Carlo Collodi – Τhe birthplace of father of Pinocchio in Florence

Carlo Lorenzini, was born in Florence on November 24, 1826. His mother, Angelina Orzali, is a waitress for the illustrious Tuscan family of the Garzoni Venturi and his father Domenico Lorenzini , of more humble origins, weak in character and frail in health, works as a cook.

**Carlo Lorenzini better known by the pen name Carlo Collodi / Image: wikipedia.org**

Carlo was the eldest child in the family and he had ten siblings but seven died at a young age. was sent to ecclesiastical studies at the Val d’Elsa Seminary and then by the Piarist Fathers of Florence. When his brother Paolo Lorenzini becomes manager in the Ginori Manufactory , the family finally acquires a little serenity and ease, and Carlo can start his career as an employee and journalist.

In 1880 he began writing his masterpiece “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, which appeared for the first time in the ” Children’s Journal ” in 1881 with the title “The history of a puppet” making them end with the fifteenth chapter. After a few months Collodi resumed the narration of the book with the new title to complete it in 1883 the year in which it was collected in volume by the publisher Felice Paggi of Florence.

The place where (presumably) Collodi was born is located in via Taddea 21, in Florence, where a plaque has been affixed: “Carlo Lorenzini, known as Collodi, father of Pinocchio, was born in this house in 1826 / Image: via madeoftuscany.it

Pinocchio’s adventures originally ended in the episode of the hangman , with the death of the puppet. The protests of the young readers of the ” Giornale dei bambini ” led however the author to continue the story, which ended definitively, with the transformation of the puppet into a child.

Featured Image: Pinocchio, by Enrico Mazzanti, the first illustrator (1883) of The Adventures of Pinocchio / Image: via wikipedia.org

Websites: pinocchio.it