Born sometime around 1485 in Caravaggio, Italy, Straparola is one of the key figures in bringing fairytales to the modern world. Not much is known about his early life, due to poor record keeping and the suspicion some authors have that Straparola preferred this secrecy (Vaz da Silva, 2010.) Nothing else is known about Straparola's life until 1508, when he signed his name "Zoan" on the title page of one of his works.
Straparola is widely considered to be one of the first authors to bring printed fairytales to Europe. In 1551, in Venice, Straparola published the first volume of what would become one half of his most famous and influential works, Le Piacevoli Notte, which translates to both The Pleasant Nights and The Facetious Nights. Bottigheimer (2002) claims that many of the stories contained within the collection come from other sources, most notably from Giorlamo Morlini, a lawyer who published Novellae, fabulae, comoedia, a similar collection, in 1520 (p. 82-84.) In certain circles, it is claimed the Straparola never denied this, which continues with the tradition mentioned earlier of authors publishing collections with stories they have not written, but with tales they have heard from other sources. Ziolkowski (2010) further elaborates, "In the absence of evidence that proves his indebtedness to a particular text, it remains equally plausible that the Italian author was inspired by oral forms," (p. 379.)
Pleasant Nights contains stories mentioned in other blog posts, most notably Pig King and Puss in Boots. Below are two websites where full text versions of the collection are available.
The Facetious Nights of Straparola
Works by Straparola at Archive.Org
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