The Italian Novelists
London: Privately Printed for Members of the Society of Bibliohiles. First English Language Edition. Seven volumes comprising two novels, The Facetious Nights by Straparola (volumes 1-4, illustrated by Jules Garnier and E.R. Hughes, A.R.W.S.) and The Pecorone of Ser Giovanni (volumes 5-7, illustrated by E.R. Hughes, A.R.W.S.); trans. G.E. Waters; title pages in red and black, t.e.g.; uniformly bound in purple cloth faded to blue, gilt lettering and design on the spines; pp. xii, 399; 373; 401; 316; xi, 276; 321; 328.
Spines are sunned and gilt dulled, corners lightly bumped, shelfwear to the base of the text blocks, occasional foxmark to the edges of the leaves, otherwise clean throughout. Item #1018
First published in the sixteenth century in Italy, The Facetious Nights of Straparola is considered significant as the first European storybook to contain fairy-tales and for its influence on later fairy-tale authors like Charles Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Giovanni Fiorentino was a 14th-century Florentine writer to whom is attributed the work Il Pecorone ("The Simpleton"), a novella said to have influenced Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.
Price: $250.00