Gioco del Pallone

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The Gioco del Pallone is a team sport that originated in the Apennines and was played in Italy until the 20th century.

history

The Gioco del Pallone (German: Ballonspiel) was a team sport from Italy, which belongs to the category of return games. The aim of the game is to get the ball into the opposing half of the field. Großering (1996) suspects an independent development history of the pallone game and denies a direct relationship to the two ball games " Harpastum " and "Trigon", which were common in Italian antiquity . The Pallone play, which has been handed down with rules and regulations, probably originated in the 14th century. The monk Bernardine of Siena reports around 1400 of a ball game that was played in the streets of the city. In 1555 Antonio Scaino published his "Trattato del giuoco della palla" in which the rules of the pallone game are described. The Pallone game remained popular in Italy until the early 20th century and was also played by professional players. Goethe attended such games on his travels through Italy. In his trip to Italy he describes a pallone playing which he observed in Verona in 1786 . But this game was also known in France, Spain and England, and a drawing from 1644 by the Dutchman Arnold Petersen, who lives in Hamburg, shows that it was also played outside the gates of Hamburg in the 17th century.

One of the preserved Pallone venues is the Sferisterio , built between 1819 and 1829 on the Piazza Mazzini in Macerata . The Piazza Gioco del Pallone outside the city walls of Torrita di Siena also reminds of the old ball game .

Game equipment

Sleeves for the Pallone game, alpine, 16./17. Century and children's flap sleeves for the Pallone game, Northern Italy, 15th century. Bavarian National Museum, Munich

The basic equipment of the pallone game included a ball (palla) and forearm protection (bracciale), which made it easier to play the comparatively heavy ball.

The ball was an air-filled leather ball that lost both in size and weight over the course of history. In the 16th century the circumference was approx. 32 centimeters and the weight approx. 800 grams, while from the 18th century a circumference of approx. 20 centimeters and 500 grams has been handed down. By the beginning of the 20th century, the weight was reduced by another 300 grams and the circumference even shrunk to 9 centimeters. The inside, which was inflated through a valve, consisted of a pig or cattle bladder, but had to be refilled with air very frequently, every few strokes. A total of three balls were available for each game to guarantee a continuous flow of play.

In the early days of the Gioco del Pallone , players used fabric or leather that they tied around their forearms to provide protection from the heavy ball being played. From the middle of the 16th century these pieces of fabric or leather were replaced by the bracciale, a wooden forearm protector with spikes that the players put over the still bandaged forearms. A hand-held piece of wood prevented the bracciale from being lost. The spiked armguard made it possible to hit the ball back more precisely. This forearm protection was preferably referred to as "Bracciale", but also as "Busuole" or "Manipola". The German-language names are "Britschal", "Nagelstulpe" or "Holzmuffen".

If the Pallone game was played on a city wall, this could be included in the game and enabled further tactical measures by indirectly playing the ball.

regulate

Team composition

A team consisted of two to four players (in the description of Scainos there are three players), so a maximum of eight players took part in a Pallone game. The most common game variant, which has been handed down from figurative sources, has three players per team.

Start of the game and point gain

At the beginning of a rally, a player (Pallonero) throws the ball from two to three meters away. The server tries to push the ball with his arm or fist as forcefully as possible into the opposing half. The impact of the impact was increased in part by the impactor running down an inclined plane. The returning team had to try to return the ball. This could happen directly or after an attacker placed in the front of the field accepted or passed a man behind. Depending on the agreement and variant of the game, points could be gained after the ball hit the ground once or twice.

Counting method

The counting method was the same as in today's tennis . The first point win by a team counted 15, the second added up to 30, the third 45 (later 40) and the fourth point win brought the victory. With a score of 40:40, the next point win does not decide, rather a lead of two points was necessary. This resulted in the following two, slightly changeable, game courses:

A team wins the game with a maximum of two loss points

Course of the game Team 1 Team 2
Game start 0 0
Point gain M1 15th 0
Point gain M2 15th 15th
Point gain M1 30th 15th
Point gain M2 30th 30th
Point gain M1 40 30th
Point gain M1 Win M1 30th

A team wins the game with at least three loss points:

Course of the game Team 1 Team 2
Game start 0 0
Point gain M1 15th 0
Point gain M2 15th 15th
Point gain M1 30th 15th
Point gain M2 30th 30th
Point gain M1 40 30th
Point gain M2 40 40
Point gain M1 Advantage M1 40
Point gain M1 Win M1 40

Game researchers suspect the origins of this counting method in the currency Louisdor. One Louis d'or was the equivalent of 60 cruisers.

Compare to ball sports in use today

tennis

Counting in steps of 15 as well as the advantage rule with 40:40 tie. Loss of points when the ball hits the ground twice.

volleyball

Loss of points when the ball hits the ground once. Acceptance position or player and attacker. Size of the game ball.

Fistball

The size of the playing field and the open air. Loss of points when the ball hits the ground twice. Playing the ball with your forearm. Size of the game ball and an increased weight compared to volleyball.

Literary tradition

Johann Wolfgang v. On September 16, 1786, Goethe wrote in his travel diary Italian Journey : “When I left the arena again today, I came a few thousand steps away to a modern public spectacle. Four noble Veronese struck ball against four Vicentines. They usually do this all year round, about two hours before night; this time, because of the foreign opponents, the people ran up incredibly. There could always have been four to five thousand spectators. I never saw women of any class. Earlier, when I spoke of the need of the crowd in such a case, I already described the natural, accidental amphitheater, how I saw the people here built on top of one another. I heard a lively clap of hands from afar, every significant blow was accompanied by it. But the game goes like this: At a reasonable distance from each other, two slightly dependent boards are set up. The one who hits the ball stands on the topmost level, his right hand armed with a wide wooden ring of spikes. When someone else from his party throws him the ball, he runs down towards the ball and thereby increases the force of the blow with which he knows how to hit it. The opponents try to hit him back, and so it goes back and forth until he finally remains in the field. The most beautiful positions, worth reproducing in marble, come to light. Since they are all well-grown, sprightly, young people in short, skimpy, white clothes, the parties differ only in a colored badge. Particularly beautiful is the position in which the knockout gets by running down the sloping surface and swinging to hit the ball, it approaches that of the Borghese fencer. It struck me as strange that they were doing this exercise on an old city wall without the least bit of comfort for the spectators; why not do it in the amphitheater, where such a beautiful space would be! "

The Pallone game is also mentioned more casually in ETA Hoffmann's story The Stone Heart .

Representations in art

Kickback dwarf with bracciale in Mirabell Palace in Salzburg

Among the 15 surviving dwarf figures that were erected in the course of a redesign of the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach from 1690, two are identified as pallone players. One is equipped with a bracciale and a ball as a server. The second only has the bracciale as equipment.

Pallone players also created the sculptors Heinrich Kümmel (1837/38) and Ferdinand Schlöth (1863) , who worked in Rome .

literature

  • Stefan Großing: Pallone - an aristocratic ball game , in: Günther Bauer (ed.): Homo Ludens. The playing person IV. Verlag Emil Katzbichler. Munich / Salzburg. 1996.
  • Johann Christoph Friedrich Guts Muths: Games for exercise and relaxation of the body and mind , 2nd edition, Schnepfenthal 1796.
  • Peter Streitwolf: A princely ball game device from Heidelberg , in: Ethnographisch- Archäologische Zeitschrift 34 (1993), pp. 400-431.

Individual evidence

  1. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Knowledge on the net. Retrieved February 1, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wissen-im-netz.info
  2. ^ Günther G. Bauer: Salzburger Barockzwerge. Verlag Galerie Welz. Salzburg. 1989; Etta Bengen: The big world of garden gnomes: A historical review. Myths Origin Traditions. Edition: other publishing house GmbH. Suderburg-Hösseringen. 2001.
  3. Stefan Hess / Tomas Lochman (eds.), Classical beauty and patriotic heroism. The Basel sculptor Ferdinand Schlöth (1818–1891) , Basel 2004, p. 108 f.