The 17th century was the century that saw the rise of card games, which exploded in popularity due to printing. Checkers had probably supplanted Morris earlier.

The 17th century was the century that saw the rise of card games, which exploded in popularity due to printing. Checkers had probably supplanted Morris earlier. More important is probably its educational use in teaching Boethian arithmetic in the medieval university. By 1600, Europe has rediscovered scores of classical texts and was on the verge of making very major strides in mathematics. It probably just didn't seem relevant.