Le Piacevoli Notti is a collection of 74 novelle, or short stories, written by the Italian author Giovan Francesco Straparola in the 1550s and published in Venice starting in 1550. The tales were a great success, quickly being translated into several languages. The work comprises novelle and fairy tales imagined as told over the course of 13 nights by ten damsels, three ladies, and several learned gentlemen, all part of a group gathered in Murano, in the palace of the Bishop of Lodi, Ottaviano Maria Sforza, to enliven the Venetian Carnival (probably that of 1536). The first volume collects the tales narrated during the first five nights; the second those narrated from the 6th to the 13th night. The novelle are accompanied by enigmas in ottava rima, often lighthearted and amusing, and are linked together by a framework inspired by Boccaccio, which also includes riddles and other tales. Straparola's collection is unique in its inclusion of fairy tale elements and fantastical subjects such as animals with magical powers (famously, the novella of "The Cat with Boots," which achieved extraordinary success thanks to Charles Perrault's French version, spread throughout Europe at the end of the 17th century). It also makes extensive use of popular material, folklore, including dialectal elements (particularly Venetian). The content of the collection was a milestone and a model for many fairy tale writers in the centuries that followed, who, thanks in part to Straparola's work, enjoyed great fame. Giovan Francesco Straparola, the first writer of fairy tales in Europe, is therefore considered and deserves to be remembered as the true great father of the European fairy tale.