De Vulgari Eloquentia

Late‑medieval Italy is the backdrop for De Vulgari Eloquentia, a game where players help turn Volgare—the popular tongue emerging from regional dialects—into a cultured language capable of recording contracts, poems and treatises. Each player takes on a role that can range from cloth merchant to Benedictine friar, banker or even future Pope. The goal is to earn the most Volgare points, awarded for reading important manuscripts (such as the Canticle of the Sun or the Verona Riddle), climbing the social ladder, and gaining support from politicians, nobles and amanuenses.

The board features a continental‑scale map of Italy divided into areas representing trade routes, monasteries, cities and the Papal Library. You move wooden pieces using action points, decide where to invest time and money, and collect sets of documents that grant scoring bonuses. Different strategies emerge: some focus on commerce and wealth, others on ecclesiastical influence, while some pursue scholarly research to unlock rare manuscripts.

With Action Points, Area Movement and Set Collection mechanics, the game offers tactical choices each turn without overwhelming the player. The learning curve is gentle, though resource management and social path selection require planning. In roughly two hours, your reputation will rise—or fall—as alliances shift and the secrets of the Papal Library are uncovered. De Vulgari Eloquentia blends history, linguistics and political intrigue into a rich yet accessible experience for fans of light‑to‑moderate strategy games.