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Description

This book contains many vivid and authentic tales of ancient Italian folklore, originating mainly in the Tuscany region.

First published in 1892, Charles Godfrey Leland's chronicle lays bare the traditions, poetry and stories told among the peoples of Ancient and Medieval Italy. By profession, the author was not a cultural anthropologist or a classical scholar, but a journalist with a history of working with everyday newspapers in the 19th century United States. At the time a revived interest in ancient pagan and folklore traditions led Leland to travel to Europe, where he branched out to researching and transcribing the continent's myths and legends into books.

The tone we witness here is neither dry nor particularly rigorous in the academic sense: Leland's intention was never to conform to the precise scholarly principles of research and sources, but instead to present the pagan folklore to the popular audience in a manner easily enjoyed and digested by the reader. The price of Leland's colorful approach was his loss of authority in academic circles: something to which he paid little mind.

The stories in this lengthy volume approach the subject in an embracing manner: tales of witchcraft, of pagan Gods (including the prominent Goddess of Truffles revered by rural communities) and various cautionary tales of morality among those included in this book. There are many allusions to festivals and pagan offerings, and the pastoral Italian traditions surrounding food and drink. Frequent quotations of poetry and occasional imagery of the warm and rugged Italian countryside also populate this book.

Something of an underappreciated lost classic, Leland's exhaustive efforts to shed light onto Italy's enormous folk traditions are offered to the reader anew.