Tommaso Catani (7 December 1858,

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

– 1 June 1925, Florence) was an Italian writer and

presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning as ...

Biography

He graduated from ''La Grande Magnolia''; a

Piarist The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools ( la, Ordo Clericorum Regularium pauperum Matris Dei Scholarum Piarum), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the ...

school, and, at the age of seventeen, became a

Novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession A profession is a field of work that has ...

in the order. He then enrolled in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the

University of Florence The University of Florence (Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'', UniFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The first universi ...

, graduating in 1880 and being ordained as a priest the same year. After that, he taught in the public schools, but would spend most of his career at the Piarist College of Le Acacie. In 1904, he became

Rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

of the Colegio Il Canneto. He had written two novels as an adolescent. When he met and befriended

Carlo Collodi Carlo Lorenzini (24 November 1826 – 26 October 1890), better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi (), was an Italian author, humourist, and journalist, widely known for his fairy tale novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio''. Early life Col ...

; author of ''

The Adventures of Pinocchio ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' ( ; it, Le avventure di Pinocchio ; commonly shortened to ''Pinocchio'') is a children's fantasy novel by Italian author Carlo Collodi. It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocc ...

'', he was inspired to write his own sequel, ''Pinocchio in the Moon''. Although he is primarily remembered as an author of

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

and elementary school reading texts, he also wrote books on zoology, botany and religious subjects; notably a biography and appreciation of Saint

John of the Cross John of the Cross, OCD ( es, link=no, Juan de la Cruz; la, Ioannes a Cruce; born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez; 24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. He is a major fi ...

. Many of his books' covers were designed by

Carlo Chiostri Carlo Chiostri (5 May 1863, in Florence – 9 July 1939, in Florence) was a self-taught Italian painter and graphic artist, best known for being one of the earliest illustrators for the book version of ''The Adventures of Pinocchio''. Biography ...

, who had created illustrations for the original ''Pinocchio''. Later, he founded the semi-monthly journal ''Il granello di pepe'' (The Peppercorn), in which he serialized several of his novels. From 1914 to 1924, he concentrated on books about animals.

Natalia Ginzburg Natalia Ginzburg (, ; ; 14 July 1916 – 7 October 1991) was an Italian author whose work explored family relationships, politics during and after the Fascist years and World War II, and philosophy. She wrote novels, short stories and essays, fo ...

has praised his imagination and noted that the bad fates met by some of the animals paralleled human misfortunes. In a series of books with a character named "Ugo", he introduced scientific concepts for the elementary school level.

Sources

* Natalia Ginzburg, "La congiura delle galline", in ''Mai devi domandarmi,'' Milano, Garzanti, 1970, pp. 109-114. * Antonio Faeti,''Guardare le figure'', Torino, Einaudi, 1972, pp. 72-83. * Pino Boero, Carmine De Luca, ''La letteratura per l'infanzia'', Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2009, pp. 128-130.

External links

Illustrations for ''Pinocchio in the Moon''
by Corrado Sarri (1866-1944)

@ Letteratura Dimenticata * Simonetta Barbini
CATANI, Tommaso
''Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani'', Volume 22, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1979. {{DEFAULTSORT:Catani, Tommaso 1858 births 1925 deaths Writers from Florence Italian children's writers Piarists Clergy from Florence