Tinocchia

While in the archives room of the Siena Municipal Public

Library, I noticed a cardboard box labeled “Lorenzini?” Since

Lorenzini wrote Pinocchio under the pen-name Collodi, I

opened the box and was astounded to see a handwritten

manuscript titled: Tinocchia, the Adventures of a Jewish

Puppetta. I photographed the pages, and soon enough translated

the story into English. Tinocchia, the story’s narrator, is

created by her carpenter father, Yossi, who named her after

the Hebrew word for “baby,” tinok, and as a nod to his fellow

woodworker, Gepetto, the creator of Pinocchio. While riding

on her magic cart, Tinocchia bumps into a puppetto who

introduces himself as Nipocchio. Naturally, the puppetto’s

nose grows . . . Pinocchio and Tinocchia share adventures:

Tinocchia becomes involved with Samael, the Dark Angel;

Pinocchio and Tinocchia encounter pirates on a sailboat

which gets overturned in a storm. One day Pinocchio visits as

a real boy and offers Tinocchia a magic salve. She scolds him

that he has no right to take the salve. In any case, she does

not want mortality; she wants to live. Pinocchio turns back

into a puppetto to be with her. And, like in a true fairy tale,

they live happily ever . . . after . . . presumably