In honour of Wimbledon, these illustrations are from a first edition of the first book published abo

In honour of Wimbledon, these illustrations are from a first edition of the first book published about tennis, written by Antonio Scaino and published in 1555! Tennis was one of the most popular hand ball games for more than four centuries from the 16th century onwards, existing in a variety of versions. The rules for different types of games and their various interpretations often led to arguments and it was apparently after one such discussion with that Scaino decided to pursue writing a book which formalised and detailed the rules of the game. It establishes the rules and scoring system, standards of court sizes and points of etiquette between players. Numerous testimonies of distinguished persons of the period indicate the vast following that the game of tennis had in Italy. The matches attracted thousands of fans and Scaino described how “the enjoyment of the spectators is such that many times I have seen them watching with such intensity that they neither draw breath, nor open their mouths, nor bat an eyelid while they watch.”The top image shows diagram of a court, described as that of the game played at the Louvre, Paris. The bottom image shows a long bat and short bat for hitting the ball, a pump and a ball made of goat skin. -- source link

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