Thirty-one is 'o patrone 'e casa, the landlord. Not the master of the house in the sense of the father, but the man who owns the building and calls for the rent.
It is the most quietly social square on the board. Whoever fixed the figures was writing from the tenant's side of the door.
- 31
- 'O patrone 'e casa
- the landlord
- Row 31–40 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Unrecorded, but there is one reading nobody has bothered to write down and it is almost too neat: thirty-one is the last day of the longest months, which is when the rent falls due.
Other things filed on 31
In Neapolitan life
The board keeps a whole economy: the landlord at 31, money at 46, the shop at 86, a debt and a creditor filed under 20 in the dictionary. Read together it is a household ledger with a picture on every line.
31 in the smorfia — frequently asked
No. 'O patrone 'e casa is the landlord, the owner of the property, not the father of the family.
Because he was a fixture of the month. The board records the people who turned up regularly, and rent day was one of them.