L’incanto del gioco del lotto nella Venezia del secolo XVIII
Per una antropologia in versi e in prosa
Abstract
The essay explores the imagination surrounding the lottery in eighteenth-century Venice through memoirs, novels and poetry. Starting from Goldoni’s Memoirs and Chiari’s Le memorie di Madame Tolot, it highlights fascination with the game and with Venice itself, alongside risks of fanaticism and illusion. The analysis of sonnets and satires in the Cicogna Collections 1224 and 1230 (Museo Correr, Venice) outlines gambling behaviours between hope, despair, irony and social redemption. The anthropological reading is framed within game studies (from Huizinga’s “magic circle” to the contribution of Bateson, Goffman, Salen and Zimmerman).
open access | peer reviewed
Presentato: 22 Ottobre 2025 | Accettato: 13 Marzo 2026 | Pubblicato 14 Maggio 2026 | Lingua: it
Keywords Anthropology of play • Huizinga • Chiari • Magic circle • Eighteenth-century Venice • Goldoni • Genoese lottery
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