Since the early days of the Middle Ages, the literary annals have reflected a continuous and actually growing interest in storytelling, whether in verse or in prose, whether in Latin or in the various vernaculars. This tradition might have been connected with the Indian/Persian collection of tales, the famous
Panchatantra(ca. 200 B.C.E.) or the later Arabic
One Thousand and One Nights, but we cannot yet tell the direct passage of those collections of tales to medieval Europe. At any rate, in the early twelfth century, the Spanish Jew Petrus Alfonsi, who had converted to Christianity, published his
Disciplina clericalis. This was followed, just to highlight the major steps in this global process, by the German Cistercian Caesarius of Heisterbach with his
Dialogus miraculorum(ca. 1220),…
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Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Giovanni Francesco Straparola". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 August 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14946, accessed 20 April 2024.]
