a Neapolitan poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector. Basile's earliest known literary production is from 1604 in the form of a preface to the Vaiasseide of his friend the Neapolitan writer Giulio Cesare Cortese. The following year his villanella Smorza crudel amore was set to music and in 1608 he published his poem Il Pianto della Verging. He is chiefly remembered for writing the collection of Neapolitan fairy tales titled "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones." under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis. Many of these fairy tales are the oldest known variants in existence. They include the earliest known versions of Rapunzel and Cinderella.
