culture, etc. were carefully studied and referenced. The intersection between the games of chess and draughts was much greater than was first thought, as the present research demonstrates. And as could not be otherwise: with the work and cooperation of one of the all-time great figures of the history of draughts and a chess historian specialized in the medieval and renaissance period and technical bibliography, everything would out. Indeed, a solid foundation on which to accommodate a truth that had so fiercely resisted the light of day. If this were not the case, without this team work, a lot, and maybe too much, time would have gone by until everything would have finally settled into its rightful place.

It is convenient to observe the youth group of the Brinta Tournament of 1963/1964, because it would be the start of forthcoming world champions. I was the youth champion of The Netherlands and I also participated in this event. Ton Sijbrands won the tournament with 16 points and had only two draws. I lost to Harm Wiersma and Ton Sijbrands, which was enough for me to tell the whole world that these two players would be future world champions. Ton Sijbrands accomplished this feat in 1972 and 1973. However, the achievements of International Grandmaster Harm Wiersma are better still. He was six times world champion in the years 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, and 1983- 1984. On the other hand he was Europe's champion in 1999 before Ton Sijbrands! I recommend this book to psycologists and all professionals who work with children as a source of knowledge and a challenge to think in new concepts.

This work is the result of studies led by me during my long stay in Blanca (Murcia, Spain). The darkness and oblivion opposed my purpose, of a nation that almost for eight centuries dominated in Spain and where the political history of the Spanish Arabs (Muslims) in Murcia remained in the deepest darkness until recently. I do not deny the glory of Dozy and the immense service he has done with its publications to Spain, but we cannot ignore that today we have Arabists in Muria and Spain who follow the footsteps of the wise Dutch and have improved on him a lot. Murcia belonged to Al-Andalus and throughout the period of Islamic rule, Al-Andalus was a remarkable example and outstanding model of tolerance. All Jews and Christians were allowed to maintain their beliefs and live their lives as they desired as long as they respected their Muslim rulers. The Muslims played a principal role in the history of Spain. Their presence illuminated the Iberian Peninsula while the rest of Europe was engulfed in darkness.

The origin of Blanca is Muslim, because in 1609 about 98% of inhabitants belonged to this group. After the expulsion of its habitants in 1613 this percentage had fallen to 81 in 1654, as many women of Blanca married Christians. Even in the Blanca of 2017 we observe people with darker skin because of the fact that their ethnicity could be of Berber origin. Taking this into account one observes an amazing history of the beautiful Ricote Valley through which the river Segura meanders, and which lies less than 30km northwest of the city of Murcia. Here you enter the world of 1001 nights and feel as if you have ended up in Morocco. That is not surprising, because the Muslims have lived in this area for centuries and you can see that everywhere. They have turned this barren desert country with hills into a fertile oasis with palm trees and fruit and citrus groves. It is particularly beautiful here in the spring when the almond and peach trees are in bloom.

En el siglo pasado, la obra que más información nos dio sobre el Valle de Ricote fue la obra del francés Henry Lapeyre. Muchos son los autores que han escrito en España sobre la expulsión de los moriscos, pero casi todos los trabajos son obras generales sin profundizar en un pasado genealógico y al parecer ningún historiador había estado interesado en publicarlo. Nuestra obra del año 2001 supuso un gran cambio en este sentido y así descubrimos que varios mudéjares de Blanca vinieron a Granja de Rocamora entre los años 1609-1614. Recuperar la historia de Granja de Rocamora ayuda a comprender mejor su realidad presente y a afrontar con mayores garantías el futuro. Adentrarse en su pasado para conocer sus orígenes es algo, por otra parte, que se debe a las generaciones futuras. Ojalá esta pequeña obra sirva de estímulo y motivación para seguir investigando el pasado histórico de Granja de Rocamora.

La Santa Inquisición se valía antes del año 1586 de la persona Pedro Cachopo, escribano del valle de Ricote, para así poder llegar al sujeto en cada rincón del territorio del valle. Extraño es el hecho de que el inquisidor Hernando Manrique - en otros sitios le llaman Jerónimo Manrique - tuvo una casa en Blanca. ¿Porqué quiso vivir este inquisidor justamente entre los moriscos blanqueños? Este inquisidor fue denunciado por cohecho al recibir numerosos regalos; sobre todo, puercos, jabalís, pescados, salchichones y ropas. Tampoco era hombre que cumplía con su obligación de visitar cárceles cada quince días. ¿Que justicia podían esperar los moriscos del valle de un personaje así de la Santa Inquisición de Murcia? ¿Cuántas reuniones no ha tenido el odioso escribano, Pedro Cachopo con el inquisidor Manrique? No lo sabemos, pero conociendo ya mejor a Cachopo deberían haber sido muchísimas, pues de otra forma no se puede explicar la calamidad que estaba por venir al valle.

Blanca has many things to offer to anyone wishing to enjoy this small village of the famous Ricote Valley. It is a beautiful place to walk around and observe the natural beauty of its landscape. Blanca offers the traveller a chance to enjoy an adventurous type of tourism which includes a descent of the River Segura, hiking, and pony trekking among other activities. Another attraction is the Holy Week of Blanca, a tradition that exists since the XVI century in Blanca. Despite having so much potential for tourism Blanca's share of international arrivals is still insignificant. To overcome this problem there is a real need of communication between the village and foreign visitors. That is the reason for this English book which tells you about the Brotherhoods of the Holy Week - to discover the ancient secrets of this small village.

Very little is known of the circumstances of the life of Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi. Most authors do not see any difficulty and claim that our calligrapher was a native of Vicenza but moved to Rome around 1508. Others state that he was born to a poor family in a world where good positions required much money to purchase the position in the papal chancery. Many questions remain unanswered and that is the reason that the literature about him up to now is full of speculations. Arrighi was not an ordinary person, because he came from noble origin and enjoyed in his youth an excellent education. He was a man of the world who used to travel at an early age. His ability to go unnoticed, when the circumstances deem it to be necessary, makes of him an interesting character, because just like a chameleon he is able to adapt to new scenarios. This book gives sufficient information to follow the life of Arrighi after 1527.

Thousands of articles and books have been written about La Celestina and scholars still do not know who was the mysterious Aragonese author of this book. The literature continues saying that Fernando de Rojas is the author of a large part of La Celestina. The scholars have spent many years in research and obtained excellent dissertations and articles. However, La Celestina continues to be a mystery and one cannot escape the impression that scholars continue working in a vicious circle. Fortunately we have great researchers such as Jordi Bilbeny who stated that el Lazarillo was written by Juan de Timoneda and that the author of La Celestina came from Valencia. On the other hand Manuel Civera argues that the story recounted in La Celestina took place in Sagunto. This book documents my research of the last four years of this personage's life and gives sufficient information to initiate the identification of the unknown mysterious Aragonese author of La Celestina.

Lucena was the son of the prothonotary Juan Ramírez de Lucena, ambassador of the Catholic monarch in Spain. He wrote a book called Repetición de amores y Arte de Ajedrez con 150 juegos de partido that was published in Salamanca around 1497. Around this time he also wrote another book called Tractado sobre la muerte de Don Diego de Azevedo, but this book was lost. One thing is clear - the name Lucena disappeared and we find it in France in some chess manuscripts and that is all. This has been our research. Its path has not been easy, but thanks to a new authorship recognition program it was possible to detect various books with Lucena's marks. This book reflects the result of four years' research and describes the possible life and work of Lucena in Italy, where he became a very famous person at the papal curia. Consequently thanks to this research students have a new line of investigation about the whereabouts of Lucena for 30 years in Italy at their disposal.

When our personage decided to live in Italy, he changed his name and continued his profession as writer and bookseller. On the other hand he also worked himself up to an expert in another profession and so became a very famous man in Rome. Due to his great ability to move in the influential cultural spheres of social life in Rome and other Italian places he was informed about all new books and so we see that he was involved in the translation of various Italian books which then found their market in Spain. Everything comes to an end and so he had to escape to other places after the sack of Rome. He survived the sack. However, he was not sure about his life and therefore our mysterious author adopted another pseudonym and continued working in his field in his new residence. There he had old friends and was soon back in the highest cultural sphere. In the meantime he became older and decided to return to Spain. There we see him again involved in several books, because books were his life.

This book at this moment is one of the most profound, rigorous and well-documented investigations ever into the history of draughts or chess. In this monumental work, around one thousand books dealing with history, bibliography, technical treatises, literature, general culture, etc. were carefully studied and referenced. The intersection between the games of chess and draughts was much greater than was first thought, as the present research demonstrates. And as could not be otherwise: with the work and cooperation of one of the all-time great figures of the history of draughts and a chess historian specialized in the medieval and renaissance period and technical bibliography, everything would out. Indeed, a solid foundation on which to accommodate a truth that had so fiercely resisted the light of day. If this were not the case, without this team work, a lot, and maybe too much, time would have gone by until everything would have finally settled into its rightful place.

Como no sabían nada de ella, ni siquiera cómo era su nombre en árabe; la llamaron a semejanza de una montaña negra. La elección resultaba ser un gran error y no podía ser peor, porque todo el mundo hablaba de su hermosura y belleza. Aquellos que estaban de viaje, no perdían ocasión para admirarla. A su vez, y de alguna forma, ella era su admiradora. No bastaba que su nombre estuviera en boca de todos, ya que era venerada en los corazones de una multitud de ilustres personajes. Y en efecto, ¿Cómo podía olvidarse quien le hubiere visto, de aquella hermosa y noble presencia divina? Su intensa vitalidad se manifestaba por una emanación deslumbrante de luz; expresión privilegiada de la vida. Ese haz de luz de una intensidad indescriptible, era conocido por todos los transeúntes; a tal punto de llegar a considerarlo un signo de la soberanía divina. Desde el principio, los visitantes se dieron cuenta de que ella era algo especial.

Según la crónica de López de Ayala, don Pedro dejó a la reina doña Blanca dos días después de su boda, para volver a reunirse con María de Padilla. Por otra parte la muerte de doña Blanca, con solo 25 años, nunca se ha podido aclarar. Hay varias versiones de su muerte. Hasta ahora la única monografía en un libro que se ha escrito sobre la reina doña Blanca de Borbón ha sido un librito de 80 páginas del Dr. Juan Antonio Martínez Gómez-Gordo (1924-1913), alumno predilecto del doctor don Gregorio Marañón. Creo, por tanto, que en la historia de don Pedro I no se ha estudiado suficientemente el papel de Francia. Vale la pena estudiar más a fondo las actuaciones de los hermanos de doña Blanca; la actuación del rey francés Charles V, cuñado de doña Blanca; la actuación del visionario Jean de Roquetaillade, y la actuación del franciscano, el infante Pedro de Aragón. Sin duda alguna la temática de esta obra llena el vacío que existía en la literatura nacional.

El Archivo Municipal de Murcia es una verdadera joya, donde se tienen documentos desde el siglo XIII hasta hoy. Por eso es tan sospechoso que en esta rica documentación, con respecto al reinado de Pedro I, falte el Cartulario Real entre los años 1355 y 1367, y también los Libros de Actas Capitulares del reinado, a excepción del correspondiente a 1364-1365. Por lo tanto, una de las épocas más difíciles para la historia de Murcia es tal vez aquella, cuando don Pedro I estuvo al poder en Castilla. Murcia siempre fue fiel a su rey y le defendió constantemente durante su reinado. Lógicamente escritores como Bellot, Zurita, Cáscales y muchos otros no estaban al tanto de la correspondencia secreta del Papa Inocencio VI (1352-1362) con don Fadrique, Maestre de la Orden de Santiago. Probablemente ahora, con estas nuevas investigaciones se podrán ver con otros ojos las actuaciones del rey castellano. Por tanto, con esta obra pretendo llenar un vacío en los libros de historia en Murcia.

La Orden de Santiago ayudó constantemente a sus respectivos Reyes en la conquista de territorios. Ayudaron a conquistar el reino de Murcia y en 1243, por el tratado de Alcaraz, el Valle de Ricote se incorporó a la Corona de Castilla. En aquella época el Valle de Ricote contaba con los pueblos de Abarán, Negra, Ojós, Ricote y Puerto de Losilla. A partir de 1285 la máxima autoridad de la encomienda era el comendador. Ricote era por los siglos XII y XIII cabeza del Valle que lleva su nombre y el comendador tenía allí su sede. Hasta ahora el conocimiento que tenemos de nuestros comendadores es muy limitado, puesto que no hay libros que hablen sobre sus actividades. El propósito de este libro ha sido llenar este vacío con el fin de que sepamos poco a poco quiénes eran los comendadores del Valle de Ricote y como era la vida de los mudéjares en Blanca. La investigación ha durado bastantes años, pero ahora por fin sabemos algo más de este siglo XIV, siglo tan difícil para escribir nuestra historia.

El cronista del rey Pedro I, el canciller Pero López de Ayala ha resultado ser un buen historiador. Lo que si se ve en la crónica es que el canciller oculta a veces ciertos hechos ejecutados por don Pedro u ocurridos durante su reinado. No explica el canciller por qué motivo don Pedro I abandonó a su mujer, doña Blanca. ¿Era cuestión de dinero? Otra razón por la cual don Pedro abandona a doña Blanca podría ser su concubina María de Padilla, que había dado luz a su primera hija, Beatriz, en marzo 1353. Y finalmente podría existir otra razón por la cual don Pedro tuviera más que suficientes motivos para abandonar y encerrar a doña Blanca. ¿Tal vez en esta decisión influyeron los amores entre doña Blanca y su cuñado, don Fadrique, el Maestre de la Orden de Santiago?