De Vulgari Eloquentia

AI-friendly board game rules summaries — use with Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant

Overview

De Vulgari Eloquentia is a 2-5 player strategy game set in late-medieval Italy, during the birth of the Italian vernacular language (Volgare). Players travel across the Italian peninsula as merchants, collecting manuscripts, gaining the support of politicians, noblemen, abbesses, and scribes, and pursuing cultural and economic advancement. Players may choose to remain merchants or convert to friars and later cardinals, each with unique benefits and restrictions. The game lasts 13-16 turns and the player with the most Volgare Points (VP) wins.

Components

Setup

  1. Place the board and Manuscript board in the center.
  2. Place Event tiles on the Event track: tile 10 (Stupor Mundi) on space 10, then randomize the rest in numerical order starting from one randomly drawn tile.
  3. Place 5 Papal Event tiles randomly face-down on the last 5 Event track spaces.
  4. Fill the cloth bag with cubes (quantity depends on player count) and distribute them across the first 7 turns of the Cube track.
  5. Place Canticle tiles on the 5 Franciscan cities.
  6. Prepare Manuscript tiles (remove some per player count), shuffle by level, and display face-up tiles equal to player count (or player count minus 1 for 4-5 players).
  7. Shuffle Papal Library tiles face-down.
  8. Each player takes a Merchant meeple, Friar meeple, Cardinal meeple, 20 discs, a screen, player aid, 10 Ducati, and a random Merchant tile.
  9. Randomly determine player order. In reverse order, each player chooses a starting city (Catania, Taranto, Ancona, Torino, or Vicenza) and places their Merchant meeple.
  10. Place Knowledge markers (stacked in reverse player order) on the first space of the Knowledge track.
  11. First player takes the 5 Action markers.

Turn Structure

Each turn (except the first) has 4 phases:

1. Event Phase

Move the Turn marker to the next Event space. Place the Event tile on the map near its associated city. Redistribute unacquired cubes and refill Manuscript tiles.

2. Charity Phase (turns 2-11)

Friars receive 5 Ducati and Cardinals receive 10 Ducati from the wealthiest Merchant. If no Merchant is wealthier, Charity comes from the bank.

3. Player Order Phase

Reorder players in reverse Knowledge track order (least knowledge goes first). The player furthest on the Rest track becomes first player regardless.

4. Actions Phase

In player order, each player spends their Action points (5 per turn; 6 for Cardinal Muret). Each action can only be performed once per turn.

Actions

Each player has 5 Action points per turn (marked with purple discs). Available actions:

Action Cost Effect
Movement 1 AP per land step; 3 AP for sea travel Move character on the map. Costs 10 Ducati if using more than 1 AP. Sea travel between harbor cities of the same sea.
Manuscripts 1-4 AP (equal to manuscript level) Take 1 Manuscript tile if in the correct dialect zone and Knowledge level is sufficient.
Politicians 1 AP (1 cube) or 4 AP (2 cubes) + 30/60 Ducati Acquire brown cubes (value 3 for elections). Needed to become a Cardinal.
Noblemen 1 AP (1 cube) or 4 AP (2 cubes) Acquire blue cubes (value 2 for elections). May discard for 20 Ducati each.
Abbesses 1 AP (1 cube) or 4 AP (2 cubes) + 15/30 Ducati Acquire pink cubes (value 1 for elections). Free at Abbeys. Used for Canticle track.
Scribes 1 AP (1 cube) or 4 AP (2 cubes) Acquire turquoise cubes (placed in front of screen). Convert at Abbeys to Knowledge (3 per cube) or VP (1 per cube at game end).
Psalter 1 AP Gain 3 Knowledge (4 if last on Knowledge track).
Small Business 1 AP Gain 10 Ducati.
Riddle from Verona 1-5 AP Advance on Riddle track (must be in blue zone). Leader at game end scores 4-6 VP.
Messenger 1-5 AP Advance on Messenger track. Reaching the end (costs 10 Ducati + 1 pink cube) activates Bologna.
Orient 1-5 AP (Merchants only) Advance on Orient track. Reaching end: gain 10 Ducati per city with economic bonus.
Canticle of the Sun 1-5 AP + 1 pink cube per AP Advance on Canticle track (must be in active Franciscan city). Leader scores 9 VP; second scores 6 VP.
Papal Library 1-5 AP Advance on Papal Library track. Draw and keep Papal Library tiles at numbered positions.
Rest 1-5 AP Advance on Rest track to secure first-player position next turn.

Free Actions (no AP cost, before or after any action)

Scoring / Victory Conditions

The game ends when the second red Papal Event tile is revealed (turns 12-16). The current turn is the final turn; all players move to Roma.

Final Election

Players discard cubes from behind their screen to be elected:

Cube values: Brown = 3, Blue = 2, Pink = 1.

Volgare Points

The player with the most VP wins. Tiebreaker: furthest on Knowledge track.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

Player Reference

Turn Phases: Event → Charity → Player Order → Actions

Action Points: 5 per turn (6 for Cardinal Muret)

Character Hierarchy: Merchant → Friar (at Convent) → Cardinal (at Cathedral, costs 40 Ducati + 1 brown/blue cube)

Cube Values (for elections): Brown=3, Blue=2, Pink=1

Key Tracks:

Win Condition: Most Volgare Points after Final Election