Giovan Francesco Straparola

Italian author. Born in Caravaggio in northern Italy, little is known about his life, except that he lived in Venice from 1530 to 1540. In addition to Petrarchan sonnets, poems, and letters, he also wrote a collection of folk tales in dialect, "Melody Nights" (First Book, published in 1550; Second Book, published in 1553). Following the style of Boccaccio's "Decameron," the story is set on the island of Murano in Venice, and 75 stories are told over the course of 13 nights by 13 women and numerous men. The second book is said to have been compiled in a hurry, as the first book had garnered widespread acclaim, but it is still of great value as Europe's first collection of folk tales.

[Hideaki Kawashima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イタリアの作家。北イタリアのカラバッジョに生まれ、1530年から40年までベネチアに住んだこと以外、生涯については不明。ペトラルカ派のソネット、詩編、書簡などのほかに、方言を交えた民話集『楽しき夜ごと』（第一の書、1550刊。第二の書、1553刊）を著した。ボッカチオの『デカメロン』に倣い枠物語の形式をとって、ベネチアのムラーノ島を舞台に、13人の女と多数の男たちが、75編の物語を13夜のうちに語り継いでゆく。第一の書が世評を集めたため、第二の書は性急に編まれたうらみがあるが、ヨーロッパ最初の民話集としての価値は大きい。

［河島英昭］

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