Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1480 - 1557) was an Italian writer and fairy tale collector. He has been termed the progenitor of the literary form of the fairy tale. Straparola's main work is The Facetious Nights of Straparola (Le piacevoli notti, published 1550-1555), a collection of 75 stories. Modelled on Decamerone, it has participants of a 13-night party in the island of Murano, near Venice, tell each other stories that vary from bawdy to fantastic. It contains the first known written versions of many fairy tales.