active 1288-1322 de Cessolis Jacobus

Probably active in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, Jacobus de Cessolis was an Italian Dominican friar associated with Cessole in Piedmont. He is best known for a widely read moral treatise on chess, often referred to in Latin as Liber de moribus hominum et officiis nobilium ac popularium super ludo scachorum.

Rather than writing about chess as a competitive game in the modern sense, he used the chessboard and its pieces as a way to explain the duties of different ranks and professions in society. That approach made the book memorable and useful to medieval readers, and it circulated broadly in manuscript before reaching even wider audiences through later printed versions and adaptations.

His life details are not well documented, which is why library records often identify him simply as "active 1288–1322." Even so, his influence lasted for centuries, especially through the long afterlife of his chess allegory in medieval and early print culture.