The two faces of a king, once again on Charlemagne’s chess set

The essay proposes, with new arguments, the attribution to Norman Sicily of the set for the game of chess known as Charlemagne's, but created in the 12th century. The set constitutes one of the oldest and most complete figured chess sets made in the Latin West. Currently reduced to 16 of the 32 original elements, it is a single corpus. It is exceptional not only for its size but also for the material in which it is carved - elephant ivory - but also for the singular contamination between East and West that distinguishes the main pieces of the game. The recent restoration, carried out by the BnF in view of the reopening of the Galerie Mazarine (2022), has made it possible to reconstruct the conservative history of the whole and the dynamics of the atelier which completed the work. The restoration also allowed a more exact interpretation of the iconographic peculiarities that make the Charlemagne series unique. The clothes, attributes and gestures of the two central figures of the game offer a sort of manifesto of the new Norman kingship. This probably justifies its attribution to the time of Roger II, and perhaps to his direct commission.