View source for Masuccio Salernitano

{{short description|15th-century Italian writer}}
{{No footnotes|date=December 2022}}
[[File:Masuccio Salernitano.jpg|thumb|Masuccio Salernitano (Tommaso Guardati).]]
'''Masuccio Salernitano''' (1410–1475), born''' Tommaso Guardati''', was an Italian poet.

Born in [[Salerno]] or [[Sorrento, Italy|Sorrento]], he is best known today for ''Il Novellino'', a collection of 50 "novelle" or short stories, each prefaced by a letter of dedication to a famous person and with an epilogue containing the "moral" of the story.

The stories have a strongly anti-clerical bent, which caused ''Il Novellino'' to be included in the first ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Index of Prohibited Books]]'' in 1557.

The 33rd of these stories is the story of ''Mariotto and Ganozza'', which was apparently adapted by [[Luigi da Porto]] (1485–1529) first as ''Giulietta e Romeo'' and later as ''Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti'' ("Newly retrieved story of two noble lovers"). These three stories, plus another later version by [[Matteo Bandello]] and the English translation by [[Arthur Brooke (poet)|Arthur Brooke]] in the poem [[The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet|''Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet'']] (1562) appear to be the sources for [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] famous play ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''.

==References==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170107212851/http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/AuthorsCornerDet.php?titlelink=9731&sortorder=1 "Shakespeare in Love"—The Italian Connection] by Nicholas A. Patricca

==External links==
* {{Librivox author |id=15209}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salernitano, Masuccio}}
[[Category:1410 births]]
[[Category:1475 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Salerno]]
[[Category:15th-century Italian poets]]
[[Category:Italian male poets]]
[[Category:Italian novelists]]
[[Category:Romeo and Juliet]]