The Biribissi, or Biribi like the French called it, is an old and simple game, played in a quite big variety of ways.
It is a sort of a lottery in the end, and you bet on a certain number, and if it gets extracted, you win.
The banker is provided with a bag from which he draws an olive containing a ticket, the tickets corresponding with the numbers on the board.
Biribissi could go with 36, 48, 42, 66, 64, 70 choices, whatever. Each producer/organizer was making his own.
The version that seems to have been played at the Ridotto in Venice was with 70 numbers, and it will pay for sixty-four times his stake, and the rest was going to the bank.
Carlo Maria Maggi - Italian scholar, writer and poet from Milano - in his Purgatory description in his "Rime Varie" written in 1650, gives a colorful image of the atmosphere of a Biribissi game:
“Dall’ altro lato ad una mensa intorno
Erano uomini e donne,
Che danari spargean sopra una tela, Ch’avea molte figure in più colori.
Costor fuor d’un sacchetto
Certe palle traean, che parean d’oro,
E pure eran di foco
E ardean loro le mani e le saccocce.
Sopra queste con note fiammeggianti
Il cartello dicea BIRIBISSANTI”.
"On the other side of the table
There were men and women,
Spreading coins on a canvas,
Which had many images in many colors.
These people, out of a bag
Pulled out some balls,
Which looked like gold,
And in reality were of fire
And burned their hands and pockets.
On these canvases with burning letters Was written: BIRIBISSANTI"
