Carlo Collodi

Carlo Lorenzini, better known as Collodi, or Carlo Collodi (by the name of the village of Collodi[?], Tuscany, Italy, where his mother was born), writer. Born in Florence, Italy on November 24, 1826, died in Florence October 26, 1890.

Best known as the creator of Pinocchio, Lorenzini wrote other romances and comedies too.

In 1848, during the Italian revolutionary ferments he left as a volunteer with the Tuscan army; an energic political sense will inspire his first literary works, starting from the founding of a satirical newspaper (Il Lampione), which was later closed by order of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Spring of 1849. In May 1860 however the newspaper was re-born.

Lorenzini had earn some early fame in 1856 with the romance In vapore and had also begun intense activity on other political newspapers such as Il Fanfulla; at the same time he was employed by the Censorship Commission for theatre. In this period he composed (sometimes simply by collecting previous articles) Macchiette (1880), Occhi e nasi (1881), Storie allegre (1887), satirical and humouristic sketches and stories.

In 1875 he translated an edition of I racconti delle fate (?) by Perrault[?] and had started his writing for children. In 1876 Lorenzini wrote Giannettino (undoubtedly isnpired by the Alessandro Luigi Parravicini[?]'s Giannetto, but much more refined), the Minuzzolo, Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino (the last one "celebrating" the unification of Italy through the ironical thoughts and actions of the little rascal Giannettino).

Lorenzini bacame passionate with the figure of the rascal, by which he felt he could find a satisfactory way to express his concepts, in allegory and in comparison. In 1880 he starts writing Storia di un burattino (the story of a marionette), which was published weekly in Il Giornale dei Bambini (the children's newspaper) and this was already the story of Pinocchio. (An English translation is available here (http://everything2.com/?node_id=738746).)

Lorenzini died unaware of the potential fame his work, like in the allegory of the story Pinocchio finally had his own independent life, distinct from that of the author. This has been said was one of the inspiring themes of Luigi Pirandello's Six Characters.

External Link

• the e-text of Adventures Of Pinocchio (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=103) translated from the Italian by Carol Della Chiesa