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| Giambattista Basile |
Born in the Kingdom of Naples, Basile lived amid courts where splendor and learning walked hand in hand. He served as a soldier, courtier, and administrator under various noble patrons in Southern Italy, navigating through a world of intrigue, vanity, and sudden reversals of fortune—conditions echoed throughout his stories. Naples itself, a jewel of the Spanish Empire, lent its language and temperament to his writing. He used the earthy, musical Neapolitan language, capturing the voice of the streets, kitchens, and countryside.
His great work, Lo cunto de li cunti (1634–1636), later known as the Pentamerone, was published posthumously, thanks to his sister Adriana. Structured as a frame tale told over five days, it contains fifty stories drawn from ancient oral tradition, many appearing here for the first time in written form. Within its pages lie the earliest known versions of tales later softened into nursery stories, such as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Snow White. However, in Basile’s telling, these are no gentle amusements. Forests are thick with sorcery, princes are ensnared by spells, queens scheme and seethe with envy, and justice arrives late, if at all.
These tales were composed for adult audiences, for courtiers who understood that marvel and monstrosity are closely linked. Basile’s world is governed by Fortune, not sentiment. Wit is a weapon, beauty a peril, and survival a cunning art. The supernatural is ever-present, but never reassuring. Ogres, fairies, and witches obey older, eldritch laws.
To read Basile is to glimpse the fairy tale before it was sanitized for children, a world of candlelit halls, whispered curses, and moonlit paths through perilous woods. On this day dedicated to telling fairy tales, we remember him not just as a storyteller but as a Neapolitan conjurer who recorded ancient spells in black ink, ensuring their darkness, laughter, and dread would never completely fade.
~ By Giovanni di Napoli, February 25th, Feast of Santa Valburga
