Straparola, Giovan Francesco (c.1480–1558), Italian writer and poet, generally con sidered the ‘father’ or progenitor of the literary fairy tale in Europe. He was born in Caravaggio, Italy, but left few documents, so that little is known about his life. Even the name ‘Straparola’ itself may be a pen‐name, for it indicates someone who is loquacious. Whoever he was, Straparola was the first truly gifted author to write numerous fairy tales in the vernacular and cultivate a form and function for this kind of narrative to make it an acceptable genre among the educated classes in Italy and soon after in France, Germany, and England. Aside from a small volume of poems published in Venice in 1508, his major work is Le piacevoli notti (1550–3), translated variously as The Pleasant Nights, The Entertaining Nights, The Facetious Nights, or The Delectable Nights. The collection has a framework similar to Boccaccio's Decameron. In this case, the tales are told in 13 consecutive nights by a group of ladies and gentlemen gathered at the Venetian palace of Ottaviano Maria Sforza, former bishop of Lodi, who has fled Milan with his widowed daughter Lucretia to avoid persecution and capture by his political enemies. The framework and tales influenced other Italian and European writers, among them Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault, and the Brothers Grimm. Of the 73 stories, there are 14 fairy tales, which can be traced to the Grimms' Children's and Household Tales and many other collections: ‘Cassadrino’ (‘The Master Thief’), ‘Pre Scarpafico’ (‘The Little Farmer’), ‘Tebaldo’ (‘All Fur’), ‘Galeotto’ (‘Hans my Hedgehog’), ‘Pietro’ (‘The Simpleton Hans’), ‘Biancabella’ (‘The Snake and the Maiden’), ‘Fortunio’ (‘The Nixie in the Pond’), ‘Ricardo’ (‘Six who Made their Way into the World’), ‘Aciolotto’ (‘The Three Little Birds’), ‘Guerrino’ (‘Iron Hans’), ‘I tre fratelli’ (‘The Four Skilful Brothers’), ‘Maestro Lattantio’ (‘The Thief and his Master’), ‘Cesarino’ (‘The Two Brothers’), and ‘Soriana’ (‘Puss‐in‐Boots’).
Bibliography
- Bottigheimer, Ruth B., ‘Straparola's Piacevoli notti: Rags‐to‐Riches Fairy Tales as Urban Creations’,
Merveilles et Contes , 7 (December 1994). - Gillet, Anne Motte, “‘Giovan Francesco Straparola: Les Facétieuses Nuits. Notice’”, in Anne Motte Gillet (ed.), Conteurs de la Renaissance (1993).
- Mazzacurati, Giancarlo, “‘La narrativa di G. F. Straparola e l'ideologia del fiabesco’”, in Form & Ideologia (1974).
- Piejus, Marie‐Françoise, Individu et societé. Le Parvenu dans la nouvelle italienne du XVI siècle (1991).
- Squarotto, Giorgio Bàberi, “‘Problemi di tecnica narrativa cinquentesca: lo Straparola’”, Sigma (March 1965).
— Jack Zipes
