Two Short Stories: Renaissance Hijinks and a Nova Scotia Legend –
If you are looking for some light reading to add to your digital book wheel I have two short stories for you featuring woodworkers.
The first story, from 15th-century Italy, is “La novella del grasso legnajuolo” (The Story of the Fat Woodworker). The story was discovered by Andrea, a farmer and woodworker, from Cremona. In September he featured the story on his blog.
“The Story of the Fat Woodworker” involves the antics of Renaissance luminaries Brunelleschi, Donatello and the unfortunate Manetto Ammanatini, known as Il Grasso. I prefer to call him merely robusto.
Andrea was able to locate several copies of the story published between 1485 and 1856 and, as he pointed out, the 1485 copy has a nice woodcut with a low workbench.
If you would like to read the 1820 Italian version featuring the illustration of Manetto clicca qui.
There is also an English translation from UC-Santa Barbara, about 20 pages long, and you can find it here.
The second short story is about the chairmaker Gilbert Nickerson, known as the Old Chairmaker, of Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia.
“The Old Chairmaker” was written by Evelyn M. Richardson and was published in the Dalhousie Review, Volume 27, Issue 1 in 1947. You can find the story here and it is 8 pages long.
To visit Andrea’s blog, L’angolo di spoglia inferior, and read his comments in Italian and English, clicca qui.
Andrea, grazie per la tua scorperta!
–Suzanne Ellison
