Beschreibung:

Collodi (Carlo, pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini). Le Avventure di Pinocchio. Storia di un Burattino, 1st edition, Florence: Felice Paggi, 1883, wood-engraved frontispiece and 61 text illustrations by Enrico Mazzanti, 4 pp. publisher's list at end, pp. 15/16 detached with marginal archival paper repair at gutter and upper corner, small tear to frontispiece (not affecting image), some light spotting and toning, stitching tender at front, front endpaper partly excised with presentation inscription, original red cloth gilt, spine faded with small splits to joints and small ink stain, some light damp stains, slight lean, 8vo (Qty: 1) Osborne p. 1007. First edition in book form of the classic tale of a wooden marionette who comes alive and whose nose grows every time he tells a lie. First serialised in Rome in the children's magazine Giornale per i Bambini from July 1881-January 1883, first under the title 'Storia di un burattino' and later 'Le avventure di Pinocchio'. In this version, a tragedy, Pinocchio ends up being hanged for his immoral behaviour, but at the publisher's request the book edition was expanded so that he finds redemption and eventually transforms into a real boy. The author, Florence journalist Carlo Lorenzini took the pseudonym Collodi from the Tuscan town where his mother was born.Provenance: Inscribed to Leone Fenzi (in Italian "A Leona Fenzi, il normo[?] Sebastian, con un buou bacio a felice auguri". Leonel Fenzi was the son of Italian Count Camillo Fenzi (1822-1873), and brother of Ida Copeland (née Fenzi, 1881-1964), who married Ronald Copeland of the Spode-Copeland china company, and became a Conservative MP, defeating Oswald Mosley for the Stoke seat in the 1931 general election. Thus by descent to the present owners.