piacevoli notti, Le
piacevoli notti, Le (1550–3),translated by W. G. Waters in 1894 as The Facetious Nights of Giovanni Francesco Straparola. Other possible titles are The Entertaining Nights or The Pleasant Nights. Little is known about the author Giovan Francesco Straparola. However, his collection of tales was very popular in the 16th century and went through 20 editions and influenced numerous European writers of fairy tales. Not all the novelle are fairy tales in this collection. Similar to Boccaccio's Decameron, the Notti has a framework: thirteen ladies and several gentlemen flee to the island of Murano near Venice during the last 13 days of Carnival to avoid political persecution. To amuse themselves, they dance and tell 75 stories. Each one ends with a riddle with multiple meanings. Of the 75 tales there are 14 fairy tales: ‘Cassadrino’ (‘The Master...
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