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Author
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Comment
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LoryItaly
Registered User
(9/1/06 5:15 am)
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Sicilian Cinderella
I am looking for information about an english version of a Cinderella variant: [b]Grattula beddattula[/b], told in Palermo and written down first by Giuseppe Pitrč (Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti popolari siciliani, 1875) and then by Italo Calvino (Fiabe italiane, 1956).
I found "Italian
Folktales" by George Martin which is a translation of calvino's
book.
But I noticed that Marian Roalfe Cox uses in her book (345 variants of conderella) a different translation of the text. She refers directly to pitré instead of translating calvino as G.Martin does.
Someone could be so kind to help me finding the source Marian Roalfe Cox used?
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Heidi Anne Heiner
ezOP
(9/1/06 7:01 am)
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Re: Sicilian Cinderella
When she could, Cox translated the tales herself for personal use and also relied on other scholars to translate or summarize the unfamiliar language tales for her. I do not know how many languages she could read herself, but as a scholar she knew much more than English and read the classics in their original languages. One can assume Italian was included in her knowledge base, although obscure dialects would have been beyond her own experience.
She did not compile her book using only published English translations of the tales, such as I have done on SurLaLune. In fact, even 115 years later, many of the tales Cox includes in her book are not available in English translation beyond her published tabulations. While she was the compiler and editor of the book--an amazing feat--she was in contact with many folklorists and other scholars while compiling the book in her efforts to be as complete as possible. They are mentioned at the end of her Preface. In her mention of received help with the Italian tales, she states:
"Signor Eugenio Casanova (sotto-archivista di Stato, Firenze) rendered into Italian and wrote out in full the variants printed in dialect in the collections of Coronedi-Berti, Gradi, and De Nino, copies of which books I had been unable to obtain. For this assistance I am indebted to the kind mediation of Signora Santarelli."
Pitre is not mentioned. It is an assumption from the given facts, but I assume Cox had an original Pitre and read it herself. She was a careful and precise scholar and cites all of her sources carefully. She was even generous enough to add an extra section of books she consulted that did not help her with Cinderella tales. I neither read Italian nor have ready access to original Pitre, but I usually assume Calvino's versions to have used more artistic license.
Heidi
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