Not everyone knows that Pinocchio started life as a serial. Collodi’s masterpiece was in fact conceived as a way of attracting readers to one of the first children’s periodicals in Italy: the Giornale per i Bambini. This book contains the complete text of the first version of the story with the original graphics, including the very first drawings of the most famous marionette in the world by the illustrator Ugo Fleres.

We are proud to offer readers the extraordinary opportunity to rediscover the original work: not only the complete text as first published but also the original graphic form, with its unsophisticated illustrations: beginning with the episode of 16 February 1882, the title Le avventure di Pinocchio appears together with the absolute first graphic representations of Pinocchio… A truly special occasion for discovering how, a century ago, Italian children read the story of that marionette destined with time to become one of the most famous characters in all of children’s literature. - Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi

1st facsimile edition: December 2002 2nd edition: April 2021