Il Novellino

For the 15th-century work called Il Novellino, see Masuccio Salernitano.

Il Novellino, also known as Le cento novelle antiche ("One Hundred Ancient Tales"), is an anonymous medieval collection of short stories written in the Tuscan vernacular between 1280 and 1300.^[1] It was first published in 1525 by Carlo Gualteruzzi [it], a friend of Pietro Bembo.^[2]

A page from the manuscript Palatino 566, showing novellas 21 and 22

The author of the collection is unknown; several details from the stories included in the collection suggest that he was a layperson from Florence and likely belonged to the Ghibelline faction.^[3]

References

1. Monteverdi, Angelo (1954). "Che cos'è il Novellino?". Studi e saggi sulla letteratura italiana dei primi secoli. Ricciardi. pp. 125–65.
2. The Novellino or One Hundred Ancient Tales: An Edition and Translation based on the 1525 Gualteruzzi editio princepts. Translated by Consoli, Joseph P. Routledge. 1997.
3. Hall, Joan (1989). "'Bel parlare' and Authorial Narration of the Novellino". Italian Studies. 44: 1–18. doi:10.1179/007516389790509146.