Giambattista basile biography template

Italian fairy tale collector (–)

Giambattista Basile (Giugliano in Campania, 15 February (date of baptism)^[1] – February ) was an Italian poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector.

His collections include the oldest recorded forms of many well-known (and more obscure) European fairy tales.^[2] He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan fairy tales known as Il Pentamerone.

Biography

Born in Naples into a middle-class family, Basile was a soldier and courtier to various Italian princes, including the doge of Venice.

Giambattista basile biography template

In Venice he began to write poetry. Later he returned to Naples to serve as a courtier under the patronage of Don Marino II Caracciolo, prince of Avellino, to whom he dedicated his idyll L'Aretusa (). By the time of his death he had reached the rank of "Count" Conte di Torone.^[3]

Basile's earliest known literary production is from in the form of a preface to the Vaiasseide of his friend