Pinocchio

[click the above images for larger versions -
I've touched up the majority: background artifact for the mostpart]

Pinocchio will be 125 years old in July. Carlo Collodi published the first of 36 episodes of La Storia di un Burratino -- 'The Story of a Marionette' -- in a weekly childrens' paper, Il Giornale dei Bambini. The last episode came out 2 years later in 1883 and was compiled into a book shortly afterwards.

Ironically, the story of a wooden puppet who would go on to lead an independent life beyond his creator became reality as Collodi didn't live to see the success of his allegorical writing.




The popularity of the story was assured in 1911 when Attilio Mussino produced a large number of illustrations to animate Pinocchio's life. It was a dream gig for an illustrator. Mussino employed a wide range of illustrating styles and was able to capture the humour, pathos and empathy of the characters and story lines.

• The wonderful Illuminated Books website have digitized a 400+ page American first edition of The Adventures of Pinocchio from 1926 which include Mussino's art work. There are multiple sized images available.
• The Adventures of Pinocchio at Project Gutenburg sans illustrations.
• Attilio Mussino at Lambiek.
• Carlo Collodi at Wikipedia.
• Pinocchio at Wikipedia.