Yes Fergus, this is the kind of analysis that we've done. But of course not only 1 passage must be checked, any "theory" has to be tested with other passages of the text. Basically, this is what Sonja has done in her PhD.
To go further on this particular passage, the authors used the verb "to do" instead of "to go". Let's do more litteral:
"corre mucho desque comienca & faze ante en salto en trauiesso como Cauallo."
>> runs a lot when it begins & does before a jump in oblique as a Horse
"& assi lo establecieron en este acedrex que anda el primer salto como Cauallo"
>> & so they established in this chess that walks (anda) the first jump as a Horse
& depues en sosquino como la Cocatriz fata do quisiere; o que tome.
>> & then in corner as the Cocatrice (mythical animal probably inspired by the crocodile. Consider that no crocodile was frequently seen in Castile in those days) does as it wants; or take.
(the punctation ; is given in the numeric Spanish text)
"E daquella casa o salta non puede tornar a tras si non yr siempre adelante."
>> And from that square where it jumps cannot turn back but goes (yr) always forward
Again, there are several points where Murray went wrong with this text. Murray was quite good at many languages, not sure he was with Spanish. Another possibility, I believe it, was the poor consideration that Murray had for those large chess variants. I can elaborate on this if you want.
Yes Fergus, this is the kind of analysis that we've done. But of course not only 1 passage must be checked, any "theory" has to be tested with other passages of the text. Basically, this is what Sonja has done in her PhD.
To go further on this particular passage, the authors used the verb "to do" instead of "to go". Let's do more litteral:
"corre mucho desque comienca & faze ante en salto en trauiesso como Cauallo."
>> runs a lot when it begins & does before a jump in oblique as a Horse
"& assi lo establecieron en este acedrex que anda el primer salto como Cauallo"
>> & so they established in this chess that walks (anda) the first jump as a Horse
& depues en sosquino como la Cocatriz fata do quisiere; o que tome.
>> & then in corner as the Cocatrice (mythical animal probably inspired by the crocodile. Consider that no crocodile was frequently seen in Castile in those days) does as it wants; or take.
(the punctation ; is given in the numeric Spanish text)
"E daquella casa o salta non puede tornar a tras si non yr siempre adelante."
>> And from that square where it jumps cannot turn back but goes (yr) always forward
Again, there are several points where Murray went wrong with this text. Murray was quite good at many languages, not sure he was with Spanish. Another possibility, I believe it, was the poor consideration that Murray had for those large chess variants. I can elaborate on this if you want.
All my best,