Brancaleone

The Italian romantic literature of the 17th century is rich, interesting, and completely unknown to the reader. "Brancaleone" is the first example of it appearing in Russian translation.

It can be called a novel of education, but it is dedicated to the education of... a donkey. The main character, sold from his parent's stable in his youth, goes from one master to another, listening to countless stories that are meant to teach him wisdom, while the author gives his adventures a moral-political interpretation to educate the reader.

The plot basis - the travels of a wise donkey - is taken from Apuleius's novel; the inserted novellas are from Aesop's fables, picaresque literature, and other sources; this whimsical blend of diverse elements places "Brancaleone" somewhere between a novel and a genre well-known in Italian literature - a framed collection of novellas.