1. Domino in L'Avantcoureur

L'Avantcoureur was an 18^th-century weekly journal that appeared every Monday, starting on 21 January 1760. Each issue comprised 16 pages in octavo. The current topics it covered concerned literature, the sciences, the arts, and entertainment.

Issues 41 and 42 present what may well be the earliest precise information on the game of Nain Jaune. One can see there that today's rules are much simpler than those of that time.

In 1762, the game of Domino made its very first appearance there.

L'AVANTCOUREUR, Monday 1 March 1762 (No. 9)

« Here is another parlor game which, like la Comète, le Nain Jaune, and many others, will last as long as it pleases the fancy of the players. This game is called the game of Domino, a name borrowed from the Carnival, during which it reigned; it consists of 21 cards each marked with one of the point combinations of the two dice of trictrac;

[... rules of the game]

It requires little application, and yet has a certain subtlety in attacking with numbers already out that the others cannot easily get back in with. It is also played with small ivory slips, which have the same effect as the cards and do not get soiled. The complete box, fitted with the 21 slips, sells for 4 livres 10 sols ; it can be found on rue des Arcis, at the Singe vert, and at the other turners' shops on the same street. »

Notes on this text :

1. The week before 1 March 1762 was that of Mardi Gras and therefore the end of the Carnival's festive period, which ran from the Feast of the Kings (6 January) to the eve of Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent.

2. The game was initially called « Le Domino » and not « Les Dominos ». Inspired by a hood reaching down to the shoulders worn by clergymen, the domino was at the time a loose garment reaching to the feet and topped with an equally loose hood concealing the face. This domino costume was very fashionable for concealing one's identity at Carnival festivities. The domino was an emblem of the Carnival of that era.

3. During the Carnival of 1762, Domino was played with cards representing the dice. Turners very quickly began making the dice from small ivory slips. The game of Domino appears to have been launched as a commercial product, taking advantage of the Carnival season, so favorable to games, and giving it the emblematic name of the garment. The name of the game has no connection with the dice themselves. The black-and-white dice, reminiscent of the habit worn by Dominican friars, were made later, and are not the origin of the game's name.

4. The other parlor game that L'Avantcoureur is referring to is none other than Nain Jaune, also revealed by the same newspaper in 1760.

2. Domino in Le Mercure de France

Le Mercure de France, dedicated to the King by a society of men of letters, was a journal belonging at the time to Jacques Lacombe, author notably of the Dictionnaire des Jeux added to the Encyclopédie méthodique Panckoucke.

LE MERCURE DE FRANCE, August 1770

Answer to the question on the origin of the Game of Polish Draughts, inserted in the Mercure de France (July, 1st volume)

« It is truly unfortunate not to be able to draw out of obscurity a fact that took place before our very eyes less than forty years ago. I could, however, cite a similar fact that is much more recent.

For the past five or six years, a game called Domino has been played in almost every café in Paris. Without going into whether this game, although rather insipid, is old or modern ; were one to want to know in particular its origin and the name of its inventor, one would probably encounter the same difficulties that arise concerning the game of Polish Draughts. »

By M. Manoury, coffee-house keeper, at the corner of the Quai de l'École.

Notes on this text :

1. The author of this text is Manoury, a renowned expert in the game of 100-square draughts. At the time he was a coffee-house keeper (selling coffee, chocolate, ices, and various beverages).

2. Manoury was, at the time, preparing to publish that same year his Essai sur le jeu de dames à la polonoise, the first book written on this game. However, his treatise does not include the game's history. So Manoury takes advantage of the question in an attempt to answer it.

3. In his answer, Manoury presumes that Polish draughts dates from around 1727, though without much conviction. Hence the comparison he draws with Domino, which likewise has no known author, despite both games having appeared recently in Paris.

4. Manoury tells us that the game of Domino is very widely played in the cafés of Paris, and has been for five or six years. This brings us back to 1764, which is consistent with the article in L'Avantcoureur precisely placing the appearance of the game of Domino at the Carnival of 1762.

5. The use of the singular is worth noting in the naming of the game. Domino is first the name of the game, and it is only later that the pieces will be named dominoes by metonymy, the carnival origin of the game seeming by then to be lost.

« DOMINO : The word domino is also used for a game played with a kind of dice, marked on one side with a certain number of points, from 1 up to 9. This game is fairly well known. »  

Notes on this text :

1. This definition of Domino is new. It is its first occurrence in a dictionary, that is, nine years after the creation of the game of Domino as revealed by L'Avantcoureur in 1762.

2. One can observe that the dice used may include the 7, the 8, and even the 9, and are therefore not limited to 6 as in 1762. However, blanks are not yet mentioned.

« NOTICE. The habit the Public has of playing the Game of Domino in the Cafés of Paris and elsewhere ought to assure me that no one will disapprove of the wish I have formed to satisfy it, by giving the Public Principles and Rules for this Game, which I know rather particularly ; and having taken various opinions on the judgment of certain plays that arise in the course of a game, I have resolved to set them down in writing so as to remove all the difficulties that may arise in this game, which is the only one that may be played publicly. I therefore seek to preserve tranquility in the places where a number of honest people gather, and where they amuse themselves at little expense by playing this game. If I do not achieve the goal I set myself, may the Public be so good as to show me indulgence, in consideration of my wish to serve it. » 

[Beginning of the rules]

« This game, formed of dice that are long, flat and square, can be made of different materials ; it is ordinarily of bone or ivory, but it is more suitable when it is half bone or ivory, and the other half blackened wood, that is to say, the half where the points are marked is underneath, and the blackened wood that covers it makes up the other half ; it is this quality that prevails today, and it appears that the choice is now settled ; in every respect this must be so, for the cleanliness this game affords lends a certain skill to playing it. This game may have a considerable number of dice, but it is fixed at twenty-eight, and this quantity is enough to make it complicated and interesting in the various ways of playing it.

Among these twenty-eight dice are found seven kinds of dice, beginning with the double-blank and ending with the double-six : these dice together make up a total of one hundred and sixty-eight points. »

Notes on this text and on the rules proposed :

1. In his notice, the author informs the reader of his approach, which can be understood as the wish to establish, in a way, a standardization of the rules of Domino. He specifies that it is one of the games allowed in public, played for low stakes.

2. In the rules, the pieces are still called dice. The dice are generally of ivory or bone, but those mounted on a blackened wood backing are described there as being best suited to the game, notably because of their ergonomics.

3. As the Mercure de France had mentioned in 1770, the dice can be far more numerous than twenty-one (including the 7, the 8, and up to the 9).

4. In these 1780 rules, we see the blank appear alongside the base set, adding six extra dice to bring the total to twenty-eight without having to use the 7. This should probably be seen as a more convenient way of playing, since the 7 is not a value produced by six-sided dice.

5. The rules presented are still those practiced today, but the possibility of drawing from the stock does not exist. A player who cannot play always simply passes.

6. It is worth noting that the four-player game formed of two crossed teams (as in Whist, for example) is described here under the name Piquet voleur. It would not be until the early 19th century that its name would be replaced by Domino voleur. This renaming came about because, at the same time, Piquet players took over this format under the name Piquet voleur. There could not be two different games under the same name !

Domino appeared in Paris during the Carnival of 1762. The following rule of the game was included with the article of 1 March revealing the game.

1. Number of players : 4 or 5

2. Number of dice : 21, from the double-one to the double-six ; blanks did not exist.

3. Start of a game : the dice are turned face down on the table and one player shuffles them. [The first time this is done, all the players draw a die, and whoever has the highest total of points shown will be the first to play. Then all the dice are put back on the table and shuffled again]

4. Distribution of the dice : each player draws toward himself, with 4 players five dice, and with 5 players four dice. Thus, twenty dice have been drawn and only one remains in the middle of the table.

5. The player chosen by lot to be the first to play turns this last die face up. He then places one of his dice as is proper in Domino

6. The next player, seated to his right, does the same, and play continues in this way counterclockwise.

7. When a player cannot place any die, he passes his turn.

8. The first to place his last die wins the hand and receives from each of the other players a number of counters equal to that of the dice remaining in his hand.

9. If no player can place a die, all pass, so no one wins, and each puts into a basket the number of counters he would have given the winner had there been one. The set of counters held in the basket is called the pool.

10. Hands follow one another, with the first player changing to the right. A round is finished once every player has gone first. A game is played over twelve rounds with four players, and ten rounds with five players. [A different number of rounds may be agreed upon by the players at the beginning of the game]

11. The pool is claimed only by the one who places his last die during a hand. He receives it in addition to his usual winnings from each of the other players.

12. End of the game : once the last agreed round has been played, if there is no pool still in play, the game is over. [If a pool is still in play, play continues until it is claimed.]

 

References

L'Avantcoureur, weekly journal, of 1 March 1762

Le Mercure de France, dedicated to the King by a society of men of letters, August 1770

Dictionnaire universel Français et Latin, known as the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, 1771

Règles et Principes sur le jeu de Domino, published by Fournier, 1780

Information about this page

Published online on 24 June 2025
 

Author : Philippe LALANNE

Le Salon des jeux - Académie des jeux oubliés

 

 

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