Giambattista Basile (February 1566 – February 1632) was an Italian poet,
courtier
A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official r ...
, and
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
collector. His collections include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known (and more obscure) European fairy tales. He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
known as ''Il Pentamerone.''
Biography
Born in
Giugliano
Giugliano in Campania , also known simply as Giugliano, is a city and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italy. , it had some 124,000 inhabitants,[Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...]
middle-class family, Basile was a soldier and courtier to various Italian princes, including the
doge of Venice
The Doge of Venice ( ; vec, Doxe de Venexia ; it, Doge di Venezia ; all derived from Latin ', "military leader"), sometimes translated as Duke (compare the Italian '), was the chief magistrate and leader of the Republic of Venice between 726 a ...
. According to
Benedetto Croce
Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952)
was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...
he was born in 1575, while other sources have February 1566. In Venice he began to write poetry. Later he returned to
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
to serve as a courtier under the patronage of Don Marino II Caracciolo, prince of
Avellino
Avellino () is a town and ''comune'', capital of the province of Avellino in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated in a plain surrounded by mountains east of Naples and is an important hub on the road from Salerno to Benevento. ...
, to whom he dedicated his idyll ''L’Aretusa'' (1618). By the time of his death he had reached the rank of "count" ''Conte di Torrone''.
Basile's earliest known literary production is from 1604 in the form of a preface to the
Vaiasseide of his friend the Neapolitan writer
Giulio Cesare Cortese
Giulio Cesare Cortese (1570 in Naples, Italy – 22 December 1622 in Naples) was an Italian author and poet.
Life
Born to a well-to-do family, nothing is known of Cortese's early life, though it is thought that he was a schoolmate of Giambattista ...
. The following year his
villanella
In music, a villanella (; plural villanelle) is a form of light Italian secular vocal music which originated in Italy just before the middle of the 16th century. It first appeared in Naples, and influenced the later canzonetta, and from there also ...
''Smorza crudel amore'' was set to music and in 1608 he published his poem ''Il Pianto della Vergine''.
He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
s titled ''
Lo cunto de li cunti overo lo trattenemiento de peccerille'' (
Neapolitan
Neapolitan means of or pertaining to Naples, a city in Italy; or to:
Geography and history
* Province of Naples, a province in the Campania region of southern Italy that includes the city
* Duchy of Naples, in existence during the Early and Hig ...
for "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones"), also known as ''Il Pentamerone'' published posthumously in two volumes by his sister
Adriana
Adriana, also spelled Adrianna, is a Latin name and feminine form of Adrian. It originates from present day Italy.
Translations
*Arabic: أدريان
* Belorussian: Адрыяна (Adryjana)
*Bulgarian: Адриана (Adriana)
*Chinese Simplifi ...
in Naples, Italy in 1634 and 1636 under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis. It later became known as the ''Pentamerone''. Although neglected for some time, the work received a great deal of attention after the
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
praised it highly as the first ''national'' collection of fairy tales. Many of these fairy tales are the oldest known variants in existence. They include the earliest known European versions of ''
Rapunzel
"Rapunzel" ( , ) is a German fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812 as part of ''Children's and Household Tales'' (KHM 12). The Brothers Grimm's story developed from the French literary fairy tale of ''Persinette ...
'' and ''
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
'' with the
Chinese version of Cinderella dating from 850–60 AD.
[See Ruth Bottigheimer: Fairy tales, old wives and printing presses. ''History Today'', 31 December 2003]
Retrieved 3 March 2011. Subscription required.
/ref> Tales of Pentamerone
The ''Pentamerone'', subtitled ''Lo cunto de li cunti'' ("The Tale of Tales"), is a seventeenth-century Neapolitan fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.
Background
The stories in the ''Pentamerone'' were collec ...
are set in the woods and castles of the Basilicata
it, Lucano (man) it, Lucana (woman)
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, in particular the city of Acerenza
Acerenza ( Lucano: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.
History
With its strategic position above sea-level, Acerenza has been sacked by a series of invaders.
The town, then kno ...
.
In popular culture
The 2015 film '' Tale of Tales'' is a screen adaptation loosely based on his fairy tale collection.
See also
* Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault ( , also , ; 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) was an iconic French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales ...
* Giovanni Francesco Straparola
Giovanni Francesco "Gianfrancesco" Straparola, also known as Zoan or Zuan Francesco Straparola da Caravaggio (ca. 1485?–1558), was an Italian writer of poetry, and collector and writer of short stories. Some time during his life, he migrated fr ...
* Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm (1786–1859), were a brother duo of German academics, philologists, cultural researchers, lexicographers, and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the ...
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
External links and resources
*
*
*
Giambattista Basile
in ''Dizionario biografico degli italiani''
* ttp://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/pentamerone/goblepentamerone.html Illustrationsby Warwick Goble
Warwick Goble (22 November 1862 – 22 January 1943) was a British illustrator of children's books.
He was educated and trained at the City of London School and the Westminster School of Art. He specialized in fairy tales and exotic scenes fr ...
Illustrations
by George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank (27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached ...
Professor S. Cicciotti's page about G. B. Basile
(in Italian)
* ''From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile's "Lo cunto de li cunti" and the Birth of the Literary Fairy Tale,'' Nancy L. Canepa (Wayne State University Press, 1999)
* ''Giambattista Basile's "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones",'' Translated by Nancy L. Canepa, Illustrated by Carmelo Lettere, Foreword by Jack Zipes (Wayne State University Press, 2007)
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Basile, Giambattista
1566 births
1632 deaths
Neapolitan language
Collectors of fairy tales
Italian Renaissance writers
Italian poets
Italian male poets
16th-century Neapolitan people
People from Giugliano in Campania
Italian children's writers
Italian courtiers
16th-century Italian writers
16th-century male writers
17th-century Italian writers
17th-century Italian male writers
17th-century Neapolitan people
Fabulists