Geppetto builds the puppet Pinocchio
Carlo Collodi
BIOGRAPHY

Carlo Collodi (1826-1890) is the pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini, a journalist and writer born in Florence. Educated in religious schools, at the age of twenty he started his career by writing reviews for the catalogue of an important Florentine bookshop, and immediately after for the specialist journal “L'Italia Musicale”.

He rapidly became famous as a journalist, and wrote for periodicals all over Italy, even founding some himself, such as “Il Lampione”, censored and closed down in 1848 and obstinately started up again 11 years later on the occasion of the referendum on the annexation of Piedmont.

He served as a volunteer in the Wars of Independence of 1848 and 1860, and from the 50s worked as a writer and playwright.

From 1856 he also began using the pseudonym Carlo Collodi, with which he signed the works of the 70s and 80s. As a child Carlo had spent periods in Collodi, the village between Lucca and Pistoia where his mother Angela Orzali had been born and lived as a girl.

His first children’s book I racconti delle fate, splendid translations of Perrault’s French fairy tales, was published in 1876. Subsequently a series of school textbooks made him a pillar of the educational establishment in the newly-united Italy: Giannettino, Minuzzolo and other tales in which he combined fantasy and fact. In 1881, in the first number of the “Giornale per i bambini” (a pioneer in the field of children’s magazines in Italy) the first instalment of The Adventures of Pinocchio was published under the title Story of a Puppet.

Collodi also published other stories in the magazine (later collected in Storie allegre, 1887), including Pipì, o lo scimmiottino color di rosa, a sort of self-deprecating sequel to Pinocchio.

Lorenzini died suddenly in 1890 in Florence, where he was buried in the Monumental cemetery of San Miniato al Monte. His manuscripts, donated by his family, are kept in the National Central Library in Florence.

Source: Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi

The adventures of Pinocchio button

July 7th 1981 saw the publication of the first instalment of The Story of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi, which appeared in the "Children's Magazine", one of the first Italian weekly for children. The story broke off abruptly several months later at Chapter XVI, leaving Pinocchio dangling from a branch of the Great Oak, possibly hanged and dying.
But such was the outcry from the readers that the instalments resumed on 16th. February 1882, under the title Pinocchio's Adventures, which took the story right up to its final ending, published in January 1883.
Immediately after the publication of the last instalment, Pinocchio's Adventures came out as a complete book, in February of that year.
By 1890, the year of Carlo Collodi's death, it had reached the fifth edition. From that moment on, the ever-increasing popularity of Pinocchio on what were at that time the main markets for children's books, and subsequently on the world-wide market as well, has made it an enduring classic.
In 1891 it came out in Great Britain, with illustrations by Mazzanti, and was given an enthusiastic write-up - by no means an insignificant accomplishment in the homeland of children's books. Its first appearance in the USA dates from 1898, but it was not until 1904 that the first United States edition genuinely translated and ilustrated by Americans was published, thanks to the work of Walter S. Cramp and Charles Copeland.
Ever since then - since long before the huge international success of Walt Disney's Pinocchio - the puppet's adventures have represented one of America's best-loved children's stories, and also one that has always been a landmark achievement for many illustrators.
Together, the American and British editions would subsequently contribute to popularizing Pinocchio even in countries whose cultures differed strikingly from the Italian model, such as Iceland or numerous Asian countries. In 1905 the story was published in Germany, as a result of the efforts of Otto Julius Bierbaum, who reworked the Adventures into a story called Zapfelkerns Abenteuer ("Pine Nut's Adventures").
Meanwhile, the first French edition had been published in 1902. Between 1911 and the Second World War, Collodi's book was translated into all the European languages and a also number of the languages of Asia, Africa and Oceania.
Pinocchio has been eagerly scooped up by all those who are involved in new means of communication: Pinocchio was adopted by one of the pioneers of cinema, Count Giulio Cesare Antamoro, who screened it in 1911 in a hand-coloured silent film lasting no less than 30 minutes.
The main character was played by the then celebrated entertainer Polydor, and the filmstrip has recently been rediscovered in an almost intact version, which has been lovingly restored.
In 1932 Pinocchio became the protagonist of a film produced in Japan using an experimental technique of animated puppets (the film director was Noburo Ofuji), while in Italy a number of experiments were carried out in the 1930s with full-length films using animated cartoons, partly in colour, all of which were based on the story of the puppet Pinocchio. The 1940 Walt Disney version also provided an opportunity to experiment with new techniques of animated film.
During the same period, a number of versions featuring both animated cartoons and puppets were produced in the Soviet Union, based on Aleksej N. Tolstoj's re-elaboration of Pinocchio, called The Little Golden Key. Furthermore, a survey of the present scene reveals intense utilization of Pinocchio in the guise of protagonist and "booster" for multimedial products that are being launched into circulation.

Source: Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi

Other works button

Carlo Lorenzini pen name Carlo Collodi did not write only The Adventures of Pinocchio. Below is a chronological list of his other works, with title, place and date of the first edition]:

  • Gli amici di casa (Firenze, Riva 1856)
    Play in two acts, published for the first time in June 1856 (and again in 1858), after having circulated in manuscript form and been discussed since December 1953. Inspired by an episode that took place in the Florentine family of the Pucci counts (which provoked the suspension of the play when it was already being staged) it was criticised for not adhering completely to the canons of the drama. On the basis of these criticisms, Collodi republished a revised version in 1862;
  • Un romanzo in vapore. Da Firenze a Livorno. Guida storico-umoristica (Firenze, G. Mariani 1856).
    A small handbook published in September and sold to travellers in the first year of operation of the Leopolda Railway linking Florence to Livorno. It is a deliberately chaotic parody that interweaves a discursive and tangled narration on the model of the feuilleton with useful or curious information for the traveller about the various places along the railway line;
  • I misteri di Firenze.Scene sociali (Firenze, Fioretti 1857).
    Published in instalments from October on, heralded by Press reviews and praised for a style defined as “lively, spontaneous and frequently satirical”, it did not, however, continue beyond the first volume: Collodi himself observed in the book that it was impossible to write “mysteries” in Florence, since everyone knew everything about everyone else. The work combines a parody of the “mystery” genre in the manner of Eugene Sue (Les Mystères de Paris), with a harsh criticism of the moral and political decadence of Florentine society;
  • Il sig. Albèri ha ragione!... Dialogo apologetico (Firenze, Tipografia Galileiana, 1859).
    Satirical pamphlet written on commission from the circle of Baron Bettino Ricasoli, in response to the pamphlet La politica napoleonica e quella del governo toscano by the Catholic federalist Eugenio Albèri. The latter sustained the establishment of the Kingdom of Central Italy, in line with the wishes of Napoleon III who intended to assign it to Gerolamo Bonaparte. At the time, Lorenzini was the political commentator for the "La Nazione" of Florence;
  • La manifattura delle porcellane di Doccia. Cenni illustrativi raccolti da C.L. (Firenze, Grazzini Giannini e C. 1861).
    A pamphlet probably written on the instigation of his brother Paolo who managed the Ginori factory, published on the occasion of the Italian Exhibition which was held that year in Florence. The approach is the same as that of a similar work, written twenty years earlier by Albèri, but also features a convinced eulogy, which was pioneering in Italy at the time, of the policy of industrial and social progress implemented by the Ginori counts, who had set up both an elementary school and a vocational training institute as well as a mutual aid association for the workers and their families;
  • I racconti delle fate, voltati in italiano da C. Collodi (Firenze, Paggi 1876).
    This was Lorenzini’s first excursion into children’s literature, to which he was to devote most of his work in the following years. These translations were commissioned by the publisher Felice Paggi whose series entitled "Biblioteca Scolastica" was intended to provide a wide range of titles in good “Tuscan” for the schools of the newborn united Italy. The book also represents the first collaboration, which later became stable in the books for children, with Enrico Mazzanti, a Florentine construction engineer who lent himself to “illustration”;
  • Giannettino (Firenze, Paggi, 1877)
    The first authentic schoolbook written by Collodi. It was a complete reworking of Giannetto (1837) by L.A. Parravicini, which had at the time won a competition that had facilitated its dissemination throughout the country, but was by then dated. While preserving the mixed structure of narration and educational concepts, Lorenzini profoundly innovated the style, in terms both of the use of language and the humorous approach to the adventures of Giannettino, a young scallywag that the schoolchildren could easily identify with. The success of the book launched an entire series, including Minuzzolo, one of Giannettino’s young friends, already present in the first book. Certain reviewers even considered the latter book better than its predecessor. Several books in the series were very successful, and continued to be used in the schools, with amendments and updates, right up to the end of the 1920s, and then as reading books only up to the 60s. The Giannettino series ended with La lanterna magica di Giannettino, which took its cue from the middle-class entertainment then fashionable, which was the precursor of the cinema, to range over arguments of science, geography and history – particularly the recent history of the Risorgimento – in an anecdotal style
  • Minuzzolo (Firenze, Paggi, 1878);
  • Macchiette (Milano, Brigola, 1880)
    Collection of narrative writings and sketches, written and revised over the previous decades, published by one of the most prestigious publishing houses of the time. It was not particularly popular, on account of the humorous and paradoxical slant, far removed from the literary realism then in vogue. It was however republished in a revised and amended edition by Paggi, the Florentine publishing house (of a more provincial ambit) with which Collodi collaborated by now on a regular basis;
  • Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino. Parte prima (L'Italia superiore) (Firenze, Paggi, 1880);
  • Occhi e nasi. Ricordi dal vero (Firenze, Paggi, 1881)
    A new collection of writings published in various spheres, brought together and re-elaborated for this volume that launched the "Biblioteca ricreativa" series aimed at adults. While meeting with acclaim, Collodi’s tendency towards humour and caricature was once again criticised, being judged excessive according to the current naturalistic canons;
  • La grammatica di Giannettino per le scuole elementari (Firenze, Paggi, 1883);
  • Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino.Parte seconda (l'Italia centrale) (Firenze, Paggi, 1883);
  • Il regalo del Capo d'Anno (Torino, Paravia, 1884)
    Lavish Christmas book illustrated by Enrico Mazzanti and reprinted with the title Il regalo istruttivo in 1887. It illustrated for the benefit of children the habits and customs of “exotic” people, each linked to a particular month of the year: Lapps, Siamese, Patagonians etc;
  • L'abbaco di Giannettino per le scuole elementari (Firenze, Paggi, 1884);
  • Libro di lezioni per la seconda classe elementare (Firenze, Paggi, 1885);
  • Un'antipatia(Roma, Perino, 1885)
    Reprint of a story of the same name, already published in Macchiette: here, not coincidentally for the series "Biblioteca umoristica";
  • La geografia di Giannettino (Firenze, Paggi, 1886);
  • Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino. Parte terza (l'Italia meridionale) (Firenze, Paggi, 1886);
  • Storie allegre (Firenze, Paggi, 1887)
    Collection of stories published at various times in the "Giornale per i bambini"; outstanding among them are Pipì, o lo scimmiottino color di rosa, a long and articulated sort of self-deprecating sequel to the Adventures of Pinocchio. In a review of the book, Collodi is described as the most brilliant writer among those active in the new sphere of children’s literature in Italy. It was frequently reprinted even in the twentieth century, although generally with fewer stories than the original and the nineteenth-century reprints;
  • Libro di lezioni per la terza classe elementare (Firenze, Paggi, 1889);
  • La lanterna magica di Giannettino (Firenze, Bemporad, 1890);
  • Divagazioni critico-umoristiche, raccolte e ordinate da Giuseppe Rigutini (posthumous, Firenze, Bemporad, 1892)
    A collection, like Note gaie, of texts and articles (in this case all published) brought together and revised, at times significantly, by Giuseppe Rigatini (a philologist and friend of Collodi) on commission from his brother Paolo Lorenzini;
  • Note gaie, raccolte e ordinate da Giuseppe Rigutini (posthumous, Firenze, Bemporad, 1892);
  • Bettino Ricasoli, Camillo Cavour, Luigi Carlo Farini, Daniele Manin.Biografie del Risorgimento (posthumous; Firenze, Marzocco 1941). Collection of occasional writings on some of the major exponents of the Risorgimento, collected and republished on the occasion of the Florentine tribute to the writer, bearing witness to his passion for politics;
  • I ragazzi grandi. Bozzetti e studi dal vero, edited by Daniela Marcheschi; with a note by Carlo Alberto Madrignani (Palermo, Sellerio 1989). Reprint of the novel in two parts published in 1873 in the form of an appendix in instalments to "Fanfulla"; in its turn an adaptation of the play of the same name, staged in Florence in the same year;
  • Cronache dall'Ottocento, edited by Daniela Marcheschi (Pisa, ETS 1990). Collection of newspaper articles, never reprinted before, published by Carlo Collodi (under various pseudonyms) in the humorous periodicals of the time.

For an extensive bibliography of the works of Collodi (including those published in periodicals) we recommend consultation of:

  • Collodi giornalista e scrittore, edited byRiccardo Maini and Piero Scapecchi. Firenze, S.P.E.S. 1981
  • Carlo Collodi, Opere, edited by Daniela Marcheschi. Milano, Mondadori 1995, coll. I Meridiani

 

For the biography: R. Bertacchini, Il padre di Pinocchio, Milano, Camunia, 1993.

Chronology in: Carlo Collodi, Opere, edited by Daniela Marcheschi. Milano, Mondadori 1995.

 

Source: Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi
 
a portrait of Carlo Collodi
Carlo lorenzini