An original 16th century German woodcut of an early European ball game titled ''Von Kurtzweyl des Balwerffens'' (On the pastime of ball throwing) by t

An original 16th century German woodcut of an early European ball game titled ''Von Kurtzweyl des Balwerffens'' (On the pastime of ball throwing) by the 'Petrarch Master' an hitherto unidentified but acclaimed German renaissance book illustrator, first published in 1532, but this being later circa 1595, and then hand coloured subsequently, an image familiar to students of tennis history being depicted in various books including C. de Bondt, Royal Tennis in Renaissance Italy (2006, p.52) and H. Gillmeister, Kulturgeschichte des Tennis (1990, p. 201), the game depicted not tennis as such, but still appearing to be a close and important relation in historical terms This page was taken from the German translation of Petrarch's book ''De Remediis Utriusque Fortunae.'' It contains both the illustration and the accompanying text of Chapter 25, titled ''Von Kurtzweyl des Balwerffens'' (The pastime of Ball Playing). In the text Petrarch recommends the ball game, providing it is played ''neatly and seriously.'' One of the players in the illustration is the Roman lawyer Scaevola, who is said to have played ''very well and often.'' Variants similar to this German game were played throughout Europe; Italian pallone, French jeu de ballon etc. At the time of this observation it can be said to be close to the early forms of jeu de paume/real tennis. The parallels to more modern times, would be its developmental line into hand and ball games such as handball, volleyball, netball and basketball, as opposed to a separate evolutionary direction towards all forms of racquet sports.