Lo Cunto de li Cunti

This volume, which Treccani is proud to publish as part of its Ut pictura poësis series, ideally expresses this meeting of cultures in entrusting the visual translation of five tales by Giambattista Basile to as five artists or groups of artists from five different countries. Some of the greatest exponents of today’s global art scene have participated: AES + F, Markus Lüpertz, Mimmo Paladino, Kiki Smith, Miquel Barceló. By accepting to collaborate in this project, they have made it possible to create a work that has no equal or precedent in the history of Italian publishing [...] The extraordinary ad hoc illustrations created for this work accompany an extremely rich textual content: alongside the critical transcription of the Neapolitan text of the five fairy tales – edited by Francesco Ursini on the basis of the editio princeps del Cunto – comes a new Italian version by Roberto De Simone, the most important living interpreter of Basile's poetics, and also translations into the languages of the countries of origin of the artists [...] Like all art books published by Treccani the volume also includes various essays intended to contextualise the work and outline its fortunes: Roberto De Simone (Basile: a biographical historical novel) recounts the life of Basile in a highly original way, concluding with a glimpse of the Cunto's anthropological interpretations; Angela Albanese (The fortune of Cunto de li Cunti in Italian and European culture) provides a rich and documented essay on the translations, rewrites and films, i.e. the various artistic forms of Basile's work, in Italy and in various European countries. Finally, Francesca Rimini (Stories in filigree. Basile in the metamorphic mirror of 21st century cinema), focuses in particular on the Cunto's transcriptions in the medium which today probably reaches the greatest number of readers or spectators and therefore constitutes the most important vehicle for offering Basile's work to the general public. [...]