
History of Neapolitan Tombola – By V. Notaro
The history of Neapolitan Tombola has very ancient origins, from the rudimentary lotteries held by the Romans during the Saturnalia, through the medieval fortune exchanges, extractions organized by the powerful with the aim of resolving periods of severe crisis. At the beginning of the 16th century, the bbonafficiata (beneficiated) took root in Napoli, a lottery held to give dowries to girls who otherwise would not have been able to marry. However, gambling was also widespread in less noble forms and constituted both a problem and an opportunity for rulers.
From the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 18th century, to regulate (and exploit) gambling, the rulers held the first official lotteries in Napoli. The extractions went from one to two, then three, four. The Neapolitans were accustomed to it. For a period, lotteries were suppressed, but since the common people’s money ended up in the coffers of foreign lottery companies, in 1735 King Charles of Bourbon reintroduced them and increased them to nine a year.
This gave rise to strong friction between the State and the Clergy, who found themselves deprived of the alms of the faithful, even losing the souls of the Neapolitans in bad habits.
At this point, the figure of Gregorio Maria Rocco, who lived his entire life fighting vice, the cause of degradation and poverty, becomes crucial. The ecclesiastic was very influential at the Bourbon court, to the point that Charles III was forced to grant him that during the Christmas and Easter periods the extractions were suspended, so that the people could dedicate themselves to the sacraments and religious alms.
The Neapolitan Tombola was born exactly at this moment: the people of Napoli, deprived of extractions during the festive periods, invented a game of their own, a coded extraction.
A few players gathered in the slums or in houses, to ensure that the royal guard did not understand that they were carrying out a clandestine lottery, shouted not the numbers but the figures of the Smorfia, the mysterious Neapolitan cabala that attributes symbols to numbers for the interpretation of dreams. From neighborhood to neighborhood, from version to version of the Smorfia, the correspondences between numbers and symbols are changeable.
A project born in the forges of Officina Mirabilis
The Tombola Napoletana produced and distributed by New Arcobaleno β a far-sighted import/export company from Campania β was reconstructed and illustrated by hand by Vincenzo Notaro β creative director of Neapolitan creative lab Officina Mirabilis.
He spent about 6 months working on historical-iconographic research, hundreds of sketches, watercolors made with 000 brushes and graphic preparation for the printing of the Board and the box, comparing the main current versions, the oral sources of the popular neighborhoods of Napoli, always looking for the origin and confirmation in the oldest versions of the eighteenth-century Smorfia.
This is the most philologically and iconographically accurate Tombola currently on the market, with illustrations with a classic taste but characterized at the same time by a contemporary freshness and, last but not least, with numerous iconographic refinements that lovers of the Neapolitan tradition will enjoy discovering!
Rules
The Tombola Napoletana is played by 2 or more people.
One of the players is assigned the board with the Smorfia, while the others buy one or more cards for a small, pre-established symbolic sum. Each card has random numbers on 3 lines of 5 numbers each.
The total of the entries constitutes the prize pool that will be divided into the various winnings.
The player holding the board randomly extracts the numbers from the panariello, calling out the numbers and symbols of the Smorfia.
The other players mark them on their cards, if any, with wooden number covers, beans, orange peels or other materials.
The lucky ones can get ambo (two numbers on the same line), terno (three numbers on the same line), quaterna (four numbers on the same line), cinquina (five numbers on the same line) and even Tombola (completing one of the cards), winning the prizes up for grabs.
Play Tombola with family or friends and…Bbona furtuna!(Good Luck!)
You can find it in the best stores and online at Disvelare