''The Facetious Nights of Straparola'' (
1550–1555; Italian: ''Le piacevoli notti''), also known as ''The Nights of Straparola'', is a two-volume collection of 75
[Nancy Canepa. "Straparola, Giovan Francesco (c. 1480–1558)" in ''The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales'', 3-volumes, edited by Donald Haase, Greenwood Press, 2008, pages 926–27.] stories by
Italian author and
fairy-tale collector
Giovanni Francesco Straparola. Modeled after Boccaccio's ''
Decameron'', it is significant as often being called the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales; it would influence later fairy-tale authors like
Charles Perrault and
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
History
''The Facetious Nights of Straparola'' was first published in
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
between 1550–53
[ under the title ''Le piacevoli notti'' (''"The Pleasant Nights"'') containing 74 stories. In 1555 the stories were published in a single volume in which one of the tales was replaced with two new tales, bringing the total to 75.][ Straparola was translated into Spanish in 1583. In 1624 it was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books.][
The work was modeled on Boccaccio's '' Decameron'' with a frame narrative and novellas, but it took an innovative approach by also including folk and fairy tales.][ In the frame narrative, participants of a party on the island of Murano, near ]Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, tell each other stories that vary from bawdy to fantastic. The narrators are mostly women, while the men, among whose ranks are included historical men of letters such as Pietro Bembo
Pietro Bembo, (; 20 May 1470 – 18 January 1547) was a Venetian scholar, poet, and literary theory, literary theorist who also was a member of the Knights Hospitaller and a cardinal of the Catholic Church. As an intellectual of the Italian Re ...
and Bernardo Cappello, listen.[ The 74 original tales are told over 13 nights, five tales are told each night except the eighth (six tales) and the thirteenth (thirteen tales).][ Songs and dances begin each night, and the nights end with a riddle or enigma.][ The tales include folk and fairy-tales (about 15); Boccaccio-like novellas with themes of trickery and intrigue; and tragic and heroic stories.][
The 15 fairy tales were influential with later authors, some were the first recorded instances of now-famous stories, like " Puss in Boots".][ Many of the tales were later collected or retold in Giambattista Basile’s '' The Tale of Tales'' (1634–36) and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's '' Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (1812–15).][
]
Fairy tales
Fairy tales that originally appeared in ''Nights of Straparola'', with later adaptations by Giambattista Basile, Madame d'Aulnoy, Charles Perrault, Carlo Gozzi, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
Footnotes
References
Further reading
* Ruth B. Bottigheimer, ''Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale Tradition'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
External links
''The Nights of Straparola''
trans. W.G.Waters 1894. Scanned original color illustrated editions.
''The Italian Novelists'' (vol. 1–4)
trans. W.G.Waters 1901–04. Scanned original color illustrated editions. Note: this edition differs slightly in content from the 1894 edition.
SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: ''The Facetious Nights of Straparola''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Facetious Nights Of Straparola
Collections of fairy tales
1550 books