[Veteran Insight]Libraries

Games Discussion Ars Magica
21

Hi all,

  1. Summae and Tractatus:

I'm in a game where the PC's had access to the Autumn library (phwar..). They are quite powerful, and early on have no lack of things. The players chose it as they didn't want to scrabble for books early on in this game. Amusingly, the players are now scrabbling for books.. for their personal libraries.

Making All Books Tractatus: Seems like a good idea, but some books really don't suit Tractatus, such as the Bible, or Aristotle's Metaphysics, or any of those really core books of the period. People really did read and re-read them and gain more out of each reading.

In future I might make Tractatus common and Summae rare, but I wouldn't take out Summae all together.

  1. Books and Practice

I have no issue with physical skill books. Even hermetic magic would require practice of the new techniques required rather than just reading it. It may be in your lab, but I highly suspect a fair bit of practice would be required with those.

Physical skills: Indicating people can't learn from physical skill books is.. well, wrong. It does require practice of course, and the more people the better. I have dozens of historical manuals from things from swordfighting to tennis. If I couldn't learn swordfighting from manuals then I don't know how I would know swordfighting.. today :smiley:.

22

Tractatus. Books that provide up to 15 XP points in an area. Can be read once.

Authorities. Books that can be read as long as you want, and you will always be able to get something out of them. Quality 4-6.

There you go :slight_smile: Makes for generally better libraries IMO. What fails totall if ypu adopt this approach is the design of libraries under the covenant rules. But apart from that (solvable giving a much lower multiplier) it tens to work fairly OK.

Cheers,
Xavi

23

Machiavelli's The Prince was part of a genre that stretches back at least as far as Cicero's De Oratore and De Officiis; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Oratore.

In more general, the genre of technical manuals (military manuals, governance manuals, legal manuals, manuals on medicine, manuals for aqueduct management, and many others) dates to at least the Roman period. For example, http://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?id=2521. Many of the Roman ones were written by senators and other officials. Just like today, the Romans had an on-going debate as to whether non-technical senators and officals were competent to manage, say, the municipal aqueduct system or military campaigns, or whether you needed a professionally trained engineer, or general (etc) to do the job. Some of the surviving manuals were originally written by these managerial senators and officials to prove that they knew what they were doing and/or to argue that something should be reformed in a certain way.

There were medieval technical manuals about all sorts of things. For example, De diversis artibus (On various arts) is a twelfth century manual on various crafts including glass and metal working (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophilus_Presbyter). Walter of Henley http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_of_Henley wrote a thirteenth century agricultural manual.

24

Yup, i´ve added some moves to my martial arts skills out of books, and nearly all taken from books worked first time tried against someone, so...

+1. Totally agree. Personally i just prefer to stretch the difference between those Summae that you barely care about and those that anyone and everyone wants, the former you can get as a bonus with some other traded book or item while the latter can put a large and rich covenant in debt for centuries. :smiling_imp:

And thanks to RL for further books. :smiley:

25

Thanks!
I was so sure it exists. :slight_smile:

I think players rarely want to learn aqueduct maintainance or glass working but good to know any possible works.

I prefer eliminating rather the tractatus because they cause more bookkeeping.

26

I was surprised that the list contains a large number of fairly obscure books, but not some well-known classics. I think it would be a great collaborative project to try and make a huge list of books available in 1220, trying to gauge the respective qualities and -- for Summae -- levels.

Some classics:

Craft -- Cooking:
De Re Coquinaria (On cooking), attributed (incorrectly, but in the Middle Ages probably nobody realized it) to Marcus Gavius Apicius, a famous glutton from the 1st century AD (both Seneca and Pliny write disparagingly about him). In 10 books, it's a comprehensive collection, ranging from wines to sauces, from cakes to seafood etc. with some truly extravagant recipes. It's reasonably well organized, and although the Latin is not great, again in the Middle Ages probably nobody realized it. I'd call it a Summa Level 8, Quality 8.

Charm:
Ars Amandi (The Art/Craft of Love), Publius Ovidius Naso, end of 1st century BC or beginning of 1st century AD. It's three books, so it could be either a Summa or three Tractatus; though I'd lean towards the latter, since a) it's not "general" charm, but it's geared towards seduction and such and b) no matter how much you know, this book will teach you a few more tricks. My long time favourite is "If she [the girl you want to seduce] has a straw in her hair, brush it away. If she has not, still brush it away.". I'd go for Quality 14 for all three books, since it's a truly amazing work by one of the greatest poets of antiquity, famous in the Middle Ages (Chretien De Troyes translated it into langue d'Oil), supremely elegant and chock full of great advice.

Artes Liberales:
De Architectura (On Architecture), Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, 1st century AD. Summae for Artes Liberales are probably fairly rare, because it's such a diverse set of subjects; in fact, I'm not sure I'd rank Euclid's work on geometry, or Donatus' work on grammar (which in my mind certainly does not deserve Quality 15!), as Summae (as A&A does) because they're really narrow in scope. On the other hand, Vitruvius' work on architecture is a truly "interdisciplinary" work, and its 10 books range from mathematics to engineering, from building materials to astronomy, from history to waterclocks to human proportions. One of the most influential works of antiquity in the Reinassance, I'd make the 10 books of De Architectura a Summa level 7, Quality 8-12 depending on whether (and to what extent) the book contains the original illustrations.

27

Might be because the obscure books are harder to find by yourself?

Nice examples you added, shame on me for only recognising the 3rd one... :mrgreen:

28

Nice idea, Ezzelino! Not a true "classic" but just out the press we have...

Hortus deliciarium, or The Garden of Delight
Compiled by Herrad of Hohenbourg in a monastery in Alsace, this is a manual/encyclopedia for nuns famed for its beautiful and numerous (over 300) illuminations. Includes texts on philosophy and theology, but also many poems and songs. Finished around 1185.
Language: Latin and German
Tractatus on Philosophy (or Artes Liberales?), Quality 7, Theology, Quality 6.

Herrad and this book are briefly mentioned in Art & Academe, and the monastery briefly appears in Guardians of the Forest, but I don't think the book has been fully detailed anywhere, so...

By the way, I strongly recommend reading the latest issue of Sub Rosa magazine, with 32 new (or almost-new) books and a comprehensive list of all the books mentioned in ArM5. Ideal to add color to any library!