Giulio Cesare Croce (1550–1609) was an Italian writer, actor/producer of

cantastoria (; also spelled , or ) comes from Italian for "story-singer" and is known by many other names around the world. It is a theatrical form where a performer tells or sings a story while gesturing to a series of images. These images can be painted ...

and enigma writer. The son of a blacksmith and a

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...

himself, after the death of his father, his uncle continued his cultural education. He never had any particular patron but was still able to gradually leave the family business to pursue his passion: story telling. He had an enormous success and was able to travel to fairs, markets, patrician houses, and the Italian courts. His presentations were complemented by a violin. His prolific literary production was contingent upon his own transcriptions of his shows. He was married twice and had 14 children. He died in poverty.

His life and choices

He had little formal training or teachers and can therefore be considered one of the most successful self-taught authors in Italian literature. Due to his choices, he was never fully part of the literary groups of his time. To be a literary man in his period meant living at court, having patrons, or else being left to one's own devices for financial purposes. Croce was never a true literary man in the strictest sense of the word since he preferred laymen audiences to the court. In fact, he was principally a story teller and a blacksmith and most likely wrote for his own personal satisfaction. As such, his stories and inspiration come from the lower class, from the audiences at the market, who, if able to read, bought his works. This is in stark opposition to many contemporary authors who were inspired by the whims of their patrons.

Bertoldo

One of the few of his more than 400 published works to be translated into English, Bertoldo was a popular story among the people of his time. Bertoldo is a story that had various versions in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

taking place in the court of the king

Alboin Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting eff ...

in either

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

Pavia Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the ...

depending on the version. In its most organic version, that of Croce (, 1606), Bertoldo is from Roverè. Some of its raunchy language was softened, as was the edge of revenge against the powerful commoner in some of the other variations. One of his sources for the story were the '' Dialogus Salomonis et Marcolphi''. To his first Bertoldo,The Library of Congress
/ref> Croce wrote a sequel called ''Le piacevoli et ridicolose simplicità di Bertoldino'', 1608, (about the son of Bertoldo, in the charge of his mother Marcolfa). Later (1620), the abbot Adriano Banchieri wrote another sequel called ''Novella di Cacasenno, figliuolo del semplice Bertoldino.'' Since then the work of Croce is often published alongside under the title

Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno ''Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno'' (internationally released as ''Bertoldo, Bertoldino, and Cascacenno'') is a 1984 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli. It was filmed in Rome, Cappadocia, Marano Lagunare and Exilles. Plot summar ...

from which three films were inspired under the same title in: 1936, 1954 and 1984 (the last by

Mario Monicelli Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli (; 16 May 1915 – 29 November 2010) was an Italian film director and screenwriter and one of the masters of the '' Commedia all'Italiana'' (Comedy Italian style). He was nominated six times for an Oscar, and was a ...

). In Bertoldo, Croce may have shown his secret aspirations, the crude lout and the self-taught, the presence at court was his hope for his future with which he hoped to solve his problems. The liberty of thought and action that Bertoldo had at court may show Croce's desire to live vicariously through his character by having a patron, like many of his counterparts, but without having to pay homage to them.

Books and Comedies

He wrote more than 400 works in Italian and Bolognese dialect.

Books

* Le sottilissime astuzie di Bertoldo * Le piacevoli e ridicolose simplicità di Bertoldino, figlio del già astuto Bertoldo * Descrizione della vita del Croce (autobiography in verse) * I banchetti di mal cibati (on the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...

of 1590) * La sollecita e studiosa Accademia de' Golosi * L'eccellenza e il trionfo del porco * Le ventisette mascherate piacevolissime (dedicated to the venetian Berenice Gozzadina Gozadini)

Comedies

* La Farinella * Il tesoro * Sandrone astuto * Sandrone astuto * Il tesoro * Cavalcata di varij lenguazi * Sogno del Zani * Dispute fra Cola et Arlechino * Dai Dialoghi curiosi * Vanto ridicoloso del Trematerra * La gran vittoria di Pedrolino contra il Dottor Gratiano Scatolone * La canzone di Catarinon * Vocabulario Gratianesco * Conclusiones quinquaginta tres sustintà in Franculin dal macilent Signor Grazian Godga... * Sbravate, razzate e arcibullate dell'arcibravo Smedolla uossi... * Disputa fra Cola Sgariatore, ed Arlechino da Marcaria sopra le lor prodezze * Utrom del Dottore Graziano Partesana da Francolino

References

External links

*
Da liber liber two texts by GC Croce: Bertoldo e ''La Farinella''

Bertoldo Bertoldino e Cacasenno pdf

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160109155018/http://giuliocesarecroce.it Complete bibliography and transcription of some of the works of GC Croce {{DEFAULTSORT:Croce, Giulio Cesare 1550 births 1609 deaths People from San Giovanni in Persiceto Italian dramatists and playwrights Italian male dramatists and playwrights 16th-century storytellers