Carlo Collodi 
Pinocchio — Collodi 

The work ‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ (in Italian ‘Le avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un burattino’) was written by the Italian Carlo Collodi in Florence in the year 1881 and published two years later with illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti. It is a classic of children's literature. The story of Pinocchio, and his adventures and misadventures, is extremely rich and allows for countless interpretations by audiences of different ages. It is, in itself, a great adventure to delve into this Pinocchio who errs, suffers, and redeems himself to become a real person. Translated into dozens of countries, Pinocchio is a part of all our childhoods because the story has transcended the borders of Italy and become a universal heritage.

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Italian children’s literature writer and journalist Carlo Collodi, whose real name was Carlo Lorenzini, was born in Florence in 1826. Still very young, he entered a seminary, but with the spread of the Italian unification movement, he became passionate about politics. Thus, at the age of twenty-two, he decided to dedicate himself to journalism, thinking it was one of the best ways to fight for the national cause.

In the year 1848, not only did he join as a volunteer in the Tuscan army, but he also founded the newspaper ‘Il Lampione, ‘ which, due to its caustic and satirical character, would be suppressed by order of the Grand Duke of Tuscany in the spring of the following year. He was more fortunate with its successor, ‘La Scaramuccia, ‘ and in 1861, he was able to resurrect ‘Il Lampione.’ Assuming the pseudonym ‘Collodi, ‘ in honor of the small Tuscan village where his mother was born, he wrote comedies and newspaper articles, among which stand out his fervent contributions to ‘Il Fanfulla.’ In 1856, he achieved some notoriety with the publication of the novel ‘In Vapore.’

In the year 1861, when Italy became a unified nation, Collodi decided, in an act of coherence, to abandon journalism. From 1870 onwards, he established himself as a censor within the Censorship Commission for the Theater, and as an editor of magazines.

From 1875, he began translating into the press the Fairy Tales of the French author Charles Perrault, who had reintroduced these tales to popular culture. As a result of their acceptance in Italy, he decided to dedicate himself to writing his own tales. Thus, in 1876, he created a children’s series whose protagonist was the villain Gianettino, but his great success would come in 1881 with the publication in the ‘Giornale dei Bambini’ of the first episode of ‘Pinocchio, ‘ under the name ‘Storia Di Un Burattino, ‘ with illustrations by Eugenio Mazzanti. During this period, he published ‘Macchiette’ (1880), ‘Occhi e Nasi’ (1881), and ‘Storie Allegre’ (1887), satirical and humorous collections of his articles published in the press.

Ignoring the potential fame of his work, Collodi passed away in his native Florence on October 26, 1890.