En Viana se juega al billar en el siglo XVII [Billiards were known in Viana in the seventeenth century]

Abstract

In this article, after a brief account on the origin of billiards and their roots, mainly in France, we document this game played in the seventeenth century in the town of Viana. Francisco Irañieta, a resident of the town, commissioned local sculptor Andres de Larrea, on March 9, 1629, to make for him a billiards table (mesa de trucos) after one existing in Logroño, for a total amount of 500 «reales». The vicar general of the diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada, in his pastoral visit to Viana in 1648, forbade clerics to play billiards (trucos) under severe penalties, including jail, but their protest was so violent that they managed to overturn the ban. In documents about the sale of...