Alea evangelii  Alea evangelii (Game of the Gospels) is a member of the tafl family of games. Known from an eleventh-century Irish manuscript where it is given a Christian scriptural context, the game is played on the intersections of an 18 by 18 squares game board. This is larger than that of most "tafl" games. The manuscript, Corpus Christi College ms. 122 (folio 5 verso), attempts to give scriptural meaning to a hnefatafl variant, and, though the layout is unwieldy, its proportions are also found in a game board fragment unearthed at Wimose on the Danish island of Funen. Manuscript CCC MS 122 is composed of 117 pages. It includes three sections: the ten Eusebian Canons (or tables) representing how each Gospel agrees with or differs from the others; the “Alea Evangelii” diagram and two pages of explanation in Latin; the Vulgate Latin version of the four Gospels, preceded by St. Jerome's prologue. The manuscript is written in an Irish hand and is commonly dated to the eleventh century. The description of the game states that it was invented at the court of King Æthelstan of England (924–939) by two learned men: an anonymous Frank and Israel the Grammarian, one of the leading European scholars of his time. The diagram and its explanation were brought to Ireland by Dub Innse, bishop of Bangor (d. 953). The captions that label the different sides of the diagram and many of the pieces intermix Latin and ancient Irish. The diagram presents numerous errors with respect to the accompanying text. Most notably, not counting the piece at the center of the board, 69 pieces appear on the diagram, while the text describes the position of 72 pieces. Each of the four corners and borders of the diagram is assigned to one of the four Evangelists. 67 pieces are derived from the Eusebian Canons: each Canon defines a number of pieces corresponding to the square of its number of columns. Pieces defined by a specific canon are grouped together on the board: such groups are labeled by a cross and the number of the corresponding canon. Four more pieces are painted in red (all the others are painted in black) and in the manuscript are mentioned as "different men" ("varios viros"): two of these four pieces are assigned to the Evangelist John (N14, F6), the other to Mark (N6, F14).