The Pentamerone (The Tale of Tales)

First published in two volumes in 1634 and 1636, "The Pentamerone", or "The Tale of Tales", by the Italian poet Giambattista Basile is acknowledged as one of the first collections of fairy tales. Basile's collection was written in the Neapolitan language, which is a Romance language spoken in parts of Southern Italy, and was published after his death under a pseudonym. Basile put these primarily oral stories into writing and many are the oldest known versions of these stories in existence. ...