In 1668 Pierre Mallet had published the first French work on the game,
and elementary though his knowledge of the game seems to have been, even
in comparison with that of Canalejas or Garcez, the historical notes,
rules and instructions which he gave, served as a basis for many later
works. Mallet wrote on _Le Jeu de dames a la francaise_, which was
almost identical with the modern English game. The old French game is,
however, no longer practised in France, having been superseded by _Le
Jeu de dames a la polonaise_. Manoury gives reasons for believing that
the latter game originated in Paris about 1727.

About 1736 a famous player named Laclef published the first book on
Polish draughts, but the first important book on the game is Manoury's
_Jeu de dames a la polonaise_, in the production of which it is said
that the author had the assistance of Diderot and other
_encyclopedistes_. This book, which appeared in 1787, was to the new
game all that Mallet's was to the old French game, and until the
appearance of Poirson Prugneaux's _Encyclopedie du jeu de dames_ in 1855
it remained the standard authority on so-called Polish draughts. The
Polish game early attained popularity in Holland, and in 1785 the
standard Dutch work, Ephraim van Embden's _Verhandeling over het
Damspel_, was produced. In German-speaking countries the progress of the
new game was slower, and the works produced in the first half of the
19th century generally treat of the older game as well as the Polish
game. This is also the case with Petroff's book published in St
Petersburg in 1827; and similarly Zongono's, which dates from 1832,
deals with the new game and with the older Italian game.

In 1694 Hyde wrote _Historia dami ludi seu latrinculorum_, in which he
tried to prove the identity of draughts with _ludus latrinculorum_. This
work is historical and descriptive, but contains nothing concerning the
game as played in Great Britain. The authentic history of draughts in
England commences with William Payne's _Introduction to the Game of
Draughts_, the dedication of which was written by Samuel Johnson.
Payne's games and problems were incorporated in a much more important
work, namely Sturges's _Guide to the Game of Draughts_, which appeared
in 1800 and has gone through a score of editions. About this time the
game was much practised in both England and Scotland, but the first
important production of the Scottish school was Drummond's _Scottish
Draug