Prima di Pinocchio--Libri tra due Secoli: Libri per bambini e ragazzi nel monda tra il 1781 e il 1881 (Before Pinocchio--Books between Two Centuries: Books for Infants and Children of the World from 1781 to 1881).

Produced on the hundredth anniversary of "Pinocchio" in an attempt to draw a comparison of the books for children and young people produced between the end of the eighteenth and the end of the nineteenth centuries in various countries, this catalog, primarily in Italian, begins with a bilingual (Italian and English) discussion of children's literature before "Pinocchio" and proceeds to list books produced between 1781 and 1881 by country. Each section begins with an essay on examples of children's literature of that country, dealing with their origins and, more specifically, with details of the period from the end of the eighteenth to the end of the nineteenth century. The assemblage of books is not exhaustive but intends to display a representative panorama--more or less crowded according to the country--of the cultural climate in the historical period considered. The countries represented include Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Holland, Norway, Poland, Rumania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Russia (USSR), and the United States. (HOD)