De Vulgari Eloquentia

Set in late medieval Italy, players navigate towns and institutions to help build a common written tongue drawn from regional dialects. On each turn players acquire and decipher manuscripts, search archives for key texts, recruit patrons and supporters, and advance along social and religious careers that grant new abilities. Victory points come from reading important documents, raising social status (merchant to banker, friar to monk, cleric to high office), accumulating wealth, and securing the backing of politicians, nobility, abbesses, and the amanuensis. The game mixes area movement, worker placement and tableau development as players balance scholarship, patronage and power to score the most Volgare points.

Players: 2–5 best 4
Playing time: 120 min
Age: 14+
Complexity: 3.6 / 5

5.4 on LudoyaMedievalTravelArea MovementAction PointsSet Collection

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About the game

Design: Mario Papini
Art: Lamberto Azzariti
Eva Villa
Guido Favaro

Expansions

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De Vulgari Eloquentia: Upgrade Pack2019

Where to buy it

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ZacatrusOut of stock36 €

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Full stats in Ludoya

22
Plays logged: 29
Players: 2h 48m
Average play: 27
In collections: 1
On wishlists

5.4/10

from 13 Ludoya reviews

Mestremuten6.0
Rating: 3/5 Production value: 3/4 Is the game in my collection/Love to have?: 0/1
Evan3.5
This is a game where you wander around italy as a merchant. At some point you can decide to become a friar, and at some point as a friar you can decide to become a cardinal, and if you are a cardinal, perhaps you can even win the election to be pope! At the end of the game it's points that matter. This game has a lot going for it, in terms of theme and ideas, but it's plagued with terrible graphic design and tiny text that contains partial, or even worse, mis-information about how the actions work and what they cost and do. It's sad to see what would be a good game become a frustrating mess like this. Maybe it will get another print run someday? ☆ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ☆ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment