Collodi was born in Florence on 24 November 1826. His mother Angiolina Orzali was a seamstress from the town of Collodi from which he took the pen name and his father Domenico Lorenzini was a cook; and both worked for the marchese Ginori Lisci. Carlo was the eldest child in the family and he had ten siblings but seven died at a young age. He spent most of his childhood in the town of Collodi where his mother was born. He lived there with his maternal grandmother. After attending primary school, he was sent to study at a theological seminary called Colle Val d’Elsa. An account at the seminary shows that the marchese had offered financial aid, but the boy found that he did not want to be a priest so he continued his education at the College of the Scolopi Fathers in Florence. In 1844 he started working at the Florentine bookstore Libreria Piatti, where he assisted Giuseppe Aiazzi, a prominent Italian manuscript specialist.
Career
During the Italian Wars of Independence in 1848 and 1860 Collodi served as a volunteer with the Tuscan army. His active interest in political matters may be seen in his earliest literary works as well as in the founding of the satirical newspaper Il Lampione in 1853. This newspaper was censored by order of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1854 he published his second newspaper, Lo scaramuccia. Lorenzini's first publications were in his periodicals. A debut came in 1856 with the playGli amici di casa and parodic guidebook Un romanzo in vapore, both in 1856. By 1860, he published his first notable work called Il signor Alberi ha ragione!, which outlined his political and cultural vision of Italy. This is the text where Lorenzini started using the Collodi pseudonym, which was taken from his mother's hometown. Collodi had also begun intense activity on other political newspapers such as Il Fanfulla; at the same time he was employed by the Censorship Commission for the Theatre. During this period he composed various satirical sketches and stories, including Macchiette, Occhi e nasi, Storie allegre. Collodi became disenchanted with Italian politics afterward so he turned to children's literature and his first works involved translating French fairy tales into Italian. In 1875, for instance, he completed Racconti delle fate, a translation of French fairy tales by Charles Perrault. In 1876 Lorenzini wrote Giannettino, the Minuzzolo, and Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino, a pedagogic series which explored the unification of Italy through the ironic thoughts and actions of the character Giannettino. Lorenzini became fascinated by the idea of using an amiable, rascally character as a means of expressing his own convictions through allegory. In 1880 he began writing Storia di un burattino, also called Le avventure di Pinocchio, which was published weekly in Il Giornale per i Bambini, the first Italian newspaper for children. Pinocchio was adapted into a 1940 film by Disney that is considered to be one of Disney's greatest films ever made. Collodi died suddenly in Florence on 26 October 1890 and lies buried in Cimitero Monumentale Delle Porte Sante, Firenze, Toscana, Italy. The National Carlo Collodi Foundation was established to promote education and the works of Carlo Lorenzini, and the Park of Pinocchio attracts many visitors each year.
