The Facetious Nights of Straparola eBook Giovanni Francesco Straparola W G Waters
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The Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550-1555), also known as The Nights of Straparola, is a collection of 75 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; it would influence later fairy-tale authors like Charles Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.
This book published in 1901 has been reformatted for the and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting.
The Facetious Nights of Straparola eBook Giovanni Francesco Straparola W G Waters
Giovanni Straparola was a geneious. This book intrigued me greatly, also because the writer graced his work with all the Italian romanticism one imagines would have been present during the Renaissance. It placed me right in the midst of that era. A great read.Product details
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The Facetious Nights of Straparola eBook Giovanni Francesco Straparola W G Waters Reviews
Anyone out there interested in the original mid-sixteenth-century Italian text of this work, as “Le piacevoli notti,” by Giovan Francesco Straparola, can find an inexpensive text under that title, and that form of the author’s name. It is based on a 1927 edition of the text, apparently with some claims to being critical, but I have no knowledge of how good the edition is considered to be, and certainly no way of judging the transference of the text to format. (There are no obvious OCR artifacts in the first few pages, anyway, which is a good sign.
However, my review, despite many digressions on other editions, and even other collections, is of a edition of an English translation.
Staparola’s work is notable for, among other things, providing our first published evidence for a number of European “Fairy Tales,” some dramatically different from better-known versions, although still quite recognizable.
The translation by W.G. Waters now being reviewed originally appeared in two volumes in 1894, as just "The Nights of Straparola" with illustrations by E. R. Hughes, from Lawrence and Bullen (London). Under the title of "Facetious Nights" it was re-issued, apparently with some changes and additional illustrations, by “The Society of Bibliophiles” as a four-volume set, the dates of which I have seen given variously as 1901-1902 and 1908-1909. The copy I used to own was undated, and I don't know if either date is correct, or whether they represent an extended publication of the different volumes. It also might record the issuing of the books in slightly different formats (binding and selection of illustrations).
The title has been rendered in various other ways, including "Pleasant Nights" and "Most Delectable Nights," which indicate incomplete (and apparently not very reliable) translations. The title, in any translation, refers to a story-telling competition, held over a series of evenings, on the obvious model of the then already-classic "Decameron" of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1350).
The “Nights of Straparola” two-volume edition is available in PDF format (and others) from the Internet Archive (archive.org), and so, separately listed, is the four-volume “Facetious Nights” version. In the latter case, the Archive seems to offer examples of different “issues” of the edition, with and without color illustrations besides the black-and-white ones by Hughes. There are some other complications in the listing of the latter version, which I will deal with below.
The Waters translation, as it appeared in the “Society of Bibliophiles” edition, is that used in the present edition of “The Facetious Nights.” I have not gone through the massive file for accuracy of transference of the text into this format, but spot-checks on that have been encouraging. Unfortunately, there is no sigh of Waters’ interesting “Terminal Essay” on the stories, their sources, and later versions.
A problem I *have* noticed is the lack of a table of contents, linked or not. This is a huge work, and finding things in it can be hard. The search function should let you find a story for which you have a title, or a character’s name (or a location like “Fourth Night, Fifth Story”) but you have to have that information when you start looking. The edition also includes some of the illustrations (how many I am not sure). The Waters translation did include a pretty good tables of contents for each volume, summarizing the stories for each night. It may be a little hard to find in the PDF versions I have seen them placed at both the front and the end of the volumes.
Those who are curious about the illustrations by various hands, or want to sample the stories before committing themselves to either the or a PDF version, may wish to Google the SurLaLune Fairy Tales website for an html version of the “Bibliophiles” edition. This also includes Waters' "Terminal Essay.”
Those interested in just a selection, in a more modern translation, together with related tales from early collections through to the Grimms in the early nineteenth-century, and who are not intimidated by another thick (991 pages) volume, should take a look at "The Great Fairy Tale Tradition From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm" a Norton Critical Edition (2001), edited by Jack Zipes, a considerable authority on the subject.
As for the translation (the point which I’m sure you’ve been waiting for!), the English rendering by W.G. Waters (William George Waters, 1844-1928) is readable, although in my opinion a bit wooden. However, a slightly older version, by no less than the flamboyant explorer-translator Sir Richard Francis Burton, turned the author's once up-to-date Italian into archaic-sounding English for no apparent reason or literary gain, so bland modernity (as of the Victorian era) may be a blessing in disguise.
(Burton's approach seems to have worked somewhat better with a translation of a later story-cycle, published as “Il Pentamerone, or The Tale of Tales” (1893), by Giambattista Basile. The Italian was not standard — Basile used the Neapolitan rather than the Tuscan form of the language, which gave Burton some excuse to experiment with the English. N.M. Penzer's 1932 rival translation, by way of Benedetto Croce’s translation of Basile into modern standard Italian, criticizes Burton, and, indeed, his rendering is considered more precise, but it is also accused of "ennobling" the prose style; including following Croce’s bowdlerizations of the racy original. There is now a superior, and complete, translation of Basile’s collection, as “The Tales of Tales,” by Nancy L. Canepa, originally published by Wayne State University Press in 2007, and now available from Penguin Classics. It also includes excellent annotations, which are needed, given allusions to, for example, Sicilian customs a modern readers can’t be expected to know about. Possibly someone is working on a new translation of Straparola on similar lines.)
The author of “The Facetious Nights” is identified in some reference works as Giovan Francisco Straparola (ca. 1480-1558), with various spellings, and nothing very certain is known about him. He may have been born in the village of Caravaggio, near Bergamo in the territory of Milan, and "Straparola" may be nickname indicating a wordy style. He seems to have spent his adult life in Venice.
According to the description in the Waters translation "'The Facetious Nights of Giovanni Francesco Straparola' consists of an Exquisite and Delightful Collection of Humorous, Witty and Mirthful Conversations, Fables and Enigmas Including Singing, Music and Dancing During the Thirteen Nights of the Carnival at Venice as Related by Ten Charming and Accomplished Damsels and Several Nobles, Men of Learning, Illustrious and Honorable Gentlemen of Note at the Entertainments of Merriment and Pleasure Given by the Princess Lucretia at Her Beautiful Palace at Murano." (I have not been able to locate the original of this in the Italian text — which elsewhere gives “Merano” instead of “Murano” — so I am not sure whether or not this is Waters’ own period-style title-page “blurb,” or comes from one of the many Italian editions.)
We are further informed concerning the printing history First edition of the first part, Venice, 1550; First edition of the second part, Venice, 1553; Dedication, dated September 1, 1553, at Venice, from edition of 1555.
My description, based on a physical examination of the title pages and four volumes of the "Society of Bibliophiles" edition is
"The Facetious Nights of Straparola." Now First Translated into English by W.G. Waters. Choicely illustrated by Jules Garnier and E.R. Hughes, A.R.W.S. The Italian Novelists, Volumes One to Four. Privately printed for Members of the Society of Bibliophiles, London, n.d. In Four Volumes. Hardcover.
Volume One. Dedication. A Foreword. Proem. Translation of Night the First to Night the Third. Eight plates (including Frontispiece). Table of Contents. xii + 399 pages.
Volume Two. Translation of Night the Fourth to Night the Sixth. Six plates. Table of Contents. [iv] + 373 pages.
Volume Three. Translation of Night the Seventh to Night the Tenth. Seven plates. Table of Contents. [iv] + 401 pages.
Volume Four. Translation of Night the Eleventh to Night the Thirteenth. Four plates. Terminal Essay. Notes. Table of Contents. [iv] + 316 pages.
As for some of the publishing complications I have mentioned The Society of Bibliophiles’ "Italian Novelists" series also included a three-volume translation by Waters of "The Pecorone of Ser Giovanni" (1558) by Giovanni Fiorentino (dates, and exact identity, uncertain). I am not aware any other publications by the "Society of Bibliophiles," but this appears to have been the whole of "The Italian Novelists" it published, as some title pages of some printings indicate that it ran to seven volumes. The “Pecorone” translations are sometimes listed as volumes one through three (under its own title), and sometimes as five through seven (as part of the series), which muddles things if one searches for Waters and “The Italian Novelists” on-line.
Although it is not all that well known in English, three stories from the Straparola collection were incorporated in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," a major Elizabethan compilation, often regarded as a source for Shakespeare. However, although "Facetious Nights" contains a number of entertaining tales, Straparola's stories are, in general, regarded as possibly closer to Italian oral sources than his more highly literary models. Recent literature on his work seems to be concerned mainly with his role as a precursor to the literary fairy tales of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Not surprisingly, the collection may be most famous today for an early literary version of "Puss in Boots," which *may* give a glimpse of its pre-literary form, although many less famous stories also appear (as Zipes will amply demonstrate for those not satisfied with Waters' lists of titles).
Warning for the Fairy-Tale-Impaired giveaway titles ahead!
The Eleventh Night, First Fable "Soriana dies and leaves three sons, Dusolina, Tesifone, and Contantino. The last-named, by the aid of his cat, gains the lordship of a powerful kingdom." Note that the parent is the mother, not the father, and that the cat does not wear boots, which were added by Charles Perrault, in "Le Maitre Chat ou le Chat Botte," (1697). See, for this instance, and for other borrowings from Italian source (or just as a brief alternative to Zipes), "The Complete Fairy Tales in Verse and Prose A Dual-Language Book" by Charles Perrault, edited and translated by Stanley Appelbaum, or “Charles Perrault The Complete Fairy Tales A New Translation” by Christopher Betts, in the Oxford World’s Classics series.)
Straparola's version had previously been adapted, with a new (and unfamiliar) ending, by Giambattista Basile [1575-1632], in "The Story of Stories,” or “Tale of Tales” (1634) also known as "Il Pentamerone" (edition of 1674), as "Gagliuso's Story," Fourth Diversion of the Second Day "Gagliuso, having been abandoned by his father, by a cat's industry becometh rich; but showing himself insensible thereof, is reproached with his ingratitude." (From the Richard Francis Burton translation, noted above. Canepa has the much less colorful, but clearer, “Due to the industry of a cat left to him by his father, Cagliuso becomes a gentleman. But when he shows signs of being ungrateful to the cat, it reproaches him for his ingratitude.” (So,you see, dragging in Basile way back at the beginning wasn’t pointless after all.)
Revised and expanded, May 29, 2017
This translation of a mid-sixteenth-century Italian work, "Piacevoli Notti," as "Facetious Nights," was published as a four-volume set, the dates of which I have seen given variously as 1901-1902 and 1908-1909. The copy I have is undated, and I don't know if either is correct, or an extended publication of different volumes. The title has been rendered in various ways, including "Pleasant Nights," and alludes to a story-telling competition held over a series of evenings to celebrate Carnival, on the obvious model of the already-classic "Decameron" of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1350), in which well-born Italians while away the time, although in that case they were waiting for the Black Death to abate.
The English rendering by W.G. Waters (William George Waters, 1844-1928) is readable, although in my opinion a bit wooden. A slightly older version, by no less than the flamboyant Sir Richard Francis Burton, turned the author's once up-to-date Italian into archaic-sounding English for no apparent reason or literary gain. (Burton's approach seems to have worked better with a later Italian story-cycle writer, Basile, discussed below; although N.M. Penzer's rival translation is considered more precise, it is also accused of "ennobling" the racy prose style.)
The author is identified in some reference works as Giovan Francisco Straparola (ca. 1480-1558), with various spellings, and nothing very certain is known about him. He may have been born in the village of Caravaggio, near Bergamo in the territory of Milan, and "Straparola" may be nickname indicating a wordy style. He seems to have spent his adult life in Venice.
Given this uncertainty about the author, it is mildly ironic that the listings so far do not give enough information to determine just which volumes of the four are being offered by dealers, so correspondence may be necessary to assemble a complete set, without unwanted duplicates.
Those who are curious about the illustrations and stories may wish to check an html version of this edition (search for Straparola and Garnier). This now includes Waters' "Terminal Essay," and should eventually extend to the Notes in which Waters catalogued Straparola's sources and parallels, and later uses of his stories.
There are also translations under slightly different titles, such as "Merry Nights" and "Most Delectable Nights," which seem from the lengths given to be abridged editions, but, not having seen them, I can't tell if this is the case, and whether or not they are different translations, or the same on under variant titles.
According to the description in the translation, which appears to be drawn from the original "'The Facetious Nights of Giovanni Francesco Straparola' consists of an Exquisite and Delightful Collection of Humorous, Witty and Mirthful Conversations, Fables and Enigmas Including Singing, Music and Dancing During the Thirteen Nights of the Carnival at Venice as Related by Ten Charming and Accomplished Damsels and Several Nobles, Men of Learning, Illustrious and Honorable Gentlemen of Note at the Entertainments of Merriment and Pleasure Given by the Princess Lucretia at Her Beautiful Palace at Murano."
We are further informed concerning the printing history First edition of the first part, Venice, 1550. First edition of the second part, Venice, 1553. Dedication, dated September 1, 1553, at Venice, from edition of 1555.
My description, based on the title page and physical examination of the volumes of the "Society of Bibliophiles" edition is
"The Facetious Nights of Straparola." Now First Translated into English by W.G. Waters. Choicely illustrated by Jules Garnier and E.R. Hughes, A.R.W.S. The Italian Novelists, Volumes One to Four. Privately printed for Members of the Society of Bibliophiles, London, n.d. In Four Volumes. Hardcover.
Volume One. Dedication. A Foreword. Proem. Translation of Night the First to Night the Third. Eight plates (including Frontispiece). Table of Contents. xii + 399 pages.
Volume Two. Translation of Night the Fourth to Night the Sixth. Six plates. Table of Contents. [iv] + 373 pages.
Volume Three. Translation of Night the Seventh to Night the Tenth. Seven plates. Table of Contents. [iv] + 401 pages.
Volume Four. Translation of Night the Eleventh to Night the Thirteenth. Four plates. Terminal Essay. Notes. Table of Contents. [iv] + 316 pages.
The "Italian Novelists" series also included a three-volume translation by Waters of "The Pecorone of Ser Giovanni" (1558) by Giovanni Fiorentino (dates uncertain). I am uncertain if there were any other publications by the "Society of Bibliophiles," but this appears to have been the whole of "The Italian Novelists" it published.
Although it is not all that well known in English, three stories from the Straparola collection were incorporated in Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," a major Elizabethan compilation, often regarded as a source for Shakespeare. However, although "Facetious Nights" contains a number of entertaining tales, Straparola's stories are, in general, regarded as possibly closer to Italian oral sources than his more highly literary models. Recent literature on his work seems to be concerned mainly with his role as a precursor to the literary fairy tales of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Not surprisingly, the collection may be most famous today for an early literary version of "Puss in Boots," which *may* give a glimpse of its pre-literary form.
Warning for the Fairy-Tale-Impaired giveaway titles ahead!
The Eleventh Night, First Fable "Soriana dies and leaves three sons, Dusolina, Tesifone, and Contantino. The last-named, by the aid of his cat, gains the lordship of a powerful kingdom." Note that the parent is the mother, not the father, and that the cat does not wear boots, which were added by Charles Perrault, in "Le Maitre Chat ou le Chat Botte," (1697).
Straparola's version had previously been adapted, with a new ending, by Giambattista Basile [1575-1632), in "The Story of Stories" (1634) better known as "Il Pentamerone" (edition of 1674), as "Gagliuso's Story," Fourth Diversion of the Second Day "Gagliuso, having been abandoned by his father, by a cat's industry becometh rich; but showing himself insensible thereof, is reproached with his ingratitude." (From the Richard Francis Burton translation, as "Il Pentamerone or The Tale of Tales.") This may or may not represent independent oral sources as well.
Giovanni Straparola was a geneious. This book intrigued me greatly, also because the writer graced his work with all the Italian romanticism one imagines would have been present during the Renaissance. It placed me right in the midst of that era. A great read.
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