The Game of the Goose, sometimes called the Royal Game of the Goose, is a race game played on a spiral track of 63 numbered spaces, where two or more players roll dice and move a goose-shaped token toward the final space, needing to land on it exactly to win. Along the way the spiral passes symbolic hazard spaces, including a bridge, a hotel and a death space that can send a player back to the start or force a turn to be skipped, while landing on one of thirteen goose spaces lets a player move again. Believed to have originated in Italy during the fifteenth century, the game was famously given as a gift by Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici of Tuscany to King Philip II of Spain in the late sixteenth century, and it is regarded as one of the earliest board games to be manufactured and sold commercially, later inspiring countless themed and educational spiral race games across Europe and America.
Facts
Sport
Game Type (category) Classification
Player CountSmall Group (3-6 Players) 1 Connections
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Game of the Goose (Wikipedia)
Lead, game type
a race game where dice throws determine player advancement
Rules section
The game can be played by a minimum of two people and requires two six-sided dice.
History
According to board game historian, Adrien Seville, the earliest recorded mention of the game was in a book of sermons by the Dominican friar Gabriele da Barletta published in 1480.
View the SourceReader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.