In June 2011 Hans Secelle (Schelderode, Belgium) having done extensive research on the history of Bridge has put an end to all speculations. Going through the Bridge Collection Amsterdam, which is part of the Special Collections of the Amsterdam University Library, he discovered a booklet, the content of which is definitely pointing out Russia as country of origin, and at the same time confirming a recent presumption that the origins of the game must be found in that country before the middle of the 19th century.
This booklet has been written by Christian Vanderheid from Austria under the title: Gründlicher Selbstunterricht zur Erlernung des Jarolasch oder das russische Whist [Extensive Self-teaching for the Learning of Yeralash or Russian Whist], published in Vienna by Wenedikt. Here you find a report by bridge journalist Bob van de Velde from Amsterdam, The Netherlands on this historic discovery: jarolasch.pdf
Comments
History of Bridge
What a joke !!!
This book is known since more ten years. You cannot say "he (Hans Secelle) discovered a booklet" which many others know very well.
best regards.
bridge history
I doubt whether there many others who knew about the booklet Hans Secelle found. The happy few of insiders must be very limited as the only source for this knowledge is the small article of Thierry Depaulis 'Aux sources du bridge', published in the March-May 2003 issue of a rather unknown French magazine 'Tangente Jeux' (p.8-9). The author was so friendly as to inform me right now about the existence of this article and said he found the booklet already in 1997 ! Nevertheless he himself didn't mention his finding in an article in which he later the same year also wrote about the early history of bridge (in English), neither was it mentioned in the 6th edition of 'The official encyclopedia', published in 2001, although Depaulis' important 'Histoire du bridge' from the same year 1997 got all the attention it derserved. Even Depaulis' compatriot and colleague Jean-Louis Counil in his 'La naissance du bridge' from 2004 did not seem to have been acquainted with the article in 'Tangente Jeux'. So what is the joke ? I think it is a bad joke that bridge historians do not better communicate and cooperate, and that they fail to inform us properly about their discoveries ! Anyway Hans Secelle did, and right he was.
Bob van de Velde.
history of Bridge, Jarolash
Co-operation between historians is good !
We have many exchanges with Thierry Depaulis and Ph Bodard (but non only them). For instance, I send as much as I can information to Tim Bourke for the bibliography in english he has established.
Concerning the Jarolash/Vanderheid, just let me say that I have it in my personnal library. This demonstrates that I know it !
Jean-Louis Counil
"What a joke" .....
Good evening Philippe,
I did not spend more than 4 years' spare time to write "something about bridge" and then ask Bob - who's help has been invaluable over the years - to "tell a joke" on the internet.
Perhaps, you are upset for the fact that I did not mention Thierry Depaulis' article in Tangente Jeux.
The fact is that I had never heard of this magazine before (Thierry, who has been helping me on numerous occasions, informed me this morning);
I was convinced that I had discovered "bullet proof evidence"... until today....
All I did was doing research, analyse the sources that I had access to, and write a book on the history of bridge, to the best of my abilities.
Kind regards,
Hans Secelle