Index to the blog Edmond Hoyle, Gent.

updated October 5, 2025.
Copyright © 2011-2025 by David Levy. All rights reserved.

Edmond Hoyle, Gent. is my blog with bibliographical and other musings about the writings of Edmond Hoyle and other gaming literature. I have written the following essays:

Anniversary essays

"Anniversary!", June 22, 2012.
"Second Anniversary: Continuities and Disruptions", June 22, 2013.

Gaming Literature before Hoyle

"Chess, Hoyle, and a Bibliographer's Speculation", August 4, 2011.
"The Predecessors of Hoyle", August 15, 2011.
"The Compleat Gamester", January 28, 2013.

The Literature of Edmond Hoyle

Overview
- "A Descriptive Bibliography of Edmond Hoyle", November 7, 2014.
- "Pirates, Autographs, and a Bankruptcy", June 22, 2011.
- "The Hoyle Copyright in Hoyle's lifetime", April 16, 2012.
- "The Hoyle Copyright in Hoyle's Lifetime (revisited)", November 8, 2013.
- "The Mystery of the Hoyle Copyright", April 26, 2012.
- "More on the Hoyle Copyright", April 30, 2012.
- "Researching Copyright", July 11, 2013.
- "Changes in the Text of Whist", February 6, 2012.
Published by the author
- "A Discovery at the Morgan Library", June 29, 2011.
Published by Francis Cogan
- "Bibliography of the Cogan Hoyles", September 8, 2011.
- "An Artificial Memory for Whist", June 22, 2011.
- "Were there Cogan collections of Hoyle?", October 6, 2011.
- "Who Made These Marks?", June 22, 2017.
The Piracies
- "The 'Webster' Piracy: Collation", January 2, 2013.
- "The First Piracy. Part 1. Overview and Structure", April 1, 2020.
- "The First Piracy. Part 2. Variants", April 3, 2020.
- "The First Piracy. Part 3: Variants in Gathering A", April 6, 2020.
- "The First Piracy. Part 4. Analysis", April 8, 2020.
- "The First Piracy. Part 5. Bibliographical Concerns", April 14, 2020.
Published by Thomas Osborne (and John Jolliffe)
- "November 9, 1745: The First Osborne Hoyles", September 12, 2011.
- "Hoyles at the Clark", May 6, 2013.
- "Hoyle's 'sixth' edition and progressive ornament damage ", July 30, 2012.
- "Every Cancel Tells a Story, Don't It? (part 3)", July 15, 2011.
- "The Osborne Collections of Hoyle (1745-7)", September 19, 2011.
- "The (missing) Laws of Whist Designed for Framing", July 5, 2011.
- "An Insomniac's Reward", October 1, 2012.
- "Mr. Hoyle's Treatises (1748)", October 10, 2011.
- "Reissues of Mr. Hoyle's Treatises (1748-1755);, October 16, 2011.
- "A Short Treatise on the Game of Brag (1751)", November 11, 2011.
- "The Doctrine of Chances (1754)", November 14, 2011.
- "The Yorkshire Hoyles and the Doctrine of Chances", June 16, 2014.
- "The 'Twelfth' Edition", July 2, 2012.
- "Other 'Twelfth' Editions", July 9, 2012.
- "A Tale of Two Advertisements", May 6, 2014.
- "More on the 'twelfth' edition", July 16, 2012.
- "A final look at the 'twelfth' edition ", July 23, 2012.
- "Every Cancel Tells a Story, Don't It? (part 2)", July 12, 2011.
Hoyle after the end of perpetual copyright
- "When did Hoyle come off copyright?", July 19, 2011.
- Beaufort
  - "Hoyle in the Public Domain (1775) ", July 21, 2011.
- Covent Garden Magazine
  - "The Covent-Garden Magazine", August 18, 2011.
  - "More on The Covent Garden Magazine", June 4, 2013.
- Later Piracies
  - "The 'Seventeenth' Edition ", January 31, 2012.
  - "Hoyle in the Public Domain, Yet Pirates Persist", July 25, 2011.
- Charles Jones
  - "The most important Hoyle after Hoyle", July 28, 2011.
  - "More from the database: another bad seller ", November 5, 2013.
  - "What was the Hoyle copyright worth? (part 1)", October 7, 2103.
  - "Hoyle's Games Improved, Charles Jones (1800)", November 21, 2011.
  - "Hoyle's Games Improved (1814): Who was the bookseller Gale? ", November 25, 2013.
- An Epitome of Hoyle
  - "An Epitome of Hoyle, a Discovery, and two Coincidences ", June 22, 2104.
- Robert Withy
  - "Bob Short's Short Rules for Short Memories", December 19, 2011.
  - "Who is 'Bob Short'? (part 1)", January 21, 2015
  - "Who is 'Bob Short'? (part 2)", January 28, 2015
  - "Who is 'Bob Short'? (part 3)", February 4, 2015
  - "Biographical Notes on Robert Withy (part 1)", October 17, 2017
  - "Biographical Notes on Robert Withy (part 2)", November 19, 2017
- Charles Pigott
  - "The Pigott Hoyles", December 12, 2011.
- The New Pocket Hoyle
  - "Late Hoyles, Early Slipcases", July 1, 2011.
Later Hoyles
- "Kicking and Screaming into the 19th Century", June 8, 2018.

Reprinted in Dublin

"Early Dublin editions of Hoyle", September 22, 2011.
"Individual Treatises in Ireland", February 21, 2012.
"The Polite Gamester", February 27, 2012.
"A copyright fight in Dublin?", March 5, 2012.
"An unrecorded Dublin Hoyle?", August 6, 2012.
"Every Cancel Tells a Story, Don't It? (part 1)", July 8, 2011.

Reprinted in Scotland

"The Scottish Hoyles (part 1)", June 24, 2011.
"The Scottish Hoyles (part 2)", June 27, 2011.
"Revisiting a Scottish Hoyle", February 13, 2012.

Hoyle in Translation

"A French Discovery ", July 21, 2014.
"The first translation of Hoyle", March 12, 2012.
"More translations: German, Italian, Russian, Dutch", March 19, 2012.
"Hoyle in French", April 2, 2012.

Hoyle in America

"The New Pocket Hoyle, New York, 1803", November 5, 2012.
"Serendipity at the Library ", October 4, 2013.

Comemporary references to Hoyle

"The Humours of Whist, a satire of Hoyle", August 29, 2011.
"The Humours of Whist as a satire of piracy", September 1, 2011.
"Contemporary References to Hoyle", September 5, 2011.
"Schools for Whist?", October 24, 2011.
"A 1760 Dramatic Comedy Mentioning Hoyle ", January 12, 2013.
"The Hoyle Manuscript", April 1, 2013.

Collecting Hoyle

"The Fans of Hoyle", October 13, 2011.
"Unusual Bibliographical Evidence", November 12, 2012.
"Hoyle's Scoring Method and Whist Counters", May 7, 2012.
"More Hoyle collectibles", June 4, 2012.
"2013: The Year in Collecting", December 19, 2013.
"2013: One Final Collectible", December 31, 2013.
"2014: The Year in Collecting", December 18, 2014.
"2015: The Year in Collecting", January 3, 2016.
"Fifth Anniversary: The half-year in collecting", June 22, 2016.
"Piquet, Provenance, and a Puzzle", November 15, 2016.
"2016: The Year in Collecting", December 8, 2016.
"Another 2016 Acquisition", December 12, 2016.
"2017: The Year in Collecting", December 29, 2017.
"2018: The Year in Collecting", December 10, 2018.
"2018: The Year in Collecting (addendum)", December 17, 2018.
"2018: The Year in Collecting (second addendum)", December 31, 2018.
"2019: The Year in Collecting", December 20, 2019.
"2020: The Year in Collecting", November 27, 2020.
"2020: The Year in Collecting (part 2)", January 14, 2021
"2021: The Year in Collecting", November 22, 2021.
"2021: The Year in Collecting (part 2)", November 22, 2021.
"2021: The Year in Collecting (part 3) Who is William H?", January 9, 2022.
"2021: The Year in Collecting (part 4)", February 2, 2022.
"2022: The Year in Collecting", December 27, 2022.
"Oddly Imposed. Oddly signed", May 9, 2023.
"2023: The Year in Collecting", December 7, 2023.
"2024: The Year in Collecting", November 18, 2024.
"A 2025 Acquisition and Some Housekeeping", May 23, 2025.

Biographical information

Hoyle
- "Hoyle in Halifax? ", March 9, 2021.
- "250 years", August 29, 2019.
- "A conversation with Edmond Hoyle", August 16, 2012.
- "Was Hoyle a 'careless editor'?", June 23, 2011.
- "The Successors to Hoyle (part 1)", August 7, 2011.
- "The Successors to Hoyle (part 2)", August 11, 2011.
Cogan
- "Biographical Notes on Francis Cogan, Bookseller", September 26, 2011.
- "Toward a bibliography of books published by Francis Cogan, bookseller (part 1)", September 29, 2011.
- "Toward a bibliography of books published by Francis Cogan, bookseller (part 2)", October 3, 2011.

Gaming Literature

"Where can I learn more about Hoyle's writing?", August 1, 2011.
"The Nature of Gaming Literature (part 1)", August 22, 2011.
"The Nature of Gaming Literature (part 2)", August 25, 2011.
"A Missing Book; A Trail of Breadcrumbs", February 18, 2015.
"Eighteenth Century Whist Literature", May 14, 2012.
"Le Grand Trictrac", April 3, 2015.
"The Left Hand of Bougy: A Trictrac Manuscript (1772)", May 1, 2015.
"Eighteenth Century Backgammon Literature", October 22, 2012.
"Piquet and Quadrille Literature", August 28, 2012.
"Contemporary Reviews of Gaming Literature", Septembers 5, 2013.
"Advice to the Young Whist Player", December 10, 2012.
"Whist in Song", May 21, 2012.
"Whist on Stage", May 29, 2012.
"The J. W. Rimington-Wilson Library (part 1)", September 7, 2012.
"The J. W. Rimington-Wilson Library (part 2)", September 24, 2012.
"More on Rimington-Wilson's Chess Manuscript", February 11, 2013.
"More on Rimington-Wilson's Chess Manuscript (part 2)", February 19, 2013.
"A Research Trip to Cleveland", August 6, 2013 .
"From the pen and library of Henry Hucks Gibbs", December 5, 2011.
"Information Whist", March 25, 2013.
"Breaking News!", August 27, 2017.

On Bibliography

"Levy versus Bowers on Collections", September 15, 2011.
"What's in a Name?", October 20, 2011.
"Second Anniversary: Continuities and Disruptions", June 22, 2013.

Digital Humanites

"Hoyle Bibliography: technology update ", September 10, 2015.
"Hoyle Bibliography: technology update (part 2)", September 27, 2015.
"Hoyle Bibliography: technology update (part 3)", September 30, 2015.
"Who printed Piquet for Francis Cogan? Thank you Compositor!", January 25, 2021.

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