Pinocchio & the Italian Author
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Sunday, February 25th, 2023
2:00-4:00 PM Presentation starts at 2:30 PM Pinocchio: This story originated from 1883...and not at all like the Disney version we know today. The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino, i.e. "The Adventures of Pinocchio. Story of a Puppet"), 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 Pinocchio and his father, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto.
It was originally published in a serial form as The Story of a Puppet (Italian: La storia di un burattino) in the Giornale per i bambini, one of the earliest Italian weekly magazines for children, starting from 7 July 1881. The story stopped after nearly 4 months and 8 episodes at Chapter 15, but by popular demand from readers, the episodes were resumed on 16 February 1882. In February 1883, the story was published in a single book. Since then, the spread of Pinocchio on the main markets for children's books of the time has been continuous and uninterrupted, and it was met with enthusiastic reviews worldwide. |
Carlo Collodi, author of Pinocchio (1826-1890)
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Collodi was born in Florence on 24 November 1826. His mother, Angiolina Orzali Lorenzini, was a seamstress from Collodi, the town from which he later took the pen name, and his father, Domenico Lorenzini, was a cook. After attending primary school, he was sent to study at a theological seminary in Colle Val d’Elsa. An account at the seminary shows that the marchese had offered financial aid, but the boy found that he did not want to be a priest so he continued his education at the College of the Scolopi Fathers in Florence. In 1844 he started working at the Florentine bookstore Libreria Piatti, where he assisted Giuseppe Aiazzi, a prominent Italian manuscript specialist.
Lorenzini became fascinated by the idea of using an amiable, rascally character as a means of expressing his own convictions through allegory. In 1880, he began writing Storia di un burattino (Story of a Marionette), also called Le avventure di Pinocchio, which was published weekly in Giornale per i bambini. Pinocchio was adapted into a 1940 film by Disney that is considered to be one of Disney's greatest films.
Lorenzini became fascinated by the idea of using an amiable, rascally character as a means of expressing his own convictions through allegory. In 1880, he began writing Storia di un burattino (Story of a Marionette), also called Le avventure di Pinocchio, which was published weekly in Giornale per i bambini. Pinocchio was adapted into a 1940 film by Disney that is considered to be one of Disney's greatest films.