Eighty-four is 'a chiesa, the church: the building, not the institution. Naples has several hundred of them and the figure is deliberately generic.
It closes the board's religious spine: the Madonna at 8, Sant'Antuono at 13, the years of Christ at 33, the monk at 37, the church at 84 and the souls in purgatory at 85.
- 84
- 'A chiesa
- the church
- Row 81–90 of the tabellone
Where the figure comes from
Unrecorded.
Other things filed on 84
In Neapolitan life
Serao named 84 in a standing bet. Alongside the famous ambo and the famous terno, Il ventre di Napoli lists «il terno della Madonna, otto, tredici e ottantaquattro»: the Madonna, Sant'Antuono and the church, staked as one line because the three figures belonged together. She notes that terni of that kind came out about once in twenty years, which is why the government was content to let people play them.
84 in the smorfia — frequently asked
Eight, thirteen and eighty-four: the Madonna, Sant'Antuono and the church. Serao records it in 1884 as a line Naples played out of devotion and habit.
None in particular. Naples has several hundred and the figure is deliberately generic.