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The ancient game of Rackets originated in late eighteenth-century London as a game played in debtor prisons such as the Kidderminster Prison and the Fleet Prison. Prisoners used a hard ball struck against brick or stone walls and improvised wooden bats. The environment required elongated strokes and rapid reactions in confined spaces. Racquet from the game of Rackets, 1803 As the sport gained popularity beyond prisons, taverns, schools and clubs constructed purpose-built cour

The Racquet of the Majesty, dated 1583, belongs to the Golden age of Real Tennis, the sport of European kings. The game had evolved from the French Jeu de Paume and became a symbol of royal prestige. Courts were built in palaces such as Hampton Court under King Henry VIII, where the game was played indoors with refined skill and ceremony. Across France, by the end of the sixteenth century, hundreds of such courts stood in use, serving nobles and courtiers alike. In Normandy,

Antonio Scaino, an Italian priest and theologian from Salò, completed Trattato del giuoco della palla  in 1555. The work was printed in Venice by Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari and his brothers, one of the leading publishing houses of the Renaissance. It is recognized as the earliest known treatise devoted entirely to the study of ball games in Europe. Scaino described the social context of play at the courts of Ferrara and Mantua and divided existing games into three main types