Jeu de mail

Jeu de mail, in Anglo-Saxon literature called ‘pall mall’, was a one target game played with a wooden club with a cylindrical wooden head and a spherical wooden ball.

It is said that in the 15^th century, the game came from Italy into France. Originally people played it in the South of France. 

The essence of the game was to reach a target in the fewest number of strokes. It was an individual game, not a team game. In the South of France, people played 'à la chicane': in the fosses, on the ramparts and the sandy tracks around the towns.

It caught the attention of kings and nobles; they played the game on specially laid out narrow playing alleys (boulevards) of up to a thousand meters in length. King François I introduced the game at Fontainebleau in the first part of the 16^th century. Soon, the 'noble' game was played in many French towns, followed by the principal towns of Western Europe. The 'noble' game was played till the end of the 18^th century. The game à la chicane in the South of France survived until 1939 when the last mail player in Montpellier stowed away his mail equipment in the attic of his house.

Publication	Author	Published (in)
De Maliebaan in internationaal perspectief	Volkmar Eidloth & Hans Renes	2020 December Oud-Utrecht Jaarboek 2020
Pall mall in Great Britain?	Sara Kieboom-Nijs	2020 December
Le premier joueur de mail connu ou la Madone de l'Arche	Sara Kieboom-Nijs	2020 September
A road ... like any other?	Sara Kieboom-Nijs	2020 August
Fact-finding on 'Jeu de Mail' (Pall Mall): Marseille	Sara Kieboom-Nijs	2020 Spring golfika (Magazine oof the European Association of Golf Historians and Collectors)
Mailbahnen als städtebauliche und landschaftsplanerische Innovation im 17. Jahrhundert.	Volkmar Eidloth & Hans Renes	2018 Siedlungsforschung. Archäologie – Geschichte – Geographie 35
Jeu de mail à Orange	Geert & Sara Nijs	2017 March
From Munro bagging to Mail bagging A la recherche des anciens courts de jeu du mail	Geert & Sara Nijs	2013 October Presentation at the AGM of the European Association of Golf Historians & Collectors at Bruxelles
La Bernarde : boule de mail pour s'assurer la victoire ?		2012 La France pittoresque, N° 41
Le Noble Jeu de Mail de la ville de Montpellier	Philippe Estang	2009 February www.apgf.fr
Jeu de Mail Part 2	Henri Jakubowicz	2003 March - Through The Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society)
Jeu de Mail Part 1	Henri Jakubowicz	2002 December - Through The Green (Magazine of the British Golf Collectors Society)
The Sister of Golf	Andrew Lang	1909 Octobre - Article in Blackwood’s Magazine Reprint in Golf Illustrated, Vol. 4, Number 4, January 1916
Chevalier du Bois Roulant	Paul Hamelle	1909 March Article dans "Le Sport Universel - Illustré" Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Histoire du jeu de mail et du billard	L.E. Fournier	1889 Histoire des jouets et des jeux d'enfant © Le Livre d'histoire-Lorisse Paris 2002
Di Giocatori di Palla al maglio	Antonfrancesco Grazzini	1559 Rime di Antonfranceso Grazzini detto Il Lasca, Parte Seconda