Pinocchio has an asteriod named after him. A main-belt asteroid discovered on 30 September 1999 by M Tombelli and L Tesi at San Marcello Pistoiese, was named 12927 Pinocchio. [1]
The mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocchio and his father, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto is well known to most people, but Italian author Carlo Collodi’s original tale is significantly different from the version that was made famous by the 1940 Walt Disney animated feature. In its original form, the story is full of inconsistencies and contradictions portraying Pinocchio as selfish and aggressive. What sets Collodi’s story apart is not the writing craftsmanship but the story conception. Due to poor copyright protection at that time, Collodi himself did not profit much from his creation.
Commencing on this day in 1881, the story first appeared in serial form as The Story of a Puppet in the Giornale per i bambini, an early Italian weekly magazine for children. The short tale was only fifteen chapters long and concluded with Pinocchio hanging dead from an oak tree. Pinocchio’s death was not received well by the story’s growing fan base and, as a response, Collodi resurrected his hero in February 1882, re-titled the story The Adventures of Pinocchio, and continued the adventure for another twenty-one chapters. The entire narrative was first collected and published in one volume in 1883 and attracted enthusiastic reviews worldwide.
The Adventures of Pinocchio book became an unprecedented international sensation. Today it is one of the world’s most translated books and quite likely one of the best-selling books ever published.
Carlo Collodi published another children’s tale in 1907, Beppo; or The Little Rose-Colored Monkey, but his literary legacy is almost entirely linked to his story of a puppet who wanted to become a real boy. Collodi died in October 1890, in his hometown of Florence and there are numerous monuments and references to Collodi and Pinocchio throughout Italy.
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