The Facetious Nights of Straparola

"The Crucifix Comes To Life"Night the Ninth, Sixth FableWatercolor by E. R. HughesThe Italian Novelists, Volume 3

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^[1] 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;^[2] 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 between 1550-53^[1] 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.^[1] Straparola was translated into Spanish in 1583. In 1624 it was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books.^[1]

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.^[1] In the frame narrative, participants of a party on the island of Murano, near Venice, tell each other stories that vary from bawdy to fantastic.^[3] The narrators are mostly women, while the men, among whose ranks are included historical men of letters such as Pietro Bembo and Bernardo Cappello, listen.^[1] 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).^[1] Songs and dances begin each night, and the nights end with a riddle or enigma.^[1] The tales include folk and fairy-tales (about 15); Boccaccio-like novellas with themes of trickery and intrigue; and tragic and heroic stories.^[1]

The 15 fairy tales were influential with later authors, some were the first recorded instances of now-famous stories, like "Puss in Boots".^[1] Many of the tales were later collected or retold in Giambattista Basile’s The Tale of Tales (1634–36) and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Grimm's Fairy Tales (1812–15).^[1]

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.

• 1.2, “Cassandrino” (Grimms’ "The Master Thief")^[1]
• 1.3, “Pre Scarpacifico” (Grimms’ "Little Farmer")^[1]
• 1.4, “Tebaldo and Doralice^[4]” (Basile’s "The Bear"; Charles Perrault’s "Donkeyskin"; the Grimms’ "All Fur")^[1]
• 2.1, “The Pig King” (d'Aulnoy's "Prince Marcassin", Grimms’ "Hans My Hedgehog")^[1]
• 3.1, “Crazy Peter” (Basile’s "Peruonto"; d'Aulnoy's "The Dolphin"; Grimms’ "Simple Hans")^[1]
• 3.3, “Biancabella and the Snake” (elements of Basile’s "Penta With the Chopped-Off Hands" and "The Two Little Pizzas")^[1]
• 3.4, “Fortunio” (elements of the Grimms’ "The Nixie in the Pond")^[1]
• 4.1, “Costanza / Costanzo” (d'Aulnoy's "Belle-Belle ou Le Chevalier Fortuné", Grimms’ "How Six Made Their Way in the World")^[1]
• 4.3, “Ancilotto, King of Provino” (Grimms’ "The Three Little Birds"; d'Aulnoy's "Princess Belle-Etoile"; Carlo Gozzi’s "The Green Bird"; Crane's "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird")^[1]
• 5.1, “Guerrino and the Savage Man” (Grimms’ "Iron Hans")^[1]
• 5.2, “Adamantina” (Basile’s "The Goose"; Grimms’ "The Golden Goose")^[1]
• 7.5, “The Three Brothers” (Basile’s "The Five Sons"; Grimms’ "The Four Skillful Brothers")^[1]
• 8.4, “Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi” (Grimms’ "The Thief and His Master")^[1]
• 10.3, “Cesarino di Berni” (Basile’s "The Merchant"; Grimms’ "The Two Brothers")^[1]
• 11.1, “Costantino Fortunato” (Basile’s "Cagliuso"; Perrault’s "Puss in Boots")^[1]

References

1. 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.
2. Opie, Iona; Opie, Peter (1974), The Classic Fairy Tales, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-211559-6 See page 20. The claim for earliest fairy-tale is still debated, see for example Jan M. Ziolkowski, Fairy tales from before fairy tales: the medieval Latin past of wonderful lies, University of Michigan Press, 2007. Ziolkowski examines Egbert of Liège's Latin beast poem Fecunda natis (The Richly Laden Ship, c. 1022/24), the earliest known version of "Little Red Riding Hood". Further info: Little Red Pentecostal, Peter J. Leithart, July 9, 2007.
3. Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 841, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
4. "Donkeyskin and Doralice". Retrieved 1 November 2014.

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