The Bullroarer Atlas

TUCCI1969-003 - ethnographic attestation

Poffabro rombo (spatola)

Friuli - Val Colvera - Europe - Northeast Italy

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The Ballycastle bullroarer itself.
Representative — not this record’s object. · The Ballycastle bullroarer itself Image source

spatola Italian

spatola — 'spatula', for the blade's shape; rombo is the standard Italian name.

At Poffabro, a stone village in the Colvera valley of Friuli, the rombo — locally the spatola, for its spatula shape — belonged above all to Holy Week. Cut from whatever wood was to hand and swung on a cord held between two fingers, it sounded through the fields and streets; but it was never carried into the church.

Il rombo (spatola) si usa specialmente durante la Settimana Santa nei campi e per le strade, ma non si porta in chiesa.

The rombo (spatola) is used especially during Holy Week, in the fields and along the streets, but it is not carried into the church.

Perusini's report, quoted in Tucci, 'Studi e ricerche sul rombo in Italia' (1969), p. 366
Object
Cut from any wood to hand, in the shape of a spatula, of any size; whirled on a cord held between two fingers.
Function
Played above all during Holy Week, in the fields and streets — but never carried into the church.
Map confidence
medium - Poffabro village, Comune di Frisanco.
Source location
Tucci 1969, p. 366

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