Allison Levy is an art historian specializing in the visual culture of early modern Italy. She has written and/or edited three previous scholarly books.

• Introduction: Playing the Field by Allison Levy Performing Pictures: Parlor Games and Visual Engagement in Ascanio de' Mori's Giuoco piacevole by Kelli Wood "Mixt" and Matched: Dance Games in Late Sixteenth- and Early Seventeenth-Century Europe by Emily F. Winerock Ludic Intermingling/Ludic Discrimination: Women's Card Playing and Visual Proscriptions in Early Modern Europe by Antonella Fenech Kroke Leonardo da Vinci, Parody, and Pictorial Magic by Chriscinda Henry Letter Games: Machiavelli and Guicciardini in Carnivalesque Correspondence by Sergius Kodera The Rules of Passion and Pastime: The Game of Lurch in a Late Renaissance Poem by Manfred Zollinger "Sportes and Pastimes, done by Number": Mathematical Games in Early Modern England by Jessica Marie Otis Predictive Play: Wheels of Fortune in the Early Modern Lottery Book by Jessen Kelly Virtuous Vices: Giuseppe Maria Mitelli's Gambling Prints and the Social Mapping of Leisure and Gender in Post-Tridentine Bologna by Patricia Rocco Trading and Trick Taking in the Dutch Republic: Pasquin's Wind Cards and the South Sea Bubble by Joyce Goggin The Problem of Excessive Play: Renaissance Strategies of Ludic Governmentality by Andreas Hermann Fischer Imaginary Cartographies and Commercial Commodities: Geography and Playing Cards in Early Modern England by Serina Patterson Land of Elusion: Portuguese Perceptions and the Matter of Play and Gaming in Vijayanagara by Elke Rogersdotter Visual Frames and Breaking the Rules of the Reconquista: Chess and Alfonso X, el Sabio's Libro de ajedrez, dados, y tablas by Nhora Lucía Serrano The Prisoners' Dilemma: Strategies and Ruses in the Inquisitorial Jails of Early Modern Cuenca by Patrick J. O'Banion