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PALLONE (Italian for " large ball," f...

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 639 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PALLONE (See also:Italian for " large See also:ball," from See also:palla, ball)  , the See also:national See also:ball See also:game of See also:Italy . It is descended, as are all other See also:court See also:games, such as See also:tennis and See also:pelota, from the two ball games played by the See also:Romans, in one of which a large inflated ball, called follis, was used . The other, probably the immediate ancestor of See also:pallone, was played with a smaller ball, the pila . Pallone was played in See also:Tuscany as See also:early as the 14th See also:century, and is still very popular in See also:northern and central Italy . It is played in a court (sferisterio), usually too yds. See also:long and 17 yds. wide . A See also:white See also:line crosses the See also:middle of the court, which is bounded on one See also:side by a high See also:wall, the spectators sitting See also:round the other three sides, usually protected by See also:wire screens . One end of the court is called the battuta and the other the ribtattuta . At the end of the battuta is placed a See also:spring-See also:board, upon which stands the player who receives the service . The implements of the game are the pallone (ball) and the bracciale (See also:bat) . The pallone is an inflated ball covered with See also:leather, about 48 in. in See also:diameter . The bracciale is an See also:oak See also:gauntlet, tubular in shape, and covered with long spike-like protuberances . It weighs between five and six pounds and is provided with a grip for the See also:hand .

The game is played by two sides—blues and reds—of three men each, the battitore (See also:

batter), spalla (back) and terzino (third) . At the beginning of a game the battitore stands on the spring-board and receives the ball thrown to him on the See also:bound by a seventh player, the mandarino, who does See also:duty for both sides .. The batter may ignore the ball until it comes to him to his liking, when he runs down the spring-board and strikes it with his bracciale over the centre line towards his opponents . The game then proceeds until a player fails to return the ball correctly, or hits it out of See also:bounds, or it touches his See also:person . This See also:counts a point for the adversary . Four points make a game, counting 15, 30, 40 and 5o . See Il Giuoco del pallone, by G . See also:Franceschini (See also:Milan, 1903) .

End of Article: PALLONE (Italian for " large ball," from palla, ball)
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PALM (Lat. palma, Gr. iraX6.jn )

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