From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:


Giambattista Basile (1566 or 1575 – February 23, 1632) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.

From timsheppard.co.uk:

This Italian collection of folk-tales now known as Il Pentamerone was first published at Naples, and in a Neapolitan dialect that kept it out of northern European tradition for two centuries, by Giambattista Basile, Conte di Torrone, who is believed to have collected them chiefly in Crete and Venice, and to have died in the 1630s. Originally it was called Lo Cunti de li Cunto (The Story of Stories, 1634). Published posthumously, it became known as the Pentamerone by 1674 and eventually influenced the form of fairytales in Europe. The frame-story is of a group of people passing time by sharing stories, as in the Decameron and other European collections of tales. The Pentamerone tells fifty tales over five nights.

Silly question, but my Kindle hasn't arrived yet, so I can't just look for my answer. I'm just "book collecting" so far. Does the above description of the book appear *in* the book? I'll want to remember why I thought it would make good reading.

Silly question, but my Kindle hasn't arrived yet, so I can't just look for my answer. I'm just "book collecting" so far. Does the above description of the book appear *in* the book? I'll want to remember why I thought it would make good reading.

The description I provided was not from the book. The only description in the book is a short note at the start:

The collection of folk-tales known as Il Pentamerone was first published at Naples and in the Neopolitan dialect, by Giambattista Basile, Conte di Torrone, who is believed to have collected them chiefly in Crete and Venice, and to have died about the year 1637.